APPG roundup
This is a summary, from my point of view, of the second public session of the All Party Parliamentary Group inquiry into the new family migration rules which took place earlier this week.
Relevant links :
http://www.appgmigration.org.uk/family-inquiry
https://twitter.com/APPGMigration
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/introduction.html
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/stories
Basically
I thought it was a good session, with a good response from the
politicians present.
There were four main speakers:
one Lib Dem MP (https://twitter.com/duncanhames - http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/duncan-hames/31676) on the
effect on his constituents, which is considerable;
Helena Wray of Middlesex University ( http://www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/staffdirectory/Helena_Wray.aspx -
who works with Eleonore Kofman http://www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/staffdirectory/Eleonore_Kofman.aspx who spoke at the JCWI AGM in December - http://www.jcwi.org.uk/blog/2012/10/23/jcwi-public-seminar-agm ) - and very well
summarised the impact of the rules on many people;
Anita Hurrell of
Coram Childrens Centre on the impact on children ( https://twitter.com/anita_hurrell - http://childrenslegalcentre.com/ - the role of the
Childrens Commissioner and the Children's Act was mentioned in a q and a
session);
and a speaker from the BMA ( http://bma.org.uk/about-the-bma/who-we-are/biography-vivienne-nathanson ) - many of their international members
are affected by the elderly dependant rule. Clearly the NHS greatly depends on overseas talent, and overseas talent has families.
Speakers
from the floor were all firmly and eloquently against the rules; Emma ben Moussa ( https://twitter.com/emmabmoussa - http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/emma-and-driss-i-dont-know-how-anyone.html ) on the impact on her family.
Later on, our own Sonel ( https://twitter.com/britcits ) gave a good summary, a member of the Salvation Army whose Georgian
wife is affected; a speaker from the Latin American Women's Association;
and Margaret Payne on her daughter's situation ( https://twitter.com/RozziP ).
I
should also say Helena Wray dealt very well with the point that even on
their own terms, the rules will cost money by forcing people onto
benefits. Statistically migrants are more likely to work than UK born
people, at least in many communities. She also dealt with racial, regional
and sex discriminatory impacts of rules. She gave figures on median (as
opposed to mean) average incomes across the regions. (follows on from
the mac speaker last time who stated average incomes don't vary much
across regions - I suspect he was referring to mean, no median averages.
Big difference). More on this here : http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/press-releases/women-young-people-and-non-londoners-are-most-affected-changes-family-migration-polic
The
parliamentarians on the panel were : Lib Dems - Sarah Teather ( http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/sarah-teather/25227 ), Lord
Teverson ( http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/robin-teverson/54156 ), Baroness Hamwee ( http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/sally-hamwee/26734 ). Labour - Virendra Sharma ( http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/virendra-sharma/61606 ), Kate Green ( http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/kate-green/84849 ). Also
Peter Bottomley stuck his head round the door to speak to Margaret Payne
(his constituent) at one point.
This is a very brief summary, I'm sure others had other take aways. I do think
that the parliamentarians have been educated as to the impacts of the
rules, and all parliamentarians (even rural MPs like Duncan Hames) have
heavy caseloads.
Those parliamentarians listed above have all made contributions previously, at other meetings or in the Lords.
Liz's story ( http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/liz-via-facebook-with-permission.html ) was distributed in paper form at the start of the meeting.
Next steps - they write the report, due April.
Others may have other take aways, this is a very brief summary from memory.
Suggest following https://twitter.com/APPGMigration for more!
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'Saudi Arabian princes exempt from UK immigration controls, court told' - astonishing - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/05/saudi-arabian-princes-immigration-controls
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