#UK immigration changes

[olivergisttv]

UK Immigration Changes for Skilled Labour in 2025

The UK government has rolled out significant changes to its immigration policies, especially concerning skilled labor, aiming to attract top talent from around the globe. As industries across the UK face skills shortages, these changes are designed to streamline the process for skilled workers to enter the country, providing businesses with the expertise they need to thrive.   1. Revised…

[markfaustus]

[apatheticlexicographer]

why are the tumblr ads trying to deport me

[dervampireprince]

If you're a UK citizen, please sign. (You cannot sign unless you are a UK citizen). We shouldn't be punished for falling in love with someone from another country. And certainly shouldn't have to earn above the average UK wage.

[ID: Text that reads: Don’t increase the income requirement for family visas to £38,700. Currently the financial requirements to bring your spouse to the UK is £18,600 per year and now the Government wants to more than double it. Most people in the UK don’t make that per year. We believe this policy punishes those who fall in love with someone with a different nationality. 59,809 signatures out of 100,000.]

Link to petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/652602

[tearsofrefugees]

[pinkcadillaccas]

I don't have any sense of national pride but I do actually have a sense of nationality in general. I was born here, I love the land I live on, I love *some* of the people, we have an evil evil history and present but I want so much to have a country that can take ownership of that and make real change and offer real reparations. Instead I live in a country where enough of the population has voted for a party who's campaign is solely based on hate to win even one seat in parliament, probably 10 or 12. Probably twice as many as the green party. Yes it's going to be a labour wipeout but look at that result and tell me you feel victorious. Tell me you feel proud. Tell me you don't feel disgusted right to the bottom of your heart that even one person you share an island with thought that Reform ideology was one they could get behind.

With any luck, in four years time we will have reduced poverty levels and an attempt at some genuine social infrastructure. But the roots of facisistic hate have woven themselves so deeply into our society that I don't think we have anything to cheer about. I don't think these results indicate any future worth looking forward to.

[ausetkmt]

Black nurses have shared their experiences of racism in the workplace, as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) commemorates the 75th anniversary of Windrush at its annual conference this week.

In June 2018, the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, commissioned the Windrush Lessons Learned review – a report reflecting on the causes of the Windrush injustices. The independent review was in response to mounting evidence that members of the Windrush generation were losing jobs, homes and access to benefits, as well as being denied NHS treatment, detained, and forcibly deported to countries they left as children.

The findings, alongside the testimonies of black British citizens affected by the hostile environment, are truly anguishing.

Wendy Williams, the HM inspector of constabularyappointed as the independent reviewer, has examined the key legislative, policy and operational decisions that led to the Windrush injustices, and spoken to those who suffered grave and catastrophic consequences from becoming entangled in the government’s hostile immigration policies.

Williams’ review draws a stark conclusion: the UK’s treatment of the Windrush generation, and approach to immigration more broadly, was caused by institutional failures to understand race and racism. Their failures conform to certain aspects of Lord Macpherson’s definition of institutional racism, enshrined in the Macpherson report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, published in 1999.

Macpherson defined institutional racism as: “The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.”

The Windrush Lessons Learned review pulls no punches in describing the failure of ministers and officials to understand the nature of racism in Britain. It shows how the government’s hostile environment immigration policies had devastating impacts on the lives and families of black citizens within the UK.

The fact that black British people who had spent much of their lives in Britain, working and paying taxes, were accidental victims of the government’s immigration policies, perfectly illustrates how the coalition and Conservative governments not only failed to adhere to existing race relations legislation, but also showed a complete lack of understanding about “indirect discrimination” – a concept accepted in legislation as far back as the 1976 Race Relations Act.

Neither that lesson of “unintended discrimination”, nor the definition of “institutional racism” from the Macpherson report, seem to have been learned by Britain’s policymakers and politicians. Not only is intent irrelevant for assessing whether policies are racially discriminatory, but race equality laws (including the 2000 Race Relations Amendment Act and the public sector equality duty) appear to have made little difference to immigration and citizenship policies affecting people from different ethnic groups.

This reveals a shocking lack of understanding of what racism is – namely that it’s not solely about intent. In April 2018, the dramatic apology by the then prime minister, Theresa May, showed a failure to understand this lesson, when she insisted it wasn’t her government’s intent to disproportionately affect people from the Caribbean in the operation of hostile environment immigration policy.

For policymakers and politicians to learn the profound lessons of the Windrush review, they must not only “right the wrongs” suffered by the Windrush generation (as well as those from other ethnic minority groups), but they must also understand how and why immigration and citizenship policies, and Home Office culture, have repeatedly discriminated against black and ethnic minority citizens over the decades.

The Windrush generation are owed a full apology – an apology that is based on understanding that their treatment wasn’t an accidental misfortune, but the result of institutional failure to understand the role of race and racism in Britain.

[feline-evil]

🐈

[lexlawuk]

UK Reinstates Visa Regime for Jordanian Nationals

In response to increasing misuse of travel authorisations, the UK government has reinstated a visa requirement for Jordanian nationals. Announced in the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 217) on 10 September 2024, this measure addresses concerns over unauthorised travel to the UK. The reintroduction of visa controls aims to protect the integrity of the UK immigration system by…

[britishbusinessonline]

No More Work Visas From August 2024? New Proposed Changes To UK Work Visas From August 2024: UKVI Nw

the UK government has introduced significant changes to its skilled worker visa system impacting skilled workers seeking to work in the country. these new rules aim to attract and retain the best talent while managing immigration levels, we will outline the key changes you need to be aware of. on July 4th 2024 the United Kingdom elected a new government that has wasted no time in proposing…

[olivergisttv]

Changes to the UK Start-up and Innovator Visa Route

The UK government has recently introduced significant changes to the Start-up and Innovator Visa routes, aimed at encouraging more innovative businesses and talented entrepreneurs to establish themselves in the UK. Whether you’re planning to launch a cutting-edge tech startup or bring a unique business idea to life, understanding these changes is crucial for navigating the visa application…

[tmarshconnors]

The 'Rivers of Blood' Speech by Enoch Powell

Birmingham, England April 20, 1968

"The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils. In seeking to do so, it encounters obstacles which are deeply rooted in human nature. One is that by the very order of things such evils are not demonstrable until they have occurred. At each stage in their onset there is room for doubt and for dispute whether they are present or not. People are disposed to mistake predicting troubles for causing troubles and even for desiring troubles. “If only,” they love to think, “if only people wouldn’t talk about it, it probably wouldn’t happen.” Perhaps this habit goes back to the primitive belief that the word and the thing, the name and the object, are identical. At all events, this is a dangerous fallacy. It is supremely dangerous in the case of a nation or a whole community. To see and not to speak would be the great betrayal.

The commonest error in politics is sticking to the carcass of dead policies. When the evidence of the eyes and ears stands in opposition to the conventional wisdom of the day, it is the latter which will be disregarded, in almost every case with dismaying results. A respectable person in England almost dreads to disagree with a profession so unworldly as the academic. At the same time he never doubts the education, training, and equipment of an Army which within our memories was raised to defend, under God, these great and Christian realms. How ready he will be to fall back upon the judgment of those he most despises!

It is one of the many contrasts between England and America that whereas in this country political debate and action proceeds upon the assumption that good intentions will always suffice to make everything turn out for the best, in the United States a much more cautious view prevails. In this country, if people believe that something would be nice if it were so, they are all for assuming that it will be so. In the United States the predilection is to make sure that it is so. In this country the argument is about intention and desirability; in the United States it is about effect and practicability.

One reason for this difference is perhaps that in this country politics and government are conducted as a kind of game, almost as a sport, against a backdrop of an ordered and secure society. In the United States government and politics are conducted in the very presence of risks and dangers and difficulties which are a real and ever-present part of the national experience. But what is a kind of luxury for us is a necessity for them, and we shall find ourselves paying a heavy price for our apathy and complacency.

In fifteen or twenty years, on present trends, there will be in this country three and a half million Commonwealth immigrants and their descendants. That is not my figure. That is the official figure given to Parliament by the spokesman of the Registrar General’s Office. There is no comparable official estimate of the increase in the indigenous population during the same period. In fifteen or twenty years the present immigrant population of Great Britain, which is estimated at between one and two million, will have grown to five million, approximately one-tenth of the whole population, and approaching that of Greater London. Of course, this would be a rapid and unprecedented transformation of a country which in 1948 was still almost homogeneously white. So great a number of immigrant people simply cannot be absorbed without such profound changes in the culture, social fabric, and nature of the population as to render the resulting society unrecognizable.

The great majority of immigrants are here for the long haul, with every intention of making a permanent home for themselves and their families, and with every right so to do. The existing population is already growing alarmed and agitated. Here I quote the words of a letter addressed to me by a constituent in North London: "The black man will have the whip hand over the white man." This is a reflection not only of the sense of helplessness and confusion, but also of resentment and hostility, which are increasingly felt and voiced. When the United States becomes concerned about a "racial problem," it calls in the National Guard, and their government knows that the call can be justified. Here, the “moderate and responsible” members of society as often as not are more apprehensive of the consequences of defending order than of the disorder itself.

Many of them, like the writer of this letter, regard the prospect with horror and foreboding. One of my constituents wrote to me in desperation. In a fortnight, she said, she would have to vacate her small house, where she and her husband have lived for 15 years, because a “crowd of Negroes” was moving into the street and had already made her life unbearable. She went on: “Mr. Powell, it is difficult to describe what the consequences are for us, with the constant noise, the constant threat of violence, and the dirt. We dare not go out of the house, because when we do we are followed by gangs of Negroes, who pelt us with stones and jeer at us. I am not a racialist, but I have never experienced the like in all my life. These people are not our people and our home is now not ours. Please do something about it.” (The words "Negro" and "racialist" are verbatim.)

It is, indeed, difficult to describe the consequences of the natural reaction of the original population to the remorseless transformation to which it is being subjected. To quote another constituent: “I have three children, all of whom are in school. In two of the three classrooms of my children there are, and there have been, Negro children. Each of my children has been assaulted by them, and each time they have tried to fight back. This morning I had to see a Negro teacher because my son had been whipped by one of these boys, but the teacher was not interested.”

It is not true that the immigrant population is consistently law-abiding. In the most serious of all crimes—murder—there is an increasing incidence of crime by coloured immigrants. In one case this year a coloured man was convicted of the murder of a white girl with whom he had been living, and in another, also in London, two coloured men were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a police constable. There has been an increase in attacks upon women, and here too there are constant reports of racial aspects.

For these and other reasons there is a rapidly increasing danger that this country will be the subject of the kind of inter-communal violence which is endemic in parts of the United States, and now for the same reasons is spreading to England. If I am right, and even if I am only partially right, if there is any element of truth in what I am saying, I am sure that the people of this country will listen to a voice warning of danger before it is too late.

Of course, the most strident voices will be raised to say that this is all a figment of the imagination; that there is nothing whatever to worry about. They will also say that I am pandering to the worst instincts of human nature. But when the official figures show that the immigrant and immigrant-descended population of this country will approach five million within twenty years, it is no good at the same time denying that the consequences of that are going to be serious and grave.

Yet I can already hear the chorus of execration. How dare I say such a horrible thing? How dare I stir up trouble and incite hatred? I am simply being prudent and responsible, and to give a warning before it is too late.

The sense of urgency will have to be felt. This country is not going to be easily forgiven for throwing away its future. The vision of the nation is being blinded by sentimentality and the unwillingness to face the facts.

I say to you that in my lifetime this country will look and feel like a different country. Even now, in parts of our cities, the transformation is evident. They found that 15 per cent of the population of Wolverhampton is now non-white. The people are questioning and alarmed. They have cause to be alarmed. If only the House of Commons would reflect the views of the people in its legislation, there would be no cause for alarm. But they do not, and I believe it is a great betrayal.

We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant-descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. I simply cannot believe that any rational person can look on in this way without some sense of impending disaster.

But that is what is happening. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. Indeed, I am astonished at the sanity of those who make the decisions. They simply cannot be mad, literally mad, in their actions and attitudes. And yet they are.

For these reasons, among many others, I believe that immigration is the issue which will determine the future of this country. The House of Commons must be brought to understand that it is an issue of survival. If not, we shall have handed over to our children a legacy of the most monstrous growth of all time. This is not fantasy. This is not invention. This is not cynicism. It is reality.

In this country, in fifteen or twenty years’ time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man. For these reasons, among many others, I believe that immigration is the issue which will determine the future of this country. We must be mad, literally mad, to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant-descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.

I simply do not have the stomach to go on with this, though it is not yet finished. There is a danger, a clear danger, that we will be overwhelmed. Indeed, it is not only a danger, it is a certainty.

I do not believe there is a single person in this country who does not believe it. They are all sensible people. They all know what is happening, though they are afraid to speak out.

For these reasons, among many others, I believe that immigration is the issue which will determine the future of this country. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.

I have left this country in despair. But I do not despair of our country. I believe in the British people. The significance of this cannot be overlooked. There is a danger, a clear danger, that we will be overwhelmed. Indeed, it is not only a danger, it is a certainty.

In fifteen or twenty years’ time, on present trends, there will be in this country three and a half million Commonwealth immigrants and their descendants. That is not my figure. That is the official figure given to Parliament by the spokesman of the Registrar General’s Office. There is no comparable official estimate of the increase in the indigenous population during the same period. In fifteen or twenty years the present immigrant population of Great Britain, which is estimated at between one and two million, will have grown to five million, approximately one-tenth of the whole population, and approaching that of Greater London. Of course, this would be a rapid and unprecedented transformation of a country which in 1948 was still almost homogeneously white. So great a number of immigrant people simply cannot be absorbed without such profound changes in the culture, social fabric, and nature of the population as to render the resulting society unrecognizable.

The great majority of immigrants are here for the long haul, with every intention of making a permanent home for themselves and their families, and with every right so to do. The existing population is already growing alarmed and agitated. Here I quote the words of a letter addressed to me by a constituent in North London: "The black man will have the whip hand over the white man." This is a reflection not only of the sense of helplessness and confusion, but also of resentment and hostility, which are increasingly felt and voiced. When the United States becomes concerned about a "racial problem," it calls in the National Guard, and their government knows that the call can be justified. Here, the “moderate and responsible” members of society as often as not are more apprehensive of the consequences of defending order than of the disorder itself.

Many of them, like the writer of this letter, regard the prospect with horror and foreboding. One of my constituents wrote to me in desperation. In a fortnight, she said, she would have to vacate her small house, where she and her husband have lived for 15 years, because a “crowd of Negroes” was moving into the street and had already made her life unbearable. She went on: “Mr. Powell, it is difficult to describe what the consequences are for us, with the constant noise, the constant threat of violence, and the dirt. We dare not go out of the house, because when we do we are followed by gangs of Negroes, who pelt us with stones and jeer at us. I am not a racialist, but I have never experienced the like in all my life. These people are not our people and our home is now not ours. Please do something about it.” (The words "Negro" and "racialist" are verbatim.)

It is, indeed, difficult to describe the consequences of the natural reaction of the original population to the remorseless transformation to which it is being subjected. To quote another constituent: “I have three children, all of whom are in school. In two of the three classrooms of my children there are, and there have been, Negro children. Each of my children has been assaulted by them, and each time they have tried to fight back. This morning I had to see a Negro teacher because my son had been whipped by one of these boys, but the teacher was not interested.”

It is not true that the immigrant population is consistently law-abiding. In the most serious of all crimes—murder—there is an increasing incidence of crime by coloured immigrants. In one case this year a coloured man was convicted of the murder of a white girl with whom he had been living, and in another, also in London, two coloured men were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a police constable. There has been an increase in attacks upon women, and here too there are constant reports of racial aspects.

For these and other reasons there is a rapidly increasing danger that this country will be the subject of the kind of inter-communal violence which is endemic in parts of the United States, and now for the same reasons is spreading to England. If I am right, and even if I am only partially right, if there is any element of truth in what I am saying, I am sure that the people of this country will listen to a voice warning of danger before it is too late.

Of course, the most strident voices will be raised to say that this is all a figment of the imagination; that there is nothing whatever to worry about. They will also say that I am pandering to the worst instincts of human nature. But when the official figures show that the immigrant and immigrant-descended population of this country will approach five million within twenty years, it is no good at the same time denying that the consequences of that are going to be serious and grave.

Yet I can already hear the chorus of execration. How dare I say such a horrible thing? How dare I stir up trouble and incite hatred? I am simply being prudent and responsible, and to give a warning before it is too late.

The sense of urgency will have to be felt. This country is not going to be easily forgiven for throwing away its future. The vision of the nation is being blinded by sentimentality and the unwillingness to face the facts.

I say to you that in my lifetime this country will look and feel like a different country. Even now, in parts of our cities, the transformation is evident. They found that 15 per cent of the population of Wolverhampton is now non-white. The people are questioning and alarmed. They have cause to be alarmed. If only the House of Commons would reflect the views of the people in its legislation, there would be no cause for alarm. But they do not, and I believe it is a great betrayal.

We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant-descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. I simply cannot believe that any rational person can look on in this way without some sense of impending disaster.

But that is what is happening. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. Indeed, I am astonished at the sanity of those who make the decisions. They simply cannot be mad, literally mad, in their actions and attitudes. And yet they are.

For these reasons, among many others, I believe that immigration is the issue which will determine the future of this country. The House of Commons must be brought to understand that it is an issue of survival. If not, we shall have handed over to our children a legacy of the most monstrous growth of all time. This is not fantasy. This is not invention. This is not cynicism. It is reality.

In this country, in fifteen or twenty years’ time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man. For these reasons, among many others, I believe that immigration is the issue which will determine the future of this country. We must be mad, literally mad, to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant-descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.

I simply do not have the stomach to go on with this, though it is not yet finished. There is a danger, a clear danger, that we will be overwhelmed. Indeed, it is not only a danger, it is a certainty.

I do not believe there is a single person in this country who does not believe it. They are all sensible people. They all know what is happening, though they are afraid to speak out.

For these reasons, among many others, I believe that immigration is the issue which will determine the future of this country. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.

I have left this country in despair. But I do not despair of our country. I believe in the British people. The significance of this cannot be overlooked. There is a danger, a clear danger, that we will be overwhelmed. Indeed, it is not only a danger, it is a certainty."

John Enoch Powell MBE was a British politician and statesman. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament and was Minister of Health then Ulster Unionist Party MP. Before entering politics, Powell was a classical scholar.

[journeyjottings]

Statement of Changes to UK Immigration Rules Announced

These measures give effect to the UK government’s five-point plan aimed at reducing net migration announced in December 2023.

SKILLED WORKER SALARY THRESHOLD

From 4 April 2024, the minimum salary threshold for Skilled Workers will increase: The general salary threshold will be raised from £26,200 to £38,700.

Going rates for roles are also being raised from the 25th percentile to the median. Skilled Worker migrants must meet the requirements for the minimum salary threshold and the going rate for their role.

Workers sponsored for Health and Care visas, or in occupations where going rates are set using national pay scales, are exempt from the new median salary requirements. Instead, they will be subject to the following increased threshold: For Health and Care Workers, the general salary threshold will be increased from £26,200 to £29,000.

Transitional provisions have been put in place and Skilled Workers who are already in the route before 4 April 2024 and are extending their stay, changing employers, or settling in the UK, will be subject to the new general salary threshold of £29,000. They will still need to meet the updated going rate for their occupation, which may be higher than their current rate.

The existing salary discounts to holders of relevant Ph.D. qualifications and new entrants to the labour market will be retained.

GLOBAL BUSINESS MOBILITY (GBM) AND OTHER WORK ROUTES

From 4 April 2024, the minimum salary threshold for GBM routes will increase as follows:

The general salary threshold will increase from £45,800 to £48,500.

The salary threshold for Graduate Trainees will increase from £24,220 to £25,410.

The threshold for the Scale-up route will increase from £34,600 to £36,300.

IMMIGRATION SALARY LIST

The Shortage Occupation List will be removed and replaced by a new Immigration Salary List on 4 April 2024. The new list will include particular roles that the government decides should be offered a discounted salary threshold, rather than being a list of all occupations experiencing labour shortages. The new list will be much shorter, and fewer roles will benefit from these discounts.

A full review from the Migration Advisory Committee is expected later in 2024, so further changes may be implemented in the future.

Occupations included on the Immigration Salary List will benefit from a 20% discount to the salary threshold. The specific amount will depend on the applicable salary threshold:

The general £38,700 threshold will be reduced to £30,960.

The lower £29,000 threshold will be reduced to £23,200.

The current 20% discount to the going rate requirement will be removed, so migrants will need to meet the standard going rate for their job. This rate may be higher than the minimum salary threshold, so employers should take care to ensure that the role meets both requirements.

In another update, the resident labour market test considerations for shortage occupations will be removed for Creative Workers. As a replacement, applicants will need to demonstrate that they are making a unique contribution to creative life in the UK.

SUPPLEMENTARY EMPLOYMENT

Skilled Workers undertaking supplementary employment will now be eligible to carry out employment in any role that is in an eligible occupation code under the Skilled Worker route.

Skilled Workers can already carry out up to 20 hours per week of supplementary work, provided they are still doing the job they are sponsored to do, if the work is in the same occupation code and at the same level as the job they are sponsored to do. While previously work in other codes was restricted to jobs on the Shortage Occupation List, Skilled Workers can now expand their supplementary work to include all other eligible occupation codes and roles on the Immigration Salary List.

It is understood that the changes to supplementary work will only be applicable for Certificates of Sponsorship that were assigned after the rules changed on 4 April 2024.

UPDATES TO STANDARD OCCUPATIONAL CLASSIFICATION CODE SYSTEM

Changes are being made to the Standard Occupational Classification system to align with an updated version. Many codes will receive a new number, and codes that are no longer eligible for sponsorship will be removed. Employers should check that a role is still eligible for sponsorship in new applications for Skilled Worker or Global Business Mobility visas.

Transitional measures are in place for migrants who already hold status in these categories and will be looking to extend their permission or settle in the UK.

CHANGES TO INCOME REQUIREMENTS FOR FAMILY ROUTES

The minimum income requirement for partners and children of British nationals and individuals settled in the UK will increase from £18,600 to £29,000 from 11 April 2024.

However, children will no longer have an additional income requirement on the application. The minimum threshold will be a flat rate, irrespective of how many children are included in a family application.

IMPACT TO EMPLOYERS

Employers will generally need to meet higher salary requirements under the new rules. The rules will also affect jobs that can be sponsored under the Skilled Worker and Global Business Mobility categories, and lower skilled work will no longer be eligible for sponsorship. When an existing sponsored migrant approaches their visa expiry date in the UK, an assessment must be carried out to ensure that the migrant meets the requirements for an extension after these changes, and employers may need to increase salaries to continue sponsorship.

HOW WE CAN HELP

While changes in the family routes may not directly affect employers, their employees may have permission in these categories or they may sponsor their dependant family members. The sponsoring British national or settled person may have concerns about their salary meeting the updated requirements to continue living with their family members in the UK.

The assessment of salary requirements will be complex in the coming years as transition measures will apply to migrants who applied before 4 April 2024. Please reach out to our Morgan Lewis team for assistance with an assessment or with any concerns regarding sponsored workforces.

Source: Morgran Lewis

[thebibliosphere]

Hi, me being white and Scottish does not negate the fact that I am a disabled immigrant living in America.

I have restrictions on my income, restrictions on how I can travel, and whether or not I can vote, and I am almost entirely reliant on my spouse for everything. If I am forced to leave him, as I have been made to do so in the past due to immigration red tape, my care will decline, I will lose access to healthcare, and there's a very real chance I will die.

I was, in fact, dying before he was able to move me here and take care of me full-time.

Nowhere did I say I know what it's like to be a person of color. Nowhere did I claim to know what it's like to come to this country in the worst of circumstances, unable to speak the language or deal with the horrendous, vile human rights violations that happen at the borders of this country to anyone who cannot afford to come in legally.

I was stating a fact because whenever I say I cannot vote, people scream at me to register, and I have to explain to them time and time again that as an immigrant without citizenship, I can't vote.

"Well you're husband can just go to Scotland--"

HAHAHA tell me you know NOTHING about UK politics without telling me.

As a disabled person, I do not meet the UK income requirements to sponsor my husband into the UK. I barely earned enough before my disability made me unable to work full-time. The laws changed six weeks before our wedding and we had to pivot our life plans on a dime.

If I go home, I go home alone. And again, I cannot do that. I am not being romantic when I say I'll die without him. I am being factual.

The NHS is gutted. My parents are elderly and caring for my adult brother with brain damage and can barely pay their electric bills. My friends are all barely making rent. What safety net do you think I can leave for?

Yes, my skin color keeps me safer than so many other people who deal with far, far worse. I am not and will never deny that. But that doesn't negate that I cannot vote in a country I am living in. And it makes me feel so profoundly helpless when I see people saying voting doesn't matter because it does. Voting matters. If it didn't, people wouldn't be working so hard to take it away from you.