Editorial: Dear candidate...

Editorial: Dear candidate...

The UK will soon have a new government. We want to see one that shares our vision of a society where migrants and refugees have full equality – where they are heard, respected, have rights, and are embraced as equal members of our community – and we need your help on this.

We have three specific asks at this election, and we’re writing to prospective parliamentary candidates across the country urging them to support those asks if they are elected:

1. End the injustice faced by thousands of international students wrongly accused of cheating on an English test in 2014 and stripped of their visas. Let them sit a new test or be interviewed and, if they pass or present a credible narrative in good English, restore their status so they can restart their lives.

2. End the discriminatory system of immigration fees that leaves ordinary families impoverished or priced out of legal status. Reduce all visa fees for adults to admin costs, make children’s applications free, and introduce a free, simple appeals process for visa refusals.

3. Bring undocumented migrants in this country out of the shadows and into the light. Work towards a regularisation scheme and scrap hostile policies and processes that wrongly leave people without status.

We call on the future government to implement these asks as part of a broader, wholesale reform of the Home Office and immigration system.

Migrants are not threats, but valued members of our communities. Migrants should not be judged by income, country of origin or arbitrarily designated “skill level”. Without migrants, our communities would be financially, socially and culturally poorer – and we are in desperate need of a government that acknowledges these truths, both in its rhetoric and its policies.

We urge everyone reading this to join us in our calls for change. One of your local candidates will be a Member of Parliament on 13 December. You can help make sure they share that vision of a society that respects and embraces migrants. Whether it’s asking them to reduce visa fees, give those international students their futures back, end indefinite detention, or give asylum seekers the right to work, your voice can make a difference.

And it’s easy to do – a simple email, tweet or conversation with a campaigner can go a long way. Take a look at our one-page guide, find your candidates here, and let us know how they reply.

Let’s take this chance to work towards a fairer, more just society for everyone.

TOP IMAGE: Palace of Westminster and Westminster Bridge, Jorge Lascar, Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)