Comrades from the Pan-African Workers’ Association (PAWA) are outraged by the UK government’s Immigration White Paper, published in May 2025. The document claims to be part of a plan to reduce net migration, yet again, against an amorphous, shifting target.

Successive UK governments have promised to “crack down” on immigration, but none commit to a concrete figure. Why? Because the British economy simply cannot function without hyper-exploitable and precarious migrant labour. Any serious attempt to eliminate migrant workers would bring entire sectors to a standstill.

According to our comrades at the Migrants’ Rights Network, the government proposed policies are guided by five supposedly reasonable principles:

• Net migration must come down

• The immigration system must be linked to UK skills requirements

• It must be fair and effective

• Rules must be respected and enforced

• The system must support integration and community cohesion

These principles sound fair until you examine what they actually mean in practice.

Take the idea of linking immigration to “skills.” The government claims that increased employment of non-EU migrant workers in sectors such as health and social care, manufacturing, and support services has contributed to falling employment among UK workers.

But let’s be honest: immigration stats that distinguish between “EU” and “non-EU” workers are often racial codes, “meaning ‘white’ and ‘non-white.’” And the real crisis in employment and public services isn’t caused by migrants.

Instead, it’s driven by austerity, underfunding, and an economy built on financial speculation, not people’s needs.

The government even claims reducing migrant workers will somehow ease the housing crisis. This is absurd. Britain’s housing shortage has nothing to do with migration and everything to do with a parasitic financial system that treats homes as investments, not shelter.

The most dangerous proposals in the White Paper directly affect our comrades under the Health and Care Worker visa.

PAWA was formed in 2022 in response to the systemic abuse faced by workers under this visa route. From the start, we encouraged migrants to unionise and fight back – not wait passively for permanent residency. Some criticised us at the time for this position. But our warnings have now been proven correct.

Bit by bit, the few “benefits” of the Health and Care visa are being stripped away:

• The right to bring dependants has been removed

• There are proposals to extend the wait for permanent residency

• And the once-promised “pathway to settlement” has been quietly abandoned

The government’s narrative of appreciation for care workers during the pandemic has gone up in smoke. What’s left is a system that exploits, isolates, and discards migrant labour.

Together with our allies, we call for the abolition of the sponsorship system that ties workers’ legal status to exploitative employers. It is a modern-day form of bonded labour.

Instead of labelling care workers “low-skilled,” the government should:

• Raise wages across the sector

• Improve working conditions

• Respect the dignity and rights of all workers—regardless of nationality

Migration is not the problem. Exploitation is. Let’s name it, fight it, and organise against it, together!