Immigration Bill discussed at Union Council

The second meeting of the Union Council was held on Tuesday, October 29. The main issue of discussion was the Union’s response to the government’s Immigration Bill 2013-2014. Proposed by Home Secretary Theresa May on October 10 the Bill had its second reading on October 22 and is expected to pass through parliament and receive royal assent early next spring. The Bill is of potential concern to international students since it would require them to pay a minimum fee of £200 a year to use non-emergency NHS services and would place a legal obligation on landlords to check the immigration status of their tenents – potentially biasing them against international students.

In a paper for the Council, Union President David Goldsmith wrote that “international student fees contribute a vast amount to supporting the UK higher education system”, quoting figures from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills that state that, in 2012, “international students contributed £7.9 billion to the UK economy”. Goldsmith claimed that the Bill was poorly researched – citing the discrepancy between the £200 million to £2 billion that the government estimates is spent on healthcare for international students and the £33 million figure cited by the NHS itself. He went on to add that he believed that “the bill would discourage international students from applying to institutions such as Imperial College, thereby reducing funding” and called for the Council to vote “to oppose the … proposals set out in the immigration bill by arranging meetings with local representatives and campaigning with the student body”.

While some members of the Council expressed the opinion that the changes would be a “drop in the Ocean” compared to the fees and paperwork already faced by international students, the consensus among Council members was in favour of Goldsmith’s proposals. International Officer Nida Mahmud commented on how she believed that “we should care for the welfare of students” and that the flat £200 NHS fee was unfair since it would “affect the poorest the hardest”. Overseas Societies Committee Chair Charmain Li added that she had already had many negative responses concerning the Bill from international students.

Despite the general support there were concerns that the Council paper could be improved – with Goldsmith admitting that he had not carried out a comprehensive survey of the opinions of Imperial international students towards the bill. The Council therefore decided not to accept the paper but instead to mandate a working group, led by Deputy President (Welfare) Marissa Lewis, to research the issue further and present a new paper, with a clear plan on how to campaign against the sections of the Bill which would affect Imperial students negatively, at the next Council meeting on November 12.

Since the Council meeting David Goldsmith has released the following statement: “On presentation of my paper on the Immigration Bill proposals Council engaged in a lengthy and lively debate on the matter. Some excellent views were expressed but consensus was difficult to reach. This was particularly the case with regard to the implantation of a £200 annual NHS fee. Therefore we decided that Marissa, Deputy President (Welfare), will be heading a group to investigate international students’ opinions more thoroughly and reviewing the paper- potentially separating the resolves. I’m looking forward to seeing how this pans out. Should the immigration proposals be rejected by Council there is a lot of lobbying that we as a student body can engage in.”

All members of the Union are welcome to attend the November meeting, which will be held at 18:30 in the Union Dining Hall, to voice their opinions. Additionally, if you would like to contribute your views to this debate you can take a 5-minute Union survey: tinyurl.com/ImBilSurv Maciej Matuszewski