Editing Indefinite leave to remain (section)

===White paper proposals, 2025===

In a 2025 White Paper, the UK government outlined a range of proposed changes to the Immigration Rules aimed at tightening migration controls and narrowing the eligibility of non-citizens to obtain settlement rights. One central mechanism proposed is the increase of administrative and financial pressures on organisations employing foreign or temporary migrant workers. The policy also appears to target migrant workers in vulnerable service sectors such as aged care and childcare, where they provide essential human services by supporting some of the most vulnerable members of society. The proposals include raising the minimum salary thresholds for sponsorship and requiring disproportionately high qualifications for roles in these fields. Among the more exclusionary proposals is the extension of the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain under the Skilled Worker route from five to ten years. This shift mirrors political rhetoric found in the United States, where merit-based framing is used to justify deportations and constrain the social mobility of migrant workers. Prime Minister Sir [[Keir Starmer]] reinforced this framing by stating that "settlement in the UK is a privilege that is earned, not a right," echoing [[Dog whistle (politics)|dog whistle]] discourse traditionally associated with far-right platforms. .<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-12 |title=Restoring control over the immigration system: white paper |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-white-paper |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-11 |title=Starmer says migrants will have to ‘earn the right’ to live in UK in new crackdown |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/keir-starmer-migrant-earn-right-crackdown-b2748777.html |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref>