The financial (minimum income) requirement for partner visas - Commons Library Standard Note

The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) project, led by the British Council and the Migration Policy Group think-tank, runs an interactive website which compares migrants’ integration opportunities, based on analysis of immigration policies in over 30 countries. A July 2012 blog post written by one of its Research Co-ordinators compared the UK’s new partner visa rules with those in place in other countries, and concluded that “The UK is slowly becoming one of the least favourable places for non-EU residents and even its own citizens to reunite with their families.” It cautioned that the minimum income requirement might undermine migrants’ integration prospects:
A high income threshold does not effectively promote long-term economic participation, education, language learning, or fighting forced marriages. Instead, such requirements have a disproportionate impact on limiting the number of family reunions, especially for low-income and vulnerable groups. For many, family life becomes harder or impossible through ‘enforced separation.’ The OECD finds that every extra year that child spends in country of origin and not in country of destination has a negative impact on their language learning and societal adjustment. The OECD’s conclusion is that family reunion should be facilitated as soon as possible. British policy actors must strictly scrutinise whether the new family reunion requirements exacerbate some of the very problems that they are supposed to address.On the other hand, Migration Watch issued a brief statement welcoming the changes, which it considered would enhance family migrants’ prospects for integration.
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