U

COMMONWEALTH IMMIGRATION

INTO BRITAIN

NTIL 1962 Britain had freely admitted citizens of other Commonwealth countries for residence and a quarter of the world's population was thus entitled to enter and settle in Britain at will. In the early nineteen-fifties increasing numbers began to exercise this right with the result that by 1961 (in which year an estimated 170,000 immigrants from other Commonwealth countries entered Britain) it became clear that the rate of flow of Commonwealth immigrants was exceeding Britain's capacity to absorb them, particularly since the majority tended to congregate in already over-crowded areas of the country. It was therefore decided reluctantly that immigration would have to be controlled. COMMONWEALTH IMMIGRANTS ACTS 1962 AND 1968

Part I of the 1962 Act, which came into operation on 1st July 1962, for an initial period of 18 months, subjected to control all Commonwealth citizens except, broadly speaking, those born in the United Kingdom and those holding passports issued by a United Kingdom authority. Part I of the Act has since been extended annually for periods of one year.

During 1967 there was a rapid increase in the number of citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies of Asian origin coming to this country from East Africa. In order to prevent the immigration policy from being undermined by this influx of people not subject to control under the 1962 Act, the Government regretfully decided it was necessary to introduce immediate legislation. The 1968 Act, which was passed on 1st March 1968, extended immigration control to certain citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies who do not have a specific connection with the United Kingdom. Its effect is to extend immigration control to U.K. citizens who hold United Kingdom passports issued abroad, unless they-or one of their parents or grandparents-were born or naturalised in the United Kingdom or acquired citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies by adoption or registration in the United Kingdom or by registration in what was at the time an independent Commonwealth country. Under the 1968 Act special vouchers are issued to heads of households whose exemption from immigration control has been ended by the Act and who wish to settle in the United Kingdom. The dependants of a voucher holder are entitled to accompany him to, or join him in, the United Kingdom under the normal rules of immigration control. The annual quota of vouchers has been fixed at 1,500, but this is subject to review in the light of developments. The Government accepts that the United Kingdom is responsible for citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies who are expelled from or subjected to serious restraints in their country of residence. In addition the Government set up a special appeal tribunal consisting of two independent lawyers to consider appeals from United Kingdom citizens newly subjected to immigration control who were refused entry certificates. The number of independent lawyers was subsequently reduced to one.

Admission may also not be refused to persons holding employment vouchers from the Department of Employment and Productivity, bona fide students or persons who can support themselves without employment (including tourists and visiting business men), except on the grounds of health, security or criminal

record. Visitors are normally free to take employment during the period of their visit and students may normally engage in paid employment during their free time, so long as they spend not less than fifteen hours a week in organised daytime study. Besides their power to refuse admission, immigration officers also have power to impose conditions, but conditions limiting the length of stay or prohibiting employment may not be imposed upon employment voucher holders, returning residents or the wives and young children of men to whose stay in the United Kingdom no such conditions attach.

The Acts apply to Citizens of the Irish Republic as to the Commonwealth citizens; but in practice there is no control on traffic between the Irish Republic and Britain.

Parts II and III of the 1962 Act came into force on the 31st May 1962 and are permanent legislation. Part II gave power to the Secretary of State for Home Affairs to deport Commonwealth citizens, British Protected Persons and citizens of the Republic of Ireland who are convicted of offences punishable by imprisonment and recommended by a court for deportation. The Immigration Appeals Act 1969 enabled the Secretary of State to make deportation orders without a court recommendation in respect of persons who are liable to deportation under section 6 of the 1962 Act and who fail to comply with the conditions subject to which they were admitted to the United Kingdom. Persons born in the United Kingdom, or whose fathers were born there or who have lived in Britain for more than five years and persons under seventeen years of age are not liable to deportation. Commonwealth High Commissioners in London are informed as soon as it is known that one of their nationals has been recommended for deportation.

Part III of the Act contains ancillary provisions which, inter alia, extended the period from one to five years of ordinary residence needed to qualify a citizen of an independent Commonwealth country for registration, and a British Protected Person for naturalisation, as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies.

Statistics for immigration from the Commonwealth show that for the twelve months period ending 31st December 1969 4,021 voucher holders and 38,785 others were admitted for settlement: the figures were published as Cmnd 4327, in April 1970.

EMPLOYMENT VOUCHERS

Vouchers are issued by the Department of Employment and Productivity at a controlled rate determined from time to time by the Government. At present, 8,500 vouchers are issued each year, of which 1,000 are allocated to the citizens of Malta, in view of the United Kingdom's special obligations to Malta, and 600 to United Kingdom dependent territories, with the proviso that as a general rule no one territory may receive more than half of the 600. Applications for vouchers are placed in two categories: in the first (category A) are placed applications made by an employer in this country who has a specific job to offer to a named Commonwealth citizen, and in the second (category B) applications made by Commonwealth citizens who possess certain special qualifications or skills. If a voucher is issued, it is sent to the immigrant through the appropriate British post in the territory concerned.

Category A

All applications must be made by the prospective employer in the United Kingdom to any local office of the Department of Employment and Productivity. Except in the cases of citizens of Malta and persons belonging to dependent territories where the nature of the proposed employment is immaterial provided that the vacancy is genuine, vouchers will be issued in respect of the following types of vacancy only:

(a) employment in manufacturing industry;

(b) other employment if the work is, in the opinion of the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, of substantial economic or social value to the United Kingdom;

(c) employment obtained through recruitment schemes operated by employers in co-operation with Commonwealth Governments or by Commonwealth Governments themselves and approved by the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity.

Except for Malta and dependent territories, applications in category A will be considered generally on a ‘first come, first served' basis subject to the limitation that not more than 15 per cent of the vouchers available for category A will be issued to applicants from any one country.

Category B

Applications in this category will be entertained from people with the following qualifications or skills:

(a) doctors, dentists and trained nurses;

(b) teachers who are eligible for the status of qualified teacher in this country and possess a teacher training qualification acceptable to the Department of Education and Science;

(c) graduates in science or technology who are likely to be acceptable to employers here; and

(d) non-graduates with certain professional qualifications who have either a firm offer of a job or have had at least two years' experience in suitable employment since qualifying.

(Doctors who apply for vouchers must produce evidence that they have either obtained places in the Department of Health and Social Security attachment scheme or exemption from it).

Application in category B must be made by the intending immigrant to the nearest British official representative overseas.

DEPENDANTS

Wives of Commonwealth citizens resident in the United Kingdom are entitled to admission for settlement provided that they hold a valid entry certificate issued for that purpose, and so are children under the age of sixteen if both parents are resident in the United Kingdom, or children coming to join a sole surviving parent. Such children must also be in possession of an entry certificate. Children aged 16 or 17 have no rights of admission to join parents but are nevertheless freely admitted under the same rules as children under 16. Children aged 18 or over are expected to qualify for admission in their own right, e.g. as voucher

holders (though in exceptional cases they may be admitted up to the age of 21 if they are unmarried and fully dependent on their parents and the rest of the family is coming to the United Kingdom). A widowed mother of any age, a widower over 65, or a married couple of whom either is over 65, will normally be admitted if they are wholly or mainly dependent upon children settled in the United Kingdom who are able and willing to support and accommodate them. Other dependants of Commonwealth citizens resident in the United Kingdom may be admitted depending on the circumstances of the individual case. Since 16th May 1969 when Section 20 of the Immigration Appeals Act came into force, entry certificates have been required in all cases where a dependant wishes to settle in the United Kingdom. Dependants whose entry certificate applications have been refused had a right of appeal under special arrangements introduced in advance of the statutory appeals system.

STUDENTS AND VISITORS

Commonwealth students and visitors continue to be warmly welcomed but as there has been evasion of immigration controls by students and visitors staying on and taking employment, students are admitted for a period limited generally to a year in the first instance and visitors for a period of six months. The initial period for students is extended to cover the full period of their courses in all cases where it is clear that they genuinely intend to continue their studies. The period for visitors is also freely extended if good cause is shown. Applications for an extension of stay may be made to the Immigration and Nationality Division, Home Office, 271 High Holborn, London WC1 7EW.

ENTRY CERTIFICATES

The possession of an entry certificate is mandatory in the case of a Commonwealth citizen seeking entry on the grounds of being a dependant of a person already resident in the United Kingdom and for Commonwealth men seeking settlement on the sole ground of being the husband or fiancé of a woman resident in the United Kingdom. It is also available as a facility to all Commonwealth citizens on application at British Diplomatic Missions Overseas. Possession of an entry certificate facilitates entry into Britain and is a virtual guarantee that entry will be permitted. Although the Immigration Officer will presume the holder is qualified for admission, admission may be refused if the holder has obtained the entry certificate by misrepresentation, if his claim to admission has been removed by a change of circumstances or if the Immigration Officer discovers he should be refused admission on medical, criminal or security grounds or because he is subject to a deportation order.

AN APPEALS SYSTEM

In August 1967 the Committee on Immigration Appeals recommended that a system should be established to hear appeals against refusals of entry certificates and refusals of admission and also against deportation orders. The Government announced that this recommendation had been broadly accepted and that legislation would be introduced in due course to enable an appeals system to be set up.

The Immigration Appeals Act 1969 confers on Commonwealth citizens rights of appeal against decisions to exclude or deport them from the United Kingdom.

and against the refusal to issue an entry certificate or grant an extension of stay. It also enables provision to be made for conferring corresponding rights of appeal on aliens. The date on which the appeal system will be introduced has not yet been announced by the Secretary of State.

On 1st July 1970 the first stage of the appeals system was implemented giving a statutory right of appeal to all those Commonwealth citizens refused entry certificates and to those already in the United Kingdom refused permission to stay longer. Pending introduction of the second stage of the appeals system those refused admission though in possession of an entry certificate, an employment voucher or a special voucher, have a right of appeal on a non-statutory basis. There are also certain rights of appeal relating to decisions to deport. See Statutory Instrument 1970 No. 791 under the heading Commonwealth Immigrants, The Immigration Appeals Act 1969 (Commencement No. 2) Order 1970, and Statutory Instrument 1970 No. 794 Commonwealth Immigrants, Aliens, The Immigration Appeals (Procedure) Rules 1970.

In accordance with the provisions of the Act the Secretary of State has appointed a panel of adjudicators to hear appeals in the first instance, and provision is also made for the appointment of an Immigration Appeals Tribunal, whose members are appointed by the Lord Chancellor, to consider appeals against the decisions of adjudicators. A special panel of Tribunal members will be constituted for the purpose of hearing appeals against decisions or actions taken in the interests of national security.

In advance of the introduction of a statutory appeals system, the Government appointed a panel of independent lawyers to consider appeals from dependants who had been refused entry certificates.

T

COMMONWEALTH STUDENTS
IN BRITAIN

HE information contained in this chapter has been provided by the British Council and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Further information about overseas students in Britain may be obtained from the 1970 Commonwealth Universities Yearbook and from Overseas Students in Britain, 1969.

Table 1 gives a breakdown of all Commonwealth students in Britain, at universities and other institutions, by category of study*.

Table 2 gives figures relating to university students from other parts of the Commonwealth who were considered to be 'overseas students' in terms of the definition which is now being used for fees purposes. This definition, as set out by the University Grants Committee, is:

A. The following should not be regarded as overseas students:

(i) any student who has been ordinarily resident in the U.K. for at least three years immediately preceding the date his course is, or was, due to begin;

University and technical college figures in this table are also given in terms of the definition now used for free purposes. This breakdown covers the period 1968-69 as complete figures for 1969-70 for all Tables were not available at the time of going to press (October 1970).