Why this Government must address the unique challenges facing migrant children
This Government was elected with a manifesto commitment to cut child poverty – which has risen to frankly terrifying heights over the past 14 years, with 1 in 4 children now living in poverty, and around one million children living in destitution.
Since then, it’s remained a strong focus for Labour and in July a taskforce was set up jointly chaired by the Secretary of State of Education Bridget Phillipson and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall.
Much has been made of the need to end poverty for all children. But here at Praxis, we’re not sure if the Government truly means all children – or only all British children. That’s why we’ve been pushing hard to make sure that the unique situation of children in migrant families living in poverty is not ignored as the Government’s child poverty strategy is developed. We joined forces with campaigners working on children’s rights, poverty reduction, child development and migrant rights to put pressure on Ministers and officials to make sure that this is truly a strategy for every child living in the UK. We’ve written to Ministers, submitted evidence and worked with the End Child Poverty coalition to develop 8 tests for a successful child poverty strategy that includes all children, no matter their immigration status.
Slowly but surely, we’re making progress! Last week, a minister finally confirmed in writing that this is a strategy for all children living in the UK, and that the government recognises the unique barriers facing migrant children.
With this in mind, we’ve put together this explainer which lays out what some of those unique barriers are, and why migrant children may be particularly at risk of poverty.
Some numbers
We don’t know exactly how many migrant children live in poverty (because the Home Office says it doesn’t keep track of how many migrant children there are in the UK, let alone how many are living in poverty…). But here are some things we do know:
2x the risk of poverty: children whose parents were born outside the UK face double the risk of relative poverty as their friends whose parents were both born in the UK – 48% compared to 24%. (CASE)
One third of children in deep poverty are migrant children: this means that migrant children are hugely overrepresented amongst those living in destitution.
What’s the link between immigration policies and child poverty?
The experiences of migrant families living in poverty are in lots of ways very similar to those of British families living in poverty. But this group faces a number of specific barriers created by immigration law and policy, which make migrant families more likely to be living in poverty in the first place and find it harder to escape poverty. Here’s how:
No access to social security
Almost all migrant families in the UK, no matter what kind of visa they have, are legally blocked from accessing the welfare safety net until they get permanent UK residency (a process that can take decades and be very expensive – more on this below). The policy responsible is called No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) and it means migrant families have no access to Universal Credit, Child Benefit or any of the other benefits explicitly designed to protect families from poverty, even in a crisis.
For those in well-paid, secure work this isn’t (usually) a problem. But for those who work in low-paid, insecure, part-time jobs – or those who experience a change in their circumstances, like the breakdown of a marriage for instance – having no access to a safety net is an enormous problem.
People who are seeking asylum are also affected by the NRPF condition. Over 16,500 children were receiving something called Asylum Support at the end of every year on average between 2016 and 2020. This is support the Home Office provides if someone can’t afford to house and feed themselves. However, this parallel support system is extremely problematic. It’s set at a level so low that families can’t always afford to meet their basic needs and certainly can’t spend money on “extras” for their children like social activities. Coupled with the fact that parents are also blocked from working, this leaves families in dire straits – often for years at a time.
The central importance of the social security system in protecting families from poverty is very well documented. So it’s hardly surprising that cutting off 4 million people - including 507,000 children - from it and often for years at a time leads to higher rates of poverty.
Higher costs
Extortionate visa fees and charges can also impose very high direct costs on some migrant families (paid regardless of tax and national insurance contributions). It’s a complex picture, because fees vary a lot depending on visa type, but for many families – especially those on low incomes – the costs are a real pressure, and one that’s been linked to debt, food insecurity and mental health impacts.
To give a sense of how one particular group are affected by visa fees, consider the situation of families on the 10-year route to settlement. Over the course of this route, a family of 2 adults and 2 children would pay £70,240 in total – or an equivalent additional monthly cost of £585.
Limited access to support for children and families
The NRPF condition doesn’t just block families from accessing the welfare safety net. It also prevents them from accessing other vital forms of support for children and families that are essential to protecting families from poverty.
Sometimes this is because certain subsidies or entitlements have been set up so that parents with NRPF are excluded from them. This is the case with, for example, support with the costs of childcare. Migrant parents are blocked from accessing most government support with these costs, meaning that children in migrant households have far lower access to early years education than their peers and parents face high barriers to work.
In other cases, it’s the broader Hostile Environment – of which NRPF is a core part – that stops families from accessing support. The Hostile Environment is a set of policies and laws that were brought in under Conservative governments from 2012 onward that were designed to make life more difficult for migrants. Families regularly tell us that they don’t want to ask for support, even where they may be entitled to it, because they’re afraid it will be held against them when they next have to apply for a visa. We also know from our wide experience of working with local authorities and other service providers that this group often don’t understand migrants’ rights and entitlements, and some err on the side of caution, preferring to say deny access to services than make a mistake.
So what needs to change?
Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that children in migrant households face a higher risk of poverty and a more complicated route out of it. So what needs to go into the Government’s child poverty strategy to make sure that this particular group of children benefit from it? Find out in our next blog…
16th Dec 2024