‘By increasing the salary threshold for sponsorship jobs, government is minimising opportunities’

For the past six months, I’ve been shut off from everything else, totally invested in bringing together 2025’s EatDrink24/7 guide. And somehow, when I came out of my little culinary bubble, I was startled.

While I was buried under a pile of delicious food and drink venues, the landscape for immigrants in the UK was changing, and just like always, not for the better. On May 12, the government published a white paper titled ‘Restoring Control Over the Immigration System’.

For any immigrants, this was enough to send a series of nervous shivers down their spine.

Karen moved to the UK in September 2023 to pursue of Master of Arts in Journalism at UWE Bristol – photo: Karen Johnson

Before I dive into the changes, let me give you a little background.

On September 3 2023, which was also my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary, I boarded a plane to the UK, bearing my entire life in three suitcases. I was then travelling to the UK on a student visa, which would allow me to study, work part-time for up to 20 hours a week and garner the education that I had been looking for. Naturally, like any young girl chasing her dreams, I was excited. However, if you asked me in 2023 whether I had plans to move permanently to the UK, my answer would have been a clear no.

I grew up in a small town in the state of Gujarat, before moving to Mumbai to chase my dreams of becoming a journalist. After finishing an undergraduate course with the highest marks in my class, I invested myself in getting professional experience. For years, I had shunned the idea of being a working journalist because it just seemed too unachievable. But thanks to a push from my parents, I decided to pursue a Master’s.

Once I had finished the many formalities – an English language test, a tuberculosis test, a Certificate of Acceptance from the university – and paid for my visa, my course, the immigration health surcharge, travel and accommodation and I was finally in the UK, I hoped I could breathe a sigh of relief.

Months passed, but I finally managed to finish my course and get a job here at Bristol24/7.

By this time, I had fallen in love with the diversity and beauty of Bristol and the UK. I liked the city I was living in and secretly wished that I could stay here forever. But this dream felt naive when I knew my student visa would soon expire.

As part of her MA course, Karen covered and wrote about multiple protests in Bristol – photo: Nadia Ferraris

Now I had two options: convert to a graduate visa or find an employer who will sponsor me for a skilled worker visa. The sane idea at the time was to choose a graduate visa, where after paying nearly £3,000, I would be able to work and live in the UK for the next two years.

I did this, got a graduate visa until January 2027 and happily started working and living my dream of being a journalist. But in May, things began to look difficult for immigrants.

In the background of anti-immigrant protests, growing racism, an increasing dislike for people of other nationalities and a changing political landscape, a rumbling uneasiness began to take hold in my stomach. I wrote about this earlier, but to reiterate – I began to feel unsafe even here in Bristol.

And the white paper published in May only pushed things over the edge.

According to this document, the previous government turned Britain into a “one-nation experiment in open borders”.. The foreword by prime minister Keir Starmer continues: “The damage this has done to our country is incalculable. Public services and housing access have been placed under too much pressure. Our economy has been distorted by perverse incentives to import workers rather than invest in our skills. In sectors like engineering, for example, apprenticeships have almost halved while visas doubled.”

Like journalists across the country, Karen covered the General Election in July 2024, reporting overnight from City Academy in Redfield – photo: Karen Johnson

Let me clarify. I’m not writing this to root for illegal migration, as I do not have the knowledge to do that. I am talking about the thousands of people like me, who have chosen the legal route, put forward their dreams, financial bearings, taken out loans and hopped on a plane, only to hopefully build a better future.

We have done this while building our own lives – paying taxes like any citizen in the country, paying thousands during our visa application to avail NHS services and fighting rightfully with our skills to try and secure a better life here.

So, when in the document home secretary Yvette Cooper says that this White Paper sets out “reforms to legal migration, so that we can restore order, control and fairness to the system, bring down net migration and promote economic growth”, I was left a little perplexed.

While the many recommendations in the white paper remain unconfirmed, with no timeline, some have already started being implemented:

– The salary thresholds for sponsorship jobs under the skilled worker visa have been increased, thereby making it more expensive for an employer to sponsor an international worker

– Skilled worker route for care workers and senior care workers is now closed until July 22 2028

Other proposed changes, that are yet to be implemented, include decreasing the duration of a graduate visa from two years to 18 months, compulsory English language tests for everyone, including dependents and a shortened list of sponsored jobs.

And these are just a few of the many changes that might mean I might have to leave the UK.

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Read more: ‘As an immigrant, I currently feel unsafe in Bristol’
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How am I supposed to expect any employer, especially amid a cost-of-living crisis, to pay me much more than they have been paying their more senior employees?

Bigger companies could still afford it. But by increasing the salary threshold, which will allow beginners like me a sponsorship, the government is minimising our opportunities.

Let me clarify again, I do not oppose changes to immigration policies. I understand the need for a country to protect its own workers. But here’s a question: why do global leaders develop diplomatic relationships if they wish to keep their borders sacred?

I grew up learning about globalisation – about how the world was becoming borderless, connected through culture, trade and ideas. I learnt about the world being my oyster and the freedom to discover the many horizons the world has to offer.

Every morning, ever since these changes have come into place, I have woken up with a sense of fear. While I love India, and I’m very proud of its diversity, I know that my freedom to express would be severely curtailed there. I would fear to write freely, and that would, in a way, feel like betraying the profession of journalism. It is because I want to express, tell honest stories and represent people that I live here in the UK. I do not want any freebies, government support or any special treatment – I want to be treated as an equal and be given fair opportunities.

Under the April 2024 rules, immigrants seeking a skilled worker visa were required to be paid a minimum of £38,7000 annually, which has now been increased to £41,700.

I’m 25, I have over a year of experience working as a journalist and more than five years of experience working in marketing and media from India, but I still don’t feel like any employer will commit to paying me this amount and the additional sponsorship costs.

However, the only silver lining in this very grey cloud, is that I am still categorised as a “new entrant” – this might mean that I can be sponsored at a lower threshold, for two years, before being once again pushed into this whirlpool of finding a sponsored job that pays more.

I’m probably writing this more out of frustration and exhaustion because I know people who have applied for thousands of jobs and still only been interviewed for one. It is not because they lack the skills, but because it is competitive out there, with every other person eyeing for a golden opportunity.

Let me ask you this: if you were an employer, would you hire a worker who does not require sponsorship or an international worker who requires sponsorship? Will talent be the basis of your choice or the sheer cost of the scenario, considering the very alarming rising costs around us? And so, are these many immigration controls that the government is issuing, a way of restricting international workers with true talent from living in the UK for longer?

Note: There are other routes, like the Global Talent Visa, but the most used and viable route for immigrants is the Skilled Worker Visa, the conditions of which have been made extremely rigid after the recent changes. 

This is an opinion piece by Karen Johnson, a reporter at Bristol24/7 who is currently working and living in the UK on a graduate visa

Main photo: Alston D’souza

Read next:

• ‘People are not problems, borders are not sacred and no one should be treated as disposable’
• Immigration lawyers named as far-right’s next target in Bristol
• ‘As an immigrant, I currently feel unsafe in Bristol’