As Reform UK gains significant traction in opinion polls, migrant communities across Britain are confronting profound uncertainty about their futures in the country they call home.
The Policy Changes Creating Anxiety
The party has announced sweeping hardline immigration policies, including plans to abolish indefinite leave to remain – the right to settle permanently in the UK after five years of residence. Party leader Nigel Farage has stated that non-UK citizens would need to continually apply for visas with significantly higher salary thresholds.
Although Reform hasn't specified exact figures, reports suggest thresholds could be set around £60,000 per year – substantially higher than the current £41,700 requirement for most skilled worker visas. These visas come with strict restrictions and can be cancelled if individuals leave their employer or experience salary changes.
Meanwhile, the Labour government's proposal to extend the indefinite leave to remain qualifying period to ten years has been interpreted as an attempt to win back voters considering supporting Reform.
Frontline NHS Staff Facing Uncertainty
Dr Jinnie Shin, a 44-year-old emergency medicine registrar from Boston, USA, embodies the dilemma facing many essential workers. She arrived in the UK as a medical student in 2015 and found herself on the NHS frontline during the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
"I saw more death in the first two weeks than I have in my entire career thus far," Shin recalls of her experience at Croydon University Hospital. "Every day was the worst day of someone else's life and that was our day, day in, day out. It was truly devastating."
Despite her sacrifices – including 18 months without seeing her family while working 12-hour shifts treating ventilated patients – Shin now questions whether she has a future in Britain. Although eligible for indefinite leave to remain, she hesitates to pay the £3,000 application fee if Reform might rescind settled status after the next general election.
The proposed £60,000 salary threshold would particularly impact NHS staff, where registrar starting salaries are £52,656 and junior doctors begin at £38,831. "You are basically talking about culling doctors who will eventually become our registrars and consultants," Shin warns. "This sort of move would eliminate the foot soldiers of the NHS."
Skilled Professionals Reconsidering Their Futures
Sid Shyamsundar, a 31-year-old engineer from Pune, India, faces similar uncertainty. Since arriving in 2021 on a skilled worker visa for his "dream job" enhancing Britain's defence capabilities, he and his wife have built a life they adore in Bury, Greater Manchester.
"2025 has been the hardest year I've had to face," Shyamsundar reveals. "The reminders that your life may be temporary are a constant drain on your mental health. I haven't slept very well in the last six months."
Despite being due to apply for indefinite leave to remain next April, he lives with the threat of having his visa revoked under changing rules. He wouldn't qualify under Reform's proposed £60,000 threshold.
Sayali Wandhekar, a 30-year-old designer from Pune now living in Camden, echoes these concerns. Having moved to London for a master's degree in 2020, she now faces "shifting goalposts" that prevent her from planning long-term.
"I want to be here long term," Wandhekar says. "But am I going to buy a house, settle here, have children here? It's something I can't plan for." She fears a Reform victory could force her to return to India, noting that many skilled migrants would likely leave the UK if indefinite leave to remain were abolished.
Refugees Facing Return to Danger
For some, the stakes are even higher. Douna Haj Ahmed, a 34-year-old Syrian refugee working for a multiple sclerosis charity in Wembley, arrived in the UK on a scholarship in 2017 after surviving years of war.
Despite never claiming benefits and devoting her spare time to volunteer work – including interpreting for refugees and providing companionship for dementia patients – Haj Ahmed faces the prospect of being deported to Syria, where her husband was detained in the notorious al-Khatib prison.
"I don't have any other place to go," she says. "I'm being treated as a number, a figure. It's not my fault, what happened in my country. I ran away from death and the Assad regime."
She describes Reform's plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain as potentially "destroying" her life and sense of stability, adding that she has developed severe depression due to immigration uncertainty.
Across these diverse stories, a common theme emerges: skilled migrants who have built lives, careers and communities in Britain now face what Shyamsundar describes as "death by a thousand cuts" – the gradual erosion of their security and belonging in a country they've chosen to call home.
