'My parents would not have passed new Tory rules to move to Britain'

Both are wearing shalwar kameez, the traditional shirt and loose trousers of Pakistan, from where Rehman’s mum had emigrated in the mid-sixties, joining her husband who had gone ahead to find work in the factories of the West Midlands.

Now Rehmen lives in Edinburgh and is reeling from Home Secretary Priti Patel’s announcement last week of new proposals for a points-based immigration system, aimed at “ending free movement” and slated to start in January 2021.

Applying to EU and non-EU immigrants alike, it will next year be compulsory to speak English and arrive with a firm job offer at the appropriate skill level, usually paid at above £25,600. A lower salary band can be traded against offering skills that are in short supply, or having a PhD in a STEM subject. Patel has admitted her own parents wouldn’t have qualified.

Rehman’s stay-at-home mum wouldn’t have passed immigration tests either, but she believes that the loss of her values of compassion, care and welcome would have left the UK poorer. “Our house was always open to all,” she says.

Neither would Rehman’s dad have made the grade. A photo of him shows a dapper man in a smart wool coat and cap, who his daughter says would want people to stand up against these harsh immigration policies.

“My parents taught me about the importance of justice and equality and to stand-up and be counted,” she said. “My dad was the shop steward in the factory he worked for, taking people out on strike when they wanted to reduce the number of people working on each machine. It was not about an individualised response – this was about making sure that conditions were good for all.” 

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Her parents had another message too - don’t ever think there won’t be a time when people won’t question your right to be here. As a child she shook it off as ridiculous. “It is only as you grow older and your experience of racism becomes more intense and you begin to understand the structural nature of it and how racism permeates so much,” she says. “You begin to understand there are historical precedents for things like this.”

As a teenager her family moved to Glasgow where her father set-up a textile business. She went to college in Manchester, visiting in the holidays. Now she is chief executive of One Parent Families Scotland and has worked in anti-racism and equalities for decades.

It’s helped her understand the structural nature of exploitation. “Britain was a colony power and it exploited the colonies,” she says. “There used to be phrase that we commonly used when I was involved in anti-racism marches – “we are here because you were there”. The history has created the conditions that we now find ourselves in and public attitudes are shaped and manipulated to make this an acceptable course of action.

“I’m sitting here in Edinburgh today because the UK needed cheap labour and my dad could provide it. It was about creating and maintaining the wealth of this country, be it through the exploitation that took place in the countries that were colonised or the exploitation of the workers that then came here from the colonies.”

Much of the substantial criticism in response to UK Government proposals has brushed over the shadows of empire. It has instead focussed on it lack of economic sense, with business leaders across the UK speaking out about the potentially “catastrophic” effects on the economy.

But for some there are more fundamental concerns about what a less multicultural society, where English is prized above all other languages will mean. Nazek Ramadan, director of Migrant Voice, says the organisation is deeply concerned. “They claim that the new system will be in the best interests of the British people,” she adds. “But how can this be, when it will make our communities financially, socially and culturally poorer?

“We want an end to crude assessments of migrants’ ‘value’, whether that’s a salary threshold or a points target. We want to see a system that recognises that a person’s value to this society goes far beyond their earnings, one that celebrates and protects the richness that comes from the UK’s diverse communities.”

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In Glasgow it is blowing a hooley and rain is battering off the pavements but it’s warm inside the city’ Garnethill Multicultural Centre, where in an upstairs room decorated with Chinese dragon costumes, about 30 people are gathered to learn English. On the ground floor Central and West Integration Network community members from all over the world are making a communal lunch when the class is over. Delicious smells waft up the stairs as volunteer tutors from the Glasgow ESOL Forum drill their small groups – divided up into different levels – on speaking and writing exercises.

There are people here from east and western Europe, others from Hong Kong and China, India and Africa, many of whom have been living in this ethnically diverse area on the edge of the city centre for many years. Some are here for work, study or because their partners are here, others are refugees. Most already speak multiple languages and are determined that English will become another.

The beginners are learning phrases and vocab themed around “meeting friends” and at the advanced table, tutor Susan is explaining second conditionals - used to talk about impossible or imagined situations.

Irene, who came from Spain “and fell in love with Scotland” claims it is generally very friendly and accepting of people from all over the world. But she is aware of worrying incidents creeping into view. “My friend was on the bus, she was talking to her mum in Spanish and the women sitting behind her told her she shouldn’t be speaking any language other than English.” Inês, originally from Angola but who came here as an EU citizen from Portugal, says as there are fewer black people in Scotland, she sees less evidence of racism. But she has been targeted – she recounts one recent incident in a lift when she was told to “take the stairs”, by way of example.

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All have questions about what these new rules might mean. Natasha, from Athens, is starting a Masters in Human Resources and Management this September when the UK is still governed by EU rules and will finish it when it is not. “I worry about what that means,” she says. “And if it will be valid when I go back to Greece.”

Glasgow ESOL Forum’s strategic manager Jo Jarvis says the organisation also has questions about what the requirement to speak English will mean for those already here. “Everyone we work with is keen to learn English, which can take years, to improve their lives and settle into Scotland,” she explains. “There are long waiting lists to access college in Glasgow and our charity offers people waiting the opportunity in the meantime. “

And she is worried too about what is not captured by these rules. “On a daily basis we see the contribution people from all over the world make to life in Scotland, including people who are still learning English” she says.

Under the hostile environment, the tightening of the rules for migrants coming from out with the EU has been ongoing for more than a decade. With the exception of those in the Schengen area, there has not been an “unskilled” migration route to the UK since 2008. So, while the points-based system tightens regulations yet further for everyone, the biggest change is to those from the EU.

Professor Tanja Bueltmann, campaigner and founder of the EU Citizens’ Champion campaign, who will be taking up a new post at Strathclyde University in coming months, says while the proposals feel shocking, in many ways they do not come as a surprise. “A lot of the things in here we’ve heard rumblings about before but it confirms we are on a trajectory here that is bad for a number of reasons,” she adds. “We now have in writing what we feared was coming.”

Professor Tanja Bueltmann

Bueltmann, a German who has been in the UK for 11 years, is sceptical that the claims that have anything to do with breaking Britain’s addiction to cheap labour. “My view is you might just shift who gets exploited,” she says, “shifting who is at the bottom of the pile rather than helping people to meet their potential, to gain skills.” She worries also that the expansion of the hostile environment makes Britain – including Scotland – less appealing to the types of “high skilled” professional that it claims it wants to attract.

“Migrants have agency too,” she adds. Why would a cancer researcher at the top of his or her field chose the UK, where EU-funding was not an option, when they could more easily go elsewhere?

Ellen Höfer, campaigner and director of EU Citizens for an Independent Scotland, does not hold back. “This move in policy shows the UK up for what it has become: morally and culturally devoid of diversity and sense,” she adds. “As a German I don’t say this lightly but to me there is no doubt that the current Westminster government and political and social climate in the UK is on a fast track to fascism.

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“I greatly worry for Scotland, too. In the absence of a constructive, engaging campaign and vision for an independent Scotland, playing a No to Yes waiting game that is entirely reliant on people turning their backs on the rise of UK fascism is a dangerous gamble.”

Back in Edinburgh, Satwat Rehman is thinking about how to enact her father’s legacy, about how not to give up hope. She believes these policies are relevant to everyone in Scotland, regardless of their background or politics.

“It is very difficult to know what to do to change the UK Government’s minds, but if we don’t try, we won’t be sending out that message of solidarity to those who feel more exposed,” she says. “And what we need to remember is that it’s much easier to implement these policies on minority communities and then slowly ease them into the mainstream. It’s why it is so important for all of us to challenge this.”