Mental Health Awareness Week 2023

Mental health is affected by a variety of factors including work, money and health.

There is clear evidence that the UK’s immigration policies including the lengthy, complex and expensive routes to permanent settlement and the Minimum Income Requirement for British/settled citizens to be reunited with their loved ones have a hugely detrimental impact on the mental health of people caught up in the system.

Once people enter the UK, they form permanent relationships and communities, and put down roots. The UK’s current immigration system does not take this into account. Instead, it creates precarity and suffering, and can cause people to become undocumented. Too many visas come with no pathway to settlement or renewal, and others include a long and expensive 10-year path to settlement.

That is why I pledge to support policies that help alleviate the mental health crisis affecting tens of thousands of people and their communities as a result of the #HostileRoutes and policies introduced in the last decade.

If we want to build thriving communities, everyone must be given the opportunity to thrive, regardless of what papers they hold.

To achieve this, this government can and must introduce policies that alleviate the mental health impacts of its immigration system.