Migrants will be forced to prove they are good citizens to remain permanently in Britain as part of tough tests introduced by the UK's new home secretary aimed at clamping down on migration.
In a move to the right to combat the growing popularity of the hardline Reform party, Shabana Mahmood called for foreigners intent on staying in Britain for the long-term to speak English to a high standard, do volunteer community work and have no criminal record.
In an address to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool she called for a raft of new tests if migrants want to qualify for the indefinite leave to remain status.
Migration wars
Labour is hoping that its new migration approach will create a clear divide with Reform, which has stated it will abolish the indefinite leave to remain policy.
While migrants can currently apply for the right to live and work in Britain forever after five years, Labour is planning to double this to 10 years.
Figures from the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory migration project estimate that there are more than four million people who have the status. Reform has promised to replace it with visas they have to apply for every five years.
Daughter of shopkeepers
Seen as a rising star in Labour, the former lawyer is willing to take a tough stance on issues that the left-wing of the party feel uneasy about. Ms Mahmood was quick to highlight in her speech at the Liverpool party conference her early years as a child of Pakistani immigrants in Birmingham.
“I am a rare home secretary, perhaps the only one whose first job was behind the till in my parents’ cornershop,” she said.
“I know there’s nothing 'low-level' about shoplifting. I know what it feels like to keep a cricket bat behind the counter, just in case.”
She argued that when society gets tough on crime “we bring communities together” as safety was a “precondition of the open, tolerant, generous country that we want to be”.
Ethno-nationalism
Ms Mahmood has also not been afraid to refer to her roots and her patriotism, telling Parliament earlier this month that “you can be English and look like me”.
She told the packed conference hall that she loved Britain as “an open, tolerant and generous place” but then warned that the far-right was hijacking patriotism to its own end, especially through the use of Union and St George’s flags seen at a recent mass protest in London.
Patriotism, she warned was turning into “ethno-nationalism”, which struggles to accept that “someone who looks like me, and has a faith like mine, can truly be English or British”.
The greatest worry, she said, was that many in the crowds on the London march were being unduly influenced and taken on a “a path from patriotism towards ethno-nationalism”.
Lost control
With the populist Nigel Farage’s Reform party soaring in the polls, Labour are increasingly anxious that they have to win the immigration debate to get back lost voters.
Ms Mahmood, the first female Muslim home secretary, argued that people felt the UK had “lost control” with small boat crossings currently totalling more than 50,000 a year, bringing in illegal workers, some with criminal records.
She vowed to “do whatever it takes to secure our borders” then hinted at strong action over them stating that “you will not always like what I do, but until there is control of borders we won’t be the tolerant country we believe in”.
“If we do not rise to this challenge our vision of an open, tolerant, generous country will wither,” she added. “Working class communities will turn away from us.”
She wanted to fight for a “a greater Britain, not a littler England” and concluded the speech stating that “let it never be forgotten that I will be a tough Labour home secretary”.
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Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
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LIVING IN...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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