Migrants aren’t responsible for the problems in the NHS.
‘Out of control’ migration is often blamed for many social ills, especially ‘over-stretched, overwhelmed’ public services. Many myths abound such as queue-jumping asylum seekers making it impossible to see a GP or receive emergency care. However, the NHS is the perfect example of why migrants are essential to enriching our society. The truth is we must defend and celebrate all migrants including those working in our NHS, because without them it could fail completely.
The kind of language that was once confined to the dog-whistle politics of the Tory backbenches – blaming migrants for everything – has now gone totally mainstream. Despite his subsequent ‘regret’ about his choice of words, Starmer’s echoing of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech, stating we risk becoming an ‘island of strangers’, speaks to a very deliberate change in tone adopted by the Labour Party. Right wing populism is now a defining feature of Starmer’s leadership style. Starmer proudly boasts, ‘“I am the leader of the Labour Party who put the Union Jack on our Labour Party membership cards. I always sit in front of the Union Jack.” But if all this bluster is an attempt to win popularity with the electorate, it’s categorically not working. Instead, Reform UK, is outstripping both Labour and the Conservatives in the polls.
Nonetheless, Starmer’s Labour Party is proposing drastic new measures to double down on the hostile-environment and impose harsh new limits on migrants both coming into and for those already living in, the UK.
The White Paper, Restoring Control over the Immigration System (May 2025), proposes visa caps with the aim of reducing migration, raising qualification thresholds for skilled workers, ending or restricting overseas recruitment for some care roles, and increasing the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (IRL). In addition, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill aims to strengthen border controls, granting enhanced detention and removal powers. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has proposed that all foreign nationals in the UK who receive a criminal conviction should be deported, and Reform UK’s Nigel Farage is proposing scrapping ILR altogether. Applicants for residency would face higher salary thresholds, advanced English-language requirements, and no access to benefits or social housing. Farage claims that around 800,000 migrants will soon qualify for ILR and says, many of these “don’t work, have never worked, and will never work”. He also claims that this policy could save £230 billion. While these figures are unsupported and dubious in the extreme, the implication is of course, that less immigration means less pressure on infrastructure including the NHS.
However, we can and must make the case that the opposite is true.
It is not true that immigrants are the root cause of the NHS’s problems. Evidence shows that NHS pressures stem from years of constrained government funding and rising demand from an aging population, leaving the service short of staff, capacity, and investment.
By contrast, the NHS depends on migrant staff to function, with around one in five NHS workers being non-UK nationals, including a third of doctors and a quarter of nurses. Without them, staff shortages — already more than 110,000 posts — would be far worse. Migrants are not an optional add-on — they are essential. Without them, hospitals would face immediate service cuts.
Neither can the NHS replace migrant workers with UK-trained staff in the short or medium term. Removing them would immediately worsen care. Domestic training takes years (10–15 years for a consultant doctor, 3+ years for nurses). Even with expanded training places (which the Government is refusing to fund properly), the pipeline cannot deliver staff quickly enough.
Evidence also shows undocumented migrants use fewer services than average, avoiding care due to fear of costs and deportation. The Home Office estimated “health tourism” at just 0.3% of the NHS budget — negligible compared with the total spend.
The impact of migrant scapegoating has been dire. Racist abuse and attacks against NHS workers are on the rise and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) reported a sharp increase in calls to its racial-abuse advice line between 2022 and 2025.
The RCN has also argued that the NHS could cease to exist under the new visa rules. This is the kind of push back we need to see, but it is beholden to all of us to turn the tide on the current mainstream narrative about migrants. That’s why Keep Our NHS Public (KONP), an organisation which has fought tirelessly for our NHS for the last 20 years, is speaking out too.
KONP has called an important public rally, NHS IN CRISIS: Migrants Not To Blame, from 6:30pm, Thursday 20th November at St Anne’s Church in Soho, 55 Dean Street, London, W1D 6AF.
Our line-up includes: Zarah Sultana – Your Party MP, Zack Polanski – Green Party leader, Dr Andrew Meyerson – NHS A&E Doctor, Obi Amadi – Unite the Union health sector equalities lead, Adekunle Akinola – UNISON mental health nurse and Overseas Nurses Network, Margaret Mash – care worker, Pan African Workers Association, Ed Harlow – NEU Vice President, Dr Tony O’Sullivan – KONP co-chair, and a striking worker from United Voices of the World.
This must be the beginning of a wider campaign to celebrate the contribution migrants make to the UK and end the racist misinformation and lies pushed by Farage and the current Labour leadership.
More information and registration details can be found here.
Tom Griffiths is head of campaigns at Keep Our NHS Public
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