Charities raise serious concerns about government’s earned settlement proposals

Charities and voluntary organisations are raising serious concerns about government proposals to link volunteering to asylum settlement.

The proposals form part of the government’s wider asylum and immigration reforms, which would allow volunteering to be used as a condition to obtain, or shorten the route to, settlement in the UK.

Drawing on engagement with 314 organisations, our findings show overwhelming concern across the voluntary sector. Respondents were in strong opposition to the proposed inclusion of volunteering to obtain or shorten the route to settlement for asylum seekers and refugees.

Of the 129 organisations that completed our survey:

97 oppose the proposals (75.2%)
22 are undecided (17.1%)
10 support them (7.8%).

While the government’s stated aim is to encourage integration, our members believe the proposals would have a number of serious risks including placing increased and unmanageable responsibility on charities, risking coercing vulnerable people into volunteering, and failure to address the real structural barriers to integration.

The key issues raised by charities and voluntary organisations about the proposals are:

they place unfunded administrative burdens on charities
they are operationally and financially unworkable, risking organisations removing volunteering opportunities more widely
the lack of clear definitions of volunteering creates significant safeguarding and legal risks
linking volunteering to settlement undermines the voluntary nature of volunteering
they increase risks of exploitation and coercion of asylum seekers and refugees
the proposals are unnecessary, as many refugees and asylum seekers already show interest in volunteering.