Strict immigration laws: British nurses in danger!

Strict immigration laws: British nurses in danger!

Vereinigtes Königreich - On June 8, 2025, the British Labor government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced far-reaching changes in immigration policy. As part of these new measures, the recruitment of foreign nurses will be discontinued in the future, a decision that is controversial and could have profound effects on the health industry in the United Kingdom. Nurses from countries such as the Philippines, India and Zimbabwe are of central importance for the British health system, but with the abolition of the Care worker visa, a step is taken to reduce net immigration.

Prime Minister Straers explains that the government wants to regain control of the limits with these measures. This is done against the background that the net immigration in 2023 reached a record high of around 860,000 people. The prime minister announced that stricter rules for work visa, family reunification and study visits are also to be expected. However, this rhetoric was described as a splitting by some critics, including Lord Alfred Dubs, and associated with the past of conservative politics, for example with the choice of words by Enoch Powell.

effects on the quality of care

The decision to no longer allow foreign nurses cause concern among many actors in the healthcare system. In the Victoria Care Center, both residents and the director expressed concerns about the possible negative effects on the quality of care. In view of the acute shortage of skilled workers, the concern that the quality of care might suffer is quite understandable. Surveys also show that only about a third of the Labor voters supports the tightening of the immigration rules, which challenges the internal cohesion within the party.

In Germany, on the other hand, the immigration of nurses, especially from non-EU countries, is regarded as an important strategy in the fight against the nursing emergency. The demographic change there leads to a significant increase in care needs, while at the same time the number of young people who want to get into nursing professions. In 2022 there were only 33 unemployed on 100 positions for registered nursing staff, and by 2035 the supply gap could grow to up to 500,000 specialists.

strategies for recruitment and challenges

In order to counter this, immigration and employment hurdles in Germany were reduced, for example by introducing the western balcony control and the "Triple Win" program, which involves nursing staff from countries with excess skilled workers. In 2022, around 23,000 nurses from these programs worked in Germany. Nevertheless, there are challenges for immigrant nurses who are often faced with discrimination, linguistic barriers and recognition of foreign degrees.

The integration of the immigrant nurses thus becomes an urgent task, both in terms of work culture and social acceptance. Historically grown power relationships and stereotypes can put a heavy burden on the work environment. There is a need to develop a wide range of strategies for support and sustainable integration in order not only to manage the challenges of care, but also to promote respectful and fair working atmosphere.

As early as 2022, around 43,000 employees from Western Balkans were active in care, which is an increase of almost 100% in the past five years. The IE number of immigrant nurses from other EU countries achieved 91,000, which clearly shows that the integration of foreign workers into health care is a challenging but necessary development in both the UK and Germany.

While Great Britain isolated by stricter immigration laws, other countries such as Germany rely on the integration and recruitment of nursing staff from abroad in order to meet the growing needs and to secure the quality of care in care.