The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory says that the government does not collect the data that would be needed to work out how many Europeans have “failed to come forward” to apply for settled status by June 2021. In its report, Not Settled Yet?, the institute finds that the EU Settlement Scheme is effectively a “black box”, with researchers unable to measure take-up or the efficiency of the scheme.
Why does it matter?
The right of Europeans to live in the UK long term after Brexit is not automatic. Even those with permanent residence under EU law do not automatically qualify. Europeans of all ages must apply for settled or pre-settled status, but not everyone will apply for a variety of reasons.
EU citizens who do not acquire a formal immigration status under the scheme will be in the UK illegally (although the government says that the usual consequences of unlawful residence will not apply to Europeans).
There is a great deal of interest in how the Settlement Scheme is going.
- What percentage of European residents are applying?
- are EU citizens being given the right status: if they have five years or more residence are they getting full settled status or just pre-settled status?
- Is the scheme functioning smoothly?
The report concludes that the Home Office has published a lot of information about the Settlement Scheme but that “it is hard to use data to answer these questions”.
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