Illegal migrants

[Vinculin]

I am a lecturer. I have found out today I must report students of mine who are illegally in the UK (enemy aliens for want of a better word). How do fellow academics, doctors, nurses, social workers (who I believe are all in the same boat, being supposed to report) deal with this? Do I truly have to breach trust?

@Vinculin
Overseas fees means that your institution is the sponsor for this student's Tier 4 visa, and as such, has full visibility and control over what their immigration status is - for example, can check or cancel it at any time.
They cannot overstay this visa, as it is linked to the course of their study. As long as they are attending and paying their fees, your institution continues to sponsor them.
If I can guess what might have happened - was it that you were asked to testify about this student's attendance of your lectures, as they were found to be working / running business / residing outside the UK, i.e. not complying with the student visa restrictions, and the Home Office curtailed their visa? This is indeed quite common, and it is pretty much the only way how a lecturer can be directly involved in a student's immigration affairs.

I resent exactly that. A student outstayed their visa, or never had one. Paid their fees, and studied. Has been one of the class of 2019. When did it become a law that I am responsible for even knowing, let alone reporting, their immigration status? Yet there it is, I am. Along with me are other academics, nurses, doctors, social workers and the like.
Nurses and doctors have no right (and probably no inclination) to request proof of immigration status. NHS has admin staff for that.

Employers have had to check the right to work for years, I'm not surprised that the University has to do the same for students as they do for employees.

Would it be down to you - are you the postgrad admissions contact or would it be down to student services to check the student's status?

off please.

I actually have a conundrum here I'd like to hear opinions about. It surprised me, and I do not know what to do. Go and post on some daft MIL or parking thread to look clever.

Which bit of “your union should be supporting you” is unhelpful or frivolous?

Your union SHOULD be supporting you, they should have a policy to push back against their members being used as immigration officers.

The whole matter should be thrown back on management and admin staff.

It is not down to me to check, but now it has become known, it appears up to me to enforce. I resent that. I am in favour of open borders, but that is neither here nor there. What surprises me is that I am supposed to police this.

I don't think the OP is saying the university shouldn't have to check, just that it shouldn't be something she as a lecturer has to facilitate. In the same way that the HR department of a business will need to get proof of someone's right to work in the UK, and that's normal and reasonable, but the admin team manager and the accountant shouldn't suddenly be expected to be involved too.

Nurses and doctors have no right (and probably no inclination) to request proof of immigration status. NHS has admin staff for that.
^
Exactly that.
Unless one of your students confides in you, which may pose an ethical dilemma, this situation is not going to arise for you.

Which is what she needs union support for @WellButterMyArse buy she seems to think that only a students union would have a position on lecturers’ duties 🤷🏽‍♀️

This situation has arisen for me, @usernom123123, and not at the student's instigation. Nor mine I hasten to add.

i don't understand how they have got this far 'illegally'

I don't believe this thread ! It's not possible to study and be an illegal immigrant , it's possible to enter the country and not study on a student visa but that completely different to what is being asked .

I did not talk about the students union at all, @TottieandMarchpane. I have no idea what their position is.

What you said OP, to the suggestion you ask your union for help, was;

My union is entirely British centred, and it is a union for university lecturers, not students, so it does not have an opinion on students beyond soundbites.

Yes, and that i not a students union as I clearly am not the student in question.

This, for example, is a report on the UCU’s Satan was on exactly this issue (few years old);

www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/may/25/lecturers-foreign-students

Yes, and that i not a students union as I clearly am not the student in question.

I know you’re not.

You’re the lecturer in question.

One of the lecturers being asked to help with immigration enforcement, which is not part of your job role.

As an academic and HCP ( 20years+) this has never come up for me. I concentrate on teaching and refer any admin-type things to the correct Univ dept. Not for me to get involved in.

(Stance, not Satan.)

Welcome to Theresa May's 'hostile environment':

www.studyinternational.com/news/uk-now-hostile-environment-international-students/

www.freemovement.org.uk/briefing-what-is-the-hostile-environment-where-does-it-come-from-who-does-it-affect/

'Hostile environment' is a phrase that crops up in the definition of harassment in the equality act. It is unlawful harassment to create a hostile environment for someone based on a protected characteristic.
Luckily, while race is a protected characteristic, immigration status is not. It is pure coincidence that the vast majority of people affected are black or brown and/or have foreign sounding names. Anyway, Sajid Javid has renamed it the 'compliant environment' so it's all OK now and the Windrush scandal was just a silly misunderstanding.

It's worth challenging if you can but don't do so on your own. Find out who else is fighting it in your institution/field/union/academia generally and add your voice if you can. If not you can maybe just quietly fail to comply.

Schools have successfully said fuck off to being unpaid border guards:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/09/dfe-set-to-axe-pupil-data-sharing-deal-with-home-office

NHS and GPs are making increasingly loud fuck off noises:

www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/how-nhs-staff-are-fighting-back-against-the-hostile-environment/

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/gp-topics/legal/gpc-instructed-to-support-gps-who-breach-contract-on-immigration-registration/20038420.article

The high court has ruled that 'right to rent' breaches human rights law:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47415383

@TottieandMarchpane
I came to the UK as an overseas student roughly around that time and remember this discussion. I found it funny that a requirement for international students to apply for a biometric id card from the Home Office and then register it with the university turned out to be so controversial (the alternative is, of course, for the admission department to become experts in passports and identity documents from every country around the world). I don't see the requirement for the lecturers to monitor attendance as unduly harsh either.

@Puzzledbyart personally I think to bypass all these problems we should copy the Swedish system. Everyone gets a “person number”, native or newcomer. You use it for everything (healthcare, banking, work etc). Professionals get to do their jobs without being asked to police this stuff. I lived there for a while and didn’t feel stigmatised by it at all.

When I worked at a university, the tier 4 students had to scan their ID cards to register every week at a checkpoint type thingy and the same card got them in and out of buildings / accommodation.
I'm not sure how if that's how they would be able to Id them but if I were you OP, I wouldn't ask the question and let them advise you.

I also worked in recruitment agency reception but that was very strict with compliance and very obvious if someone was illegal. Even then I would just refuse to register them rather than report them.

@TottieandMarchpane
It sounds totally sensible, but there seems to be almost a religious aversion in the UK to any form of a single id - I am, by the way, very intrigued as to why. Every country I lived in also followed a similar system, your "NI number" is the key to healthcare, tax, residence permits etc.

What is the issue? If someone studies here they should be in compliance. It's exactly this attitude that results in institutions ability to process overseas students applications. It's not about grassing it's just applying the rules equally.