REFNATION
ImmigrationEnded 4 Jul

Should integration tests be required before granting indefinite leave to remain to UK immigrants?

Yes 64%No 36%64 votes cast

The government has extended the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain from five to fifteen years for many lower-paid migrants, including care workers, with the changes applying retrospectively. Settlement now requires demonstrating contribution and integration over a longer timeframe. Current rules already include English language requirements and knowledge of life in the UK tests for most applicants.

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Yes won this one comfortably, 41 votes to 23, a 28-point margin that puts it well clear of a knife-edge result. But the topline hides a chamber that was far from united once you break it down by who actually showed up to vote.

The sharpest split was generational. Voters aged 55-64 backed integration tests almost to a person, 9 of 10, while the 16-24s split exactly down the middle, 4 apiece. The 25-34 bracket, the platform's largest with 29 votes, landed close to the overall average at 59%, suggesting the older-cohort conviction was doing real work to pull the topline up rather than a uniform mood across ages.

There was also a modest gender gulf worth flagging: men backed the measure 63% to 37%, while women were essentially split, tilting narrowly against it at 47% yes. That pattern echoes a broader trend on immigration-enforcement questions on this platform, where stricter conditionality measures tend to poll better with men and older voters than with the young or with women — a fault line that maps loosely onto the wider post-2016 divide between voters who favour tougher, longer-qualifying settlement rules and those more sceptical of retrospective tightening.

A result built on a strong pensioner-and-fifties bloc, not a national consensus.

LeftCentreRight
64%
Yes · 41 votes
36%
No · 23 votes
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