THE EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS OF BEING A MIGRANT IN BRITAIN
the UK labour market, which make them eligible if they are compliant with the relevant registration or authorisation scheme but, unlike other EEA workers, they stop being eligible if they stop working. In other respects, the rights of accession state nationals are the same as for other EEA nationals. Welsh eligibility regulations are different, and specifically enable accession state migrants to apply for housing waiting lists and homelessness assistance irrespective of employment, registration or authorisation. Scottish regulations were similar, but amendments to bring them into line with the English ones were brought forward in July 2008. To go on a waiting list for housing, an applicant simply has to be eligible. To get help as homeless, an applicant must also pass a series of other tests, principally that she or he is ‘in priority need’ because there is a child, pregnant woman, elderly, disabled or vulnerable person in their household. The eligibility rules state that an applicant will not be in priority need if the child or pregnant woman etc are not themselves eligible. This rule particularly affects families adversely where, for example, the woman has come from abroad to join her husband, is now pregnant, and the family need to get help when they become homeless, or where the children are of a different nationality to the father or mother. This creates a situation where a British national or settled person may be discriminated against because he has chosen to marry a foreign national, or because his children are not British or settled. In the case of (Morris) v Westminster City Council [2006] 1 WLR 505, this was found to be incompatible with European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Article 14 because it constituted discrimination on the grounds of nationality (Ms Morris was British and her daughter Mauritian, so Westminster City Council refused to offer her emergency help as homeless). Two years after the case, the Government has now proposed amendments to the Housing and Regeneration Bill to deal with this incompatibility (which had been the subject of repeated comment by the Joint Committee on Human Rights). The amendment, however, proposes to create a new class of semi-eligible 'restricted' people from the hitherto ineligible family members and to allow local councils to meet their duties to such people by getting them an offer of private rented accommodation. This would appear to continue to discriminate and so potentially may not resolve the incompatibility. It also applies only to those not subject to immigration control (that is, UK nationals, people with right of abode and EEA nationals with rights to reside) and so excludes many migrants. Another group affected by the restrictions on eligibility are those (almost always women) fleeing domestic violence who apply for indefinite leave under the ‘domestic 92