This rings very true to me as I think I am what you might call a serial migrant. I've migrated 8 times - twice to Hong Kong, twice to the UK - the first time as a dependent (I don't think that term was used at the time - I was accompanying my wife who had ancestry status) and the second as a European citizen after I had gained that status . (We might add a third when I gained my EUSS). Three times to European countries. Each time I made exactly the calculation you describe and so far all promises have been honoured. If they had not been, it would certainly have been a betrayal. This is particularly because, unlike in a true contract situation, there is no remedy for a change of legal status inconsistent with the original agreement.
I would certainly not have migrated in circumstances where I could not bring my family. But I was never desperate so I had a choice.
The current UK policy which looks as though it may retrospectively, effectively through the financial sanction of making renewal of leave to remain impossible or unlikely, mean that people cannot stay or at least stay legally is something I never considered in making my decisions. If it happened to me, I would certainly be bitter!
There is already a huge number of legal immigrants who have found that when it came time to renew, they could not afford it. Now we will have a category who would have expected re-employment on something close to their original terms, will lose their jobs because employers cannot or will not pay. There is huge abuse in the employment system already - agents or employers taking money for finding or giving the job, so many will still be in debt at the time they come to renew. If they cannot get a new job they will return to their countries still owing money and having very little to show for it.
This rings very true to me as I think I am what you might call a serial migrant. I've migrated 8 times - twice to Hong Kong, twice to the UK - the first time as a dependent (I don't think that term was used at the time - I was accompanying my wife who had ancestry status) and the second as a European citizen after I had gained that status . (We might add a third when I gained my EUSS). Three times to European countries. Each time I made exactly the calculation you describe and so far all promises have been honoured. If they had not been, it would certainly have been a betrayal. This is particularly because, unlike in a true contract situation, there is no remedy for a change of legal status inconsistent with the original agreement.
I would certainly not have migrated in circumstances where I could not bring my family. But I was never desperate so I had a choice.
The current UK policy which looks as though it may retrospectively, effectively through the financial sanction of making renewal of leave to remain impossible or unlikely, mean that people cannot stay or at least stay legally is something I never considered in making my decisions. If it happened to me, I would certainly be bitter!
There is already a huge number of legal immigrants who have found that when it came time to renew, they could not afford it. Now we will have a category who would have expected re-employment on something close to their original terms, will lose their jobs because employers cannot or will not pay. There is huge abuse in the employment system already - agents or employers taking money for finding or giving the job, so many will still be in debt at the time they come to renew. If they cannot get a new job they will return to their countries still owing money and having very little to show for it.