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As an arts professional committed to the principles of internationalism and cultural exchange I am both dismayed and disgusted by the new UK Home Office regulations that will further curb our invitations to non-EU artists to collaborate with, experience, or make work in, the UK. The Home Office's UK Border Agency has introduced a points-based system for employers and charitable organisations who wish invite non-EU migrants into the UK. Its website describes the new points-based system as "the biggest shake up of the immigration system for forty-five years". In order to invite a non-EU professional, British organisations will have to "sponsor a migrant".

To become a sponsor companies and charities will have to complete an online application on the UK Border Agency website. Various certified documents will have to be submitted, and there is a compulsory fee of £400 (payable to the Borders Agency) for small organisations and £1,000 for large organisations. Should you want to invite a skilled worker under Tier 2 of the system, this will set you back £170 for each certificate of sponsorship (required by the migrant) or £10 if s/he is a temporary worker.

Aside from the bureaucratic and financial hassle, the 130 page document reveals a massive degree of control on skilled and temporary migrant workers that polices and regulates their day-to-day activity. For example, all sponsors will be required to hold photocopies or electronic copies of passport and ID card details, recruitment practices would need to be submitted and the migrant must be qualified at the equivalent of S/NVQ level 3 or above. Such documents might be easy for, say, a US or Canadian artist to obtain, but if you're coming from Cameroon or Pakistan, I have a strong feeling that such documents will be beyond the costs for most artists, and difficult to obtain due to lack of the relevant technology. Adalet Garmiany, director of ArtRole, informed me that the Kurdish-Iraqi artists whom he intends to invite would have to travel 900 kilometres to Beirut in person to apply for such documents and may have to stay there for about three weeks to receive them.

All non-EU invited artists will have to apply for a visa in person and supply biometric data, electronic finger scans and a digital photograph. Tier 2 skilled workers would be required to hold a high qualification, have strong professional experience, the ability to speak fluent English (preferably studied in an English speaking country) and be in demand because of a shortage of local skills in the UK.

The past system was by no means a border free journey for artists, but usually a letter from the company inviting you, outlining why you've been invited, what you'll be doing and how much your subsistence or per diems will be, was sufficient for the invitee to get permission to enter on a tourist visa. Applying for a visa was by no means easy, but a number of different routes were available for artists. This was how international artists' residencies by organisations like Gasworks were organised.

Tier 5 temporary workers will need to show that they readily have access to a minimum of £800 of their own money and that they have no recourse to public funds. Does this apply to artist-in-residence or international fellowship schemes funded by Arts Council England? There is no clarity.

Whether one believes in immigration controls or not (I for one believe in complete freedom of movement across states and countries), the arts and creative community seem to agree that the new system is restrictive. The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) undertook a quick survey of its members in July 2008 receiving fifty-three responses from its membership of 325. A sixteen per cent response rate may not be quantifiably significant, but of those who responded seventy-six per cent had hosted artists from outside the EU in the last two years, and eighty-one per cent said the changes to the immigration regulations would affect their work citing increase costs, increased legal hurdles and increased administrative tasks as extra burdens. However, only two per cent stated that they would work with fewer non-EU artists in the future.

What is evident is the lack of a popular campaign against these draconian measures that are curbing the freedom of international creative and artistic flow into the UK. The NCA alerted the Home Office about the detrimental effects to the arts sector "which the proposed changes posed in terms of costs and procedures" and took part in a "sector specific task force to inform immigration policy". However, it did not mobilise a protest from its 900 strong membership to object to these hugely restrictive measures.

It seems obvious that the new points based system is designed to keep certain types of people out, while the UK is happy to export its expertise across the world, without the same level of humiliating procedures. Many small, unincorporated, autonomous arts projects will have a tough job of getting the necessary documents to invite non-EU overseas colleagues to the UK. Artists who want to collaborate, support each other and explore collective work will lose their flexibility and freedom to choose who they work with internationally. It also means that individuals will lose their autonomy unless it's regulated and validated by the likes of The British Council, Visiting Arts, The Design Council and other official bodies of representation.

So what action should artists and arts professionals take? As a member of the Manifesto Club, I'm trying to organise a petition to the Government to express a collective objection to this regulation. Secondly, more evidence and case studies need to be compiled, reported and communicated to a range of media to raise further public awareness and objection to these measures. If anyone is interested in discussing these tactics further, please contact me on the following email: govinda@manick.f2s.com

ArtRole
www.artrole.org/

Manifesto Club
www.manifestoclub.com/node/406

National Campaign for the Arts
www.artscampaign.org.uk/campaigns/nationalpolicy/Visas 2005 Overview.html

Gasworks
www.gasworks.org.uk/

Visiting Arts
www.visitingarts.org.uk/info_resources/red_tape/nca_briefingpaper.html

Home Office UK Borders Agency
www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/

Manick Govinda

Manick Govinda is Head of Artists Advisory Services at London-based Artsadmin, and a Board member of a-n. He researched and edited Future forecast: Curated space in November 2005 and directed the associated think tank. Formerly arts projects officer at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, his recent projects include the deciBel/Artsadmin Investment in Artists and Curators initiative with Arts Council England, the Artsadmin artists’ bursary scheme, talent scouting for NESTA’s Creative Pioneers Programme and developing an action-research project with Creative Partnerships London East.

First published: a-n Magazine February 2009