Chloë Reddaway explains the NCAs concerns about new rules on entry visas to the UK, and the impact they will have on the arts sector.
In 2005, the Home Office announced the development of a Points Based System (PBS) of immigration to simplify and strengthen current rules, reducing more than eighty entry routes to five broad tiers and increasing visa requirements. The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) raised concerns about administrative, practical and financial problems which PBS poses for the arts sector and became a founder member of a Home Office task force to address these.
Currently, artists may enter the UK through various of routes, including an entertainers concession for which work permits are not required, valid for a maximum of six months, for which only visa nationals require a visa. Under PBS, work permits will be abolished, but entrants will require a certificate of sponsorship from a registered sponsor. Anyone from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) will require entry clearance. Visa applications will involve biometric data and will initially have to be made in person.
Concerns about PBS include the cost of registering as a sponsor and issuing certificates; the time, travel and cost involved in making visa applications, particularly for artists on tour and/or in remote areas; and the turnaround time of applications for a sector in which artists are often booked at short notice for short engagements. An even bigger problem is the fact that, under PBS, many artists will need visas who do not currently need them. This is not only an administrative issue, it has significant financial consequences, as has already been demonstrated following the sudden increases in fees announced in March, with effect from April. Work permit visas rose from £85 to £200 and work permits from £153 to £190. Visa fees are expected to return a profit to the Home Office of £100m over the next four years but, despite strong representation, the arts sector was not afforded the price protection given to students and tourists. These increases are already affecting budgets and jeopardising programming, but matters will be far worse under PBS when all non-EEA artists will require entry clearance.
The Tropicalia Brazilian festival held at the Barbican in 2006, involving 100 Brazilian artists from 16 bands, had permit-free status and no visa costs as Brazilians do not currently require visas. Under PBS, the visas alone would cost £20,000. A concert currently on sale, presenting the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and Academy of Choral Arts from Russia, and a government supported festival of Chinese culture planned for 2008, have both suffered increased costs which could result in cancellations. Unicorn Theatre for Children will have to revise its budget for a festival involving 180 visiting artists by £36,000.
Only recently, the Commons and Lords acknowledged the growing importance of the arts in cultural diplomacy. Visiting artists are an integral part of the sector, inspiring UK artists and expanding the artistic experience and cultural knowledge of audiences. Mobility within the sector is a means of career progression for UK artists as well as visitors, and the diversity thereby created feeds artistic practice and draws varied audiences.
The sector operates on tight budgets and is financially vulnerable: it cannot be expected to absorb sudden and dramatic increases in baseline costs. Most visiting artists are not well paid and many come for short periods. For some, the cost of visiting the UK will now outweigh earnings. The new fees and their extended impact under PBS are likely to deter organisations from receiving visiting artists and cause artists to reject the UK, taking their art and their business elsewhere.
The arts should not be penalised for the increased costs of managing migration and the Home Office should not profit from them. In Australia, where PBS has been adopted, it is recognised that artists do not fit into this system and they are handled in a similar manner to the UKs current system. The NCA is campaigning to ensure that the arts, whose value our Government has publicly acknowledged, are not damaged by visa policy or pricing.
Chloë Reddaway is Campaigns Manager, National Campaign for the Arts.
t: 020 7287 3777;
e: creddaway@artscampaign.org.uk;
w: http://www.artscampaign.org.uk