Home Office Curbs Non-EU Artists

First published in the Feb 09 issue of a-n Magazine:
www.a-n.co.uk/publications
An earlier version also published in the Feb 09 issue of Blueprint Magazine

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 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 45 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 on-line application on the UK Border Agency website. Various certified documents will have to be submitted, and there is the compulsory fee to pay the Borders Agency of £400 for small organisations and £1000 for large. 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 3 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 53 responses from its membership of 325. A 16% response rate may not be quantifiably significant, but of those who responded 76% had hosted artists from outside the EU in the last 2 years, and 81% 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 2% 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’s 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 600 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 whose they work with internationally. It also means that individuals will lose their autonomy unless its 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 needs to be compiled, reported and communicated to a range of media to raise further public awareness and objection to these draconian measures. If anyone is interested in discussing these tactics further, please contact me on the following email: govinda@manick.f2s.com.

Manick Govinda is Head of Artists’ Advisory Services and Artist Producer at Artsadmin. He is a member of London Mayor’s Cultural Strategy Group and is a non-executive director and commissioning editor for a-n: The Artists Information Company.

Refs:

ArtRole: http://www.artrole.org/
Manifesto Club: http://www.manifestoclub.com/node/406
National Campaign for the Arts: http://www.artscampaign.org.uk/campaigns/nationalpolicy/Visas%202005%20O...
Gasworks: http://www.gasworks.org.uk/
Visiting Arts: http://www.visitingarts.org.uk/info_resources/red_tape/nca_briefingpaper...
Home Office UK Borders Agency: http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/

Hi all - the new rules have kicked in and are being applied with gusto.

The recent news is that Russian artist /activist Dmitry Vilensky (http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/ / http://www.chtodelat.org/)has been refused a visa for a weekend visit to the UK to deliver a seminar.

Dmitry's visa application was rejected on the grounds that he is not allowed to earn money (i.e., the seminar fee) whilst he is here. Incredibly, a further appeal, with the proviso that he was not to be paid, was also rejected.

This means that ANY ARTIST not from an EU country cannot make even an unpaid artistic visit to the UK in any professional capacity.

I also feel that this is potentially even racist because countries that the UK does not demand visas for will most likely be able to slip through the system, for instance Canadian or US artists - though to be frank I dont even know if that will be true! Yet of course artists from countries on the visa list (e.g. China, India, Egypt, Brazil etc) will have no hope of any artisitic visit except at the behest of a large well funded invitee.

This system institutionalises art to an unacceptable degree.

"nothing can release life from its obligation to be absolutely passionate"
(Lettrist International)

Having made further investigations into this hugely restrictive regulation against inviting non EU artists to visit the UK to research, experience or make art, I am of the opinion that it will deter many small arts and creative organisations from registering as a sponsor. Firstly the initial cost to register is £400, then there are the impositions that you will put upon your guest, such as taking his/her passport details and/or ID card details, and taking responsibility for his/her behaviour, movement patterns, work programme etc. It is a system intended to keep certain types of people out of the UK. Many artist led, unincorporated, autonomous initiatives will have a tough job of getting the necessary documents to officially invite an artist over.

What this means is a loss of artistic autonomy. Visiting Arts, a UK agency recognised by Arts Council England and The British Council will apparently act as a bone fide sponsoring organisation through which small organisations can affiliate with to invite non-EU artists over. However, this smacks of Visiting Arts acting as a regulatory body, picking and choosing which organisations to work with.

I know of small artists groups who work independently of the officialdom of Visiting Arts and The British Council who bring artists over because they want to collaborate, support each other and explore the collective act of thinking, doing, talking about and making art. Will this still be possible or have we now lost our freedom to choose who we want to invite, unless we validate or regulate our artistic relationships through bureaucratic institutions?