‘I was dying in silence’: How childcare becomes a daily battle for survival for migrant families

Every time her employer rang, Stella quickly picked up the phone, knowing she would take whatever shifts she was offered by the care agency – no matter the distance or time – to put food on the table for her family. Having no recourse to public funds (NRPF), a condition imposed on nearly all migrants without indefinite leave to remain, Stella was denied social security support of any kind, including free childcare.

But she couldn’t afford not to work. She’d heard that childcare prices were high and knew she couldn’t manage to pay the costs. Instead, she found unregistered babysitters to sit with her one-year-old daughter. 

Without free childcare, Stella said many people with NRPF are forced to leave their children with the cheapest option so they can work. 

“I never knew what was happening when she was with the person watching her,” she said, recalling how she’d leave her daughter with the babysitter so she could work. “It was very scary.”

Read more:

• No recourse to public funds traps families like mine in poverty. It’s time the government ended it
• Balancing childcare and work is driving up poverty – especially for children with additional needs
• ‘Destitution by design’: UK’s ‘hostile environment’ has left thousands destitute and homeless

Stella noticed how socially far behind her daughter was compared to other children in nursery. 

“She couldn’t mix with others,” she said. 

If she’d had free childcare hours – if her immigration status wasn’t linked to her child’s access to a registered childminder – Stella’s anxiety would have been significantly less. 

But instead, her worries were endless, a constant stress. 

“I was exhausted,” she said, describing how she felt trying to work while worrying about her daughter. “I was depressed, and the stress was too much.”

Tens of thousands of children in migrant and refugee families in the UK are denied childcare due to their parents’ immigration status, which is stunting their development, keeping their parents out of work, and pushing families into poverty, a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Praxis found. 

“There’s a confusing variety of entitlements available to parents in the UK, with different eligibility criteria according to how old children are, whether parents are working or in receipt of benefits, and parents’ immigration status,” Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, head of advocacy at charity Praxis, told Big Issue.

“Families affected by no recourse to public funds have unequal access to these entitlements. In short, if parents have NRPF, children are unable to benefit from most existing childcare entitlements.”

Around four million people in the UK are affected by NRPF, including approximately 148,000 families with children aged one to four. Among them, 71,000 families – where both parents work or, in single-parent households the parent is employed – could qualify for 30 hours of free childcare per week if they meet the income threshold, were it not for NRPF restrictions. 

There are two main impacts, according to Whitaker-Yilmaz, of not offering free childcare to NRPF families. 

“Parents can’t work, or can’t work as much as they want to, and children start school less ready than their peers, which bakes in disadvantage,” she said. “We need to remember that these early barriers risk having long-term impacts on the future opportunities and wellbeing of these children, as well as broader impacts on UK society.”

The report from the IPPR and Praxis found that only 55% of NRPF families use some form of childcare, compared to 72% of the general population.Those who do pay for childcare often struggle to make ends meet because of its high cost. 

More than a third (36%) of those that do use childcare resort to unofficial or free child minders, such as friends and relatives – which lacks the early education provision provided by professionals that is so important for learning and development. 

“No child should be denied the chance to learn and thrive because of their parents’ immigration status,” Dr Lucy Mort, senior research fellow at IPPR, told Big Issue.

“Restricting access to childcare forces parents out of work, pushes families deeper into poverty and holds children back from vital early education. Lifting these unfair barriers would not only support working parents but also give every child the best start in life.” 

I was dying in silence, and didn’t know where to get help

When Stella and her partner separated, she had a baby and a toddler, and was petrified of accessing help because of fear of the police and immigration enforcement. 

“I was dying in silence, and didn’t know where to get help,” she said. “I was trying to hide, but I couldn’t hide any more – I didn’t have any other option.”

She was referred to Praxis, a charity supporting migrants and refugees, who helped her remove her NRPF through a ‘change of conditions’ application – something only successful if a person is destitute, at risk of destitution, or there is a compelling reason related to a child’s welfare.

Now Stella is eligible for 15 hours of free childcare for her youngest son, age three 

“I use that time to rest or work,” she said. “It also gives me time to plan for the type of job I want to do.”

Always in survival mode, she was never able to plan for the future or work towards her career ambitions. 

“I want to be a nurse,” she said. “If you don’t have time to rest, you can’t plan for the next thing.”

Shams, 33, came from Bangladesh on a student visa in 2022 to study for his master’s degree, later obtaining a skilled worker visa, and his wife is in the UK as his dependent. Both were, and still are, classed at NRPF. 

When they became first-time parents to Marie* in March 2023, they quickly discovered that the opportunities their British-born daughter had were not equal to her peers, due to her parents’ immigration status. 

“Children should have equal rights no matter where they are from,” he said. “But because we are NRPF, she doesn’t have the same access to learning.”

Whereas most children their daughter’s age would have access to free childcare, Marie is taken care of solely by her parents. They can’t afford childcare fees, don’t have a family support network to step up, and aren’t eligible for any free hours of childcare.

“These early years are so important,” he said. “Marie doesn’t have the same social skills as other children. I’m worried how [not being in a nursery] will impact her as she grows up.”

Their child being treated differently from others isn’t new. 

“People get money for milk for their babies, and we did try for it – we applied twice – but we didn’t get it,” he said.

Shams’ wife can only work part-time to care for Marie, making their financial commitments a challenge. 

“Then there is the added pressure of visa fees,” he said. “We just had to pay £20,000 on fees a few months ago.”

The family of three live in a one-bedroom apartment, saving any surplus money for future visa fees. 

The couple are exhausted. Shams works during the day, while his wife works weekends and evenings. 

“We are on some kind of duty 365 days a year, 24 hours and seven days a week,” he said. “If we had access to public funds, Marie could have gone to nursery and we could work more hours.”

If restrictions were lifted, giving migrant parents with NRPF the same access to free childcare as other families in the UK, Whitaker-Yilmaz says more parents could get back into work and more children would be given a fair start in life. 

“The evidence is clear that access to good-quality early-years education and childcare is key to closing the disadvantage gap between children from more and less well-off families,” she said.

“Giving tens of thousands of children unequal access to childcare simply on the basis of where their parents were born means that disadvantages are locked in from an early age. When you take into account the fact that children in families affected by NRPF are at an elevated risk of poverty, this becomes even more concerning.”

She worries about the result if nothing is done. 

“Existing inequalities will become further entrenched, especially as more childcare is made available to British families.”

As hard as being a migrant is right now for Shams and his wife, he feels they, as adults, can handle it. 

“The issue is that the state treats children like this,” he said. “There should be a safety net for children, rather than this unequal system. The UK government says every child is equal, but every child is not. They’re setting children up for failure.”

* Names have been changed

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