On Monday, Sajid Javid, Britain’s new Home Secretary and the first person of South Asian origin to hold that position, stood up in Parliament to recount the experiences of his own family who moved to Britain from Pakistan in the 1960s. He had been “greatly” impacted by revelations around the experiences of those who have come to be known as the Windrush generation: migrants from the Caribbean Commonwealth who had come to the U.K. at a time when they had the right to remain indefinitely in Britain, but had had their rights questioned under a toughened immigration regime.
Why is it important?
The changes are likely to have impacted nationals from across the Commonwealth who arrived in Britain before 1973. “When I heard that people who were long-standing pillars of their communities were being impacted for simply not having the right documents to prove their legal status in the U.K., I thought that that could be my mum, my brother, my uncle or even me,” he told the Commons as he sought to staunch a crisis engulfing the government with a commitment to a “fair and humane” immigration policy. Just the day before Mr. Javid had spoken of these thoughts in an interview to The Daily Telegraph , making his appointment as Home Minister, following the resignation of Amber Rudd, all but inevitable. Much has been made of Mr. Javid’s ascent from relative poverty to become the first non-white person to hold one of the so-called four Great Offices of State in Britain, traditionally considered the most powerful and prestigious governmental roles.
What is his background?
The 48-year-old Javid’s story fits with the vision of upward mobility that has long held appeal in the Conservative Party — not least through former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who also rose from relatively humble origins. According to various interviews given by Mr. Javid, his father arrived in the U.K. from Pakistan with £1 in his pocket, working an array of jobs, including in a cotton mill and as bus driver. Born in the U.K., Mr. Javid was the first in his family to go to university. He moved into finance, rising to a senior role at Chase Manhattan and then Deutsche Bank where he became a senior managing director. His move into politics — and government, where he began with a ministerial role in the Treasury in 2011 — was touted as a coup for the government, as it attempted to entice professional, no-nonsense voices into its ranks. His career within it has, however, been marked by peaks and troughs — the latter including a failure to meet a pledge to re-home survivors of the Grenfell Tower tragedy within a year.
Will he bring in a new policy?
In the aftermath of the Windrush revelations, the government has attempted to separate the issue from the “hostile environment” it hopes to create for illegal immigration. Mr. Javid appeared to keep on script, insisting that he wanted a system that “welcomes and celebrates people who are here legally” while at the same time clamping down “decisively on illegal immigration.”
While he has had the odd moment of public candour, when he lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-tweet of a posting by Islamophoblic group Britain First, referencing his own Muslim background, Mr. Javid’s voting record in Parliament on immigration-related issues has firmly stuck with the party line. His record on other issues suggests he is adept at thriving in the political environment he finds himself in. While in the run-up to Brexit, he spoke up for the Remain campaign, but he has since toed the government line, stressing the need to follow the “will” of the people. This week, he is said to have joined the ranks of those opposing the Prime Minister’s plans for a customs partnership with the EU. With more and more revelations pointing to flaws in Britain’s immigration policy — from its treatment of doctors to accusations that it wrongly deported thousands of students — emerging by the day, whether Mr. Javid’s lofty pledges of change amount to anything more than rhetoric will become apparent pretty quickly.
