The National Indian Students Union UK has launched an election campaign #myvotematters, encouraging young people of Commonwealth origin to vote in the upcoming UK parliamentary elections. The campaign has been divided into two parts. The former has been centred on the registration to vote, particularly for the international student community belonging to the commonwealth.
“Most commonwealth students do not realise that they have the legal right to vote in the UK parliamentary elections. Many of our members and the wider community we represent belong to this section and given the recent negative immigration policies it is more important than ever before for these students to come out and vote. Stage one of our campaign has therefore been centred on awareness of voting rights and the process of voter registration”, commented Sanam Arora, President, National Indian Students Union UK.
In the latter part of the campaign emphasis is around empowering youngsters with the right information to enable them to make the most suitable choices. To this end the union has launched an ‘International Students Manifesto’ which is in line with the key recommendations proposed by the UK Council of International Student Affairs (UKCISA). The six manifesto asks of National Indian Students Union UK are listed below. “Our aim is to empower people with the right knowledge that helps them make the best choice on May the 7th. It is sad that neither the Tories nor Labour have thus far come out explicitly and said anything about international students in particular; one of the biggest topic of concern to us. Such sadly has been the terror of UKIP. There is no clear answer for majority of our members and there is still time for either of Ed Miliband or David Cameron to come out in favour of international students’, Sanam remarked.
- The whole of government needs to recognize and celebrate the financial, cultural and intellectual value of international students to the UK
- All students at graduate or postgraduate level should be entitled to a period of post study work in the UK
- No student who has not been found to be at fault should have their visa curtailed merely because their sponsor has lost their licence
- All students should have access to some form of student protection scheme and independent arbitration when disputes cannot be resolved internally
- International students should be excluded from all further policy and debate on reducing net migration
- Further measures being introduced by the Immigration Act need to be carefully reviewed and urgently withdrawn if found to be counter-productive
