Student's View

From November this year all foreign students from outside the EU will have to carry identity cards holding biometric data including retina scans and fingerprints. This signals the first phase of the government’s fully-fledged ID-card scheme and as a result, has had tongues wagging across campus. However, are we one step closer to achieving a civic dream or are the government just taking liberties? Well, staying clear of any Orwellian metaphors; this legislation is damaging – both to the university and society in general.

From November this year all foreign students from outside the EU will have to carry identity cards holding biometric data including retina scans and fingerprints. This signals the first phase of the government’s fully-fledged ID-card scheme and as a result, has had tongues wagging across campus. However, are we one step closer to achieving a civic dream or are the government just taking liberties? Well, staying clear of any Orwellian metaphors; this legislation is damaging – both to the university and society in general.

When announcing the proposal last week, a statement on the UK border agency website stated that: “this will help keep our borders strong and will provide additional protection against illegal immigration and illegal employment.” In short, Identity cards are being issued to foreign students because they have been labelled as ‘risk’ categories - those people who are most likely to ‘abuse immigration laws’.

These are strong sentiments which have more than an undertone of xenophobic bias.  Foreign undergraduates at our university already pay over five times the amount in fees that a home-grown student pays and face extra bureaucracy applying for an expensive student visa. Moreover, if new proposals are implemented, lecturers will have to inform the foreign office if an international student fails to turn up to two or more tutorials. Our foreign students already face a raw deal and ID cards will strip them further of their civil liberties.  Furthermore, the technology infrastructure needed to produce the UK’s national identity card scheme is both high-risk and intrusive and it’s unacceptable for the government to use foreigners as guinea-pigs to test-run UK law.  With sensitive data loss hitting the headlines on a regular basis, it’s not inconceivable that thousands of identities could be leaked or stolen. The government is going through a crisis-period and the idea is that ID cards will help steady the ship – acting as a reminder that Labour are firmly in control. However, the new proposals suggest anything but. They are rushed, discriminatory and haphazard and our foreign students deserve better. The ID-card scheme must be handled with extreme care and sensitivity this November, otherwise we risk alienating a substantial proportion of our student body and, perhaps more terrifyingly, sleepwalking into a surveillance society.