I have a question for the government.

I was born in Poland and I moved to the UK in 2007. I came here to learn the language and start my working life. Ever since, I have worked very hard, paid my taxes and done my best to assimilate and embrace the British culture.

I’ve spent the best part of 10 years as a care worker in Britain. Now, I work as a home care worker, visiting mostly elderly people who need help in their daily lives.

I support those I care for physically, mentally and socially. I care about them deeply and always do my best. To be able to deliver care, I work hard to establish trust and build mutual respect and understanding. I assist people with their medication, physiotherapy exercise and help them with the daily chores they struggle with. I prepare and serve meals and support people with personal care. I act as a companion and as a personal assistant; take people to hospital appointments, share good and bad days and organise their appointments.

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It is hard work, physically challenging and most days are spent on my feet. Working so personally with people who are often approaching the ends of their lives is emotionally demanding. And for most care workers pay isn’t high – few people get into social care to make their millions. I wouldn’t swap my job for anything, and I don’t think I’m unusual in that regard.

My question is: what have I done wrong? What is it about the past 10 years I have spent caring for older people which makes me so undesirable in the eyes of this government?

Because the government’s plans, announced today, to stop people coming to Britain from Europe after Brexit make it perfectly clear to me and thousands of others who have spent years working here that if Britain had had the choice, we wouldn’t have been permitted in the first place.

The language the government has used sends that message: a “crackdown” (are we criminals?); “low-skilled labour” (come and try it yourself and tell me how easy it is); “jumping the queue” (I didn’t take anyone’s place). And all of it delivered with a triumphant tone that points to the belief that this is just what the British people have been waiting for. Through my work with the National Association of Care and Support Workers, I hear every day about how disrespected and upsetting the government’s language makes people who came to the UK to work in the care sector feel. Care work is highly skilled, demanding, complex and challenging. It takes a special type of a person to do it well. The knowledge and skills needed to care for people well and make their lives better should not be undermined by the government so readily.

What would it mean in practice for the British care sector to be unable to recruit people from abroad if they earn less than £30,000, as the home secretary will be “consulting” on over the coming months?

Right now, there is a gap of about 90,000 between the number of care workers this country needs and the number of people working in the sector. Official statistics say that about 20% of the people who are working in social care have come from abroad, a lot of them from the EU – the actual number is undoubtedly higher and especially so in urban centres like London. And most people in the care sector earn less than £30,000: the average pay for care workers is £7.76 per hour.

It is a fact that the UK social care sector would suffer greatly if the number of Europeans working in it drastically fell. But that is exactly what a combination of sending a message to Europeans that they are not wanted here and legislating to prevent people from arriving in future will achieve. Combined with the prospect of resources being diverted from the social care sector to deal with no-deal Brexit – reported in the newspapers today – and you have a dangerous mix.

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The same danger faces other sectors too: agriculture, hospitality, the NHS, logistics – you name it, there’s a huge number of hard-working European men and woman staffing it.

So what is the alternative? I understand, as do most Europeans in the UK, that immigration policy will change after Brexit. But this government is going about that change in a way that is blind to the country’s needs and deaf to the offence it is causing Europeans. I love my job and I believe I should be proud of the work I have done caring for British people. The same goes for my colleagues. We only want the government to give us a reason to think we are not mistaken.

• Karolina Gerlich is chief executive of the National Association of Care and Support Workers