UK government promises skilled immigration of “international talent” will continue post-Brexit

The UK government has commissioned a study into the impact of EU migration on the UK economy. But it won’t report until six months before the Brexit deadline.

With immigration uncertainties one of the main items on the Brexit ‘to do’ list, Home Secretary Amber Rudd has pledged that the kind of skilled immigration needed by the UK digital industry will continue after Brexit.

Writing in the Financial Times, Rudd said:

The UK must remain a hub for international talent. We must keep attracting the brightest and the best migrants from around the world.

Rudd said that there would be no “cliff edge” for businesses to worry about, but added that it was necessary to reflect “the public’s concern around unrestricted migration from the EU” and to address that:

That is why the Government is looking to create an environment that allows us to achieve sustainable levels of net migration while continuing to welcome those that have the skills our industries rely on.

Rudd said that she has been listening to business leaders about their own concerns around a potential skilled labour shortage post-Brexit:

I want to reassure all those who have outlined their views, either privately or publicly, that the government is listening and that we share their desire to continue to welcome those who help make the UK such a prosperous place to live. In order to do so, we must make sure we have the most accurate picture possible of the extent to which the UK economy uses EU labour. This will ensure we can build an industrial strategy that addresses long-term challenges to the UK economy.

Mac Factor

In a related move, the UK government has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to conduct a major study into the impact of European Union citizens to the UK economy. At a public event in Scotland, Rudd explained:

I am commissioning the Migration Advisory Committee, the Government’s independent advisers, to examine the extent to which the UK economy relies on EU workers. They will be looking at the overall role of migration in the wider economy and how the UK’s immigration system should be aligned with our modern industrial strategy.

At the same time, we as a Government will continue to meet industry leaders and employers to hear their views and needs first-hand. Through these meetings and the work of the MAC, we will deliver a future immigration system that gives us control and works in the best interests of every part of the UK.

Critics have pointed out that the MAC report won’t be published until September 2018, only six months before the Brexit deadline, making it late in the day to have any real impact. But for the UK tech industry, trade association techUK took a ‘better late than never’ tack with Deputy CEO, Antony Walker, commenting:

This study has been a long time coming, but could not be more important. Research this week shows the number of EU tech applicants has already dropped 10%. Brexit is having an impact on recruitment, and that will have an impact on our ability to compete. The Migration Advisory Committee has a critical role in preventing the serious economic damage that will occur if we restrict access to international tech talent.

The tech sector is creating jobs faster than we can fill them, and for every ten high skilled roles, the sector creates four more jobs elsewhere in the economy. Our ability to create the jobs of the future is directly tied to our ability to recruit the best and brightest from across the EU and the world. Overly focusing on numbers of immigrants will not help our economy or innovative tech businesses. We would not tell factories how many tractors to produce each year, and so the MAC report should not seek to do the same to talent and skills.

The Government’s manifesto explicitly singles out the digital economy as a ‘strategically important sector’. The MAC report provides an opportunity to prove that this commitment is not skin deep. This will rely on an open, flexible EU immigration system post-Brexit.

In May, a report from independent thinktank Institute for Government (IfG) warned that new immigration system will not be ready by the time the UK formally leaves the EU and as such the government may have no choice other than to support free movement for several years post-Brexit. Jill Rutter, Brexit Programme Director at the IfG, said:

The political imperative for change in immigration is significant, but so is the administrative challenge. The scale of the task – creating a new immigration system – is huge and it is critical that Government gets it right.

The current process for dealing with permanent residence applications from EU nationals is not fit for purpose, as the government itself acknowledged. It needs to be streamline as a matter of urgency and as a first step towards a new post-Brexit system.

Sorting out the post-Brexit immigration policy is something that is going to dominate debate between now and B-Day in 2019. It’s vital that a satisfactory solution is put in place, both in terms of supporting the existing UK digital economy, but also to encourage investment in the country by overseas tech providers who need to know that they can skill-up their workforce.

I’m inclined to support the view that the MAC report is too little, too late to contribute meaningfully to the debate in the tight time scales demanded by Brexit. But diginomica strongly encourages all tech providers and end users who are dependent on skilled workers to contribute their views to the study. If you don’t speak up, don’t complain about what results in 2019 and beyond.

SOURCE: Diginomica

 

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