Business leaders have repeatedly warned of a serious shortage of British graduates qualified to fill key engineering jobs, a position justified by a report authored by Prof. John Perkins and published by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) in November 2013.
The dearth of skilled home grown graduates has led to migrants filling one fifth of jobs in key industries. With migrants accounting for 20% of workers in fields such as oil and gas extraction, aerospace manufacturing and computer, electronics and optical engineering. Such is the scale of the skills deficit, half of the 119 occupations on the Government’s shortage occupation list require engineering qualifications. Firms requiring these skills have a special dispensation to employ staff from overseas.
This situation has long term consequences. One third of university places in engineering and technology subjects are currently filled by non-British students. The turn around in the education system that must happen if British school children are to be encouraged to pursue disciplines leading to jobs in engineering cannot happen quickly enough. The report by Prof. John Perkins outlines the crippling skills shortage amongst British workers while almost 1 million 16 to 24 year olds are classified as not in education, employment, or training (NEET). It is clear migrants will continue to be an important source of engineering skills for some time.
This acute skills deficit poses huge problems for British engineering and technology companies. Difficulties filling engineering vacancies delays and hampers projects and consequently stalls research and development and economic growth. James Dyson, founder of Dyson, the technology group, believes the solution lies in education. He proposes offering financial incentives to encourage the brightest and the best towards areas of vital national interest, with costs quickly recouped as engineering graduates earn higher salaries and will therefore pay more taxes throughout their working life.
The Government’s flagship immigration policy, an important election issue, is possibly having a negative impact on non-EU students and may deter thousands of international students from coming to study in UK universities. BIS claims that overseas students contribute over £13 billion to the UK economy each year and is not just focused on the brighest and the best but sees education as a commodity that can be sold to India which has a huge young population and an under-supply of higher education. As we reported here last February, David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, during his visit to India, emphasised that students from there were welcome in the UK and that there was not a cap on how many could come here as undergraduates.
The Home Office crackdown on “bogus students” is thought to have affected students from India and Pakistan. Nicola Hart of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said “”The Home Office is cracking down particularly strongly on visas issued in a number of countries including India, which probably accounts for the reported halving of numbers of Indian students coming to the UK in just two years,” she said.
If you are qualified and one of the brightest and the best then the UK needs you.
On January 1st this year people from Romania and Bulgaria gained the same working rights as other European citizens in eight European countries, including the UK, Germany, Austria and France. This has fuelled a widespread perception in the UK that the floodgates would be opened to mass immigration, further pressurising the welfare state.
It has provided the backdrop to an the going debate amongst the three main British parties about the costs and benefits of immigration, and has lead to demands for changes to immigration policy, particularly migrant access to public services, including benefits. It is argued that Britain’s welfare system which is largely non-contributory, is more open that those of many EU countries and is acting as a magnet to welfare tourists.
EU citizens are entitled to free movement within the EU but there are some restrictions on the right to live in the UK. There is an initial right to reside for 3 months but after this period they only have a right to reside if they are exercising their treaty rights as a worker, self-employed person, job seeker, student or self-sufficient person, or if they pass the Habitual Residence Test.
With European elections looming in 2014 and national elections in 2015, David Cameron’s Conservative Party is under increasing pressure on this issue as they risk sharing the pool of likely voters with the anti-immigration party, UKIP. To fulfil its promises to cut net migration and bolster support amongst voters they are proposing to change British law for new EU immigrants in an attempt to deter those seeking to take advantage of the UK’s welfare system. Measures proposed include EU migrants having to wait 3 months before they can obtain unemployment benefits; not being eligible to housing benefit; and losing the right to unemployment benefit after 6 months unless they have proof of a realistic chance of finding work. It is envisaged that these changes to protect the benefit system will have widespread support whilst not deterring genuine workers.
There is also a call for the reform of freedom of movement at EU level, a long term overhaul which may require treaty change. Theresa May, home secretary, proposed that accession countries are phased in to full free movement rights when they reach a certain level of income or economic outlook, with opportunities for national government to cap migration if there are economic concerns.
These attempts to curb migration have provoked a backlash from within Europe, and the European Commission is taking the UK government to court over what it sees as discriminatory practices over the right to reside. Freedom of movement is one of the basic rights of EU citizens, and seen by many as essential to the globalised world of open markets and frontiers. Martin Schulz, the European parliament’s president has said that while he takes the UK demands for reform within the EU very seriously, there was no question of parliament agreeing to reopen the rule book on free movement.
Many believe that immigration has, on balance been good for Britain’s economy. A belief borne out by most academic research, with the 2011 study, Unemployment Benefits and Immigration: Evidence from the EU, finding no statistically significant causal effect between social welfare spending and immigration. Robert Chote, head of Office for Budget Responsibility, told MPs at a Treasury select committee last Tuesday(14/01/14) that the country’s fiscal position would be “somewhat worse” if net migration was lower, because immigrants are more likely to be of working age. They also arrive when another country has already picked up the tab for educating them, and will leave before they reach a point at which they’re most expensive in terms of pensions and healthcare.
The Conservative’s target to cut net immigration to below 100,000 per year by 2015 looks increasingly unlikely to be met. One option that could be taken to reach the bar would be to exit from the EU, a move that may be popular with sections of the electorate and the referendum on that is not due to happen till after the election in 2015. Vince Cable, business secretary, believes uncertainty over whether the UK will leave the European Union – dubbed the “Brexit” – is spooking investors and is holding back a full economic recovery.
Regardless of the progress of this bill, the UK still needs to attract highly qualified and talented people in order to compete on a global scale.
At 8.59pm today the FT reported that Theresa May, home secretary, has bowed to pressure to streamline the process for Chinese tourists to Britain. As we are not part of the EU Schengen visa system this results in many high spending Chinese visitors bypassing our country. With their spend of $102bn on global travel in 2012 competition in Europe to attract Chinese shoppers is fierce.
David Cameron, the prime minister, and George Osborne, chancellor, have a visit to Beijing planned for this autumn and are concerned about Britain’s openness to Chinese visitors ahead of this trip. Vince Cable recently stated that these visitors and businessmen are fed up with the hassle and humiliation of trying to come here that they are opting to go to France and Germany instead. Even Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, which owns British Airways and Iberia, piled on the pressure saying ” There is a perception in China that the UK does not want to see Chineses tourists and businesses.” There is pressure too from retailers and businesses to make these upwardly mobile Asian travellers welcome as they typically spend £1,676 per visit to the UK which is nearly three times the global average. They think that the cumbersome visa bureaucracy is at the root of the problem.
Theresa May states that the Home Office is looking at the visa application process and that of the Schengen country visas in China to see what possibilities there are for streamlining. However, she was clear that this should not be mistaken for closer integration into the Schengen system.
VIP business applicants have seen improvments with a 40% increase in applications between April and June 2013. Mobile teams now collect their biometric data from them at their offices.
If you need a Tier 1 Investment visa or a Tier 2 visa to work in IT, Engineering, Actuary or Finance then Commonwealth Contractors may well be able to help.
UKBA online service for booking appointments in the UK will be unavailable between 20:00 Thursday 18 July to 23:00 on Thursday 18 July 2013 while they do essential maintenance.
This service is for applicants in the UK wishing to book an appointment for a premium application at one of the public enquiry offices, or to give their biometric information. Applicants in the UK will not be able to book appointments online during that time.
There will be no disruption for applicants in other countries and they can continue to book appointments in the usual way.