I came, I saw, I left

**In October _The Economist_ ran a provocative front cover, spouting
satirical slogans such as “Young? Gifted? Foreign? Bugger Orf!” and
“Immigrants Keep Out”.** A jab at government migration policy, it
importantly challenged head on the road to ruin on which we will find
ourselves if we actively deter immigrants from our shores. A foreigner
myself, such a prospect gives me the chills.

The Migration Observatory believes 31 to 33 per cent of people support
reduced number of international students. MigrationWatch, a pressure
group campaigning for lower immigration places this higher still, at
70 per cent. In a country where student visa numbers surpass visas for
families, workers and asylum seekers, the image is not all bleak
however.

2009 estimates by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills
put the value of UK education and training exports at £14 billion,
rising to £26 billion by 2025. Foreign students furthermore contribute
majorly to the local economy – a significant proportion of the £245.8
million spent by students in Coventry and Warwickshire following a
recent study. 2008-09 moreover saw tuition fee receipts total £4
billion.

As for migrant workers, Warwick’s Professor Sharun Mukand expects that
if half the developing world’s workforce were to migrate to the rich
countries of the ’North’, filling in existing shortages in
productivity, this could increase global output by 30 per cent ($21
trillion). It is an enduring argument in favour of the benefits of a
flexible workforce. It is furtherthe case that immigrants are often
willing to do work that locals are not. How many Britons would pick
fruit on farms such as Chandler & Dunn in Kent, traditionally done by
Romanian or Bulgarian summer workers?

So why the crackdown on immigration? In a world where western
countries face ageing populations, labour shortages and rising pension
payments, shouldn’t additional skilled workers be part of the
solution?

Certainly it would increase productivity to keep skilled employees
such as Alister Callum, an RBS employee from Australia here in the UK.
Alister is currently on a Tier 5 visa (temporary workers) which
expires next year, as Tier 1 (high valued migrants) and Tier 2
(skilled workers) visas are harder to come by. To obtain a Tier 2 visa
an employer needs to vouch for Alister, proving there to be no
resident worker who could take the job. Although sponsorship is not
overly costly (£500-£1500 for a licence) or time consuming, employers
are reluctant to go to the effort.

Immigration can of course have negative effects on income distribution
and local housing, public services or social cohesion. Others cite the
undercutting by cheaper immigrants of wages of local workers or
strains on the welfare state following this influx of EU migration.
That considered, the Commission on Living Standards has concluded that
immigration does not have a significant impact on low and
middle-income earners in the UK, or on causing unemployment.

The UK cannot legally deny EU nationals entry. They in turn only make
up 30 per cent of arriving migrants according to the Migration
Observatory; whereas 16 per cent are returning British nationals and
55 per cent are non-EU migrants. Out of this non-EU block,
international students make up the largest proportion. Worringly most
are not entitled to public benefits other than the NHS, can only work
ten to 20 hours a week, if at all, and are unable to stay for longer
than one to four months post-study – unless they obtain a work visa.
Many of these are now closed to applicants. In fact, a Home Office
study showed 79 per cent of non-UK students arriving in 2004, had left
within five years.

Lord O’Donnell, former head of the Civil Service is right in saying
that the government is ‘shooting itself in the foot’. Boris Johnson
too, when he chastises new business restrictions on recruiting the
most talented.

While settling in the UK is not on all students or skilled workers’
mind on arriving here, shutting the door on the crème de la crème of
the global pool of talent is as ignorant as it is short-sighted for
future growth. We need a revision of policy before the die has been
cast.