Member Article

Immigration policy is hurting business, think tank say

The UK’s current immigration policies are preventing growth for business, at no political gain, a London-based think tank say.

Migrants are key to plugging short term fluctuations in the labour market, the liberal think-tank CentreForum say.

The report suggests government policy should be concerned with quality, and not quantity, of skilled workers coming to the UK from outside the EU.

The authors argue that immigrants can play an important role in upskilling the domestic workforce as they promote their skills to staff, on-the-job.

Tom Papworth, report author and associate director of Economic Policy, at CentreForum said: “The Government’s immigration policy is at odds with its ambition to grow the economy, create jobs and shrink the deficit.

“It needs to focus on quality, rather than quantity. It has a duty to collect accurate, reliable statistics. And it needs to reverse the poor customer service and bad policy design that is harming UK competitiveness.

“Having done so, the Government needs to stop and allow businesses to catch their breath. The permanent revolution in immigration policy is a nightmare for businesses seeking to comply with the rules.”

The report also criticises the way numbers of migrants in the UK are estimated, and calls for more sophisticated data collection beyond the International Passenger Survey.a

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .