The chief executive of a leading recruitment firm has celebrated the skilled migrant workers that keep Britain's economy growing.
Writing for the Evening Standard Alistair Cox, the chief executive of recruiter Hays plc, stated that London's economic drive is under threat from a “catch-all debate about immigration”.
To navigate the situation, Cox advised: “What the UK must do is define different strategies for highly skilled migration versus unskilled immigration, because the two are very different issues. I can’t recall the last time I heard a senior politician differentiate between the two. However, the reality is they have enormously different consequences for people seeking jobs in the UK.”
He went on to highlight the fact that many of the negative headlines written about immigration in the UK relate to unskilled immigrants. Highly skilled migrants are a different matter all together and are more likely to “make a very real contribution to he UK economy”.
Hays' research reportedly demonstrates that, contrary to popular belief, the UK cannot just continue to operate as it is doing currently if it wants to attract talented overseas workers to its economic hubs, like the City in London.
In fact, the UK has “one of the worst talent mismatches in Europe”, with skills shortages becoming a real problem. And finance is not the only area to be affected by the issue; recent comments from people at the top of their game in the engineering sector, such as James Dyson, have made similar points about the lack of homegrown talent.
This is the latest article to be added to a growing swell of disapproval of the government's attempts to limit UK work permits given the lack of talent to fill positions in Britain's company's. Mr Cox concluded: “Skilled migration has enabled our industries to achieve this to date and is the only available route to continue this success over the next few years.”