The wrong cap

Immigration, it goes without saying, is still an extremely contentious issue in the UK. A bundle of evidence suggests that our politicians are not in tune with public opinion. Politicians have tended to stress the benefits (i.e. filling jobs that existing UK residents do not want and adding to the skills base and diversity of the economy) while the man and woman in the street stress the negatives (i.e. we’re ‘full up’ and so on). Of course, these are massive generalisations but broadly correct.

However, the government has wider pressures from industry to welcome immigrants into this country. This week, the government has announced a cap on numbers of skilled workers from outside the European Economic Area allowed into Britain (advisors have suggested a figure of 43,700).

As reported on the Process Engineering website, this lead to a trenchant response from Malcolm Webb, chief executive of Oil and Gas UK. He said: “We are dismayed … to see that the [Migration Advisory Committee] is proposing that the government should cap the number of people coming to the UK from outside the EU to take up posts which cannot be filled by UK residents.”

He added: “The temporary cap on skilled migration is already causing delays to major UK offshore oil and gas projects on which, paradoxically, hundreds of jobs for UK residents depend.”

So, it all sounds terribly easy to say ‘let’s stop immigration’, particularly in these straitened times. But, in some instances, this could actually have an adverse effect on the UK economy. Simple solutions don’t suit complex and inter-layered problems.

Maybe it’s worth hanging on to that argument when you get accosted by that annoying bloke down the pub.

Lyndon White
Editor, Processingtalk

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