Cameron has just announced, “It’s time to reclaim Britain’s borders”. This is surprising first because Cameron’s Conservative government have subcontracted a large portion of the UK’s border services to private companies.
For example companies such as WorldBridge, owned by SCS (headquarters in Viginia, USA, operating in over 90 countries, revenue of $16.1 billion in 2010) are responsible for receiving visa applications, collecting biometric data and many aspects of the process required for non-EU nationals to live and work in the UK. Perhaps “It’s time to subcontract Britian’s borders” doesn’t sound quite as good.
However, there are more fundamental problems with this immigration policy. The intention is to limi non-EU migrants to subsequently decrease the competition British workers have in finding jobs. Cameron says, “the British option” should be “the best option”. Unfortunately, Cameron’s policy is to lower standards instead of improving skills.
As we’ve seen, Cameron’s economic policy involves deep cuts to the British education system combined with flawed repayment systems. (Read here or here for a more thorough description). Cameron’s policy is uncoordinated and lacks an effective strategy for economic growth. Studies show publicly funding university education and subsidising tuition fees results in economic growth and reduces the cost of social services. Reducing the funding of education also leads directly to a less skilled workforce.
This combination of policies means employers may have more difficulty getting the skills they need from the British workforce, because of reduction in education and training. This, combined with decreased ability to look overseas has the potential to create a race to the bottom with skill and labour shortages in the UK. Even though the economy in the UK is struggling, many companies still have difficulties finding employees with specialized skills.
It’s also important to remember Cameron is slashing and burning education while most developed nations and organizations (for example, OECD) across the world agree on the importance of increasing funding to university/post-secondary education as a mechanism for economic growth.
Finally, Cameron’s analysis is based on an essentially flawed premise: that immigrants harm a country’s economy. First, the government sets the standard for immigration, so immigrants tend to have better skills and higher levels of education attainment. In Britian, immigrants tend to, on average, have higher employment rates, pay more taxes and use social services less.
Cameron’s stated immigration policy is essentially trying to meet skills shortages by lowering British standards and reducing competition, instead of improving British skills to meet the demand. To improve the economy the government’s policy must focus on improving education, training and overall competitiveness of British workers in the British economy and worldwide. Reducing competition by banning skilled immigrants will only create an economic race to the bottom and temporarily suppress the economic problems and funadmental flaws in the government’s policy.
Sources
BBC. (2011). Q&A: Tuition Fees.
Centre for Educational Research and Innovation [CERI] (2009). European Universities in a Changing World. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
CSC. (2010). A look back while moving forward: 2010 Annual Report.
London Evening Standard (2011). Cameron: It’s time to reclaim Britain’s borders
Guardian. (2010). Immigration to the UK: The Statistics
Robinson, M. H. & Christophersen, K. A. (2007). Economic contribution of BC colleges: Analysis of effectiveness and economic growth.
Dustmann, Frattini, Halls. University College London. (2009). Assessing the fiscal costs of A8 migration to the UK.
WorldBridge (2011). About WorldBridge. https://www.visainfoservices.com/Pages/Content.aspx?tag=AboutWorldBridge_PAGE