More jobs to be filled from abroad

One of the many reasons people voted in their millions for Brexit (twice, at the 2016 Referendum and in the euro elections for the Brexit Party) was to get a grip on migration – economic and otherwise. 

Yet in the teeth of these expressed wishes, the government, through its Migration Advisory Committee, appears to be ploughing on with plans to denude countries that need their highly skilled workers more than we do rather than train our own here.
Economists on the Migration Advisory Committee have recommended that migration rules are relaxed for vets, web designers, psychologists and architects from outside Europe amid a skills shortage. 

The official government advisers want 9 per cent of jobs in the labour market to be covered by the Shortage Occupation List, compared with 1 per cent at present. 

More occupations

Professions recommended to go on the list for the first time are occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and archaeologists, while a number of occupations already listed will be extended to cover all roles including medical practitioners, civil engineers, artists and mechanical engineers. 

The committee has also highlighted that shortages may be emerging in medium-skilled jobs including construction workers.

More adverts abroad

And in a further kick in the teeth for unemployed workers in Britain, employers will not have to demonstrate that these listed jobs cannot be filled here – and will be able to advertise them exclusively abroad if they wish.

So rather than controlling migration, the Migration Advisory Committee is proposing a massive increase. 

We don’t just need independence from the EU. We need independence from reliance on education and training systems abroad, and from the thinking that Britain need only import anything it needs, rather than produce it here – and the sooner the better.