You needn’t be an expert psephologist to know that immigration was a key reason behind the Conservatives’ capitulation to Labour in July’s general election. So, as the Tory leadership election moves towards its business end, it’s no surprise to see that all of the candidates vying to replace Rishi Sunak have pledged to slash the number of people coming into the UK. Just because it’s inevitable, however, doesn’t make this situation any less discouraging to see. There’s a world of nuance in our current immigration debate – between legal and illegal migration, low- and high-skilled, and so on – but some of the sweeping statements we’ve heard so far fail to capture these subtleties.
Immigration overall has enriched British society and ensured our economy is more dynamic than it otherwise would be. Our entrepreneurial ecosystem is head and shoulders above anywhere else in Europe, and in no small part thanks to the contributions of founders born overseas. Indeed, that’s the headline message of The Entrepreneurs Network’s latest analysis – which this week revealed that of the top 100 fastest-growing businesses in the UK, no fewer than 39% had a foreign-born founder or co-founder, despite immigrants comprising less than 15% of the national population.
We should be championing these wealth creators – doing all we can to attract more of them, and enable the next generation of trailblazers to build the future within Britain’s shores. The jobs, taxes and national prestige we’d accrue as a result are the prizes on offer, and we should be unstinting in designing an immigration architecture that provides people from abroad with pathways to make the UK their home.
Many foreign-born founders of Britain’s fastest-growing companies first came to the UK as students. Take Paul Domjan, co-founder of ENODA, which is developing technology to create a more reliable energy system as we decarbonise the economy. When I interviewed him, he eulogised about our higher education system, describing it as ‘the jewel in Britain’s crown’. He also highlighted how one of the main reasons for basing his business in the UK was its ready access to skilled graduates, many of whom are foreigners themselves. We should be doing a far better job of retaining the talent that gets trained in our universities – for example, by allowing STEM PhD students to qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain upon completing their studies.
At the same time, we should be considering what more we can do when it comes to poaching graduates from other countries’ universities too. One of the better things the previous government did on visa reforms was to create the High Potential Individual visa. This grants graduates from cream-of-the-crop schools a relatively easy route to the UK, where they can live and work for up to two years, or three years for PhD graduates. At the moment, universities need to be in the top 50 of at least two of three ranking lists for their graduates to be eligible – but we believe this threshold should be raised to the top 100 in order to cast the net wider to the world’s brightest. (We also have thoughts on how to improve the visa’s methodology, but that’s a story for another day.)
We stand at a critical juncture in economic history. New technologies like AI and advances in fields like life sciences promise unprecedented opportunities, and countries aspiring to capitalise on them must know that the first step is having the brains in place to push forward the frontiers of innovation. A fierce global race for talent is on, and the UK cannot risk being left in the starting blocks.
It’s understandable that Tory candidates feel obliged to talk tough on immigration – after all, it’s only really the party members who matter at this stage, and surveys suggest many hold extreme views here. But real leadership means not slavishly following opinion polls (how did that work out in the election?). When the time comes, whoever wins would do well to acknowledge the immense contribution gifted foreigners can and do make to our economy.
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