The disturbing and depressing images of rioters on the streets of England’s towns are a reminder of the huge and complex challenge we face in tackling the simmering anger of a section of our society that feels resentful and marginalised.
Exploring the focus of the rioters’ fury – immigrants and asylum seekers – takes us into a complicated and highly-charged policy area. The year-on-year rise in net migration to the UK has been a political hot potato for years, especially since the dramatic rise in unauthorised cross-Channel arrivals by boat.
The resulting – completely illogical – response by the previous government to restrict the numbers of international students coming to study in the UK is now hopefully coming to an end under Labour, who have committed to retaining the graduate visa route and spoken in positive terms about the value of foreign students. For more detail on why this is the right policy, read our piece on ‘International Students and Immigration: Tackling Myths and Misconceptions’.
While the latest figures (July 2024) show a sharp reduction in applications for study visas, this might well be at the expense of tipping some struggling universities into financial disaster.
We know that 99 per cent of overseas students return to their country shortly after completing their studies, and the Migration Advisory Committee’s recent report found no evidence of abuse of the study visa system. It’s hard to see why the government doesn’t simply remove study-related migration from the net migration figure used to set immigration targets, as international students are not long-term immigrants and should not be central to the debate over immigration policy.
The skills shortages that have proliferated since Brexit are a big part of the underlying problem, but the solution is far from straightforward. To take one of the most prominent examples, of the 315,000 work visas approved between March 2023 – March 2024, nearly 119,000 (38 per cent) are related to filling health and care sector vacancies currently running at historically high levels.
Recruiting more nurses is a top priority, but according to a July 2024 statement from the Royal College of Nursing based on UCAS data, there has been an 8 per cent year-on-year drop in applicants for nursing degrees, amounting to a 27 per cent decline since 2021. The supply of trained nurses is already running behind target, leading to a steadily increasing reliance on fully trained recruits from overseas, mostly from non-EU countries.
The problem is compounded by the rising number of staff leaving the workforce; the leaver rate for nurses reached 12.5 per cent in 2022, while the rate for care staff was 28 per cent in 2022/23. Most leavers cite pay, unsocial hours and stressful working conditions as the reason for putting in their notice.
The conclusion has to be that, while it’s vital to expand the number of students on health and care courses, urgent action is needed to ensure we retain those who get qualified and go into jobs. There are similar challenges in many other occupational areas, including IT, engineering, and construction.
Given this starting point, action on several fronts is necessary. As far as immigration policy is concerned, we advocate a two-pronged approach: Firm but fair measures to clamp down on illegal immigration, but alongside this a “settlement-positive” approach to integrating legal migrants into work and society, as our report ‘ESOL for Skills’ recommended.
The correct short-term response to the riots is robust policing and swift justice for offenders, which is exactly what the government is doing.
But a key part of the longer-term solution has to be the government’s proposals for Skills England, which is planned to have direct links to the Migration Advisory Committee, and a refreshed Industrial Strategy.
It’s a challenging but logical strategy, which will hopefully help to put an end to the irrationality and violence we’re witnessing this summer.
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