In University one of my specialist subjects I chose was British Economic History since 1870 and also British Political History since 1880. Wait. Don’t stop reading. It gets good this. So I thought I would look back at one of my columns from exactly 10 years ago in this very paper. This is it (with additional comment in italics from 2020!).
“When I consider the G8 meeting representing the world’s largest economies – it’s interesting their relationships with immigrants. Take the US – the largest of the G8 – a land of immigrants – the great melting pot. Who would have foreseen the anti-immigrant sentiment in the US in 2020. Or even the Germans – just look at the number of Turks in their team! Hmmm….maybe England could do with a few more. Me and my big mouth got us into Brexit! Or Canada – pleading for more immigrants. They stayed the same.
But Britain is limiting the number of skilled migrants. Funnily backtracked by 2020. Now thankfully in the detail this excluded entrepreneurs. But the message in the international press does not read like that. It reads like Britain is closed. That’s the exact opposite message the Government wants to send. It’s won the election. Why is it playing to its internal audience of 60m Britons when the global audience of businesses it needs are the ones it needs to convince to help Britain out of its recession? Same battle – 10 years later.
Over 1m people travel between the UK and India annually – those are largely tourists and not affected by this policy change. Almost 2m people of Indian origin live in the UK. But more troubling for India is that given that 700 out of 1200 Indian firms in the EU operate in the UK – how will they be served with the policy change? Now an Indian Home Secretary too!
Will India bypass the UK when it comes to acquisitions? After all big acquisitions for India globally involve the UK: take the £8bn Tata acquisition of Corus. Ooops
Moreover there are over 40,000 Indian students in Higher Education in the UK. As a former University Governor, I know how important their fees are. Is the door closed to them going forward? No, seems it is not, I don’t think.
The entrepreneurs from India that I deal with are concerned the message this sends. More importantly they are concerned if they should set up in the UK. After all will they be assured their skilled workers who made their India operations successful can come to the UK to train the locals to make the UK operations a success? We still want them – 10 years on – more than ever. They have their own specialist visas now too.
Fundamental to the migration issue is an understanding of whether migration leads to economic growth and its impact on cohesion. The problem with the EU is that it’s citizens get a free pass whereas those from India who may well be the lowest users of public services and the greatest contributors to taxation and employment and probably the least disruptive to cohesion in the UK given how many are already here – get no recognition at the policy level. Hmmm….yup I wrote that in 2010. Same year I first met Priti Patel.
This is why when I was a Board Member of the UK India Roundtable my recommendation was that migration policy should be a little like University entrance. If all things are equal then those from schools (countries) with a track record of delivering outstanding entrants should be preferred. Indeed, that would put an obligation on those here to ensure their behaviour and contribution to the country is outstanding as it will affect their fellow nationals.
When I was non-exec Chairman of Aranca the Indian outsourcing company I gave a speech to all 250 of our staff pointing out that the work they do in their rooms in India brands all of India. And so it should be with a fair immigration policy. Hope we get one.
