Post by Willa King. Colgate Class of 2022.

Based on the Economist article “Britain’s Post-Brexit Immigration Rules Worry Business.” The Economist , The Economist Group Limited, 19 Feb. 2020.

On January 31, 2020, the UK officially left the EU. Now they are in charge of revamping their immigration policy. Earlier in the month, the British government put out their proposed plan on how they will let new migrants into the country. A recap of the new plan is detailed in the Economist Article, “Britain’s Post-Brexit Immigration Rules Worry Business”. Now, like Canada and Australia, they will have a points based system with prospective migrants gaining points for certain qualities.

The article states the requirements of the new points system. At the very least those applying “ need to speak English, have a job offer and a prospective salary of more than £25,600 ($33,245)” (The Economist, 2020). Exceptions will be made for migrants holding PhDs and people with minimum “three years experience” (Economist, 2020) on a job that is on the “shortage occupation list.” The government is hoping to increase the number of skilled immigrants while decreasing the overall number.

At the moment, the United Kingdom has an unemployment rate of 3.8% and has nearly 800,000 job openings. The lower salary threshold should benefit them, as well as the fact that the government has removed the limits on the number of migrants. However, the article states that businesses are worried about losing the low skilled migrants they need, especially those from other European countries. For example, The Economist cites a study finding that, with the new system, 66% of current EU health and social workers and 85% of hotel workers would not qualify for visas anymore. Farmers in some regions will also be hit hard by the new regulations. The government is hoping to have its citizens fill these roles, but it is unclear if that is possible.

The article also states that a lower GDP result about due to these changes. In fact, these numbers come from the British government itself. They claim that the new policy will lower overall GDP while increasing GDP per capita. The article states that this is because wages will increase as there are fewer low skilled workers. The demand will be higher and employers nay be willing to pay more.

Lastly, the article states that it is still unclear of the exact impact. Some estimates say this will only drop the number of migrants from 212,000 to 177,000. The article ends with wondering how many jobs will end up of the “SOL” list just so that the UK can continue to function.