Why is it difficult to take a stand for immigrants? Why do politicians avoid acknowledging that immigrants played an important role in their country’s growth? Why time and again are rules being framed to restrict immigrant inflow as elections near? When an economy needs a quick fix to labour shortage, they look towards immigrants, when foreign universities forecast a shortage of funds to run daily operations, they look towards international students, but when it comes to thanking them, everyone turns their back.
Things will look much more promising and different when people at the helm who are framing rules aren’t afraid to claim the invaluable contribution from immigrants and show that they have actually saved local jobs and not taken them away. Policies are framed against immigrants even though the majority of the data conclude in favour of immigrants.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his struggling Conservative Government promise to tighten things on immigration. However, different research data from his country speaks out loud and clear about the dependency of the UK government on foreign workers and international students.
Last Four Years Marked by Remarkable Contribution
We are talking here about the period just after the pandemic, the UK, just like many other economies needed drastic measures to pick up its circulation and a remarkable increase in contribution was seen from non-EU foreigners.
It must be noted here that free movement within the European Union ended with a post-Brexit migration regime. This means to fulfil its shortage of competent manpower, South-Asian countries were among the primary manpower sources left for the UK.
Maintaining Dominance as a Developed Nation
The UK aims to be a leader in science and technology along with maintaining an upper hand in high-growth industries like artificial intelligence and biotechnology. These ambitious aims can only be fulfilled if it has enough scientists and entrepreneurs. However, as the government wants to make higher education less attractive for international students, these aims will only move further away.
International students not only boost the economy, paying fees three times as much as their local counterparts but also provide fresh minds that are needed to work in the laboratories or establish new business hubs. This means bringing in international students is in line with the overall aim of the UK, i.e. to maintain its dominance as a scientific superpower.
Learn to Manage Immigration
On both sides of the Atlantic be it in the USA, Canada, the UK, and Europe, immigrants have always contributed their bit to improving the economy of that country. Having arrived in a foreign land, migrants tend to be more serious and responsible towards their studies and work. The pandemic that went by, caught economies off-guard and in a haste to catch up with things more immigrants were brought in than normal.
Now, as most of these economies have recovered they are thinking otherwise, and want to bring it down to the pre-pandemic level. The majority of the work that is taken care of by immigrants either does not find local workers, or they charge many folds more. The need of the hour is for leaders to find a balance between the demand and supply of immigrants. Find out how you can make your way to settle in the country of your dreams, talk to immigration consultants in Delhi.
They are Here to Stay
The size of the contribution from immigration is so large, that it just cannot be picked up and thrown away like nothing. It is a mutually beneficial relationship, and the sooner authorities learn to manage it the better it will be for everyone. As for aspiring immigrants, except for a few ups and downs, the flow of international students is here to stay for a long time to come.
