British Industry Protests Immigration Caps For Skilled Workers
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – British business leaders are complaining about the government’s immigration cap for workers because it limits their ability to hire people who have skills they cannot find locally.
Because of the restrictions, work visas issued for high-skilled non-European Union migrants from June 2010 to April 2011 will have an allocation of 24,100, which is down by 1,300 visas compared to the previous year.
Leading the call for changes in the immigration policy is General Electric. GE National Executive for North Europe Mark Elborne blamed the policy for failure to hire a stem cell research expert from India and gas turbine engineers from outside the European Union.
Elborne claimed the immigration policy also makes the U.K. a less attractive investment option amid the global battle for capital. He added that GE, which is into different business interests such as energy, aviation, technology, health, media and finance, has global customers and a global supply chain, so he sees no reason why the government should not allow the company to go global in hiring workers as Britain faces a talent shortage, ironically amid high unemployment rates.
Other than GE, British banks have complained that because of the visa restrictions they could employ just six non-EU nationals.
GE’s call has the support of at least one British official. Business Secretary Vince Cable went against the coalition government’s stand and aired his support to ease the country’s immigration policy. Industry leaders support Cable’s stand.
The spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said the government is designing a permanent cap to ensure the country attracts the brightest and best talents in the world, but denied the current policy is causing a major damage to the British economy.
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