Latest research conducted by immigration law firm Migrate UK has found that 79% of UK employers strongly agree it will be harder to attract overseas talent if the government extends the settlement route to ten years. 92% say retention will suffer with many overseas workers already considering relocating to the US or EU.
The research by Migrate UK as part of its Home Affairs Committee submission on skills shortages follows the government’s self-proclaimed biggest shake-up of the legal migration system in nearly 50 years. The law firm’s submission represented a wide range of its clients from Formula 1 teams, global energy companies, leading scientific and sporting organisations and financial institutions to national retailers, care and nursing providers.
Other key findings in its survey of 95 UK organisations included 85% of employers agreeing the Skilled Worker visa’s current five year pathway to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) is a critical factor in attracting overseas talent. 65% agree it’s extremely important that the Skilled Worker visa route leads to ILR as a key factor for attracting talent.
71% of respondents agreed that being in continuous paid employment and having a good character were the most important indicators if settlement is based on a long term contribution to society. If there were exemptions to the ten year route to allow some workers to qualify in five years, nearly 72% of respondents said continuous employment and the profession in which the worker is working (60%) should be the most important factors.
In addition to its survey findings, Migrate UK’s submission to the Home Affairs Committee also included details on the increased cost burden on employers under the proposed ten year route which could see sponsorship costs rise around 130%, to £17,480 for small/charitable sponsors and £25,876 for medium/large sponsors, excluding dependent costs. For a Skilled Worker earning £41,700 per year, this represents 62% of annual salary, a figure employers say is unsustainable. Just 4% of respondents said it was likely that their company would be able to support the cost of visa sponsorship if it was extended to a ten year period.
The submission included employers’ growing fears of the impact of the proposed policy on overseas workers well-being due to employee stress and insecurity from prolonged temporary status. It also flagged employers’ concerns about the competitive disadvantage of the planned policy compared to G20 nations, most of which offer settlement after five years.
Comments Oliver O’Sullivan, Director of Immigration, Migrate UK: “Current ILR rules already reflect earned settlement through continuous employment, English language proficiency and economic contribution. Extending this to a ten year requirement will not solve workforce shortages in these sectors, it will exacerbate them.
“We also think some of the data used by the Home Office in its policy announcement, ‘Migrate journey 2024 report’, overestimates future ILR applications as the datasets in this report do not contain specific data on the number of people granted Skilled Worker visas in any year, just the number of people being granted under a broad ‘worker’ category. Using this data it’s incredibly difficult to ascertain the number of people who have applied for a Skilled Worker visa in any given year.
“We urge the Committee to back maintenance of the five year settlement route for Skilled Workers, consider exemptions for shortage occupations and review the fairness of proposed salary thresholds.”
Oliver O’Sullivan,
Director of Immigration at Migrate UK
