UK skilled immigration cap not hurting UK economy-Advisor

United Kingdom, 13th September: Recent UK immigration cap on skilled immigrant workers is not hindering the UK economy, Professor David Metcalf, a chief immigration advisor of the UK government has stated.

His statement comes in the wake of fear that the UK economy would suffer due to restriction on the annual number of non-EEA skilled immigrants moving to the UK.

Professor Metcalf, who is the head of MAC (Migration Advisory Committee), says there is no truth in this fear. Presently, the annual intake for non-EEA skilled foreign workers has been fixed to 20,700.

Reduce UK jobs for non-EU migrant workers—As per the MAC recommendations, the UK Home Office needs to cut the total number of jobs in the UK for non-EU migrants from 260,000 to 190,000. It may be mentioned that the revised list has axed 29 specific jobs for non-EU migrants.

Among the jobs axed for non-EU migrants include orchestral musicians, consultants in gynecology and obstetrics, vets and secondary school biology teachers.

Train more UK citizens for jobs—Professor Metcalf has asserted on the need for the UK government to provide requisite training to UK citizens to equip them with necessary skills for getting jobs in the UK. This should help the government reduce its dependence on foreign workers, he maintained.

Moreover, it will also prove to be highly beneficial for the UK economy in the long term, he asserted. There is a need for providing training to UK citizens for enabling them become nurses and specialist teachers, the MAC suggests.

The UK still has a shortage of required number of skilled workforce including civil and chemical engineers and theatre nurses, the advisory committee reveals.

And this is due to the inability of the UK government to provide required training to the UK citizens even though the government was well aware of the imminent shortages for the last couple of years, he lamented.

Among the new occupations included in the shortage list are hospital A&E consultants, senior staff in nuclear industry, computer animation professionals involved in production of films, video games or TV.

The MAC advisor said its really strange to see why the UK is not training enough people for the occupations listed in the shortage category.