UK immigration post-Brexit: narrowing routes to elites at the expense of businesses

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Laura Devine
Laura Devine Immigration, London
laura.devine@lauradevine.com

Francesca Sciberras
Laura Devine Immigration, London
fs@lauradevine.com

From Exceptional Talent to Global Talent

Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent out a clear message during the general election: the UK was closing its doors to low-skilled migration from Europe and will instead attract top scientists from all over the world via its new Global Talent route. The new Global Talent route indeed slightly eases the conditions for highly-skilled professionals to enter, but in large part remains an identical copy of its predecessor, the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route.

Under the original Exceptional Talent route, applicants who were endorsed by a number of professional bodies as top of their fields were allowed to enter and work in the UK. Those recognised as ‘exceptional talent’ qualified for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) after only three years in the UK, those recognised as ‘exceptional promise’ qualified after five years.

The new Global Talent category maintains most of the old route’s general structure but adds an additional accelerated route. Individuals hosted or employed in a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-approved UK research organisation providing critical contributions to work supported by a substantial research grant or award from an endorsed funder will benefit from a simplified endorsement procedure.^[1] Moreover, applicants endorsed as ‘exceptional promise’ in the fields of science, engineering, humanities and medicine can now apply for ILR after three years instead of five, and absences related to their endorsement do not count towards the ILR absence limit.^[2]

These changes will have a minimal effect on the UK’s general intake of immigrants, because they only apply to a very small, elitist group. In 2019, a mere 821 Exceptional Talent migrants managed to secure endorsement and apply for entry clearance.^[3] Therefore, Prime Minister Johnson’s removal of the cap of 2,000 applicants for the new Global Talent category is merely symbolic.

An Australian-style points-based system

Prime Minister Johnson’s other major promise, the introduction of an Australian-style points-based system, on a closer look, seems pointless (forgive the pun). Not only does the UK already have a points-based system that is points-based in name only, the Home Office’s outline of its entirely new points-based system seems to have copied the old system in precisely the wrong way: just like the old system, it consists of mostly mandatory requirements presented under a confusing points format.^[4]

The same mandatory requirements will be in place as under the old system: a migrant must have a job offer, a minimum skill level and speak English. Additionally, migrant workers must earn at least £25,600 and this is where the limited ‘tradeable points’ character is incorporated. Those earning less, but still at least £20,480, can gather extra points to qualify if they fall under the limited exceptions of filling a shortage occupation or having a relevant PhD. Only the PhD exception is new, but also negligible, because few professionals with a PhD are likely to be paid under the minimum threshold. However, the Home Office has announced it will incorporate further attributes and qualifications tradeable for points into the system.

Other policy decisions of the Home Office seem logically inconsistent with the promise to launch a points-based system. For instance, the new ‘Innovator’ and ‘Start-Up’ routes, replacing the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) and (Graduate Entrepreneur) routes, and the new Global Talent route, replacing the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route, have all been moved outside the points-based system to Appendix W. Yet, these categories, aiming at valuable entrepreneurial and independent migrants whose potential may not be adequately recognised if they were dependent on job offers are precisely the categories that suit a system with tradeable points well.

The Brexit effect

The abolition of freedom of movement and businesses’ loss of access to EU workers will be the most important change from 1 January 2021 when the new system is introduced. The Home Office has only taken very limited steps to mitigate these future workforce shortages, particularly regarding low-skilled workers.

The Home Office followed a number of recommendations of the Migrant Advisory Committee and brought the required skill level down to RQF level three (akin to an ‘A’ level) and removed the cap on skilled workers.^[5] It has also lowered the general minimum salary threshold from £30,000 to £25,600, and the threshold for new entrants (recent graduates and people under 26) will be set at 30 per cent lower than the rate for experienced workers. Businesses are only allowed to sponsor migrants if they are paid at least at the general minimum salary threshold or at the 25th percentile of the national salary level of each occupation, whichever amount is the highest. Importantly, the Home Office will also abolish the burdensome Resident Labour Market Test, which obliges companies to seek a suitable employee within the UK workforce first.

While these measures undoubtedly loosen the requirements to hire foreign workers, too many barriers still exist for businesses relying on low-paid or low-skilled workers. The fees and additional charges to employ an immigrant worker are prohibitive for many businesses. Apart from the actual application fee and legal costs, an Immigration Skills Charge of £5,000 and an Immigration Health Surcharge of £3,120 must be paid to employ a single migrant for five years.^[6]

Many sectors relying on low-paid workers (eg, hospitality, tourism, social work) employ their staff at significantly lower pay rates than the minimum salary threshold and cannot afford the extra thousands of pounds in Home Office fees and related costs. They all heavily rely on EU workers, who will now no longer be allowed to take in these positions under the same conditions as British citizens. The Home Office did not further mitigate these worries in its policy paper. It reasoned that the current EU workforce already present, dependants of migrants and migrants on the Youth Mobility Scheme suffice to make up for the loss of 90,000 incoming EU migrants every year.^[7] It also stated that they are educating British citizens to fill those positions, which does not provide a short-term solution, and that they are expanding the pilot scheme for agricultural workers to 10,000 places, far below the 70,000 places requested by the National Farmers’ Union.

In conclusion, Prime Minister Johnson’s proposals remain very similar to the old immigration system, with the danger that the economy will soon face workforce shortages when it no longer has access to EU citizens.

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