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Immigrant Restrictions
September 2008
IMMIGRANT RESTRICTIONS ATTACKED AS INEFFICIENT
WARNING OF RISE IN ILLEGAL ENTRANTS – CARE HOMES FEAR HAVING TO CLOSE
Efforts by governments to curb migrant numbers by giving preference to skilled workers and erecting barriers to the lower skilled are short sighted and inefficient, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warns today.
Restricting low skilled migrants also risks an increase in illegal immigration, the OECD says.
The warning from Paris-based think tank for rich countries comes just a day after ministers unveiled a list of skilled workers Britain wants to attract, such as civil engineers, while closing the door to non-European Union migrants working in areas such as care homes and the health service.
The Home Office is also proposing entry limits on most skilled construction workers, IT specialists and architects and some categories of teachers and social workers.
Care homes have warned that fees will have to rise sharply and some homes may have to close if they are unable to recruit cheap labour from abroad.
Increasing reliance
Share of foreign-born workers in total labour force (%)
2002 2006
Luxembourg 41.4 44.5
Australia 24.7 25.7
Switzerland n.a 25.4
Canada 19.9 21.2
Austria 13.3 16.2
USA 14.7 15.7
Spain 7.8 15.1
Ireland 9.5 13.9
Sweden 12.4 13.5
UK 8.8 11.2
The OECD, in its latest outlook for international migration, warns that concentrating immigration policies on attracting higher skilled workers and ignoring other staffing needs could rebound as populations in developed countries age, causing serious recruitment problems.
“Long term demand for low-skilled labour in other sectors, such as home care, food processing and construction, is expected to continue, especially as countries face drops in both their working age populations and in the number of people prepared to work in low-status, low paid sectors” it says.
Governments that tried to fill these jobs by recruiting foreign workers on a temporary basis, then expecting them to return home after fulfilling their contract, were being unrealistic and risked encouraging illegal immigration, said Angel Gurria, OECD secretary-general.
“Cycling repeated waves of temporary migrants in and out of the country to occupy the same jobs is inefficient,” Mr Gurria said. “Employers have to retrain workers every time rather than retain experienced staff.”
Enforcing such a scheme on employers would entail substantial economical and political cost” he said.
“More likely, economic rationality would win out over artificial or badly designed regulations, with the risk that employers would cheat the system.
“Constructing a industry’s migration policy on the assumption that labour immigrants will stay only for a short time is not the way to go, it is neither efficient or workable.”
Peter Cater, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing complained that the Government’s proposed restrictions on migrant workers failed to “take into account that the care home sector has become heavily reliant on overseas nurses and care workers.”
Source: Financial Times September 11 2008
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