Immigration is a global issue now

International immigration is big news to western countries around the world and skills shortages in numerous key sectors have been highlighted recently, countries are simply not producing enough skilled workers to keep up with projected growth. This has led to a ‘skills race’ as different countries vie for workers from around the world to fill the gaps, these gaps are set to become exasperated in 10 years time.

The deficit can be summed up in the uncomplicated way as to say that the amount of jobs in 2020 (for sectors such as IT, nursing etc.) will far outweigh the amount of professionals in the relevant field in 2020.

With Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer recently praising Canadian immigration on the basis that they have developed immigration policies in line with this trend, does Canada immigration have the edge at the moment in relation to luring this highly valuable labour force to their country?

Canadian immigration policies have certainly made it easier for people to immigrate to Canada; they have introduced a number of immigration practices that currently other countries, especially the US, have yet to emulate.

The question however I am more interested in is can country’s really make themselves more appealing for immigrants or are these things just pre-ordained? I’ll give you an example: Australia is a beautiful country, it’s hot, there are plenty of beaches, and a similar value house will be much larger etcetera etcetera. What can the Australian government do to make it the choice over other countries, apart from make it easier to gain a work visa? I don’t think there is much else.

Another example is the news story that an Australian has been jailed for 4½ years (sorry to pick on Australia), after an attack on an Indian student studying on an Australian visa, again although you can claim a country can crack down on such things, I can’t see governments taking a direct approach purely for immigration purposes.

Considering this and the skills shortage I don’t hold up much hope for the UK’s economic growth. Of course we are in Europe which is a big advantage, although when pitted against countries that have beautiful weather and where you are taxed a lot less, our need for skilled professionals may hit a brick wall. Projections are very hard to have any firm arguments on, although it would be interesting to know figures involving our skills shortages and the projected way the UK government plan to meet those shortages, I can’t help but think the only way will be to pay more for those workers than countries like Canada or the US.

It is, I think, a point that is all to clear to the government, the mechanics of which must be very complicated. Economic growth is dependant on workers to make that happen, if company’s will have to pay those workers more money than other foreign businesses, won’t this make them highly uncompetitive in the global marketplace?

Sure professions like nursing could be subsidised by the government, but there is no way the private sector could be part-funded by government.

So in this day and age where most people are anti-immigration it is a strange modus operandi that governments need to think of any way they can to get workers in the country. This year saw record numbers of people enrolling for degree courses in the UK, perhaps this is the secret method in which the British government aims to plug the holes? Because a strange thought struck me the other day, I’ve never met or even heard of a Canadian that has emigrated to the UK, have you?