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Simply the Best? Highly-skilled migrants and the knowledge economy



UNI has welcomed the lessons from a new report on migration which argues that recovery from recession will depend on a country’s ability to develop a knowledge economy.



The ‘Simply the Best?’ report published today by an economic think tank based at the British Work Foundation uses the UK as a case study to argue that the need for highly migrants is an essential consideration in those economies which are unable to meet their own skills needs through a combination of factors.



One of the report’s authors, Charles Levy, argues that: “Success in the UK depends on the ability of its workforce to support and drive the creation and exploitation of innovative new products, processes and services. The UK’s past success has drawn on its ability to attract individuals with highly specific competencies, qualities, experience, knowledge and ideas. When thinking about skills we must avoid the lump of labour fallacy: high levels of unemployment do not mean that all of these capabilities are available to us from within the UK. We need an immigration policy which acknowledges this and sends clear signals to the rest of the world.”



The report (which is attached) also explores the complex issue of visa distribution and offers a series of recommendations for governments to ensure that immigration policy is capable of contributing to the workforce, ensuring that international students remain a valuable source of high-level skills for a knowledge economy.



UNI’s President for Professional and Managers, Ulf Bengtsson, who is an engineer in Sweden, said: “Over the past 30 years a number of European economies have transformed themselves towards the ‘knowledge economy’. This has been driven by high-skill, high value added industry, and investments in ‘intangible assets’ such as IT, research, human capital and creative services. This transformation has also been responsible for a significant proportion of the growth in many countries’ GDP and their international economic competitiveness.



“The shift towards the knowledge economy has driven demand for high-level skills in high skill occupations such as managers, professionals and technical professionals. However, while these demands have in large part been met by a significant increase in the proportion of young people entering higher education, the slowdown in Europe’s population growth has taken its toll and governments must now review their attitude towards enabling mobility of highly skilled labour to remain competitive.”



UNI’s Director for Professional and Managers, Pav Akhtar, added: “Earlier this year the National Institute of Economic and Social Research studied migrant entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley towards the end of the last century. Its found that Chinese and Indian engineers were disproportionately responsible for the growth in technology businesses in the area. By the year 2000 immigrant-led companies in the Valley accounted for more than $19.5 billion in sales and 72,839 jobs. There is strong evidence that highly-skilled migrants contribute to enterprise and innovation, particularly in high-tech industries.”



“I encourage all of UNI’s affiliates to read this new report from the Work Foundation and consider how its recommendations could be adapted to lobby their own government to ensure there is more and better investment in education, jobs and youth, as well as a more informed discussion on the migration of high-skilled labour, in order to remain competitive in an increasingly challenging knowledge economy.”