Offer sops to high-skilled immigrants: UK think-tank

Amidst continuing public unease over levels of immigration, an influential think-tank has suggested that the British government offer tax breaks and other incentives to highly-skilled "super-mobile" migrants, including Indians.

The Institute of Public Policy Research, which has close ties with the ruling Labour party, said in a new report that Britain could lose out on sought-after skills offered by mobile immigrants if they re-migrate to other countries.

Indian professionals are among the largest groups of immigrants, and there is evidence that not all of them are interested in settling down in Britain, but prefer to work here for short periods and move on elsewhere.

More efforts should be made to encourage them to stay in Britain, the report said.

The IPPR report, titled 'Shall we stay or shall we go: Re-migration trends among Britain's immigrants', dismisses fears over population growth due to immigration.

Tim Finch, IPPR's head of migration, said many more immigrants were coming to Britain for short periods of time before leaving. "The migration debate in the UK is fixated with the idea that immigrants come to settle and not enough attention has been paid to the fact that more and more immigrants are spending only short periods in the UK.

"Our research shows that many groups of migrants are now increasingly mobile. They are coming to UK to study and work for short periods and then they are moving on."

As competition for highly skilled migrants increases in future years, schemes to retain migrants may become as important as attracting them in the first place, Finch said.

The report says: "We need to be making migrants feel more welcome in this country, both in the way we talk about them, and in more practical ways. In particular we need to ensure that integration policies and service provision take account of the fact that many migrants will be in the UK for relatively short periods."

The report listed measures to encourage migrants to stay longer in the UK: extending schemes to encourage and help foreign students to find jobs here after they graduate; awarding extra points under the new points-based system to highly skilled migrants who are committed to staying in the UK longer term; simplifying processes for visa and work permit extensions, allowing skilled migrants to bring in their families more easily; and creating tax incentives.

Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said: "This report further demonstrates migrants come to the UK for a short period of time, work, contribute to the economy and then return home. Our new flexible points-based system gives us greater control on those coming to work or study from outside Europe, ensuring that only those that Britain need can come."

The report's authors say that with Britain in recession, the number of migrants arriving each year will either fall or 'at least stabilise'. They predict that over the next two years the number of migrants leaving Britain is likely to be around or above 200,000 and may remain above 150,000 for at least the next five years'.