Immigration Law

UK'S IMMIGRATION POLICIES HELPING THEM OUT-COMPETE US

By Greg Siskind

Dartmouth business school dean Matthew Slaughter opines in today's Wall Street Journal that British companies have a huge advantage over their US counterparts because their immigration policies are not as restrictive.

Nonetheless, leading U.S. companies today are crying out for more immigrants to satisfy their talent needs. And they do so as globalization gives companies an ever-wider range of locations abroad in which to operate. Increasingly, talent needs that cannot be met in America can be met abroad -- much to the detriment of the U.S. economy. Bill Gates put this clearly in testimony to Congress last month: "many U.S. firms, including Microsoft, have been forced to locate staff in countries that welcome skilled foreign workers to do work that could otherwise have been done in the United States, if it were not for our counterproductive immigration policies."

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A recent McKinsey report surveyed hundreds of senior finance executives and found that their single most important concern was "availability of professional workers." One executive said, "It is much easier hiring talented people in the U.K. There are plenty of great people and I never have trouble getting them in because of immigration restrictions; I couldn't hire the team I need in the U.S. today."

And why is it easy to hire financial talent in London? Because the U.K. welcomes an unlimited supply of the world's best financial minds. Since 2004, the U.K. Highly Skilled Migrant Programme has maintained a list of the world's top 50 business schools. Anyone who earns an MBA from one of these schools is automatically eligible to work in the U.K. for at least one year.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).