Blog: Immigration - where will we get the workers?

The Panel: Rachel Cunliffe (comment and features editor, City AM), Fawzi Ibrahim (national officer, Trade Unionists Against the EU), Alexander Metcalfe (policy lead for employment and pensions, Federation of Small Businesses), Marley Morris (senior research fellow, Institute for Public Policy Research) and Hilary Salt (actuary; founder, First Actuarial).

The immigration debate is highly controversial in the post-Brexit world.  

An excellent debate was achieved through a careful balance of Remainer and Brexiteer presence from several sectors. 

The session opened with a succinct overview from each speaker, several of which willingly shared their Brexit stance and others were more subtle, leaving it open for the audience to interpret based on their optimism, or lack of. 
 
Rachel Cunliffe outlined that while many Brexiteers and other UK residents call for stricter border control and speak highly of Australia’s firm regulations on immigration; Australia actually has three times more net migration per capita than the UK. Rachel believes that it is not an issue of numbers, but instead the countries desire to feel in control of their borders.
 
Another key point was the worrying realisation that every previous industrial revolution prior to this has created, not destroyed jobs. However, the threat from automation is becoming more and more apparent and while we could see this as a positive to reduce the labour input we struggle to recruit, there also exists a worry that the question in the not too distant future may be ‘Where will we get the jobs?’. 

Fawzi had controversial yet strong views that countries should be protective of their ‘home grown’ expertise, stating that the UK should invest more into their education system. 

It was universally acknowledged in the room that the labour crisis does not stem from only one question, dividing the need for high skilled and low skilled workers into two separate debates. 

Hilary spoke her views on how low productivity has recently been ‘fetishised’; people seek ‘hand crafted’ goods and that the entire industry needs a ‘shake up’. She encouraged heavy investment into the younger generation and made particular reference to the agricultural and horticultural sector being ‘ripe’ for automation. 

Agriculture was acknowledged on several occasions, with several panelists identifying the lack of desire from UK residents to work in certain positions.