Britain Needs to Welcome A New Point-Based Immigration System

Britain will soon accept immigrants only when they possess the right skills. An immigration system based on points is common to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and in the immediate future, it appears that Britain will join them. The election results in December will change the system and there is a possibility of Conservatives, under Boris Johnson, are in the right direction to get a comfortable victory. It will result in the UK to leave the EU in the New Year and also create a major economic impact away from problematic freedom of movement concerning the EU workers and the introduction of a system based on points.

All potential immigrants get their assessment depending on accumulated points, and their tally is based on skills, age, and education. Furthermore, the aim is allowing the entry on the ability of an applicant to match the requirements of a hosting country.

This scenario does not restrict immigration but leads to the arrival of many people in the county. Australia has a net migration of 8.6 citizens for its 1,000 inhabitants, which is large among the developed nations of the world, and Britain has four migrants per 1,000 citizens. Canada is ahead with a rate of 7.1/1,000; and the rate of New Zealand is similar to the UK.

This affects productivity and the OECD data states that these three countries gave a better performance in comparison to the UK for increasing the output calculated per worker.

By considering 2010 as 100, the average GDP of workers increased to 110 -Australia, 107 - Canada and 103 -New Zealand, and Britain stood at 102 while the OECD figure is 106. Grimly per head output had minimum growth in ten years. The figures for growth in  these countries show a fast growth than the UK in all years during the past decade.

The reason is the encouragement brought by the Freedom of movement of unskilled workers to the UK for the grounds of wage differentials. There are good earnings in jobs and the national living wage stands at £8.21 per hour. After considering the skilled professions, wages touch the global average. There are vast differences in the movement of several unskilled workers and this gives an incentive to them. Also, there is an unlimited supply of cheap labor; leading to the creation of businesses employing such people. The reason for opening additional coffee shops and car wash centers in the past decade, and of labor-intensive establishments is the availability of cheap labor. The productivity of these workers is low.

A system based on points gives a boost to productivity. There are major differences in the output of a person who is qualified and knows a language than a person serving coffee.

Many companies involved in service-sector, and having low productivity cannot keep going when access to cheap and unskilled workers is denied. Some of the businesses may also go bust. The nations operating on a system based on points, have high productivity growth and their economies expand rapidly. After making these adjustments the productivity in the UK will improve in a big way.