Standing up to the mob

Immigration has been a divisive political issue throughout my lifetime and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Few weeks go by without extensive newspaper and television coverage of it, often conducted in inflammatory language. The underlying presumption behind the great bulk of such media stories is that immigration is a problem and action is required to tackle it.

Yet when I put down the tabloid newspapers, switch off the radio or TV and look at migration from a construction perspective, I see a different picture. First, I am conscious of the global context in which the industry works: successful companies compete internationally to recruit the skilled employees they need. Built environment consultancies that tried to meet their skills needs from staff recruited solely in the UK would find themselves out of business very rapidly in a market where national boundaries are increasingly irrelevant.

Second, I am equally aware that the construction industry has been enjoying unprecedented and sustained demand in recent years. That demand could only be met with migrant labour, particularly from eastern Europe. Without the Poles, many of our recent construction projects would never have been built or would have been finished at massively greater cost.

Looking at the issue from this perspective, migration is a necessary and largely beneficial element in a properly functioning modern economy. Of course we could and should do more to train and develop the workface in the UK. But even if we are successful in expanding dramatically the number of youngsters recruited and trained here to meet the industry’s projected needs, there will always be additional requirements that will have to be met from overseas, either to fill specific skills gaps or in response to unexpected surges in demand and activity in particular sectors of the economy. So migration is likely to play a continuing role in ensuring the success of UK construction.

In many respects the process is of mutual benefit. Yet the public will rarely see such an upbeat presentation of immigration in its daily newspapers

Nor is the process positive only for the importing country. We are now seeing a reverse trend, with many eastern Europeans who have worked here in recent years leaving to take advantage of the developing opportunities in their home country. They will take back with them not just the money they have earned, but also the new skills and confidence necessary to establish businesses and advance their careers. This in turn will help to sustain the growing economies of eastern Europe. So in many respects the process is of mutual benefit.

Yet the British public will rarely if ever see such an upbeat presentation of immigration in its daily newspapers or other news media.

Is this schizophrenic approach inevitable? Will we continue to recruit migrants to meet the needs of our own companies while at the same time concurring with the presumption that immigration is a problem when we are having a pint in the local after work? Or can we find a more mature and balanced approach to this thorny issue?

The government has been trying to square the circle by adopting a points-based approach to applicants from outside the EU. Only those with skills in areas defined as being in short supply among the indigenous workforce will be eligible for work permits. Although there is some logic to this, it suffers from two disadvantages. There will always be disputes about the particular groups defined as being in short supply. And there will be a time lag because bureaucratic systems can rarely respond quickly to changing circumstances. However conscientious and thorough the appraisals made by the advisory panel, there will always be hard cases where the categories approved do not fully reflect today’s demand pressures on site.

At least a points-based system recognises that migration makes a necessary and positive contribution to a successful modern economy

However, despite all these likely downsides, these new arrangements at least have the merit of recognising that migration makes a necessary and positive contribution to a successful modern economy. If this message is not to be swamped by the remorselessly negative presentation of immigration issues in much of the national media and by too many politicians, then it will require wider endorsement.

Above all it will require those with practical experience of the increasingly global context in which we are operating to put our heads above the parapet when the controversy is raging.