Banker visas are good but don’t forget baristas
IT’S difficult to know whether to cheer or cry. This paper has been told that the Government is considering a special “City visa”, so foreigners can go on working in our financial services industry. It’s a bit like hearing the good news that someone who has shot themselves in the foot has gone to the chemist to buy some bandages.
Britain’s home as the global centre of financial services depends on it being a place that welcomes talent from across Europe and the world. But the overriding message these talented people, and the firms that employ them, have heard in the past year is that foreigners are no longer welcome. That small, elite group who describe themselves as free-market pro-immigration Brexiteers might protest, but consider this: the Prime Minister has publicly called citizens of the world citizens of nowhere, a message that was heard everywhere.
Twelve months on from our referendum, the immigration status of Europeans already working in finance in the UK remains unclear — entirely due to the pigheadedness of Downing Street, which could resolve the issue at a stroke. Meanwhile, there is no information at all about the immigration arrangements for the workforce that banks, insurers and law firms might want to bring here in the future. That — and our determination to withdraw from the single market —is why countries like Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and now, especially, President Macron’s France, are falling over themselves to roll out the “tapis rouge”. They have notched up early successes — US giant Citibank announced this week it is moving operations out of London and creating a European sales and trading hub in Frankfurt. Sadly, many more will follow.
News that Britain is considering introducing a special financial services visa might help stem the flow. We hope it does, but fear it won’t. The new protectionist arrangements we are imposing, which prevent UKoriginated financial products being freely sold in Europe, remain a huge obstacle, and most will treat promises to legislate for new bankers visas in this hung parliament with scepticism. It also poses the bigger question: what about all the other sectors of the economy that need a supply of labour from abroad but lack the loud voice of finance? What about the restaurant staff, computer programmers, care workers, delivery riders, farm workers, architects and nurses? One thing we know about central government is that it has almost no clue what the labour demands of an open free market economy will be in the years ahead.
So we will support any efforts to apply the Band-Aid to our self-imposed wounds — but shouldn’t we consider not pulling the trigger in the first place, and go on having an immigration system that welcomes the hard-working of the world — whether they are bankers or baristas?