Hostile environment for immigrants
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2019
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The attitude towards immigration in Europe and America is hardening under a wave of populist politics, and businesses are finding that despite labour shortages in many sectors, bringing workers in from abroad is becoming harder.
The BBC's Frey Lindsay reports from Stockholm on a phenomenon dubbed "talent expulsions" - highly skilled workers being ordered to leave the country because their paperwork is not perfectly in order.
A similarly bureaucratic approach has been taken in the UK, where it is dubbed the "hostile environment" for immigrants. Since the 2016 Brexit referendum some three million EU citizens suddenly find themselves subject to it. Dutch campaigner Monique Hawkins tells how she was told to leave the UK despite having lived there more than three decades. Meanwhile Danny Brooks of international recruitment firm Virtual Human Resources says UK businesses are already finding it much tougher to attract the talented employees they need.
We also get the view from Singapore. About half the city-state's residents are immigrants, after several decades of a successful pro-business immigration policy. We ask former diplomat Kishore Mahbubani what is the secret of his country's success.
Producer: Laurence Knight
(Picture: "Denied" rubber stamp; Credit: bankrx/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC with me, Manuela Salagossa. |
| 0:07.0 | In this edition, business wants open borders and immigration. |
| 0:10.9 | Much of Western politics at the moment doesn't. |
| 0:13.6 | Who loses out? |
| 0:14.5 | When I was around 30 weeks pregnant, I got a letter in the mail saying that I had to leave Sweden and I was just like, |
| 0:24.7 | ah, what? It's a headache too for some recruiters. It's a massive concern for skill |
| 0:31.1 | shortages in the UK and they need to be pragmatic about immigration. We need controlled immigration. |
| 0:37.3 | That's all coming up here in Business |
| 0:39.5 | Daily from the BBC. Immigration is the dominant issue in Western politics. From Italy to Hungary and |
| 0:49.4 | Austria, to Sweden, the UK and the US, politics is being defined by who should be allowed in and who should |
| 0:55.9 | stay out. It doesn't always sit comfortably, though, with the needs of business which wants a ready |
| 1:01.2 | and constant supply of labour. In the UK, where there are now more people in work than ever before, |
| 1:07.1 | there's a growing shortage of skilled workers in sectors such as healthcare, technology and engineering. |
| 1:13.3 | New Zealand too is facing a labour shortage. And in the US, hiring is at a record high, |
| 1:19.0 | but American businesses are struggling to find low-skilled workers in the construction and hospitality industries. |
| 1:25.3 | In a moment, we'll hear from a country that claims to be getting it |
| 1:28.3 | right while remaining amongst the freest economies in the world. But first, to Sweden, where |
| 1:33.8 | there aren't enough qualified workers to fill jobs in the tech and IT sectors. Despite that, |
| 1:39.3 | many high-skilled migrants there are seeing their work permit extensions rejected on the basis of small administrative |
| 1:45.7 | errors. It's a phenomenon that's even acquired its own name, known as talent expulsions. |
| 1:53.4 | Frey Lindsay reports. |
| 1:57.9 | Nimra and Jamshed live in northern Stockholm with their young son. |
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