{"id":4954,"date":"2019-11-28T15:55:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T15:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=4954"},"modified":"2021-05-06T11:40:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T10:40:07","slug":"end-of-free-movement-a-perfect-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/end-of-free-movement-a-perfect-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"End of free movement: a perfect storm?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As political parties on all sides debate the issues of immigration and the end of Free Movement as part of the Brexit-fuelled General Election, Dr Karen Thomas and Dr Julie Scott explore how robust evidence is increasingly vital to businesses lobbying for the conditions conducive to future growth.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nBrexit continues to dominate the political narrative, the debates surrounding\nimmigration and the likely effects of the end of Free Movement on the country\u2019s\nlabour market have loomed ever larger. \nThe launch of the Migration Advisory Committee\u2019s (MAC) Report in\nSeptember 2018, and the subsequent Immigration White Paper in December 2018,\nwith their emphasis on prioritising \u2018highly skilled\u2019 and \u2018skilled\u2019 labour\nmigration has sharpened the focus of debate on the likely shape of the UK\u2019s\nimmigration system after the end of Free Movement.  In particular, the proposal to impose a\n\u00a330,000 per annum minimum salary threshold on foreign workers entering the UK has\nprovoked alarm across a range of economic sectors, from tourism and hospitality\nto agriculture, higher education and the creative industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representations to Government have been successful in prompting an official rethink, and the MAC was recommissioned to consider new evidence under the terms of the Salary Threshold and Points-Based System Commission. Its report is due in the New Year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, and\nthe complex arena of \u2018voices\u2019 all attempting to influence the narrative and\nreporting of policy debates, robust evidence is paramount in ensuring that the\nfuture immigration system will reflect the varying conditions and needs\nprevailing in diverse economic sectors, and in different parts of the country.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recently launched report \u2013 A Perfect Storm? The end of free movement and its impact on the UK tourism workforce <\/em>\u2013undertaken by the Tourism and Events Hub<\/em> at Canterbury Christ Church University, for the leading travel trade association UKinbound, <\/em>sought to cut through the \u2018noise\u2019 and uncertainty of the Brexit negotiations. Its aim was to provide evidence-based research to help inform UKinbound and other organisations within the tourism and hospitality sector, in their response to consultations over the future immigration policy for the UK post-Brexit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the core of the research is a key critical question: In an important growth sector, already suffering from skills gaps, and recruitment\/retention issues, what are the potential implications of restricting the pipeline of EU workers via a nationwide skills-based immigration policy focusing on \u2018highly skilled\u2019 and \u2018skilled\u2019 workers?<\/em>  EU workers have been widely reported as a vital labour pool for tourism and hospitality businesses, but our research went further to demonstrate that the national reporting of the reliance of the sector on EU nationals masks the realities of many tourism and hospitality businesses in terms of scale of reliance.  The research also uncovered significant variations in sub-sectoral, occupational and regional experiences. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The\nresearch examines a number of underlying assumptions at the heart of a national\none-size fits all immigration policy.  In\nthe process, it sheds additional light on the extent to which these meet the\nneeds of a sector that is heavily reliant on EU workers, where the picture of\nskills needs is complex, and the distinction between \u2018high-level\u2019 and\n\u2018low-level\u2019 skills, which have taken centre stage in the current immigration\ndebate, has little relevance to the reality of the skills gaps and skills\nshortages across the sector.  Regional\nand sub-regional differences are critical, and the picture of significant geographical\nvariations in business activities helps to identify key \u2018hotspots\u2019 where particularly\nhigh concentrations of tourism and hospitality businesses mean that impacts\nwill be felt, not only by business, but also on growth in the wider regional\nand sub-regional economy.  As a result of\nthe evidence, UKinbound is calling for: language skills to be added to the Shortage\nOccupation List; any salary threshold to consider regional variations; and further\nmonitoring, with quarterly independent reviews to ensure tourism sectors are\nnot adversely affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set against the ebb and flow of the immigration debate and the wider Brexit negotiations, currently being played out in an increasingly crowded arena, this report reinforces the need for robust research to provide industry leaders with the evidence needed to engage effectively with an ever more complex immigration consultation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the research report here > <\/em><\/strong>A Perfect Storm? The impact of the end of Free Movement on the UK tourism workforce<\/em><\/strong><\/a> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A Perfect Storm? The impact of the end of Free Movement on the UK tourism workforce\u2019 report was launched by <\/em><\/strong>UKinbound<\/em><\/strong><\/a> in October.  The <\/em><\/strong>Tourism and Events Hub<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, at Canterbury Christ Church University was commissioned by UKinbound to undertake and deliver the research.  Its report authors are Dr Karen Thomas, Dr Julie Scott, Dr Jim Butcher, Dr Daniel O\u2019Donoghue and Dr Lorna Thomas.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Karen Thomas is Director of the Tourism and Events Hub and Senior Lecturer in the School of Human Life Sciences. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As political parties on all sides debate the issues of immigration and the end of Free Movement as part of the Brexit-fuelled General Election, Dr Karen Thomas and Dr Julie Scott explore how robust evidence is increasingly vital to businesses lobbying for the conditions conducive to future growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151654,"featured_media":4958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3902,1189],"tags":[54,3154,450,3150,1649,3161,166,1882,1210,3165,3158],"class_list":["post-4954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-tourism","tag-brexit","tag-canterbury-christ-church-university","tag-eu","tag-free-movement","tag-general-election","tag-language-skills","tag-politics","tag-research","tag-tourism","tag-tourism-industry","tag-ukinbound"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Emma Grafton-Williams","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2019\/11\/Brexit-pixabay.jpg","postExcerpt":"As political parties on all sides debate the issues of immigration and the end of Free Movement as part of the Brexit-fuelled General Election, Dr Karen Thomas and Dr Julie Scott explore how robust evidence is increasingly vital to businesses lobbying for the conditions conducive to future growth.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7137,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions\/7137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}