British graduates could lose out with UK immigration rules
August 27 2009 by Rebekah Nahai
Grads lose out with UK immigration rules
UK graduates could lose out on jobs under changes proposed for the UK immigration points-based system.
The changes would liberalise restrictions on intra-company transfers, which allow employees of multinational corporations to transfer to offices in different locations. Workers would be eligible for UK visas after only three months of employment, opening the scheme up to foreign graduates.
But a surge in foreign workers through intra-company transfers could jeopardise the job prospects of UK-educated graduates. Under the immigration changes, companies would be able to transfer employees from overseas without first advertising vacancies in the UK.
Intra-company transfers are particularly popular in the IT industry, where technology companies pay highly skilled employees in countries like India smaller salaries than their Western counterparts.
Ann Swain, chief executive of IT company APSCo, said UK immigration rules are already being exploited in the industry.
“The whole point of the scheme is to bring in senior staff with specialist knowledge or expertise not readily available in the UK,” she said. “Using the system to bring in graduates would be wrong-headed and illogical.”
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