For me, the main question at today’s Universities UK debate on immigration was the extent to which universities’ plans for growth in international recruitment – both student and staff – can be squared with government efforts to bring down net migration to below 100,000.
Glyn Williams, speaking for the Home Office, asked what the sector’s long term projections were, and called for discussion about what might be an acceptable level: Half a million? 1 million? 2 million?
Responding from the floor Shaun Curtis, Director of International Affairs at the University of Exeter put the question best: Does this mean government quotas for international students? On quality criteria? On what basis?
In response, Martin Ruhs of the Migration Observatory made the very sensible point that part of the background to public concern about immigration stems from a feeling that it is running out of control. Building public awareness of growth plans could help with that.
His presentation contained two killer facts.
Number one: because students are largely temporary migrants, any short term gain achieved by government in restricting numbers coming into the country will be offset in time by a decrease in migrants leaving the UK. He called this the net migration ‘bounce’. If the government wants a long-term reduction in net migration, they should focus on policies that restrict groups of people who are likely to stay.
Number two: international students are the category the public are least concerned about.
It’s clear though that universities are squarely in the ‘migration game’ as Glyn Williams put it. And, as Keith Vaz MP pointed out, it’s a game that is basically all about numbers.
Student migration is now the biggest visa category, and growing fast. The Home Office will increasingly be focusing on universities.
We must do much more than we have done in the past to produce evidence to convince ministers, and the public, of the economic case to give universities room to grow.
This morning’s debate on immigration will shortly be available on the Universities UK website.
Meanwhile, join the debate on twitter #HigherEdImmigration
Thanks for this post. I’d add that it’s important, if not urgent, to advocate for the rights of “those who are likely to stay” too. Whilst it is important to debunk the myth that the majority of international students stay or want to stay longer, it is equally important to demonstrate the value that international postgraduates that stay longer bring to the UK economy and the UK life in general.
The proto-criminalisation of non-EU skilled immigrants needs to be stopped. All immigrants are human beings, lives affected by other lives and affecting other lives. Students are more than students: they also fall in love, develop relationships, grow up, acquire social, professional and emotional commitments, have dreams and aspirations, make contributions to all aspects of social life. The subset of non-EU international students who stay on post-study work visas or with spouse leaves to remain might be minimal, but once again each of us are human beings, often with close and extended family members who are British. This is why the debate needs to be qualitative and not only quantitative, and it needs to looke at all the subtleties of the problem. It’s not only finances or the healthy societal development of British life, but human rights in general what is also at stake.
you are quite right about criminalisation. Take your point more generally. This is a danger of getting locked into a narrow numbers debate with the Home Office….During yesterday’s debate Eric Thomas was very insistant on the wider contribution that international students make to our national cultural and intellectual life too… its not all about the economics.
It might not be quite true to say that of international students are the category the public are least bothered about. This may not be especially the case for those people in the United Kingdom looking for the same kind of part-time jobs which these international students take up. In many areas of London, especially east London, international students make up for a large community. They are not absent from the public view. Many of the small and large retail stores, restaurants and fast food joints are occupied by international students working part-time. They are very hard-working people and this is one of the reason for the increasing uptake in jobs which are lost out to the locals.