The UK is cutting the wrong kind of migration

Populists galore presumably shouted “hooray!” in unison. Our Prime Minister patted himself on the back.

This is just the latest expression of the erosion in our politics and society of complexity and debate, as we decline towards a state lacking any sense of data analytics and evidence-based policymaking. Migration is either good or bad. Tax, AI, regulation – all colourless dividing lines.

Our inability to apply any nuance to the migration debate, in particular, is going to sting all those hooray-ing and back-patting. Because if you look just below the surface, the picture is bleak: the number of visas being issued each year to science, research, engineering, and technology professionals has been slashed by 63% since 2022. At the same time, a quarter of STEM employers saw talent leave for roles overseas last year.

We’re digging our own hole through which our STEM brains are draining at the very moment we need those smart men and women most to drive innovation, and ultimately growth, in our economy – the lack of which has arguably been a major contributor to the populist agenda for which this self-harm is now being conducted to appease.

The irony is multiplied yet further by the fact that those amongst us who are so passionately anti-migration likely have a different sort of person in mind than the young, talented, and high-tax-paying kind of people we’re now shunning.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics brains aren’t just critical to our success in AI. They start and staff startups driving innovation in fields as diverse as quantum, battery technology, and renewables, all areas where we should be chasing a lead.

Their utility, for want of a kinder word, goes further still. They’re huge contributors to our increasingly tech-oriented professional and financial services sectors, which make up a combined 12% of the UK’s economic output.

We want to be a world-leader in AI, and we need to be leaders in renewables and nuclear. Reports suggest the City’s financial services are once again burgeoning after a post-Brexit slowdown. To create and to further successes in all of these areas requires top-tier STEM talent – and as much of it as we can get our hands on.

Yet this talent is moving abroad, and we’re turning away incoming talent. Because our politics has no room for nuance beyond headline figures, our leaders seem unable to communicate the positive case for the migration we need.

I’ve previously called in for a 10-year visa programme for foreign students graduating in the UK in STEM subjects. Not only did this fall on deaf ears, but we’ve moved further in the wrong direction. I can only hope we change course soon.

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Ewan Kirk is a Non-Executive Director at BAE Systems,  Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge, and the Chairman of Deeptech Labs.

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