Youth mobility is a good start - but Britain’s immigration system still needs a business reset
21 May 2025, 08:22
The UK’s new agreement with the EU, and the announcement that both sides will ‘work towards’ a Youth Mobility Scheme, marks an encouraging moment of re-engagement after years of post-Brexit tension.
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But for UK businesses, it’s not just a diplomatic milestone—it’s a practical counterweight to a tightening immigration system.
Just last week, the UK government’s Immigration White Paper laid out sweeping reforms: a higher skills threshold for work visas, tougher language requirements, and a 10-year wait for settlement.
These changes aim to reduce net migration, but they also reduce flexibility and increase costs for employers.
For already-stretched sectors like hospitality, construction, and social care, where shortages are deep and training pipelines are long, there are few quick fixes. In this context, a well-designed youth mobility scheme offers real value.
British businesses have long benefited from similar schemes with countries like Australia and Canada. These routes are reciprocal, time-limited, and don't add to long-term migration figures.
For employers needing seasonal, flexible, early-career talent, they could provide vital breathing room—if they’re simple and fast to access.
But we should be clear: youth mobility isn’t a silver bullet. It is one piece of a broader mobility toolkit that the UK urgently needs to modernise.
International students, meanwhile, may view the current system as increasingly transactional. The White Paper reduces the Graduate Route from two years to 18 months, and the government has signalled it may soon require job relevance to qualify.
That’s a far cry from the UK’s previous position as a top destination for global graduates—and risks eroding one of the country’s most successful export sectors.
For the public, there are welcome signs of progress. Wider access to eGates for UK travellers, the return of pet passports, and reduced border friction are small but symbolic shifts.
Business travellers will benefit too, especially if smoother processes are extended to short-term service visits.
If the government is serious about managing net migration while enabling business to grow, it should also revisit how we use visit visas. Currently, business visitors face tight restrictions on what they can do without a work visa.
Many global companies struggle to bring in staff for short, high-value tasks—training, project work, client meetings—because the system is too rigid.
Business visitors don’t settle or draw on public services—they contribute. Expanding short-term mobility—alongside youth mobility—would help businesses respond to real-world needs without increasing long-term migration.
Youth mobility is a welcome start. But let’s use this “reset” moment to build a smarter system overall: one that controls where it must, enables where it can, and recognises that economic growth requires people to move—if only temporarily and not just as youths.
Nadine Goldfoot is the Managing Partner at the global immigration law firm Fragomen.
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