Ippr’s report calls for changes to the points-based system and citizenship framework

A new report by the leading independent think tank ippr says that the UK Government should take impacts on developing nations into account when designing UK immigration policy. But rather than focusing on the potential negative impacts on developing countries through brain drain, migration policy should also consider the potential benefits of migration to sending nations such as remittances.

The report, called “Development: Do points mean prizes?” says there are arguments for increasing the freedom of movement to migrants between the UK and their home countries for both skilled and low skilled workers. Where countries like Australia and New Zealand have implemented such policies, the evidence shows that this can lead to significant improvement in the lives of the migrants as well as the poor communities they leave behind. The report argues that these steps should be taken now while the Points Based System (PBS) is being established.

The study suggests three positions the Government could take while still meeting its own migration policy objectives.

The first one is “Do no harm”. While every effort should be made to maximise benefits to the UK, any migration policy should also ensure that no part of that policy should be harmful to development objectives. This might involve decisions about migration policy being tested against its impact on international development.

The second is “Development as an added benefit of migration policy”. While the primary focus of any migration policy should be on maximising benefits to the UK, international development should be a second order objective. Recruitment of necessary workers could then be subject to international development considerations.

The third position is “International development as part of the UK migration policy framework”. This would mean migration policy being set taking account of both UK and international development objectives. Relative impacts would be considered where there are trade offs, so for example introducing a policy which might sacrifice some small degree of benefit to the UK but represent a significant gain to development.

The report recommends being ambitious and moving beyond option one - 'Do no harm'. It calls for changes to the points-based system and citizenship framework to enhance flexibility and allow migrants more freedom to move back and forth between the UK and their places of origin. It argues this would be a simple way to facilitate return migration, circular migration and strong migrant links with their countries of origin.

The report author Laura Chappell said: “Our analysis shows that trying to reduce skilled migration from developing countries to the UK may actually be bad for development in many circumstances. It is imperative that policymakers instead of seeing the movement of skilled workers as 'the brain drain problem' focus on ways to shape migration by working with migrants rather than against them. This means seeing migrants as agents of development capable of making active contributions to their country of origin.”

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