Business is having a significant effect on the Government’s immigration
policy and HR needs to be at the forefront of approaching change, claimed the
UK Race and Europe Network at a conference in London earlier this month.
It is due to release a report called Immigration Policy: The Business of
Business?, which sets out why business interests have emerged as key to the
debate on immigration in recent years.
Don Flynn, coordinator of the UK Race and Europe Network, said, "People
in HR should be looking very closely at developments in government policy and
European policy on immigration which are coming in the next few months. This
will set the foundations of a radical new approach to immigration issues, and
HR needs to be at the start of this next stage to make sure that the interest
of companies are properly represented."
The report is based on research carried out by Gil Robinson at the
University of North London Business School. He quotes Personnel Today’s
Refugees in Employment campaign extensively in the report.
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"Personnel Today has been headlining a number of cases where refugees
and asylum-seekers who possess skills and have been offered work by employers
but have been unable to accept these offers because of red tape generated by
government departments," it says.
These views are supported by many lawyers working for companies employing
migrant workers who argue that refugees’ skills are being wasted in a time of
skills shortages, the report adds.
