I'm coming to work at a UK university from the US this summer, and I've been noticing a number of changes to the immigration system that it seems would have a profound impact on university hiring of academics outside the EU. In particular, the government plans to change regulations, effective April 1, in order to tighten regulations on who may work in the UK through the Tier 2 program (what used to be a work permit based visa). They are outlined here:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/migrantworkerstoughertestThere are two that strike me as having particular impact on universities:
1. "employers must advertise jobs to resident workers through JobCentre Plus before they can bring in a worker from outside Europe"
-I believe this adds an extra hurdle to hiring academics from outside Europe, but maybe I'm misinterpreting?
more importantly,
2. "The Home Secretary has also asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), chaired by Professor David Metcalf, to report on:
* whether there is an economic case for restricting tier 2 (skilled workers) to shortage occupations only;"
-Scuttlebutt on various discussion on immigration, etc, suggests that this is a very real possibility. In that case, UK universities would find it almost impossible to hire academics from outside Europe. More established scholars might qualify for Tier 1 visas, but people fresh from grad school probably would not qualify. Also, it is possible that this would affect those trying to renew their visas under Tier 2/work permit schemes.
I'm not asking for advice here as I still qualify for Tier 1, but I'm wondering if there has been any discussion about this at UK universities? I know everyone is probably already occupied with the recession, RAE, etc, but it does seem like the impact of these immigration changes on universities could be quite serious.
