UK journalist David Goodhart, the director of demography for the British think-tank Policy Exchange on January 31 issued a study advocating that Britain restrict unskilled migration to the country and subject European Union citizens to many of the same requirements as third countries such as Australia and India.
In a statement in conjunction with the report's release, Mr. Goodhart said, "A Brexit without a clear end to free movement in its current form is neither possible nor desirable as it was clearly one of the biggest single factors behind the Brexit vote. Whilst we welcome an end to freedom of movement, a good post-Brexit immigration deal should maintain a lot of continuity in the movement of people, especially for students and professionals, and we can open up several new temporary work routes. There's no reason for arrangements to change around tourists and students from the EU, but we do need to see a general reduction in the number of low skilled workers."
Over those 2 decades the UK has run a flexible labour growth model with high employment but low productivity requiring high immigration to boost GDP, ie Thatcher + liberal openness. Little incentive to invest in bottom end workers. Irony: Brexit allows more European growth model
— David Goodhart (@David_Goodhart) January 30, 2018
Currently Youth Mobility Scheme applies to 18-30 year olds from countries like Australia/Canada/Taiwan — in our new report, @David_Goodhart says this shd be extended to EU countries after #Brexit. Read it here: https://t.co/jSPb96rp2r pic.twitter.com/EVvyCk8mf2
— Policy Exchange (@Policy_Exchange) January 31, 2018
Mr. Goodhart's report also calls for the government to guarantee the status of the three million European nationals already living in Britain so as to protect the status of the nearly one million Britons resident in the EU itself. The Leave campaign was ultimately successful in the June 23 vote, with 51.81% and Remain at 48.11% of the vote. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty was invoked by the British Government on March 29 2017, giving the country almost exactly two years to negotiate its exit from the European bloc.
The report encourages the maintenance of visa free travel between the United Kingdom and European Union for tourists and students. It also suggests that the so-called "Youth Mobility Scheme" allowing 18-30-year-olds from mostly Commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada to work in Britain for two years should be extended to young workers from EU member states as well to encourage continuing skilled immigration.
According to the report, lower skilled British workers have been negatively affected by freedom of movement with Europe, as UK businesses sought to exploit cheap Eastern European labor at the expense of supporting domestic employment. Concerns over levels of immigration to the UK from EU countries was one of the most emotive and contentious issues in the 2016 EU membership campaign.
Since the 2016 referendum result, migration observers have noted sharp declines in the volumes of immigration from EU have fallen dramatically, particularly from what are called the "A8 countries," such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic as well as Romania and Bulgaria.
READ MORE: Time To Say Goodbye: EU Citizens' Farewell To Britain in Net Migration Plunge
