Political flip-flopping is so commonplace that it’s a wonder manifestos are ever signed off or legislation passed. It can be terminal – just ask Mitt Romney about health care or Nick Clegg about tuition fees – though sometimes politicians or the parties they represent can get away with it.
Boris Johnson’s refusal to commit to cutting migration if (when) he is appointed party leader follows a long – and very recent – history of supporting immigrants and championing their contribution to our economy and society. He hasn’t betrayed the spirit of the referendum as Hunt protests: even the most ardent Leavers accept our departure must not represent a raising of the drawbridge to international talent.
For too long, increased caps on fees for international students, onerous regulations for the organisations that can endorse them to stay after graduating, and negative rhetoric have been a feature of our immigration policy. Our Job Creators study, released last week, strengthens the argument for scrapping the immigration target altogether and instead adopting a more open, forward-thinking approach.
Using analysis of SyndicateRoom’s Top 100 list, which identifies those companies which have seen the largest increase in value over the past three years, Job Creators reveals that while just 14 per cent of the UK population are immigrants, half of our fastest-growing businesses have at least one foreign-born co-founder. Nine of the UK’s 14 unicorns (startups with a valuation of $1bn or more) have at least one immigrant co-founder.
These entrepreneurs are transforming how we bank (Monzo, TransferWise) and eat (Gousto, Deliveroo). They are protecting our children in a technological world developing so fast that parents struggle to keep apace (SuperAwesome). They are making an outsized contribution to wealth and job creation.
As Jo Johnson MP writes in the report’s foreword, while successive governments have acknowledged public concern about levels of immigration, they have “failed to make the positive, evidence-based case for embracing foreign-born talent”. Without immigrants, he adds, we would not be such a dynamic nation of manufacturers, exporters, app designers, innovators and disruptors.
Perhaps immigrants are natural entrepreneurs, equipped with the tenacity and resilience to not only start up a life overseas but start up a business here too. Consider Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia. Born in Uganda, Sukhpal came to the UK as a teenager and spent his first year here in a refugee camp. The business he later started – Euro Car Parts – has grown to 300 sites across the UK and employs 12,000 people.
Article Source : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/07/22/immigrants-lifeblood-britains-entrepreneurial-spirit-need/