Scrap the cap for teachers, engineers and doctors?

Public opinion on immigration may be softening towards talented overseas workers, according a recent survey of over a thousand adults.

Nearly half of those questioned by Ipsos MORI said they believed the Tier 2 migrant cap, which limits the amount of skilled foreign migrants who are permitted to work in the UK, should exclude specific professions.

This report came after the Campaign for Science and Engineering obtained Home Office figures showing that 6,000 requests for Tier 2 visas were declined in the four months to March this year.

The vacancies they were due to fill included 197 teaching positions; 1,226 jobs in IT and technology, 392 engineering posts and a request for over a thousand doctors.

In addition, almost half (49 per cent) of the adults who were contacted thought that UK companies ought to be free to recruit as many engineers as their business needed.

48 per cent of those surveyed agreed that vital gaps in the education system should be enhanced by teachers from overseas. Three-quarters of 18-34 years old polled were keen to make doctors exempt from the monthly allocation limit. They went on to suggest that more Tier 2 visas should be issued to meet the ongoing deficit of trained staff within NHS trusts.

However, one in five respondents accepted the cap of 20,700 a year at its present level, and nine per cent proposed that the Home Office grant fewer visas.

Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI said, ‘Even though most people want overall levels of immigration reduced, Britons have for a long time held different attitudes when it comes to skilled workers, and at a time when public concern about the NHS is high, this may be especially acute.’

Yesterday the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, kept up the pressure on the Prime Minister, urging her to think again about the immigration target which she claims ‘has never been met and does not fit the requirements of the country.’

Speaking in Glasgow, Davidson said: ‘Setting an immigration target reduced to the tens of thousands is one thing when unemployment is running over 8%. Refusing to review it when the country nears full employment and sectors are reporting skills shortages is quite another.

‘Even if that target were to stay, I see no reason why overseas students should be included within the numbers counted,‘ she added.