This is not a drill. This is happening for real now. This coming Friday, January 31st, 2020, the United Kingdom starts the transition period to leave the EU. After 3.5 years of uncertainty on whether this might actually happen, on December 31st, 2022, the UK will officially be out of the EU. Funny enough, the Brexit campaign was based on vilifying immigrants, but anyone who has ever emigrated can tell you that migrants might be the only ones with the skills to navigate the tough times ahead. Adapting to this new reality is going to take a lot of resilience and a lot of sacrifices.
Leaving the EU means closing the borders to free movement. The Government has introduced a points system for those who want to immigrate to the UK as of 2021, which is being advertised by saying that the UK wants to welcome “talent from around the world while reducing low-skilled migrants.” The PM also added that “the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world.”
Admittedly, if the country is closing the borders as of 2021, a migration system needs to be put in place. But all those words that are being used like “most talented minds” and “reducing low-skilled migrants” send a clear message: the immigrants that we have nowadays are low-quality, and we need better ones. We want diversity, but we want it our way.
Defining what “most talented” and “low-skilled” mean will have a significant impact on many industries, including the Creative Industries. Lately, one of the criteria used to filter out the wrong type of immigration has become very controversial.
Currently, most skilled workers from outside the EU coming to the UK must have a job paying at least £30,000 a year. If nothing changes, this threshold will also apply to EU immigrants as of 2021. When you look around you, you might think that these low-skilled immigrants occupy jobs like cleaning staff, caregivers, security guards, to name a few.
The reality is that many skilled jobs nowadays, especially in the Creative Industries, don’t make it to the threshold either. The Creative Industries rely heavily on freelance workers, and according to a study conducted by Glassdoor, the average freelancer in this industry makes less than £30,000 a year.
I’ve written extensively about how the Creative Industries contribute to the economy of the country. One of the secrets of such success is the creative immigrants who come to enrich the industry. If we filter out those creatives, we would not only weaken one of the pillars of the UK economy and the UK branding across the world, but we would also leave many a position unfilled.
Some might think that it is an opportunity for UK nationals to have access to those jobs. Still, a study by the Creative Industries Federation shows that a third of creative business agree that there aren’t enough young people interested in creative careers in the UK. So, with these immigration regulations, we will not only have fewer people to fill those positions, but also the people available would only speak among themselves and not receive valuable influences from people from other parts of the world.
And this is only within the Creative Industries. Now take those figures and think about the whole of the UK economy. There aren’t enough UK nationals to do those jobs. Either because there aren’t enough UK nationals in the first place, or because they are not prepared, or they are not willing to do those types of jobs.
From freelance photographers like myself to multimillion-pound productions of the likes of Game of Thrones, being labelled as a creative from the UK makes us a referent around the world and adds immensely to our brands. And that reputation comes from the diversity of our industry. Why would anyone want to change that?
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