Today the Institute of Directors (IoD) publishes a new report on migrant workers which finds that there is considerable agreement from business leaders that migrant workers provide a vital boost to the UK economy. Three-quarters of IoD members support the view that migrant workers make a significant positive contribution to the UK economy.
IoD members report that migrant workers significantly outperform the existing workforce across a whole range of measures including productivity, education & skills, work ethic, reliability and the amount of sick leave.
IoD members are very supportive of encouraging immigration into the UK, in order to alleviate skills shortages and widen the labour pool for employers. 65% of IoD members want to encourage immigration for this reason, whereas 22% do not.
By a ratio of almost two to one IoD members also support a policy of total freedom of movement of labour within the EU. 57 per cent of IoD members support such a policy, whilst 30 per cent are against.
Business leaders do however have serious doubts about the Government’s performance over immigration policy. Only 13 per cent of IoD members think the Government has an effective immigration policy, whereas 73 per cent think it is ineffective.
Whilst the IoD membership clearly displays a liberal worldview on immigration, it is by no means unrestrained either. IoD members wish to see various limits on the immigration process: They overwhelmingly disagree with the view that immigration should be completely unrestricted. 80 per cent of IoD members disagree with the view that there should be ‘no obvious upper limit’ to immigration.
Miles Templeman, Director General of the Institute of Directors said:
““As demonstrated by our survey, migrant workers provide a vital boost to the UK economy. It also, more than we expected, shows that migrant workers outperform across a whole range of measures including productivity, education and skills, work ethic, reliability and the amount of sick leave. Immigration however, should not be left unrestricted and should be controlled on a skills basis.
“It also confirms the Leitch report recommendation, that in a global economy, the UK workforce has got to raise its game on skills and performance.”
ENDS
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Notes to editors
- GKK/NOP surveyed IoD 500 members in December 2006.
- The IoD (Institute of Directors) was founded in 1903 and obtained a Royal Charter in 1906. The IoD is a non-party political organisation with upwards of 52,000 members in the United Kingdom and overseas. Membership includes directors from right across the business spectrum – from media to manufacturing, e-business to the public and voluntary sectors. Members include CEOs of large corporations as well as entrepreneurial directors of start-up companies.
· The IoD offers a wide range of business services which include business centre facilities (including ten UK regional centres [three in London, Reading, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Belfast] and one each in Paris and Brussels), conferences, networking events, issues-led guides and literature, as well as free access to business information and advisory services and a comprehensive Information Centre. The IoD places great emphasis on director development and has established a certified qualification for directors - Chartered Director - as well as running specific board-level and director-level training and individual career mentoring programmes.
- In addition, the IoD provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its members to government and key opinion-formers at the highest levels. These include ministers, constituency MPs, Select Committee members and senior civil servants. IoD policies and views are actively promoted to the national, regional and trade media.
- For further information, visit our website: www.iod.com