4 minute read
INTRODUCTION
Individuals with a certain set of skills – who can innovate, launch businesses and disrupt industries – are critically important to modern economies. The slowdown in innovation, ageing populations and a decade-long near stagnation of economic growth in advanced economies also show that the need for talent is not only obvious but also urgent.
That’s why most countries are on the lookout for talented individuals from all over the world to work and launch their enterprises on their soil. They not only need entrepreneurs but also world-leading professionals, promising researchers, talented engineers, students with high potential and other unusually gifted individuals. Such is the challenge ahead of us that in the bid to re-energise innovation, increase productivity and unleash growth, no stone can be left unturned.
Despite finding itself at the centre of numerous toxic political debates in recent years, immigration will be critical if we are to unlock economic prosperity. Thanks to the spread of technology and educational advances, talented people are now more evenly spread across the world than ever before – even if the opportunities to put that talent to use are not.
For that reason, we at The Entrepreneurs Network have been unashamedly making the case for immigration since our inception. With our Job Creators report, we revealed that while just 14 per cent of UK residents are foreign-born, 49 per cent of the UK’s fastest-growing businesses in 2019 had at least one foreign-born co-founder.1 This statistic has not gone unnoticed – and is something the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has often quoted when making the positive case for immigration. Our follow-up paper came in August 2023 and showed that 39 per cent of the fastest-growing firmst of that year also had foreign founders or co-founders.2 In Operation Innovation, we explained how immigration helps boost innovation and economic growth.3 Our Made in the UK report, published with the National Union of Students, revealed the potential of international students in making the UK a more entrepreneurial and richer society.4 And finally, in True Potential, we proposed a new pathway for enabling high potential individuals from across the world to build a life, a career and a business in the UK.5
Simply put, we believe talented individuals, no matter where they were born, can make the UK and indeed the world a better place if they are given the chance.
In this report, published in partnership with ABE Global, we sketch out what the world’s most pro-innovation migration system could look like. Truthfully, such is the ambition of the question we’ve set ourselves that giving a comprehensive answer is somewhat of an impossible exercise – and as such we don’t argue that we figured it all out. Rather, this report should be seen more as an exercise in showing where policymakers have been getting it right and how we can make it even better. Incremental wins at the margin can often be the most powerful, durable and actionable policies, not least in a topic area such as immigration.
In short, this report makes the positive case for migration. We begin with an examination of the state of the international economy – showing first that it is underperforming, before affirming that international migration can be of help.
The second chapter then focuses on how to enable migrants to move to new beginnings. Across five subsections, each devoted to a specific ‘group’ of migrants – students, high-skilled workers, scientists, students, high-skilled workers, scientists, unusually talented individuals and entrepreneurs – we look at international policies designed to attract newcomers, evaluate what they get right, understand where they fall short, and propose how to make things better.
Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to policymaking. Some countries can be attractive to potential migrants even if it seems like they are deliberately working hard to make life difficult for them. Conversely, some nations can adopt the best of the policies possible and fail to be regarded as a popular destination. In the end, migration policy cannot entirely remake economies, cultures or history. However, as our report will show, it can still have enormously impactful consequences if done right.
