Immigrants’ critical role in supporting the UK’s startups could be in jeopardy due to continually prohibitive policies, new research urges.

The Entrepreneurs Network  (TEN) have studied the number of immigrants contributing to the UK’s startup sector across the years, noting their disproportionate contribution to some of the UK’s top performing startups.

While less than 15% of the UK population is foreign born, over a third (39%) of founders of the UK’s 100 fastest-growing companies are foreign-born, according to their most recent survey.

However, recently adopted immigration policies have made the UK a more difficult economy to enter as a business starter or worker.

New visa policies, with higher salary entry requirements and restrictions on dependents, as well as proposals to scrap the Graduate Route visa programme, have damaged the UK’s reputation as an attractive country to work.

Brexit coming into full force means that most Europeans will require a work visa, which requires fees on behalf of the employer and employee. Coupling this with higher salary fees and making it more difficult for workers to bring over dependents, the UK may struggle to attract skilled workers, the paper argues.

While other competitive countries, including the US, Canada, Germany, and China reformed their policies to attract skilled workers into their country, the UK has taken a more stringent stance.

Though the UK did introduce the High Potential Individual visa, which would allow graduates from the world’s top universities to work in the UK for up to two years, the government is reportedly looking at reforms that would make it more difficult for foreign graduates of the country’s own universities to stay and work in the UK.

Further, TEN argues that “the failure to distinguish skilled migration and illegal immigration has plunged individuals and businesses into policy uncertainty.”

TEN therefore has provided several recommendations to reform the UK immigration system to benefit UK startups.

1. Reform Eligibility Thresholds to Support Startups

New visa salary requirements are prohibitively high, which may drive many workers into the hands of more successful large corporations which can afford the salary hike, over innovative smaller startups.

Further, the new entrant visa allowance, which allows workers a visa on a lower salary threshold, should be extended so that new entrants do not lose their ability to work after two years if their company cannot afford the rise in visa salary requirements.

They also recommend that academic institutions should have different visa salary requirements in order to retain and attract foreign academic excellence.

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2. Harness the Immigration Salary List

The Immigration Salary List provides a list of in-demand occupations where workers can be paid less and still receive a visa, with discounted visa fees.

TEN recommends that the new Labour government harness this list to strengthen the UK’s tech and financial services sectors, as well as the green energy sector.

“The new Government should see immigration as an essential part of industrial policy and use the Immigration Salary List as a lever to help achieve its goals,” the report read.

3. Youth Mobility Schemes

The UK has a number of youth mobility schemes with Commonwealth countries and other nations allowing for 18-30-year-olds to live and work in the country for two years.

TEN recommends the government extends these visas to a number of countries including the EU and the US, recognising how Brexit has dampened the UK’s ability to attract European talent, and acknowledging the influence of US immigrants on the UK’s startup success.

4. Lower Visa Fees for High-Skilled Immigrants

Visa costs in the UK have rise by over 129% since 2019, and are consistently higher than peer countries, the report noted.

The Immigration Health Surcharge also rose significantly, introducing another economic hinderance for immigrants looking to work in the UK.

TEN recommends lowering both to make it easier for companies to hire foreign workers, and for foreign workers to be more attracted to coming to the UK.