Boris Johnson's 'global talent visa'

Simon Jenkins published a very good piece in the Guardian the other day on the government's plans to introduce a 'global talent visa' next month.

The visa, in Boris Johnson's words, is aimed at attracting "the world's scientists and mathematicians" to work in the UK after Britain leaves the European Union in two days' time. The imperialistic connotations are not lost on Jenkins, who is worth quoting at some length:

By what right does Britain slam the door on “untalented” economic migrants from the world’s poorer countries, while boasting it will raid their reserves of scientific talent? The NHS already devastates the medical graduate pools of India and Africa. Now Britain is to poach whatever scientists they have left. This is aid-in-reverse: “soft power” at its crudest and most imperial.

There is no rhyme or reason to the new populism. It is driven by chauvinism and outdated cliches. Britain does not “need” more scientists. It needs what its employers will pay to recruit. A Tory government should accept that the labour market knows best. Britain’s economic performance – and its wider culture – has long benefited from immigrants, be they rich or poor at the point of entry. Turning them away makes no sense.

This isn't the only problem with Johnson's talent visa. If you accept the premise there is a skills shortage in the British sciences, then surely the best solution would be to give the UK's STEM graduates a reason to stick at it. Indeed, a 2018 joint-study into STEM graduates by the universities of Leicester and Warwick found that the problem wasn't a lack of numbers, but that only half of them ended up working in a job related to their course.

If Brexit does cause a brain drain in the sciences – and many fear it will – then it will become increasingly important to nurture the UK's young talent and make it worth their while to pursue STEM careers. This is especially true of the medical field and the NHS.