Migrants are key to future for business

Published on Tuesday 25 March 2008 21:48

SKILLED migrant workers in Scotland are set to bring £2.4 billion to the UK economy over the next four years, a report by a recruitment agency has claimed.

The Future Flows report compiled for Harvey Nash by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has predicted that Scotland will host around 26,000 migrant workers over the period – making up 3 per cent of the UK total.

The workers, who are likely to be employed in industries such as financial services and IT, will mainly come from the European Union, including new accession states such as Romania and Bulgaria.

In addition to filling and creating jobs, CEBR also forecasts that spending by migrant workers will bring 13bn to the Scottish economy by 2012.

Harvey Nash's chief executive, Albert Ellis, said: "Skills are critical to the UK economy, but critically lacking in our current workforce. Far from undermining the UK labour market, migration is vital to future economic stability, helping to fill in the gaps created by older and under-skilled workforces and make a important vital economic contribution.

"Businesses in Scotland need to embrace skilled migration, as well as offer flexible and rewarding working practices for home-grown talent, in order to safeguard their long-term and global competitiveness."