Computer games “whizz kids” from overseas need to be hired to work in British firms because too few talented recruits are being produced in this country, government immigration advisers said today.
A report by the Home Office’s Migration Advisory Committee said games designers should be added to an official list of “shortage occupations” to which migrants from outside Europe can be recruited.
The committee said a brain drain of talented Britons to the US and Canada was one cause of the shortage.
But he also warned that British graduates were currently too inexperienced to plug the gap and highlighted “deficiencies” in the university computer courses which industry experts claim are failing to teach adequately the skills required.
The recommendation on computer games designers - which will raise concerns about how well ministers are equipping young Britons to capitalise on London’s thriving high tech industry - was the most eye-catching occupation added to the new list.
Other new shortage occupations for which the committee says that migrants are needed include nuclear, gas, oil and electrical engineers, although in the opposite direction today’s report recommends that around 20 medical jobs, including theatre nurses and trauma surgeons, should no longer be open to those from outside Europe.
Today’s proposals, which ministers are likely to implement, do not address the contentious political issue of Romanian and Bulgarian migrants amid concerns in Downing Street of a large influx when the current restrictions on them coming to Britain expire next year.
Prof Metcalf said, however, that there was concern among farmers that the 21,250 Bulgarians and Romanians currently employed in fruit-picking jobs would move to work in “Tesco, bars and hotels” instead - where they could potentially push out British staff.
That could add to the political pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron who is already examining whether it is possible to limit the benefit entitlement of Romanian and Bulgarian nationals to reduce the alleged lure of welfare payments.
