Tiga condemns coalition plans to ‘dry up’ foreign talent in the UK
UK games association Tiga has condemned the coalition government’s proposal to cap the number of non-EU immigrants arriving in the UK.
The Coalition’s intention to reduce immigration to tens-of-thousands each year could ‘harm the sector’ Tiga said.
The Home Office will limit the number of non-EU immigrant workers to 24,100 - down around by five per cent - between now and April 2011.
In a letter to Home Secretary Theresa May, Tiga CEO Richard Wilson said the plan to cap non-EU immigrants was “poorly targeted”.
He said: “Tiga strongly opposes the proposed interim limits. Our research shows that 39 per cent of developers suffered from skill shortages in 2009. Game development is a highly skilled business and technology changes rapidly in the games industry, with the consequence that the specialist skills needed by the industry may simply not exist in the UK.”
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Criticisms of the Coalition Government’s immigration cap are beginning to arise from within the cabinet.
Business secretary Vince Cable said the measure had been "very damaging" to British industries by stopping companies hiring key staff.
"Of course I'm part of the government and we have a policy that we all subscribe to, which is that there has to be an overall cap on migration from outside the European Union," Cable said in an interview with the Financial Times.
"Nonetheless, I am the business secretary and I have to represent business and the contribution that business makes to the British economy.
"The brutal fact is that the way the system is currently being applied is very damaging.”
I think this government edict can also be looked at in another, more positive light.
The power of British (and European) development and publishing has slowly been evaporating over the last 20 years.
If we can overcome the short term problems of needing skilled and affordable workers now and cut our cloth according to currently available resources in the short term, then in the long term I welcome being forced to have a higher percentage of UK and European talent at the heart of our industry in this country.
Aa an industry a lack of cultural Britishness and "Europeanness" has been singularly missing in most of our products for the last 15 years and I for one would welcome something of a renaissance for European style games content.
Whatsmore as far as I understand, there is nothing to stop us continuing to work with many companies and individuals outside of the EU on an ongoing consultancy or services basis, as many of us do and have done for many years.
What we really need to benefit from this new legislation is to encourage the governemnt to help us work closer with our own colleges and universities to groom and filter better skilled, more realistic, more professional new british and EU employees into our industry through our own education systems.
