In the foreign workers debate, the Sylvans considered whether the UK economy is overly dependent on foreign workers, and agreed.

Foreign workers debate – December 2023

The Sylvan foreign workers debate considered the following motion:

The UK economy is overly dependent on foreign workers.

The debate took place on Monday 4th December.  John Akers proposed the motion and Ross Hunter opposed it.

The proposition arguing that the UK economy is overly dependent

The proposer argued that the nature of the UK economy means heavy dependence on foreign workers. With a neo-liberal market economy and light labour regulations, 20% of workers receive low wages. This compares to 10% in France and 8% in Denmark. Domestic household consumption (demand) drives the economy, with only 28% of the economy as exports, compared with 46% in Germany. This requires a large workforce to pay taxes to fund welfare, and it is rational to depend on overseas labour in the short term.

The proposer continued

Yet in the long term, this does not provide cost effectiveness and we cannot sustain it. Employers and government poach trained workers from overseas rather than training British people. Migrants accept lower wages and have high turnover, such as in the care sector. Pay drives migration, but many are net benefits recipients. We need to regenerate the UK economy. Levelling up to reduce the north / south divide would help – closing the gap would boost GDP by £100 billion. We have seen the Docklands and Brixton regenerated, we can bring areas back to life. We need to avoid white elephants such as HS2. The funds from that could have revitalised the entire National Rail and east-west rail. We have a 200,000 shortage of STEM skills, we need to set up specialist schools. We need to train more doctors and nurses.

The opposition against the foreign workers debate motion

The opposer agreed with some of the proposer’s points. In particular, the UK economy’s high dependence on foreign workers, and that we should train more skilled British workers. It will come down to definitions of the terms in the motion. The UK economy includes all of the goods and services produced in the country. Buying a cup of coffee constitutes both a good (the coffee itself) and a service, provided by the barista. In addition, exports and imports come in. The more foreigners value what we produce, the more wealth flows into Britain. However, importing foreign workers does not reduce wealth, it increases it as they contribute to the economy. Dependence means that if we take something away, it has an impact. If we take away foreign workers, our economy would be smaller.

The opposer continued

The key question centres on whether the economy is overly dependent on them. Let’s take a few simplified examples to explore the definition of ‘overly dependent’. Humans depend on the calories from food for energy. What about breakfast – most of us eat it every day, yet we could skip it and make up the calories. Not overly dependent. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, power much of our economy. We don’t have enough electric vehicles yet, and we can’t heat our homes without it. While there is a global market for it, much of that is controlled by dictatorships. This represents an unhealthy overdependence.

Floor speeches from the audience of the foreign workers debate

Floor speeches considered a wide variety of perspectives. Foreign workers enrich the labour force. We need balance and more training to deliver this and reduce special dispensations for foreigners. On nursing, Tony Blair led us up the garden path by making nursing a degree-qualified position. The quality of the workforce is low. Foreign workers come and go, not overly dependent. Unemployment at 5% would be higher if overly reliant on foreigners. Brexit promised to make space for domestic workers, a hoax. The tax system drives small businesspeople out of the UK.

Floor speeches continued

British management tends to want things on the cheap, a lazy short-termism that has led to overdependence. We have a disdain for manual work such as plumbing, while the French view waiting tables as a profession. Deep-seated cultural factors drive this. Many foreign workers eventually get UK citizenship and become local workers. We have 18-20% foreign workers, the economy would not completely collapse.

Floor speeches continued

Foreign workers fuel our growth – STEM courses are overbooked, but by foreigners. We have farmers chucking out food due to a lack of farm workers. We drive a brain drain in other countries. Do we want to be responsible for this, do we want to be that kind of country? Globalisation and large corporates have driven our over reliance, and have destroyed the unions.
The opposer’s rebuttal

In rebuttal, the opposer reiterated that we all agree that the UK economy has a high dependence on foreign workers. The question of this debate centres on whether we are overly dependent. If we took away all of the foreign workers, of course our economy would suffer. The NHS would collapse, and while that would have a massive impact, the economy itself would not suffer to the same level. However, this could never happen, under no realistic scenario could this occur. We have the enviable position of having access to some of the world’s best talent. While we should absolutely train the British work force better, we should also continue to take in foreign workers to support the economy.

The proposer’s closing speech

In closing, the proposer focused on value for money, and whether foreign workers provide net contributions or draw net benefits. We steal resources from developing countries, with globalised companies shopping around for cheap labour. The outsourcing of jobs in the US partially led to Trump; Brexit has not reduced our dependence. 745,000 people immigrated in 2022. This has led to overcrowding – we don’t have the infrastructure – as well as distrust of politics. We need to address this problem over the long term, we must train people properly and give them stakes in the future of the country. We can’t delay any longer with our increasing overdependence.

Result: the foreign workers debate motion carried

In the final vote, the Sylvans concluded through the debate that the UK economy is overly dependent on foreign workers.

See information on other Sylvan debates here.