Brexit Britain Could Replace Migrants with Robots

1.) This doesn't help startups -- only large companies that can afford to go through the expensive and laborious visa-permit process.

2.) As a foreign worker, since your residency depends on employment, you're in a far worse bargaining position vis-a-vis salaries, so this depresses worker wages, however much the government tries to enforce the requirement that foreign workers are paid at prevailing wages.

3.) Also because your residency depends on ongoing employment, putting down roots and becoming a full-fledged member of the community is much more difficult.

Source: I'm a non-EU immigrant to the UK, brought in specifically to work on automated transport technologies. The hacks I've had to go through to start my two companies here are unbelievable. The UK's immigration policies are seriously bad at attracting talent, and post-Brexit, look like they'll get much, much worse.

Except recent studies show that most EU migrants go for high skilled jobs and that the migrant impact on low skilled jobs is small - see below.

> The positive impact of recent European migration to Britain is highlighted by the fact that the UK now attracts the highest number of university-educated migrants of any country in the European Union, according to new research from University College London.

- https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/05/uk-magnet-hi...

> In 2015, there were approximately 3.3 million EU immigrants living in Britain. About a third live in London. EU migrants tend to be younger and better educated than the UK-born population.

> Do low-skilled UK citizens bear the brunt of EU migration? A number of studies have found there is a small negative effect of migration on the wages of low-skilled workers — those with whom migrants compete most directly.

- https://www.ft.com/content/0deacb52-178b-11e6-9d98-00386a18e...

Put in a policy saying that anyone whose job gets eliminated or reduced as the result of automation is eligible for half-pay and full pension benefits until they have a new job at an equivalent salary and suddenly the business case for robots wouldn't be nearly so strong. And people will be pushing for stuff like that if they feel that their jobs, rather than some Polish guy's, is at risk.

Migrants, by and large, don't vote, so you can automate their jobs away without incurring regulatory risk to yourself, if you are a large organization. It's the safe place to start.