Highly skilled migration and the negotiation of immigration policy: non-EEA postgraduate students and academic staff at English universities

Whilst scholarly research has highlighted the role of the state in facilitating labour migration, little academic work exists on how skilled and highly skilled migrants actively negotiate changes to immigration policy. Since 2008, UK labour immigration policy has undergone significant reform, including: the introduction of a Points Based System (PBS); the imposition of an annual limit on entry of selected skilled migrants; and the direct linkage of highly skilled visas to offers of employment. Consequently, further investigation is required into how highly skilled individuals negotiate immigration policy and work around the practical challenges they may face in everyday life. This paper seeks to address this gap in knowledge by presenting a qualitative case study investigating the experiences and opinions of students and staff from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), based at universities in London and the Midlands. By focusing on Higher Education (HE), we draw attention to the inter-relationships between highly skilled academic mobility, globalisation and labour immigration policy, highlighting the juxtaposition between perceived ease of movement and the restrictions imposed by border and immigration controls, on this group of individuals.