Time to Rebrand Immigration?

I am making these bleary-eyed notes the morning after the election. The Conservatives have been hollowed out by Reform, who fan fears of immigration.

Across Europe the right is on the move for similar reasons.

If you are a rational sort this is strange because demography is destiny. Without large scale immigration most of Europe will not have enough workers to maintain healthy economies.

Immigrants are not “taking our jobs”. Quite the opposite, employment levels are high.

Immigrants are doing the jobs that the native population can’t or won’t do.

The stats are startling. They tell you that European populations are not replacing themselves quickly enough, much less the required 2.1 children per woman.

Populations are aging fast.

Japan and China will have lost 40% of their populations by the end of the century at current rates. As attempts to incentivise fertility have been largely unsuccessful, it looks like the only cure for this is mass immigration.

Very few politicians tell this truth for fear of being rejected by the voters.

But perhaps branding and communications experts can help by changing the cultural weather and the language we use. Let’s substitute the word “Talent” for “Immigrant” not as some kind of trick but as a way of revealing a truth.

When I was at Google it was like working at the United Nations.

Talent from around the world was attracted to UK and fuelled a dynamic industry of digital innovation through 1000s of start-ups.

Talented and expert carers and medical staff from around the world made my mother’s final years as good as they could be. I could go on.

Britain can be good at this. It was a moment of pride that Rishi Sunak’s elevation to PM as the son of Asians passed without much comment. At a personal level we are friendly and tolerant of diversity.

The great economist John Maynard Keynes once said “Never Underestimate the power of demographic change to alter the culture of a society”.

As the population ages we have no choice but to attract more talent to the UK. People really want to come. And that we should celebrate and be grateful for.

The language we use is a tool we can use in changing our culture.

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Thanks to Julian Saunders for writing this piece.