We should not rely on‘bespoke’ and ad-hoc visa schemes for different groups of workers. This chaotic approach cre­ates a two-tier workforce. It should be streamlined to en­sure the rights of all workers, whether migrants or locals, are better aligned. The current work visa system is points-based in name only, as the sponsorship of an employer(whether through sec­toral sponsorship bodies as in the farming sector, or direct individual employment) is the real criteria without which sufficient points cannot be obtained. A better system would allow people to obtain a visa to enter the UK on an equal basis if they fulfil agreed criteria, without seeking to impose sector-by-sector restrictions of length of time, pos­sibility to change employer, and other rights separately on each group. A migrant worker could obtain a visa on the basis of points accrued for skills, education, work experi­ence, connections to the UK, and other relevant factors, without the need for sponsorship from a specific employer. Anyone with a visa permitting them to live in the UK should then be entitled to work, change employer, and bar­gain for improved pay and conditions on an equal footing to anybody else. The example from immigrants who en­tered Australia on such a‘true’ points-based visa saw peo­ple entering without a pre-approved job offer had employ­ment rates of over 90% after 18 months. They also com ­manded higher average salaries than migrants who had entered Australia on employer-sponsored visas. 48 Integrate asylum seekers into the points­based system As argued above, asylum seekers must be given the right to work if they are waiting for a decision to be made on their claim. Many asylum seekers bring valuable skills with them – people from all walks of life, including often highly educated people, are sometimes forced to flee their homes. However, people coming from a background of poverty and of fewer educational and training opportunities may also have incredible potential, and should be assisted to access the opportunities that would allow them to do so. Match­ing asylum seekers with training and support to help them into areas of work where we are specifically in need of sup­port in the UK is an obvious way for asylum seekers and host communities to mutually benefit from their arrival. However, it is counter-intuitive to run an integration, train­ing and skills-building programme for asylum seekers if the system is designed so as to later reject their claim and spend a huge amount of money on pursuing their deporta­tion from the UK. A system that provides the opportunity for asylum seekers to gain needed skills in order to work in the UK therefore ought to be integrated into the broader points-based work immigration system, in order to provide flexibility and the best return on the training investment that has been made. As asylum seekers accrue skills – whether ability in the English language, skills in shortage areas, and work experience in key areas of our economy – such as food production, care work, hospitality, or con­struction – they should be able to use those skills to accrue points within the points-based system for attracting work­ers to the UK described above. This would further incentiv­ise the accrual of valuable skills, while allowing people ar­riving in the UK to have the flexibility to stay, regardless of the outcome of their asylum application, if they were ful­filling the needs of our economy in other ways. There would need to be clear safeguards on any such a system to ensure that a person with a claim under Refugee Convention grounds still receive the protected status that they need. However, if managed well, this approach could serve to replace the current nonsensical system we operate, of keeping some people in forced economic inactivity with­in the asylum system for long periods, or spending im­mense sums on their detention and deportation, all while we simultaneously spend a significant amount of money recruiting and seeking to attract other workers into areas of the economy that they could have been integrated into in­stead. The recruitment of immigrants to fill various areas of work, from healthcare to farming in the UK, is a huge industry beset by problematic processes. These range from dishon­est recruitment practices that trap workers unknowingly in exploitative contracts, 49 to practices that create a‘brain drain’ impact on developing economies that struggle to ful­fil their own health care needs. 50 Training asylum seekers who are already in the UK is not a silver bullet to replace our demand for foreign workers, but it is irrational not to treat them as the resource that they clearly can be in these areas and instead spend a fortune trying to push them away, 51 all while aggressively seeking out others to bring over in their place. 48  https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/csam-cohort3-report-change-in-outcomes-2016.pdf 49  https://www.workrightscentre.org/publications/2025/defra-s-survey-of-seasonal-workers-demonstrates-exploitation-risks-of-short-term-sponsored-visas/ 50  https://www.bmj.com/content/388/bmj.r605 51  https://sheffield.ac.uk/news/new-research-reveals-billions-made-companies-involved-uk-border-security 12 Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.