Last Updated on February 23, 2023
Employers are facing critical global immigration challenges in 2018. Countries around the world change their immigration policies and procedures, often dramatically and without warning.
Last year alone, the UK not only implemented Brexit changes, but it made shifts to its Tier 2 skilled worker program and certificates of sponsorships for companies looking to hire foreign nationals.
Australia removed more than 200 occupations from its original list of occupations covered by the popular 457 visa. And China developed a new points system, under the umbrella of a single work permit for foreign nationals, based on education, language proficiency, salary and other criteria.
These are just some examples of recent immigration policy changes that have had ripple effects for companies and employees throughout the world. With constant change as the norm, it can be almost impossible to keep up.
But not keeping up means you risk sending employees overseas without knowing the immigration laws, and you could be putting your employee and company at risk of noncompliance penalties.
Global immigration challenges are increasing
The challenges to global workforce-building are immense and growing. For the past few years, we’ve been conducting surveys of hundreds of employers nationwide to find out the biggest trends in immigration.
Last year, 34 percent of employers said they faced no challenges with global or outbound immigration. This year? Only 19 percent could say the same.
Demand remains steady
Amazingly, despite the growing challenges, the demand for a global workforce does not appear to be abating anytime soon.
According to our 2018 Immigration Trends report, we discovered that 59 percent of employers expect their company’s demand for global work authorizations to actually increase.
More employees are traveling internationally
According to a 2017 report from PwC, international assignments have increased by 25 percent over the last 10 years, and that number is expected to double by 2020.
And where are all these employees going? Many companies have seen their workforces especially growing in countries like India and China.
In our recent trends report, we learned that demand for work authorization in India, for example, increased from 11 percent to 19 percent in the last year alone.
