LONDON, 15 March. - (ANA) - The number of Africans entering Britain as care workers nearly trebled over the last year after visa rules were changed to tackle staff shortages exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit. It highlights the West’s growing reliance on migrants from the world’s youngest continent to care for its aging populations.

 

Africans now make up the majority of foreigners given the right to work in Britain’s care system. Some 57,000 Africans entered the country on a Health and Care visa in 2023 — up from just over 20,000 in 2022 and more than half of the approximately 106,000 granted the right to travel to Britain for that work, Semafor Africa’s analysis of Home Office data shows.

 

Britain’s government in December 2021 added care staff to a list of occupations for which visas would be granted to address a shortage of workers which rose sharply during the pandemic.

 

The U.K.’s health ministry said it was acting on recommendations made by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), an independent body that advises the government. The MAC, in its 2021 annual report, also said restrictions for care workers needed to be eased due to the impact of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. “The ending of free movement and the absence of a work route for care workers is likely to contribute to the recruitment problems faced by the sector,” the body warned.

 

The sharp increase in the number of Africans working in Britain’s care sector illustrates a clear demographic trend — the world’s fastest growing continent will increasingly make up the shortfall of workers in Western countries. That makes sense for a continent that is expected to make up a quarter of the world’s population by 2050.

 

“We’re seeing absolute declines in the number of working age people in rich countries that we haven’t seen since the Black Death [of the 1300s],” Charles Kenny, an economist and senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Global Development think tank, told me. He said that will create “a massive demand for workers from somewhere, and for Europe the obvious place is Africa.”

 

The care visa trend highlights the extreme contrast between the youthfulness of African nations and the aging populations of advanced economies in the northern hemisphere. That gulf was crystalized during the pandemic.

 

Beyond the demographic advantage, the rapid rise of African caregivers into the U.K. highlights two other trends. The first is that the increased cost of living and lack of jobs seen in several African countries is forcing young people to seek opportunities beyond the continent, where the pay is relatively high. The fact that care work doesn’t require a higher level of education or special skills opens up care work to those who aren’t qualified medics, for example. Even qualified nurses are leaving their home countries to take care jobs.

 

The second trend to bear in mind is that African workers will continue to fill worker shortages in the aging workforces of the West — but, without vast improvements in education systems, it will continue to be in roles that are poorly paid. Advances in technology like AI will reduce the need for foreign workers in skilled jobs, leaving only opportunities for work — like caring for the elderly — that literally requires a human touch.   - (ANA) -

 

 

AB/ANA/15 March 2024 — - -