Out with the old and in with the new? The power of social media on immigration policy.

Brexit date is looming over us and there is still no certainty around what Britain's future will look like at an international level. There has been some positive steps taken by the Home Secretary to reinforce that Britain will remain open and accessible to foreign students and workers, such as through the new Graduate Scheme which is a new two-year post-study work visa for international students as identified by my colleague Antonia Torr here. But there is still a lot of work to be done on the immigration front to convince other countries that Britain is "open for business". 

The non-existence of a visa category in Britain for social influencers is a great example of where Britain is falling behind other countries in their approach to openness. The US has been forthcoming in recognising the growing popularity of social influencers, having a designated visa category that social influencers can apply for enabling them to stay in the US for up to 3 years, provided they can show they have "Exceptional Ability". Social influencers have become an important asset for big brands in pushing their products to consumers and the UK needs to reflect these trends in their approach to immigration policy. 

Here lies the problem – the UK Immigration rules were originally designed to accommodate the old-business style model to encourage economic growth in the UK. The rules were structured to enable a growing business or a rich individual to set up a physical office in the UK in order to create jobs. But now with the trend of established entrepreneurial jobs such as social influencers, this creates a problem. Social influencers are often self-employed and don't need to be employed by a company to carry out their work. And even when they are paid by companies as part of a marketing campaign or to endorse a project, they are only employed on an ad hoc basis creating a challenge for visa applications. There is arguably only one realistic visa option for a social influencer to ensure they are paid for work that they undertake in the UK: the Permitted Paid Engagement Visa. But this is not exactly business friendly. The social influencer is limited to stay no more than 1 month in the UK in which time they have to carry out the paid work in their expert field. They are not permitted to extend their stay any longer. With social influencers being a growing trend and having a huge influence on brands they endorse, the UK should be capitalising on this especially when they are sharing UK products or endorsing UK tourism. The UK economy will benefit hugely from this kind of work, so the current Home Secretary needs to think carefully about future immigration policy and visas.