Dubrovnik 2018 - Immigration Symposium
Sophy King - Newland Chase
We were so pleased to hold the 3rd annual Immigration Symposium in the beautiful Sun Gardens Hotel, bringing together around 100 immigration experts (lawyers and non-lawyers) from all across the globe. This year we tried to move the conversation away from the “nuts and bolts” of immigration and onto a broader and more geopolitical plane. We were interested to look at how the policies and politics of one country or region may be reflected in another, and to think about how, as immigration professionals, we can examine and learn from the trends and changes we see in other parts of the world. We also discussed what our responsibilities are, or could be, as an industry, to attempt to shift public perception of migration away from the negative and towards the positive.
We first looked at the effects of economic nationalism on immigration policy first, focussing on Switzerland, the UK and the US. Our panel discussed the limitations and disadvantages for corporate clients of restrictive policies ushered in as a result of Trump and Brexit. Switzerland provided an interesting relief example, as a country with strict quotas but a flexible attitude to corporate need when senior managers are required but quotas are exhausted. Next, and in contrast to session 1, we held a lively panel discussion on emerging markets and the creative policies and legislation some countries are introducing to attract corporate investment. We looked at
Ireland, Africa (specifically South Africa but also intra Africa mobility), the Middle East (focussing on UAE and Saudi) and India.
Finally, we took a detailed look at the ICT Directive and its implementation in Europe – a Directive which was designed to encourage highly skilled talent and cross border mobility in the EU, but which can be somewhat hampered by the requirement to look at national legislation and requirements for each application. We had speakers from the Netherlands, France, Germany and Spain, and lots of audience input relating to other countries too (especially Italy – thanks Martina!) and Portugal (thanks Carmo!).
As always, the day went too fast with not enough time to go into detail on every subject – we noticeably did not include Latin America in any of our discussions; something to make amends for next year. Please send suggestions for sessions to the EURA board and we look forward to another engaging and exciting set of discussions next year in Munich!
Sophy King is VP of Global Immigration at Newland Chase