Britain will face migrant brain drain as Asian economies grow stronger

Britain's businesses will suffer from a shortage of skilled workers in the next decade as educated foreigners quit the UK in large numbers, warns a report commissioned by the insurer, Friends Provident.

The study, entitled Visions of Britain 2020, claims that the flow of skilled workers heading to our shores will be stemmed, with many quitting for Asia's more prosperous economies. "As the quality of education in Asia improves and as economic growth continues apace, new jobs will open up in those countries and the number of graduates coming here to work will decline," said Ian Brinkley from the Work Foundation, who worked on the report. "This is a problem not just in the UK but for many Western economies. The value of overseas talent to this country is hard to overstate."

With a greater reliance on domestic workers employers are likely to put pressure on government to ensure that education is capable of providing more skilled people, the study claims.