Story on BBC - Indian IT Consultant comes to UK

[Troll]

Kinda reminds me of my house's morter

Mortar HTH

[lilelvis2000]

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

A long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth.
Knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weight) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio (with one-third weight).
A decent standard of living, as measured by the log of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) in USD.

In 2006 UK was in 18th position (US was in 8th position) - http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/

Cheers!

[kingshuk]

The whole thing is revealing.

Came to UK.
No job to go to.
Searched around for work in a ridiculously naive way.
Kids nicely installed into local schools, etc.
Finally gets a job.
Planning on going back to India.

No net gain for Blighty, that I can see.

Spoils it for the genuine lot.

Its usually not as bad as this. This guy appears to be exceptionally naive about job search. Or it may be another of BBC's spiced up stories.

I had been working here for a couple of years on HSMP and know several others doing the same. All found work within a few weeks. There is a strong incentive to do so since the high exchange rate makes the amount of money we bring in insignificant compared to the expenses here. HSMP holders (or work permit holders for that matter) are not eligible for unemployment benefits.

Even if we were eligible for benefits I am inclined to believe that very few will be happy with just that since the HSMP points system ensures that only people earning high salaries/rates in their native countries end up here.

HSMP is usually granted for one year. It gets renewed only if the applicant can prove that (s)he had been earning a certain minimum amount (used to be 40K annually sometime back) for past 6 months.

On the balance I think HSMP is a better deal for local workers than work permit. Large services companies find it easy to ship 'cheap workers' on a work permit because the 'cheap worker' can't leave the company. With HSMP the people coming in will compete with the locals directly at the local rate.

But of course this too is deflationary - not pleasant if you are at the receiving end but good for the customers. If it becomes unpleasant enough for enough people they will eventually elect a government that will change the rules. Until then you will have to compete with the 3rd world country workers

[richard-af]

Until then you will have to compete with the 3rd world country workers

Yep.

[Mailman]

Anyway, after weeks of trawling around various job centres, I eventually found out that they aren't where I should be looking for an executive job. Sometimes it's so frustrating: if you come here on your own, no-one tells you anything! It's like you're just expected to know where to turn.

Maybe this guy should have contacted those "artists" from Bite (scroll down the business/contracts forum)?

Mailman