Open letter in support of immigration to UK Visas and Immigration and the UK government

16 May Open letter in support of immigration to UK Visas and Immigration and the UK government

We are a performance company as well as a registered charity, so in general we try not to comment on politics. However in recent weeks we have seen potential benefit cuts that will negatively affect the disabled performers and creatives we work with, further marginalisation of our trans friends and colleagues, and now the government has adopted xenophobic messaging around immigration which we find appalling, so we need to speak out. 

As we have a visa sponsorship licence, the government’s Visas and Immigration service emailed us on Monday urging us to read the government’s white paper on the subject and expect further information and requirements for employers as changes are made. This is our reply which we also sent to our local MP, Diane Abott. We are sharing a slightly modified versions here to make public our support of immigration to the UK:

Dear FBIS Engagement Team,

We are writing from a UK Visa Sponsor company to express our dismay at the email which you sent us yesterday. We appreciate that you are only implementing the wishes of the government, so we are also copying in our local MP, Diane Abbott.

We are a London-based, internationally-performing acrobatic theatre company. We are small, but we are part of the Creative Industry sector which makes up more than 5% of the UK’s economy.

We want to say, as strongly as possible, that we are in favour of immigration, and think it would be better for the UK economy and culture if immigration was increased, not decreased.

As we are a performance company, we will leave to one side the positive impact that people who come to this country have on services and housing (in sharp contrast to what Keir Starmer asserted recently), and will instead focus on the enormous benefits that immigration has had and we hope will continue to have on our business and our sector:

Circus is an international sector which has historically had a lot of exchange between borders. Our company was founded by one Italian and one Swede, who came to the UK to study 30 years ago and chose to stay and found a company (and lives and families) here. The freelancers we work with are a mix of people from the UK, people from the EU who have settled status and sometimes further afield – for example a Canadian who came to work with us on a youth mobility visa and has since be granted a global talent visa – she is an enormous asset to the UK and we should be very grateful to have her. We hold a sponsorship licence for the temporary Creative Worker route specifically so that we could sponsor an amazing Estonian acrobat in 2023 who had a combination of physical strength and flexibility that was unique; in turn her skills made our shows much better and increased the reputation of UK circus in the EU and beyond. Their high skill level in turn was shared with and inspired British performers, resulting in an increased, rather than reduced, homegrown skill level. As well as employing people from different backgrounds, we also tour to many countries in Europe and have recently also toured to the USA. We are recognised internationally as one of the UK’s leading circus companies. This reputation for quality is entirely driven by the skill growth and development that we have had through migration and international exchange. 

We wish to note these things:

– Many of our performers and creatives have come through the professional UK circus schools – making it harder for foreign students to study in the UK and then stay on here after they have graduated is going to damage the UK’s performance sector. Talented circus artists will simply choose to move to another country instead of the UK.

– The administrative burden upon us in relation to immigration is already too high following Brexit, and should not be increased yet further.

– These changes, and the resulting increase in racism and xenophobia that they are contributing to, are damaging the UK already. We are already seeing international circus performers who have made the UK their home (and contributed to their communities as well as paying taxes) for many years, consider leaving and moving somewhere they feel more welcome.

We welcome reforms that simplify the immigration systems, increase the number of global talent visa recipients (especially as potential leaders), and those that support young British people. But we think that a blanket wish to simply reduce net migration is going to harm growth and the UK’s culture, not help it. 

As a UK business, we urge you to reconsider this policy, and particularly the rhetoric around it, as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully, Lissy Lovett, Silvia Fratelli and Lina Johansson – Directors of Mimbre

Photograph by: Isabelle Grosse