Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Global Mobility Digest.
Global Mobility professionals are the architects of cross-border business success. Nothing is more important for success in this role than accurate, real-time information.
But let’s face it: when your horizons span the world, information overload is a real challenge. It’s nearly impossible to track every new regulatory shift from somewhere in the word, let alone to assess what matters to your strategy.
That’s where the Digest comes in.
Every two weeks, we’ll deliver a distilled, strategic view of the news that truly impacts Global Mobility, HR, and People Operations. We'll help you find the signal in all the noise, so that you can act with clarity and confidence.
So take a breath; we’ve got the information you need to stay ahead.
Trump’s return to the White House could dramatically upend companies’ cross-border talent management plans. Based on his previous term, the incoming President’s stance on immigration is likely to prioritise restrictive policies. This could mean fewer pathways for talent to move to the USA, driving skilled workers toward alternative destinations. Yet his industrial reshoring agenda may also motivate some high-value manufacturers to relocate jobs onto American soil.
Trump’s win could force Global Mobility teams to:
Diversify talent pipelines
Rethink relocation strategies
Reconsider visa dependencies for US-based roles.
The second Trump term could redefine the talent map, positioning regions like the UK, Europe, and APAC as prime hubs for high-skilled talent looking for stability and growth.
Our new article unpicks what MAGA 2.0 means for your international workforce strategy - and how you can get ready.
Bringing you the latest trends and data in global mobility.
In the past 12 months (1 November 2023-2024), 2.4 million highly skilled professionals relocated internationally. That’s 1.2% of the global pool of around 194 million highly skilled workers.
This is a decline from 3.2 million relocations the year before, prompted by by rising interest rates and a slowdown in hiring within the software and services sectors.
Over the past 12 months, 613,000 STEM experts and 31,000 AI specialists relocated internationally, making AI talent almost twice as mobile as other highly skilled professionals.
23% of STEM workers and 29% of AI workers relocated to the US as their preferred destination of choice.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Switzerland are hot on the heels of the US in attracting a larger share of STEM and AI talent, thanks to robust local GDP growth and high retention rates for these specialised professionals.
Source: BCG Top Talent Tracker, Q4 2024
🤖 AI TIPS FOR GM TEAMS
If you’re not using AI, you’re missing a massive efficiency hack.
For end-to-end immigration and Global Mobility solutions, the Centuro platform is the only tool that can do it all. But you can supplement it with some smart uses of other tools.
For today’s tip, let’s turn to ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode function. This is a recent feature available on ChatGPT’s mobile and desktop app that allows you to speak with ChatGPT as if it were a real person.
ChatGPT now doubles up as a friendly tutor, who will happily give you real-time instructions on performing any task. As we were thrilled to discover, this includes detailed walkthroughs on how to use our very own platform.
Why not try it out for yourself? If you’re a premium or enterprise user, simply load up the ChatGPT app, activate Advanced Voice Mode and ask it to give you a walkthrough of how to use Centuro Global’s Travel Assessment Tool.
You’ll see how useful this new feature can be in getting the most out of the tools you use to transform your workflow. Think of it as a productivity hack of a productivity hack.
🏢 WHAT'S GOING ON AT CENTURO
There’s never a dull moment here at Centuro Global HQ.
On November 21st, we’ll be sitting down with UK Fintech leaders ClearBank to check in on the progress of their expansion into the European market. If you’re curious about the opportunities and challenges of breaking into the EU market, you don’t want to miss it. Register here.
Centuro Global at the IBA Global Immigration Conference
We’re heading to the International Bar Association’s Biennial conference in London between 4-6 December. The IBA is one of the legal calendar’s truly unmissable events, and we’re proud to be sponsoring it this year. If you’re going along too, reach out to us in advance to arrange a meeting. We’ll be debuting our latest and most advanced AI technology yet!
Earlier this year, the previous government hiked the salary thresholds for overseas workers in the UK. We’re preparing a report to present to the Migration Advisory Committee on the real impacts of this move on businesses’ people strategies. If you’ve been affected by these reforms, tell us how here.
🗺️ BORDER CHANGES
A Regulatory Roundup of recent changes from around the world that may impact you.
Asia ❓ What’s changed
Singapore has instituted sweeping restrictions on immigration, including raising businesses’ costs for issuing employment passes, banning the use of Employer of Record services to sponsor expats and creating a points-based system for foreign employees.
🫵 What it means for you
Basic staffing costs are set to rise for companies who employ foreign nationals in Singapore, and access to foreign labour is set to get harder.
Urgency rating
🔴 Immediate action needed: if you have to employ any overseas workers in Singapore, you will need to reconsider both your cost and talent acquisition strategies
You can read more about these visa policy changes, and more coming into force across the APAC region, in our article, here.
Africa
❓ What’s changed
South Africa has introduced a points-based system for work visas, assessing factors like qualifications, language proficiency, work experience and salary. To get a visa, applicants will need to score at least 100 points.
🫵 What it means for you
The new visa system simplifies the documentation process and helps to ensure that employers can hire overseas nationals with the right skills to contribute.
Urgency rating
🟠 Get prepared: If you are planning to send staff into South Africa, you should familiarise yourself with the points-based system to maximise your application’s chances of success.
Middle East
❓ What’s changed
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will launch the unified GCC Grand Tours visa by the end of December 2024. This will allow tourists and business travellers to visit Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman under a single visa.
🫵 What it means for you
This unified visa will make travel seamless across the Arabian Peninsula, creating an effective single market and allowing for much easier face-to-face meetings, networking and trade show participation.
Urgency rating
🟠 Get prepared: This is a major opportunity to increase your company’s presence in one of the most economically dynamic regions on Earth. It’s time to make plans to utilise the new visa. Find out more about the GCC Grand Tours visa in our new article here.
Europe
❓ What’s changed
The Netherlands has announced it will impose land border controls for six months from December 9 2024, in order to prevent human trafficking and irregular migration. The country joins Germany in suspending the Schengen Area’s open-border rules.
🫵 What it means for you
The new border controls could cause major delays in entering the Netherlands by land.
Urgency rating
🔴 Immediate action needed: The border checks are just a few weeks away. Now is the time to evaluate your travel plans for the next six months.
The Americas
❓What’s changed Brazil has recently introduced a new immigration pathway for foreign graduates from Brazilian education institutions to apply for a two-year permit to live and work in the country. This move contrasts with Canada’s decision this month to limit its Post-Graduation Work Permit exclusively to foreign graduates in high-demand sectors.
🫵 What it means for you
The two largest countries of their respective continents, North and South America, now take very different approaches to migration. This may make Brazil a more attractive destination for overseas graduate workers and increase the talent pool available to Brazil’s.
Urgency rating
🟢 Stay aware. These changes will take a long time to be visible. But suppose Brazil’s graduate route pathway succeeds in cultivating a talent pool of skilled young workers. In that case, the country will be a more attractive prospect for foreign companies to establish a base in.
Every edition, we speak to a leader in the field of Global Mobility to hear first-hand what’s moving the dial for professionals. This week, we sat down with Khadeeja Islam, Global Head of Mobility at Aggreko, to ask a few questions about her strategic priorities.
What events or trends have had the biggest impact on your GM strategy this year?
Our Global Mobility strategy has really been shaped by a few major events that we expect will still be relevant next year too. When conflict in the Middle East broke out, we sprang into action to ensure the safety and security of colleagues working or travelling in those regions. 2024 was also the biggest year in history for general elections, with over 70 countries going to the ballot boxes. Electorates gave incumbents a thrashing in the UK, US and across Europe, so we’re closely watching how the outcomes will affect tax, immigration, and social security policies. Finally, we’re always managing changes to immigration quotas—like adjustments to expat-to-local ratios in certain countries, as they could impact the manpower we need for critical projects.
Looking towards 2025, are there any red lights blinking on your dashboard - or anything keeping you up at night about the state of the world?
Looking ahead, there are a few big question marks that could really shake up our Global Mobility approach at Aggreko. Trump’s victory in the US election might have a serious impact on how easily we can deploy expats for projects there, which would ripple through our operations and planning.
Another thing on our radar is the rollout of systems like ETIAS in Europe and the ETA process. These new immigration rules might it tricker to move people around in Schengen, so we'll need to stay on top of that and make sure we’re compliant without slowing things down.
And of course, there are various ongoing geopolitical conflicts. The uncertainty there is already a challenge, but if these conflicts spread to other regions, it could really complicate things for our workforce, both in terms of safety and mobility.
All of this means we’ll need to stay flexible and keep a close watch, so we’re always ready to pivot and respond to a volatile situation.
What book, podcast or experience has inspired you this year?
The Beekeeper of Aleppo deeply moved me, reaffirming my belief in the resilience and decency of humanity and the possibility of a better world. Even in the face of the abysses humans create for ourselves, we can’t ever abandon our spirit of perseverance and compassion. Working in Global Mobility, it felt particularly poignant to read story of refugees driven across borders out of necessity, rather than choice. It made me think that we, as individuals, should continually strive to make a positive impact and never give up on the hope for a brighter future.
📖 RESOURCE ROUNDTABLE
Three things you should be reading this week:
🇪🇺 Stay compliant with the EU's AI regulation
The new EU AI Act is the world’s first major piece of AI alignment regulation. And if your use of AI impacts even a single EU citizen in any way, you will have to comply with it.
The Act designates the use of AI in immigration processes as subject to the highest level of oversight.
But we’ve analysed the legislation and found plenty of avenues for law firms and GM teams to keep innovating without triggering excessive compliance obligations. Read our exclusive report - What the EU AI Act Means for Immigration and Global Mobility - here
🏝️ Avoiding the digital nomad tax trap
Everybody wants to see the world. But the digital nomad lifestyle comes with a set of tax obligations that many globetrotters haven’t bargained for. We enjoyed Global Tax Network’s succinct explanation of the potential traps that can take international remote workers unawares here
🗽Trump 2.0 - tech friend or foe?
As an AI company, we’re anxious to see what a second Trump presidency will hold for tech’s most important frontier. Will the presence of Elon Musk at the top table, and a VP who’s a former VC, clear away all hurdles to AI development? Or will the Biden administration’s more cautious approach still prevail? Time Magazine’s new piece on the subject sheds some light.
Thank you for reading and see you in two weeks!
Centuro Global, 30 Churchill Place, London, Greater London E14 5RE, United Kingdom
-1.png?upscale=true&width=1108&upscale=true&name=Global%20mobility%20Digest%20-%20Nov%2027%20(1)-1.png)
.png?upscale=true&width=1108&upscale=true&name=BCECA%20EVENT%20BANNER%20%20-%20Opt%201%20(2).png)
