New and Changing Global Immigration Trends Pose Challenges and Opportunities

Audrey Lustgarten of WR Immigration outlines actions employers can take to stay competitive in the talent marketplace.

From the ongoing effects of the pandemic to disruptions driven by regional conflict and political instability to worldwide labor shortages, governments, employers, and employees are facing several new barriers to talent mobility. And yet, by understanding the trends driving immigration policies throughout the world, companies can better position themselves to compete in the global talent marketplace.  

This was the focus of my recent One Take conversation with Audrey Lustgarten, managing partner of WR Global, the global immigration office of WR Immigration. Drawing from a wealth of experience and expertise, Lustgarten explained how WR Immigration is equipping companies with the resources to tackle the most difficult barriers to immigration today.

“We encourage our clients to take a proactive approach [because] these changes are here to stay, [and] there will be additional challenges coming down the pike,” Lustgarten says.

Audrey outlined four key actions companies can take to get ahead of the immigration trends shaping today’s employee mobility landscape, including employee requests to work from anywhere.

The first action companies can take is to develop the systems—including technology—and policies ahead of time to deal with inevitable changes. Especially when it comes to flexible work arrangements, WR Immigration has found that the companies navigating these issues most effectively have done so by educating their employees about potential challenges and outlining specific policies regarding remote work.

The second action employers should consider is to provide a menu of available remote work locations in countries that have digital nomad or other kinds of flexible work visas readily available. Employers should clarify the criteria for how and which employees can take advantage of work-from-anywhere policies.

On the flip side of providing information on where employees can go, companies should, as a third action, actively avoid placing employees in countries with antiquated systems, places where immigration policies have not been updated for years.

As a fourth action, Lustgarten advises that “where flexibility in location is impossible, for business reasons for instance, make sure to engage in strategic planning to work around the problematic government system.” Lustgarten points out that “having good legal counsel to help walk you through the options and think strategically—and then the technology to go along with it—is really key to success.”

To that end, WR Immigration deploys WRapid™, its own cutting-edge platform for immigration management services designed to revolutionize how employers manage visa processing and global mobility.

“We use our WRapid™ system to help companies map out what are the options, where in the world can their employees go, and then to track the progress and hopefully lead to a good result despite the antiquated [governmental] systems we’re facing,” Lustgarten says.

No matter the challenge, WR Immigration is pairing this innovative approach to technology with deep knowledge of the trends driving global immigration systems to help companies take on the toughest migration challenges facing today’s mobility industry.