IT trade body ATSCo has questioned why the vast majority of foreign IT workers joining the UK come from one country – India.

Data obtained by ATSCo under the Freedom of Information Act from the Home Office shows that Indians accounted for 86% of the 22,000 foreign IT workers entering the country last year.

The phenomenon is known as “offshore inshoring”, where multinational companies recruit workers in low-cost markets and transfer them to high-cost markets.

This has serious ramifications for the UK IT recruitment market, says ATSCo chief executive Ann Swain.

“As an industry, IT is second only to healthcare for work permit approvals,” she said. “Everybody knows the UK has a desperate shortage of doctors and nurses.

“But who out there can persuade me that there is a similar desperate shortage of software engineers?”

There is no shortage of low-end IT staff, which make up the bulk of the figures, said Swain, so the migrants are unlikely to have entered on specialist work visas.

“Because there are no shortages, they should not be able to come in on the fast-track system,” she said.

“It is all low-end stuff, the kind of thing suitable for graduates. If you take these jobs away, where will we get the three years’ experience qualified professionals come from?”

The top four countries of origin for IT staff entering the UK were India, the US (5%), Australia (2%) and Canada (1%).