WWW says:
As a final twist it could backfire on the airlines as foreign pilots might well return to their home country the minute the industry there recovers. So just as things really start picking up again in the UK market a whole chunk of experienced Left Hand Seats wave cheerio. Crunch time.
This has bothered me as well. We have heard much over the years on pprune about the overseas pilots coming to the UK to fly, and I don't want to start one of those heated 'taking our jobs' discussions again, but this is the first time I've seen this particular implication of UK airlines keeness to hire foreign pilots mentioned. Surely hiring those pilots, who will be disposed to return to their home countries as soon as their local economies recover, simply creates a shortage of pilots in the future at higher experience levels that local pilots can't fill because their own career development was effectively blocked by the airlines hiring overseas pilots in the first place? Do the airlines think that this will not be a problem, or are they simply being short-termist?
(sorry a bit off-topic)