UK Labour market and immigration
Is the UK labour market dependant on migrant workers? This interview with Professor Jane Wills explores whether migrant workers are now an essential part of the UK labour market as well as what conditions are like for migrant workers and whether all migrant workers are destined for low paid jobs.
Listen to interview "UK Labour market and immigration" (MP3)
Immigration and the UK Economy
Professor Bridget Anderson talks about what the effects of immigration are likely to be on the UK economy. Are migrant workers really pushing UK workers out of jobs?
Listen to interview "Immigration and the UK Economy" (MP3)
Changing status, changing lives? The socio-economic impact of EU enlargement on low wage migrant labour in the UK
Changing status, changing lives? explores the consequences of granting such rights to A8 nationals who were already working in the UK before 1st May with "legal" or "illegal" status. It investigates A8 migrants' experiences of living and working in low-wage jobs in the UK and analyses how immigration status shapes these experiences in and outside the workplace. The project also discusses employer demand for and recruitment of migrant labour, and how this is affected by migrants' immigration status.
UK Forced Labour and Immigration
The disaster in which 21 Chinese migrants died picking cockles in the treacherous tides off Morecambe Bay in February 2004 has led to increased public awareness of the abusive employment relations and poor living conditions of many migrants working in the United Kingdom. This research offers a new framework within which to discuss the problem of super-exploitation in the workplace and what is shared and distinct in the experiences of British and migrant workers. Focusing on four sectors - agriculture, construction, care workers and contract cleaning - it examines the relation between immigration control and labour markets, highlighting issues such as health and safety, accommodation and subcontracting. Read more on UK Forced Labour and Immigration
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Are you being served? Employer demand for migrant labour in the UK's hospitality sector.
The hospitality sector has long been one of the main employers of migrant labour in the UK. Labour force data for 2004/05 suggest that there are over 230,000 non-British workers employed in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector. This is equivalent to about 18 per cent of the industry's workforce. This research project explores the nature and determinants of employer demand for migrant labour in the UK's hospitality sector. More specifically, it investigates the various "dimensions" of employer demand for labour and their implications for employers' use of migrant labour and for the government's efforts to manage migration in the sector.
Integration Diversity and the Economy
The labour market performance of migrants in host economies is a major component of integration. Economic success of migrants and ethnic minorities is generally considered to be a positive outcome for both migrants and the receiving society, but it is far from universally attained. In the UK labour market, for instance, many migrant groups are found to have a significant disadvantage in comparison to British-born white people as measured by all the main indicators of labour performance (participation, employment and wages). This project analyses how migrant diversity influences economic performance, productivity, innovation and growth in host regions, and how this is mediated by regulatory frameworks.