Labour, Mobility and Temporary Migration

Andrew Thompson, John Lever, Julie Knight

Description

Labour, Mobility and Temporary Migration delves into sociological research on Polish migrants who migrated to the lesser-explored South Wales region after Poland joined the European Union in 2004. At the time of enlargement, Polish migrants were characterised as being economically motivated, short-term migrants who would enter the UK for work purposes, save money and return home. However, over ten years after enlargement, this initial characterisation has been challenged with many of the once considered ‘short-term’ Poles remaining in the UK. In the case of Wales, the long-term impact of this migration is only starting to be fully realised, particularly in consideration of the different spatial areas – urban, semi-urban and rural – explored in this book. Such impact is occurring in the post-Brexit referendum period, a time when the UK’s position in the EU is itself complex and changing.

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Mobility
• Temporary
• Study
• Comparative
• Emigration
• Mobility CarSharing
• Polish
• Poland
• Wales
• Migration
• Labour
• Immigration

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786830821
• Langue: English

Extrait

Labour, Mobility and Temporary Migration
LABOUR, MOBILITY AND TEMPORARY MIGRATION
A Comparitive Study of Polish Migration to Wales
JULIE KNIGHT, JOHN LEVER AND ANDREW THOMPSON
© Julie Knight, John Lever and Andrew Thompson, 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library CIP Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78683-080-7
eISBN: 978-1-78683-082-1
The right of Julie Knight, John Lever and Andrew Thompson to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Cover image: Welsh/Polish flag montage by Clifford Hayes / www.hayesdesign.co.uk
Contents
List of Abbreviations
PART I
CHAPTER 1: EU Enlargement, Migration and the UK
CHAPTER 2: Theorising Migration – Understanding Motivations, Networks and Mobility
CHAPTER 3: Locations and Research Methodology
PART II
CHAPTER 4: Why Migrate? Motivations and Migrant Decision-Making
CHAPTER 5: Polish Migrants in Cardiff: Changing Motivations in a Diverse City Environment
CHAPTER 6: Polish Workers in Merthyr Tydfil: Happily Resigned to Life in the Valleys?
CHAPTER 7: Polish Migrants in Llanelli: What Happens after the Initial Migration Period?
PART III
CHAPTER 8: ‘Migratory Drift’ (or Why Migrants Nearly Always Stay Longer than Planned)
CHAPTER 9: Polish Migrant Integration
CHAPTER 10: Policy Implications
Notes
References
List of Abbreviations
3D
Dirty, dangerous and dull
A2
Accession 2 Countries – Bulgaria and Romania
A8
Accession 8 Countries – Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary
BBC
British Broadcasting Corporation
CAB
Citizens Advice Bureau
CEE
Central and Eastern Europe
CV
Curriculumn Vitae
EAL
English as an Additional Language
EU
European Union
EU-15
European Union Original Member States
GBP
Great British Pound
GDP
Gross Domestic Product
GNP
Gross National Product
GP
General Practitioner
GVA
Gross Value Added
IOM
International Organization for Migration
IT
Information Technology
LA
Local Authority
MAC
Migration Advisory Committee
MADF
Multi Agency Diversity Forum
MEAG
Minority Ethnic Achievement Grant
MPI
Migration Policy Institute
MWF
Migrant Workers Forum
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NHS
National Health Service
NINo
National Insurance Number
NUTS
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics
OECD
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development
ONS
Office of National Statistics
PCVA
Polish Community of the Valleys Association
PLASC
Pupil Level Annual School Census
PLZ
Polish Zloty
PWMA
Polish Welsh Mutual Association
SWC
South Wales Coalfied
UK
United Kingdom
UKBA
UK Border Agency
USA
United State of America
WAG
Welsh Assembly Government
WAL
Welsh as an Additional Language
WIMD
Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation
WRS
Worker Registration Scheme
WW2
World War Two
PART I
1
EU Enlargement, Migration and the UK
Introduction
In 2004, the European Union (EU) expanded to include ten new member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The new member states to join at this time were: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. 1 While Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007 and Croatia in 2013, the 2004 EU enlargement was one of the most contentious, not least because the strengths of the economies of the existing fifteen member states were juxtaposed with the weaknesses of the economies of the ten new members. 2 As a result, the 2004 enlargement was met with a variety of responses within the national governments in Europe. Many of the old member states used restrictive policies to curb or completely stop the flow of migrants from CEE countries on a temporary basis. Interestingly, not all of the CEE countries were viewed as a threat to the old member states’ labour markets. Eight of the ten countries posed a concern for old member states. These eight countries became known as the ‘Accession 8’, or ‘A8’, and included all of the aforementioned CEE countries with the exception of Malta and Cyprus.
In the period immediately following accession, thousands of CEE migrants entered the UK, the majority coming from Poland. Academics, policy-makers and the media classified these Polish migrants as young, well-educated and economically motivated individuals who were planning to migrate to the UK for the short term and return home. However, it is only in hindsight, a decade after this enlargement, that academics are beginning to understand how these Polish migrants have influenced the labour market of Britain and how their motivations and characteristics have evolved over time. This is where the book begins: looking back over the past ten years to understand how the Polish migrants have changed in the UK, including their changing labour market mobility, their social network formation and their plans to stay in the UK. The last point is of particular importance as the vast majority of these migrants originally intended to stay in the UK for less than a year. However, ten years after enlargement, many have remained in the UK with no immediate plan to remigrate making their migration marked by temporariness and migratory drift.
Labour, Mobility and Temporary Migration draws on a substantial body of qualitative data derived from interviews with Polish migrants living and working in three localities across the South Wales region – in Cardiff, Llanelli and Merthyr Tydfil – to explore the forces and stories behind one of the largest population movements in recent European history. It will fill a significant gap in the literature on labour migration in the EU in three distinct ways.
First, it is unique in reviewing the topic of Polish migration to the UK over time to understand the continuing evolution of migrants’ motivations and characteristics. This is of particular importance for policy-makers, who have only recently begun to understand the major impact that these migrants have on the British labour market. Migrants almost always plan to come only for a relatively short stay abroad, but the majority stay considerably longer, often years after they had expected to return. Understanding why this ‘migratory drift’ occurs is critical for policy knowledge, especially in learning more about how migrants’ analyses of comparative economic conditions in their home and destination countries influence how far they stretch their stay abroad. This book will contribute to this knowledge because the early studies on which it is based were undertaken as the financial crisis and subsequent recession in the UK were breaking, while the later research was undertaken when the recession was peaking. Our research enables us to show that for as long as migrants are able to secure work, the quality of life in the UK, especially for those with children, has an important bearing on the decision of many to ride out the economic downturn.
Second, the book will fill a gap in the literature on migration to Wales. Historians of Wales have skilfully dissected previous migrations from Ireland and, later, from Italy. However, more contemporary migration patterns to Wales, particularly those from further afield, such as Poland, have not received a significant amount of attention. This book brings together the single largest body of data on Polish migration to Wales which, significantly, was undertaken as it was unfolding after EU enlargement in 2004. It thus provides a unique snapshot of social change in Wales at an important moment when the UK was experiencing and adjusting to an unexpectedly large wave of migration from CEE countries. The experience of Wales, and the lessons of the book, will nevertheless be of wider significance. A striking feature of A8 migration was the movement of migrants to all parts of the UK, and across urban and rural localities alike. Staffing agencies played a key role in shuttling workers to all four corners of the UK, and in the cases of Llanelli and Merthyr Tydfil we are able to report on just how important these commercial middlemen are for labour migration.
Third, the book is unique in its ability to capture the migrants’ story across different localities. As mentioned, many of the studies completed on post-2004 Polish migrants in England and other parts of the UK are largely city-based. It has only been in the recent past that a handful of journal articles have begun to approach the subject of Polish migration from a more spatial dimension focusing on non-city regions; however, these articles focus on specific areas outside of Wales and are not comparable. This comparative study aims to highlight the evolution of post-2004 Poles throughout three distinct regions in the South Wales area, making the implications for its use considerably more widespread.
This last point regarding the comparative spatial considerations is a major theme of this book, which was born out of three independently conducted studies coming together in this monograph. Despite the methodological commonalities across these studies, their findings were considerably different. These variations