Memorandum by Fenland District Council
COMMUNITIES AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
INQUIRY
Thank you for your letter of 17 December sent
to our Chief Executive, he has passed this to me to respond on
his behalf.
No one in Fenland knows exactly how many migrant
workers are contributing to our economy and society. Over the
past three years, Fenland Distict Council and our partners have
supported the integration of the migrant population in the Fens
and this has enhanced our practice and understanding of their
values, attitudes and beliefs.
This interaction has shown an increase in the
number of people from our migrant population in vulnerable situations
turning to council services and partners for help and advice.
They are entitled to access mainstream and voluntary
sector services in the area. This has had practical and resource
implications for ALL mainstream and voluntary sector services.
New (communities) arrivals are varied and not
homogeneous. They bring skills, economic cultural benefits to
the area. The increase in the migrant population has led to community
tensions in other parts of the Country but these have been constrained
in the Fens through the work of the Council and its partners working
through the action plan of the strategy developed to address this
issue.
In Fenland, the heightened awareness of the
migrant population has also been ensured by their increasing numbers
in the labour force, an increased visibility in the local community,
especially in rural market towns, and on, occasions, reported
incidents of harassment and racial tension involving members of
the migrant community.
The issues that migrants present in rural locations
seldom exist in isolation. Issues are inter-related and often
form part of a wider, more complex set of factors which need to
be understood. For that reason, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish
between a discrete, free standing problem and one which is a symptom
of a wider set of variables and factors.
It has become apparent that, in order to support
development of a community free from racism and to promote effective
integration and cultural diversity, all players need to participate
and be resourced. To start the process we developed a strategy
and action plan to look at the issues.
This strategy and its actions, has been developed
in close liaison with members of the new communities. New arrivals
have been difficult to contact and have shown greater reticence
in being interviewed due to a lack of understanding and trust
of authority, and in some cases language skills.
The key issues are:
— Education and Training—including
ESOL
— Public service, benefits and entitlements
Having highlighted the issues, in the attached
memorandum and ways to address via the Migrant Population Strategy,
the next challenge is to identify resources and finance to address
the issues.
Manager
Traveller & Diversity Team
17 January 2008
FENLAND CONTEXT
Fenland is a district in the County of Cambridgeshire,
in the East of England Government Office Region. Fenland comes
within the sphere of influence of the cities of Cambridge and
Peterborough. The four market towns of Wisbech, March, Chatteris
and Whittlesey are our main service, commercial and social centres
and all of them have strong local character.
INTRODUCTION
Migrant workers and their families have formed
the largest single group of new arrivals in Fenland over the last
three years. Migration is a key theme of our age. Its role in
a modern 21st century economy is likely to intensify not diminish.
This change in profile impacts on:
— Statutory service provision in terms
of the increase in and varied demands being made on services,
their relevance and accessibility.
— The ability of the district to benefit
from the contribution that people from New Communities can make
to its economy, civic, cultural and social life.
— Potential tensions between different
parts of the community which supports these developments.
The key areas of this strategy are therefore:
— To assist people from new and emerging
communities to settle and integrate effectively into the district.
— To enable service providers to ensure
services are inclusive and responsive to increasingly diverse
sectors of the community in the district.
— To provide the established community
with accurate information on migration and immigration issues
that can promote inclusion and reduce community tensions.
— To involve new community organisations
and individuals in delivering this strategy and its action plan.
FENLAND'S
MIGRANT POPULATION
The population dynamics of Fenland have changed
recently because of the increasing number of economic migrants
and their families who have come to work and settle. It is widely
recognised that the migrant population are vulnerable to social
exclusion and there are many reports of exploitation and isolation.
Partners such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, Police and Primary
Care Trust are well placed to respond to this situation. In particular
they can give visibility to the situation of the migrant population,
develop good practice and models for action, lever more appropriate
service provision from state agencies and support the collective
organisation of migrant communities.
Migrants work in horticulture, agriculture,
food packing and processing, but they also work in other sectors,
including health and education. Many migrant workers are professionals
and have skills that are needed in other employment sectors that
have shortages of skilled workers.
Many are in Britain legally and with the legal
right to work, including European Union nationals and workers
through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWs will move
towards exclusively recruiting Romanian and Bulgarian nationals
by 1 January 2008). This is due to insufficient numbers of British
nationals willing to fulfil the demand of the industry. This is
exacerbated by the economic upturn of recent years, modern supply
practices in horticulture, food processing and packaging including
peaks and troughs of labour demand.
How many migrant workers are there in the Fens?
The worker registration scheme states that since
May 2004 3,355 people from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia have registered
with them as working in the Fenland area. This does not include
those who work in the area or the large number of Portuguese and
other nationalities that work and/or live in the area.
Future patterns of migrant labour in the Fens
Patterns of labour migration are often analysed
in terms of pull and push parameters. Pull parameters include
factors such as wage levels and living conditions that make places
particularly attractive to potential economic migrants. Increasingly,
pull factors also include the policies and programmes of countries
that encourage migrant labour as a means of addressing skill shortages
in the indigenous labour force that would otherwise act as a barrier
to economic growth.
By contrast, push factors are analysed in terms
of the perceived disadvantages of the migrant's home country including
unemployment, low wage structures, limited opportunities for career
progression etc. Push factors can also include wider considerations
such as political instability, poverty and underdevelopment.
In the current Fenland labour market, employers
continue to identify serious problems in recruitment that prevent
them from keeping abreast of the market and/or adapting to new
technologies.
Whilst the most acute shortages are recorded
in the skilled trades and associated professions, vacancies are
not confined to high-skilled areas alone. Increasingly, vacancies
are being recorded in unskilled sectors including land work, food
processing, construction, hotel and catering.
Although it is unlikely that migrant labour
will be capable of filling all such vacancies, in the short term,
it is clear that local companies regard migrant workers as key
components in their strategy for the current and future economic
prosperity of the Fens. There are concerns that migrants are now
less willing to do the low skilled jobs required by some employers.
They are now more interested in longer term posts so are moving
into (for example) the hospitality sector.
Issues raised by the migrant population in Fenland
Migrant workers have been the subject of increasing
interest and concern in recent years. Nationally, that interest
has been generated by matters such as the Government's initiatives
to control the activities of gangmasters and unscrupulous employment
agencies in the labour market and the wider political debate around
the Government's policies on immigration and sustainable economic
growth. Individual events such as Morecambe Bay in 2004 have provided
a tragic human interest dimension to the wider policy agenda.
In Fenland, the heightened awareness of the
migrant population has also been ensured by their increasing numbers
in the labour force, an associated increased visibility in the
local community, especially in rural market towns, and, on occasions,
reported incidents of harassment and racial tension involving
members of the migrant community.
The problems and issues facing migrants in Fenland
have not been the subject of any comprehensive or systematic study
and analysis. However, a sufficient body of evidence exists which
can demonstrate the nature and scale of some of the problems migrant
workers face and the challenges which this poses for service providers.
It must be emphasised from the outset that the
problems and challenges faced by migrant workers are not uniform
across all sectors of society or of occupation. Whilst unskilled
and semi-skilled migrant workers and their families are perhaps
the most vulnerable members of the migrant labour force, higher
status professional migrants also experience difficulties, albeit
of a different kind and intensity.
Migrant Population issues
The issues that migrant workers present in a
rural location seldom exist in isolation. Issues are inter-related
and often form part of a wider, more complex set of factors which
need to be understood. For that reason, it is sometimes difficult
to distinguish between a discrete, free-standing problem and one
which is a symptom of a wider set of variables and factors.
For the purposes of identifying these, a thematic
approach has been taken for the identification of migrant population
problems. Although such an approach runs the risk of underplaying
the inter-connections between issues, it reflects thefactthat
issues and problems are often presented as discrete matters. Moreover,
despite widespread acknowledgement that these issues need to be
addressed in an integrated, holistic manner, pragmatism more often
determines to the contrary.
1. EMPLOYMENT
Migrant workers range from the highly educated
and skilled, to those who are highly motivated but have no formal
education; from migrants who come as seasonal workers, to those
recruited by overseas companies to work in international or local
businesses, to others who came with their families, because there
were no employment opportunities in their countries of origin.
The East of England Development Agency (EEDA)
have conducted research into this and their survey report seeks
to convey the scale and demographics of migrant workers in the
East of England, their age and gender, the workers' levels of
education and skills and the transferability of these skills,
issues related to language and communication, as well as a range
of work related issues.
Some of the recent migrants to the region possess
high levels of skills and qualifications but they are unable to
offer these to the region's labour market, perhaps because the
schemes under which they enter the labour market confine them
to working in particular types of employment. The EEDA research
in 2005 states:
— Most migrant workers are working
in the region at below their skill level eventhough the skills
they possess can be in areas where there are major skill shortages.
— Migrant workers possessing professional
qualifications, particularly in medicine, have difficulty in obtaining
employment.
Migrant workers bring £360 million to the
Region's economy. One in three are employed in food, agriculture,
construction, hotels, catering, cleaning and manufacturing, making
them a highly significant element within Fenland's local economy.
Although migrant workers play a key role (as temporary or seasonal
staff, skilled.workers and supervisors) in parts of the food and
farming supply chains, they also have a large and growing presence
in tourism/leisure, manufacturing, haulage/distribution and construction.
Increasingly, skilled and professional staff are recruited to
such sectors as health and social care.
It is perhaps obvious that employment and employment-related
issues should feature prominently on the agenda of migrant workers.
Migrant workers can face a number of problems and difficulties
in the labour market, which include:
Problems with employment agencies and gangmasters
such as:
— inaccurate representation of the
nature of jobs available to the migrant worker, levels of pay,
and holiday entitlements;
— inadequate information, provided
on matters such as the migrant worker's rights, entitlements and
obligations;
— a lack of transparency and proportionality
surrounding the deductions made by the Agency from earned income
to cover costs of housing, transport, administration etc;
— failure to honour commitments on
matters such as skills development and training.
National problems with employers include:
— refusal to honour holiday and sickness
entitlements and statutory wage rates;
— provision of poor quality working
conditions and standards;
— refusal to recognise qualifications
and work experience of migrant workers in terms of the status
and wage levels of the jobs allocated unfair dismissal; and
— denying to migrant workers the small
privileges enjoyed at work by local workers.
As an example: Wisbech CAB reports the case of
a client who had worked several months for his employer and had
an accident at work, breaking his arm. His employer told him that
he was not entitled to Statutory Sick Pay, even though the legislation
confirmed that he was entitled. The CAB helped this individual
to challenge this and it is now being investigated by HMRC. However,
when our client raised the issue with the employer, he was dismissed
without notice or pay in lieu so he now has to take the employer
to an Employment Tribunal. In the meantime, he has no income.
He is making a claim for his injury against the employer but this
will not be dealt with quickly.
Problems with fellow workers including:
— harassment and racially prejudiced
behaviour; and
— exclusion from staff social events.
It is important that new arrivals from overseas
understand about life in Britain, including key aspects of the
law and of the operation of public services. This not only benefits
the person coming to live in the UK: it minimises pressure on
services, businesses and reduces the risk of misunderstandings
that can cause problems or concerns for existing residents. For
this reason we have begun to look at how all service providers
can communicate more effectively with migrant workers.
2. HOUSING
The impact of the migrant population on housing
demand is cushioned by the fact that agencies and employers often
arrange initial accommodation. Migrants in the hospitality industry
sometimes live in hotel annexes. In the Fens with a lot of seasonal
agricultural work, individual caravans, caravan sites and converted
farm buildings are frequently used to "house" migrants.
All of these pose challenges and can result
in substandard or even illegal provision; housing issues figure
prominently on the list of problems that migrant's experience.
Housing options available to migrant workers can be classified
under the following headings:
— Tied housing (housing that is only
provided so long as you work for your employer).
— Private rented/social housing.
This has impacted on the housing market in Fenland
in the following ways:
— Of the 8 Houses of Multiple Occupation
that the Council are in the process of licensing in response to
the new mandatory licensing powers which came into force in 2006,
75% are occupied exclusively by migrant workers.
— The council is estimating that there
are 500 plus houses in non-mandatory licensabie HMO use with the
vast majority occupied exclusively by migrant workers.
— We continue to receive reports of
properties converting to HMO use for the purpose of housing migrant
workers.
— There have been several serious fire
incidents in these HMOs over the last few years. And there are
on-going concerns about fire safety within this tenure.
— There appears to be a landlord preference
to let to migrant workers to increase profitability as it is done
on a per head basis.
— There is anecdotal evidence of an
increase in migrant families accessing private rented accommodation.
— The increasing migrant population
locally may be impacting on the ability of the indigenous population
to find accommodation in the private rented sector. For many this
is not a tenure of choice but a tenure of necessity whilst waiting
for affordable housing. However the pressure for affordable housing
becomes greater if more households are living in overcrowded accommodation
as a result of reduced access to the private rented sector.
— There have been a number of unauthorised
caravan sites developed for accommodating migrant workers in recent
years. Relevant enforcement action has been and is being undertaken
to address such unauthorised use.
Owner occupation
Higher income, often professional, migrant workers
wishing to enter owner occupation can face problems from banks
and building societies which are reluctant to provide loans to
clients on a time-limited work permit with no guarantee of extension
or renewal
3. EDUCATION
AND TRAINING
Migrant workers who are unable to speak English
face significant barriers in relation to employment, accessing
services and integration within local communities. They are also
at more risk of exploitation.
There are common challenges in the provision
of language and other courses to migrant workers. These include:
— Many migrant workers work a shift
pattern and return home for visits regularly. Therefore, regular
attendance at courses can be difficult.
— Delivering these courses is relatively
expensive and providers are often unable to find funding to support
appropriate courses that are short and non-accredited.
— For some courses, students require
a National Insurance number, which prevents some of them from
attending classes.
In addition to adult education, there are some
migrant workers who bring dependants of a school age with them.
This trend is increasing. Teachers at local schools may have very
little knowledge of many, of their student's educational backgrounds,
and many children will have a limited command of the English language.
The Head of the Nene School (Primary) in Wisbech
states that the needs of migrant children are those of the more
settled indigenous community, but that language is the main barrier
to integration. They also have the same needs for play as any
other child. Play is seen as a key area as it will help:
— Interaction with other children.
Frequently these needs are not being met for
migrant children because circumstances at home mean that:
— Many families share the same premise.
— Both parents are working long hours.
— Children looked after by adults other
than parents.
College of West Anglia—Learning needs of
migrant workers and issues regarding English as a Second Language
(ESOL)
ESOL learners, exact status details will determine
funding availability.
The most experienced ESOL providers have historically
been, in the cities. There is a capacity issue in Fenland, as
is the case in most rural areas, at present were all providers
are struggling to find enough ESOL provision to meet current demand.
Some providers are setting class sizes at between
12-15 which is not best practice for beginner and advanced levels.
Also workplace learning groupings often result in a mixed level
group, not always the ideal learning situation to make the fastest
progress.
A range of needs and interests
Not all migrant workers need ESOL; some professions
will require applicants to pass an English language exam before
acceptance. However once in work some may choose to develop higher
English language levels to develop their career.
Many migrant workers come with excellent English
language skills and often conversant in several languages.
Some will get involved in acting as unofficial
interpreters for their colleagues, police, hospitals and other
local services. There could be an interest in gaining appropriate
qualifications in Interpreting. In parts of the country where
there has not historically been a history of immigration, local
agencies have not previously had need for interpreters. Qualified
interpreters will be in demand in these areas and this may offer
alternative employment for some, enabling them to make better
use of their language skills.
Many migrant workers have higher-level qualifications
from overseas, which they are not using in their current job.
Some may seek recognition of their qualifications to improve their
employment situation. There are agencies that can provide information
on equivalence of qualifications.
For many better knowledge of English language
would greatly improve their experience by reducing their vulnerability.
4. PUBLIC SERVICES,
BENEFITS AND
ENTITLEMENTS
For migrant workers coming to work in the Fens,
the acquisition of a National Insurance Number is a priority consideration.
It not only legitimises their position in the labour market but
it also enables them to access a range of state benefits and entitlements.
The possession of a National insurance Number can also be vital
in terms of workers' ability to open a bank account, open a pension
fund or even work as a volunteer as a National Insurance Number
is often required for security checks.
Migrant workers can face.a-number of problems
relating to. National Insurance registration. These include:
— lack of knowledge/awareness of their
need to obtain a National Insurance Number and/or the procedure
for doing so;
— misinformation by employment agencies
and employers on the need for registration; and
— protracted procedures and delays
in the process of National Insurance registration with resulting
problems and difficulties in accessing benefits and entitlements.
5. HEALTH
There has not been a significant use of the
health services by temporary migrant manual workers in the recent
past. This was assumed to be because the majority of such workers
were young men, a sector of the population who typically have
a low level of health care needs. Owing to the highly mobile nature
of their work patterns it was assumed that workers were accessing
services in other parts of the Eastern region and possibly beyond.
This however, does not mean that there are no
issues surrounding migrant population's access to health care.
Where contact has been made with migrants it
has revealed a number of on-going medical conditions, including
stomach ulcers, asthma, heart and back problems and arthritis,
some of which have been exacerbated by field or pack house labour
or living conditions. There have also been cases of severe mental
illness, and an ongoing problem with sexual and reproductive health,
including miscarriages and the need to access terminations by
women.
To date it has not been possible to discover
the extent to which mental health problems are either experienced
or acknowledged within the migrant worker community. Given the
high degree of uncertainty, exploitation and fear in their lives,
the level of isolation from any wider community, poor housing
conditions and cultural dislocation, it would be reasonable to
assume that there are ongoing and unrecognised mental health issues
among foreign migrant workers. There appears to be a degree of
confusion among local agencies over exactly what they are and
are not able to provide in these circumstances, with the result
that migrants are left in an unacceptably vulnerable position.
There was anecdotal evidence that significant
health issues might exist in the migrant population but there
was little data to confirm. A health care needs assessment was
therefore carried out in Wisbech, in December 2005, to form an
evidence base about newly arrived workers and those whose first
language was not English.
Interviews were carried out with a total of
21 people from the migrant population (13 men and 8 women). Their
ages ranged from 18 to 60 years. The duration of stay in the UK
ranged from 3 month's to 7 years. Participants were from Portugal,
Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, South Africa, Namibia and
Iraq.
The size of the migrant population at that time
was estimated to be about 2,000 and approximately 60% of these
were likely to have registered with GP's in Wisbech.
The largest settled population of migrants in
and around Wisbech were Portuguese. This has altered somewhat
with large numbers of Eastern Europeans now living in the town
which are made up of Lithuanians, Poles, Latvians, Czechs, Slovaks
and Estonians. Another group identified are from southern Africa,
mainly from Namibia and South Africa.
The major source of social support was from
family members or close friends who often migrated together. The
next source were members from the same country of origin. These
did not necessarily live in Wisbech.
Health information came mainly through friends
and less often through families.
Nine of the 21 migrants interviewed were not
registered with a GP. Most of these participants would go to the
hospital if they required medical attention. At the time of the
needs assessment migrant workers had to call a number at Vinery
Road, Cambridge to be assigned a practice in order to register
with a GP. Telephone conversation requires greater fluency in
language because visual cues and gestures cannot be used to aid
communication. As a result the majority of participants found
the process challenging.
Two areas were identified as priorities for
the health of the migrant population—mental health and sexual
health/ family planning. The stressful nature of migration and
the fact that migrants from Eastern Europe come from countries
with high levels of suicide suggest the potential vulnerability
of these individuals in whom homesickness was very common.
A growing number of migrants in their late teens
and early 20s will begin to form relationships in the near future
as they become settled. The lack of awareness of local sexual
health/family planning services in this group was seen as a cause
for concern by the Doctor acting on behalf of the local Primary
Care Trust who conducted the survey.
Specialist Health Issues
Bridgegate in Peterborough and Wisbech have
already spent five years working towards developing drug services
for local diverse communities and their community engagement model
has enabled a greater understanding of the risks associated with
migration and complex needs around drug misuse including: racial
discrimination and exploitation, employment issues and poor working
conditions, unemployment and no benefit entitlement (destitution
and homeless ness), social and economic exclusion, difficulty
accessing services, and language support, poor family support
and social networks, pre-conceptions of treatment and legal systems.
These include:
— Providing appropriate preventative
education to reduce risk and raise awareness.
— Supporting and encouraging treatment
pathways.
— Involving members of the community
to signpost and support potential service users into treatment—
language support.
— Action research: Informing and improving
practise: creating a greater understanding of the needs of diverse
communities around drug misuse including cultural and religious
implications. (A study of Black and Minority Ethnic Communities).
6. LAW AND
ORDER
Small incidents, such as tensions over other
resident's parking spaces if HMOs do not have adequate parking,
can escalate. Cohesion and community safety cannot be taken for
granted.
The main issues for the Safer Fenland Partnership
and the Migrant Population are:
— To ensure continued engagement to
build relationships with permanent and transitional migrant communities
by all partner agencies, this will also give the migrant communities
confidence to report any perceived hate crime to the police, FDC
and other appropriate agencies.
— Continue to improve access to information
via one stop shops, police, libraries, web sites.
— Awareness raising of Fenland culture
throughout the Migrant Community and visa versa (via fairs, migrant
worker packs, Fenland Eye, schools and colleges). Many of the
issues raised by Fenland residents against the migrant communities
are regarding excess rubbish, drinking on street corners, gathering
in large numbers, taking employment opportunities away.
— Crime—due to differences in
culture we have seen an increase in the number of people carrying
of knives.
— We have seen foreign national on
foreign national murders (Friday Bridge) and professional hits
(Wisbech van fire). Meaning all the witnesses are foreign resulting
in a huge increase in interpreter bills.
— Drink Driving has increased as well
a Road Traffic Accidents (this also includes run off's after accidents).
— Interpreters—as aiready identified
costs have escalated regarding language line. However, language
line cannot not be used under the drink drive procedure. Therefore
the police have to use local accredited interpreters to undertake
interviews which cost more. They also have to use this service
for interviews. This has resulted in the police now employing
five interpreters in order to cut costs.
— Dispersal Orders—the Wisbech
Dispersal Order was set up as a result of violent conflicts/fights
occurring in the town centre between foreign nationals. The main
cause of this was the tradition of young men sitting in public
places drinking spirits. This is a tradition that the police are
trying to prevent through the dispersal order.
— Neighbourhood make up—these
are traditionally hard to reach people as they work hard, do not
go to social events and read little English. There are lots of
initiatives that are being used to help build bridges ... for
example going into factories, putting up posters, running surgeries
with interpreters and having joint events with the local churches.
— Racial crimes—due to the number
of people from minority groups increasing, there has been an increase
in minor racial incidents. Due to the police's hard stance on
this, it has had a major resource impact, as we now have a dedicated
racial crime officer.
7. BENEFITS AND
ENTITLEMENTS
EU Regulations enable workers and members of
their families who move within the EU to take with them their
acquired rights to social security and health care. Such arrangements
also apply to members of the EEA and Switzerland.
In the context of the current EU Member States,
the Government introduced the Workers' Registration Scheme in
May 2004, for EU nationals from the eight East European accession
countries Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Slovenia and Slovak Republic (Cyprus and Malta are not
included in the scheme). Nationals from these eight accession
countries coming to work in the UK are required to register which
will prove that they have permission to reside and work in the
country. Entitlement to benefits such as income support, job seeker's
allowance, state pension credit, housing benefit and council tax
benefit for Accession 8 Countries is governed by the need to satisfy
the right to reside conditions.
Work permit holders and working holidaymakers
are admitted to the UK on the condition that they do not have
recourse to public funds. In effect, this means that they cannot
claim certain benefits that include child benefit, disability
living allowance, working tax credit, housing benefit, income
support and allowance. Work permits for these workers are stamped
"No recourse to public funds".
The issues surrounding access to and eligibility
for benefits and entitlements are often a source of problems and
challenges for migrant workers. These include:
— difficulties in understanding the
full range of benefits and entitlements available and the eligibility
criteria and procedures for accessing them;
— employers' lack of understanding/refusal
to acknowledge a range of employees' rights in relation to work
and related issues; and
8. IMMIGRATION
ISSUES
Given the diverse range of criteria and conditions
governing the rights (or not) of migrants to work in the Fens,
issues surrounding their immigration status can sometimes feature
prominently on the agenda of migrant workers.
Although many of the reported issues surrounding
immigration status often relate to undocumented workers, a number
of situations and circumstances can present problems to those
who are in the country legitimately.
Key issues and concerns include:
— problems with getting change(s) to
a work permit and associated difficulties of changing jobs;
— provision of incorrect information/advice
about the immigration status of a worker; and
— lack of clear and concise explanations
from departments and agencies.
9. CROSS-CUTTING
ISSUES
In addition to the catalogue of specific issues
identified above, the problems migrant workers face are often
exacerbated by:
— communication problems due to insufficient
command of English;
— insufficient understanding of procedures,
practices and legalities of matters such as motor insurance and
certification;
— a culture of fear which often prevents
the worker from seeking help lest it results in loss of job, accommodation
etc. [The right to work/right to reside regime has, to an extent,
exacerbated this problem due to the migrant worker's need to avoid
having a break of more than 30 days in employment during the first
12 months.]; and
— a work-dominated existence which
curtails opportunities to develop social interaction with local
communities who themselves are sometimes cautious of or even hostile
to any such interaction.
10. COMMUNITY
COHESION ISSUES
Positive interaction between migrant communities
and existing residents is key to promoting cohesion. However,
a range of practical and attitudinal barriers to interaction are
likely to exist. At the practical level, language is all important.
Many migrants arrive with little or limited English.
The arrival of significant numbers of foreign
language speaking migrant workers in Fenland's market towns can
be a source of tension and conflict with the host community. Tension
is evident in the reports of overcrowding in waiting rooms due
to high numbers of migrant workers seeking help and advice.
As well as language, other practical barriers
to interaction between migrants and existing residents stem from
separation that comes from busy and separate working and social
lives.
Tensions between new and settled communities
are often caused by myth and misinformation circulating and gaining
currency. In the absence of any other information, media reporting
can define local perceptions about migrants.
11. THE CHALLENGES
POSED FOR
SERVICE PROVIDERS
BY MIGRANT
POPULATION
Notwithstanding their growing importance in
the economic life of the country, the employment of an increasing
number of migrant workers has resulted in an increase in demand
on a number of service providers.
Like many service providers, the Wisbech Citizens
Advice Bureau report that the scale of that increase has been
very significant in recent years, as evidenced, in the first quarter
of 2007 by 38% of the people coming into the Wisbech CAB drop
in sessions being migrant workers. Although they see a few people
from the migrant population in March and Chatteris, the numbers
there are very small. Hardly any migrants access their services
by phone, letter or e-mail.
The percentages by nationality were: Lithuanian,
47% Latvian 20%, Portuguese 13%, Polish 12% all others amounted
to 8%. Whilst much of that growth has been the result of self-referral,
there is evidence to suggest that a proportion is due to decisions
by other bodies and agencies to redirect/refer requests to them
for help and advice.
This raises important questions not only about
the implications of this growth for Citizens Advice Bureau and
other community and voluntary organisations but also about the
ownership of the migrant worker agenda and the extent to which
it is shared (or not) by all the bodies and agencies who need
to be involved:
— Availability of the service.
— Management of business.
— Staff related issuesis.
— Changing nature of problems.
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