Memorandum by the Migrants' Rights Network
1. INTRODUCTION
AND SUMMARY
OF SUBMISSION
1.1 The Migrants' Rights Network (MRN) has
been in existence since the summer of 2006. Its objectives are
to support migrant communities by assisting in the development
of networks of groups supporting migrant rights across the country,
and to strengthen the voice migrant communities within that structure.
1.2 This early phase of our work has involved
contact with over one thousand organisations working with migrant
communities across the UK, developing a continuing discussion
about the issues they are working on, and considering strategies
aimed at strengthening migrant voice.
1.3 The most useful contribution we can
make to the Committee's current inquiry at this point is to set
out our understanding of the economic impact of migration that
arise from current procedures for managing migration as they
fall on migrants themselves. We feel that there should be
greater awareness of the impact of current policies, which often
work to transfer the cost of the management of migration from
society in general and to place a disproportionate part onto migrants.
1.4 A consequence of requiring migrant to
pay a heavier cost for their participation in migration is an
increase in their vulnerability to exploitative conditions in
many parts of the UK labour market. More dangerous still has been
the tendency for these exploitative conditions to become structured
into the basic working practices of the sectors of employment
where migrants are concentrated, and for this to become an enduring
feature of the relationship between labour and capital in those
areas.
1.5 In the following paragraphs we sketch
out the component parts of the new system of migration management
which feature as the main determinants of the limitations on the
options available to migrants. These are:
— Employment options in a relatively
limited range of sectors, with agriculture and food processing,
construction, hospitality, health and personal care, and domestic
work being typical.
— The role of agencies and gangmasters
in managing the relations between workers and employers.
— The undervaluation of the individual
characteristics of the workers (qualifications, formal and "soft"
skills, etc) and the imposition of the presumption that, because
of their nationality, work of a particular type will be most suitable
to them.
— A rising cost of entry into
and participation in migration, associated with the payment of
agents' fees, accommodation and transportation deductions from
wages, and, for non-EEA migrants, of work and resident permit
fees, producing dependency on regular and constant work, often
at the lowest wages rates obtainable in the sector.
— The underpinning of these tendencies
by government policies which seek to organise migration to maximise
benefits in the short term to UK employers, and at the expense
of other longer-term interests, including the wider community
and of migrants themselves.
2. THE CONCENTRATION
OF MIGRANTS
IN LIMITED
SECTORS OF
THE ECONOMY
2.1 The MRN's assessment of current patterns
of migration, based on information communicated through out network,
is that a much higher proportion is directed to regions outside
South East England, and to smaller cities and towns, that has
been the case with previous inward movements. The driving force
for this development appears to be the increased significance
of agriculture and food production and processing as employers
of migrant worker. Additional factors include the replacement
of native workers who have migrated from medium and small towns
to take up employment opportunities in more prosperous regions,
living behind unfilled vacancies in sectors such as public transport
and other public services. The building sector, a long-standing
employer of migrant labour, has also benefited from a prolonged
period of booming activity, creating demand for workers in both
new construction and home maintenance and repair. Another sector
on which we received reports is residential care, increasingly
located in provincial and rural districts where skilled and experienced
carers are in short supply.
2.2 Drawing on discussions held with migrants
working in agriculture, the view has been put to use that the
growing significance of migrants is associated with structural
changes in the sector, rather than the exercise of individual
choice. (Anderson, Ruhs, Rogaly and Spencer, 2006). These structural
changes include:
— The concentration and integration
of the UK food market through the influence of a few powerful
supermarkets. Consequently the demand for fresh, cheap and convenient
food sold by supermarkets has contributed to the volume of produce
required from horticultural producers in the UK.
— The response of producers to
an increased demand varies and includes; the use of technologies
that can extend the growing season, the importing of produce from
abroad and the processing of produce sourced from local growers.
Together with an increase in volume, fresh fruit, vegetables and
ornamentals supplied by producers are subject to quality control
and labour intensive processes that give additional value to the
product. This is compounded by the daily fluctuation in orders
from supermarkets resulting from the "just in time"
delivery policies of supermarkets. The processing and quality
requirements and the just in time delivery policies contribute
to the demand for labour providers, as greater numbers of workers
are needed and at short notice. As a result there is a sustained
demand for temporary workers in horticulture with producers expressing
a readiness towards employing migrants.
— An interesting feature of the
horticultural and agricultural sectors is the diversity of producers.
For some producers production is a "way of life" rather
than a "business" whereas clearly for some producers
horticulture is a market driven enterprise in which research and
development are key to commercial success. Financial considerations
and the scale of production may also influence decisions by producers
regarding the level of investment and necessity of mechanisation
of particularly tasks in horticulture. That said, increasing standards
of quality require attention to detail that can only be offered
by the presence of workers. It is clear however that work migrants
are critical to the UK horticultural sector and therefore their
contribution and presence should be felt to be more than reliant
but critical as they underpin the sector.
— Horticultural employers prefer
migrant workers because levels of productivity are often higher
compared to UK national workers. One major horticultural producer
estimates migrants productivity to be at least 30% higher than
that of UK national workers.
3. THE ROLE
OF AGENCIES
AND LABOUR
PROVIDERS IN
STRUCTURING MIGRANT
EMPLOYMENT
3.1 The task of filling of vacancies in
the sectors where migrants are concentrated is amenable to the
use of recruitment agencies of various kinds. These organisations
will take on contracts to provide given numbers of workers on
the basis of set terms and conditions of employment. They will
look for recruitment opportunities which maximise efficiency,
and this is typically provided by operations which focus efforts
on bring workers from abroad into migration. The importance of
recruitment agencies is notable in all the sectors where migrants
are concentrated, including agriculture and food processing, public
transport, public services and residential care.
3.2 The character of the recruitment operation
is itself a factor determining the shape and content of migration
and its possibilities for development. This is particularly marked
in the horticultural sector.
3.3 Studies based on other European countries
suggest that agencies play a critical role in managing the differing
expectations of employers in sectors where demand fluctuates on
a seasonable basis, or where it various according to peaks and
troughs on weekly or daily bases. (Anderson and Wadensjo, 2004)
In markets dominated by jobs of this kind, agencies can manage
some of the disadvantages of part-time and temporary employment
by merging different part-time jobs into the equivalent of a full-time
job.
3.4 Agencies also reduce the cost of recruitment
by making most effective use of advertising and interviewing resources.
This is particularly important when the jobs to be filled are
part-time or short-term. They also manage the difficulties that
might arise for employers whose business requires them to reduce
or chance the composition of their workforce at short notice;
a situation which can generate conflicts for employers in terms
of employment law and collective agreements. Recruitment through
agencies can also reduce other costs for employers, such as national
insurance, parental leave, and pensions contributions.
3.5 The strong relationship between agencies
and particular sectors of employment means that migrants tend
to be over-represented in areas of work characterised by short-term,
casual and seasonal employment. The disadvantages associated with
long-term employment in these sectors increasingly features as
structural impediments to social mobility for the migrant component
of the labour force. Migrant workers become cemented into areas
of employment with few options for career development, the enhancement
of existing, or the acquisition of new skills.
3.6 The MRN believes that policy-makers
should be more alert to the need break the linkage between agency-dominated
sectors and long-term disadvantage to deal with the danger that
the current generation of migrant workers being transformed into
the next generation of disadvantaged ethicised minorities.
4. THE UNDERVALUING
OF MIGRANT
SKILLS AND
INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION
4.1 The tendency for migrant skills to be
undervalued is most clearly expressed for people whose level of
English is regarded as inadequate for the type of qualification
for a career relevant to the skill or qualification in question.
The remedy is for the level of English to be improved, and many
migrants are very clear that they wish to undertake courses where
they can do this. However, the nature of the employment which
they are in the meantime required to undertake, involving shift-working
and long hours, severely limits these options. In addition the
concentration of migrants into workforces where English is not
likely to be spoke, or spoken fluently, will mean that many will
succumb to the natural tendency to seek the company of co-nationals,
or others whose language they can speak.
4.2 It is likely that migrants will always
be disadvantaged in obtaining recognition of their skills and
qualifications at the point of arrival in a new country. But it
should not be considered an insurmountable difficulty to put in
place reception procedures which identify the labour market integration
needs of new arrivals, including their needs for English courses,
to ensure that they are able to perform at the level of their
skills and qualifications. With advice about integration needs
available it could be hoped that the worst case scenario of institutional
discrimination against migrants at the level of the labour market
might be avoided and marked differences between the career paths
of similarly skilled workers eliminated.
4.3 The MRN is concerned that the tendencies
towards institutional discrimination, primarily driven by the
prevalence of casual employment conditions in the migrant employing
sectors, and coupled with the use of agency recruitment and under-valuation
of skills and qualifications, is also reinforced by aspects of
official immigration policy and the immigration control regime.
The Government has justified its plans to end or change the basis
for the operation of immigration procedures for non-work permit
migration on its believe that low skill vacancies can be met by
recruiting workers from the EU accession states. There is a real
danger that in taking this approach the authorities are creating
a system of entry which limits options for work outside the low
skill sectors and which, when combined with the structural character
of migrant labour markets, generates further barriers to social
mobility for migrants.
4.4 In our view it is not enough for the
government to say that—with the exception of Bulgarians
and Romanians—no regulatory barrier to work outside the
low skill sector is being created, and that all other EEA nationals
will be free to take whatever employment for which they are qualified.
The experience of post-war Commonwealth migration shows that formal
freedoms to work in better-paid and more prestigious employment
can be limited to a very large extent by structural features of
labour markets which make an association between ethnicity and
job opportunities, which then become very difficult to change
in the years that follow. There are strong reasons to be concerned
that similar forms of institutional discrimination are being generated
in migration management procedures today which could have the
same long-term consequences.
5. THE RISING
COST OF
ENTRY INTO
MIGRATION AND
ITS CONSEQUENCES
5.1 A further aspect of migration management
which produces an economic impact on migrant concerns the rising
cost of entry into labour migration procedures. Whilst these have
been reduced for nationals of the EU25, they are burdensome for
other migrants controlled by the Immigration Acts. Visa fees for
migrant workers, currently set at £200 for most categories,
are not the biggest expense incurred. The VAF2 visa application
form is 14 pages long, lists nearly 100 questions, and can require
around 20 items of supporting evidence to be adduced in support.
Very few prospective migrants will be confident about their ability
to fill in these forms without the assistance of people who purport
to be experts in the field of UK immigration law and policy, thereby
incurring additional costs which typically rise from the £500
to £1,000 mark. The requirement to have an employer to sponsor
most categories of labour migrant will usually mean obtaining
the services of a gangmaster or other labour providing agent,
with the unscrupulous charging additional fees to the workers
seeking employment. The net effect of these measures is to generate
costs of around £1,500-£2,000 for permits which might
only permit period of employment of one year or less. This is
a very heavy expense which for many migrants can only be borne
by taking out loans at high rates of interest, thus generating
more costs.
5.2 Those familiar with migrant communities
with a high proportion of undocumented workers in their ranks
frequently cite the burden of indebtedness as a reason why individuals
will overstay their periods of leave to reside and to seek employment
which are forbidden to take by their immigration status. In our
view it is no accident that the acknowledged rise in the numbers
of undocumented migrants in the UK in recent years has come at
the same time as the roll out of managed migration, with its associated
increase costs of entry into the labour market.
5.3 Though this has not been considered
by government, we feel that a contribution to the reduction of
overstaying and working in breach of conditions could be usefully
made by reducing the current level of visa fees, simplifying visa
application procedures with briefer and more easily comprehendible
forms, and the ending of the requirement for employer sponsorship
for all categories of worker where prompt entry into paid employment
can be safely assumed. The consequent reduction in the cost of
economic migration as it falls on the migrant can be expected
lower the need to resort to overstaying and work without permission,
with the burden of indebtedness having been greatly reduced by
these measures.
6. CONCLUSIONS:
THE NEED
FOR A
BETTER BALANCE
BETWEEN BRITISH
INTEREST AND
MIGRANT RIGHTS
6.1 From the standpoint of migrants, the
system which prevails in the UK too often looks like a mechanism
for displacing a high proportion of the costs associated with
the management of migration onto the migrants themselves, whilst
wider British society appropriates to itself most of the benefits.
The commitment on the part of the government to continual overhaul
of immigration procedures has the effect of increasing uncertainty
and inclining more and more migrants to the view that if they
are to obtain any benefit from work in the UK, it will be because
the rules and regulations are bent, if not actually broken, and
the immigration authorities dealt with as a unsympathetic and
hostile intrusion into their lives.
6.2 The most pressing need for the period
ahead is an engagement between the public authorities and employers
in the sectors of the economy where migrants are concentrated
with the purpose of ensuring that:
— The special needs of migrants
are properly provided for in the context of work, in particularly
for language training and recognition of qualifications and skills;
and
— Current patterns of migration
are not structured into rigid, unchangeable destinies which confine
migrants to low paid and low prestige sectors of employment.
6.3 We are concerned that the government
frequently presents its policies as dealing exclusively with the
benefits that Britain can get from immigration. In reality this
has means operating procedures designed to deliver low cost workers
on ultra-flexible contracts to British employers, without proper
thought as to the consequences of this approach for wider issues
and concerns. The MRN believes that some steps will be taken to
redress this situation if assessments of the economic impacts
of migration take its economic impact on migrants themselves more
fully into account.
5 November 2007
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