Memorandum by Boston Borough Council
BACKGROUND TO MIGRATION IN BOSTON
During the last five years the population dynamics
of our local community have rapidly transformed and the Borough
of Boston is home to many different communities. Many have found
a good life here—the relaxed pace of life, the quality of
the local environment and cheaper house prices. New communities
have been created.
The migration of workers into South Lincolnshire
has been part of the economic cycle of the area for many centuries
but more recently with the increased need for manpower available
24 hours a day seven days a week and the low unemployment in the
area (1.6% against a national average of 5%) we have become an
attractive area for Eastern European migrants.
Boston Borough Council recognised the impact
of such a rapid inward flow of visitors early in 2004 and responded
positively in developing a community cohesion strategy, a vision
of a community where people felt respected and valued. This strategy
was reviewed in 2006 and is currently being revised to take account
of the recent report from the Commission on Integration and Cohesion.
The revised strategy will be considered for approval by the Borough
Council at its Cabinet Meeting in December 2007 and by Boston
Area Partnership (LSP) in January 2008.
A LOCAL APPROACH
The Council recognises that to resolve the inevitable
conflicts and tensions within the community brought about by a
rapid change in population demography we need to tackle the issues
at a local level. This is echoed in the Commission's report which
encourages authorities to look at individual neighbourhoods and
communities where a more tailor made solution at a local level
will be more effective.
The local authority is taking a leading role
within the Community and is working in partnership with the voluntary
sector, police, health, education and private housing associations
to tackle some of the issues and promote a cohesive community.
This has involved taking an innovative approach
at a local level where the activities of all agencies working
within the community are co-ordinated together to achieve results
at a grass root level. Some of the projects we are working on
involve getting people more involved in their communities, tackling
community tensions and exclusion, improving access to services
and information and helping our community to feel a sense of pride
in Boston.
Community Cohesion is one of the corporate priorities
for the Council and as such responsibility for the strategic direction
is owned at the highest possible level. We have restructured within
our organisation and established a role at Corporate Management
level, a Head of Community Development post that for the first
time pulls together Community Cohesion, Community Development,
Customer Services and Community Safety. Community Cohesion is
also one of the main priorities for the Corporate Management Board
as a whole led by the Chief Executive and is reflected within
the Community Strategy, Local Area Masterplan and the Council's
Corporate Plan.
The current Community Cohesion Strategy was
approved in 2005 and despite a further Best Value Review which
highlights a number of actions in 2006 the Strategy has not been
revised and updated. The situation has changed drastically over
the last few years with a large influx of economic migrants from
the accession A8 and A2 Countries, and increasing demands on all
service providers.
We have also taken a "step back" and
reviewed the way in which we have traditionally dealt with Community
Cohesion both within Boston Borough Council, and also with our
partners. A review of the Equality and Diversity Theme group has
also identified that despite some examples of good work, the group
lacked the capacity to implement significant change. This has
resulted in a new approach which involves closer working with
our key partners:
— Equality and Diversity Theme Group—to
become an advisory group to the Boston Area Partnership.
— Community Cohesion Delivery Group
implemented.
— Closer links with the County Community
Cohesion Group.
— Close working with Institute of Community
Cohesion specifically looking at Communications.
— Work with the IDeA on communication
and myth busting.
— LGA Advisory group attendance.
— Neighbourhood Renewal Advisor work
in conjunction with South Holland District Council.
What successes have we had?
We are a small local council but despite a lack
of resources, by working in partnership we are starting to see
some real successes, even though we recognise we still have much
to do. We have been leading the way in some areas and have been
talking to both central and local government about the response
at a local level and informing government of the challenges we
are facing.
— We worked with South Holland District
Council which conducted a study on migrant workers within our
area which has given us a better insight into the problems faced
by employers, new migrants to our community and our indigenous
population. The results of this work also involved the development
of the first web site for migrant workers. www.migrantworkers.co.uk
— We have taken an active role in welcoming
new arrivals to our town and have developed a "welcome to
Boston" CD which was published in 2006 working in partnership
with a number of agencies. This information is also on our website—www.boston.gov.uk/welcome
— We have taken the lead in tackling
the many myths that abound and originally produced a myth busting
leaflet in 2004. This has subsequently been revised and is the
basis for the Lincolnshire County Myth Busting leaflet which all
agencies now use to educate and promote the benefits of inward
migration to our economy and dispel the myths.
— We have in partnership with the Police
adopted the True Vision scheme which encourages people to report
racially motivated abuse or assaults. It is vital that we are
aware of any tensions so we can deal with them before they escalate.
— We have been working closely with
local businesses and national companies and in September 2006
we worked closely with the business community on a HRH Prince
of Wales "seeing is believing tour" which was organised
by our business community. This looked at the food processing
chain from the land to the shop. A follow up meeting took place
in September 2007 where it was agreed that private and public
sector would work together to ensure national supermarket chains
take their corporate social responsibilities seriously and ensure
all links in the chain of food supply are operating on a legal
basis and also give support to public sector agencies in addressing
issues and problems as well as benefits and opportunities of the
rapid increase in the growth of economic migrants in areas like
Boston. A report is being prepared to meet with relevant Ministers
in the New Year to discuss.
— We are involved with our partners
in ensuring sufficient English language courses are available
at the college to ensure more people can speak English and integrate
within the community.
— Working with the Neighbourhood Policing
teams we have a better understanding of the issues felt within
the community and are helping them through a multi agency group
to identify the key priorities that need tackling within their
local area.
— Supporting Voluntary Sector initiative
of staging a Community Roadshow in the town's park (Sept 06 and
Sept 07) providing welfare and advice services, food and music
in a "safe" environment. 2,500 attendance in 06 rose
to 7,500 in 07.
GANGMASTERS LICENSING
LEGISLATION
We have quickly recognised the links between
employment and accommodation for many economic migrants and have
been working closely with the GLA to establish early notification
of large scale closures of disreputable gangmasters. This will
ensure that all agencies have the correct support mechanisms in
place to deal with the potential social and economic issues associated
with a large scale closure.
Earlier this year we co-ordinated a multi agency
table top exercise with several key partners with the aim of establishing
a guidance document to assist agencies at a National level through
the GLA. This document is nearing completion, and in addition
a new Communication protocol has now been established to ensure
early notification of key agencies is achieved.
TENSION MONITORING
We work closely with the police as part of a
multi agency approach to monitoring tensions and help communities
deal with conflict locally. Much good work has already been done,
in our preparations for the World Cup football tournament in 2006
we learnt many lessons from the disturbances which took place
in Boston in 2004 at the European Football Championships and established
an effective responsive team. This work has been recognised by
the Institute of Community Cohesion as an example of best practice.
We are now extending this group to include tension monitoring
within schools.
What are we doing at a regional and national level?
Even though we recognise much of the work in
achieving a cohesive community needs to be done at a local level,
we feel that it is important that as a Council we feed into the
development of National policy.
We are a member of the Local Government Association
steering group on migration which gives us the opportunity to
inform policy and decision makers about the issues within a small
rural area such as Boston.
We have also been campaigning for a fairer deal
for better funding for public services in the area. To date there
has been little recognition of the scale of ethnic minority communities
and the impact on service providers.
The Chief Executive attended a Roundtable Meeting
to discuss the recommendations of the Commission for Integration
and Cohesion Report, chaired by Hazel Blears, Minister for Local
Government and Communities on 21 November 2007, along with 14
other Chief Executives across the country.
The Chief Executive has been contacted by the
Improvement and Development Agency to agree an article for its
online magazine around his (Chief Executive's) view that this
current wave of economic migration in the UK has placed local
authorities in a process of "New Learning". Aspects
of this economically driven migration are different to those which
took place in the 1940's, 50's and 60's as that was driven by
individuals from different countries searching for a better life.
The present wave is largely controlled by gangmasters,
often operating illegally. This means it is very hard to reach
out to these groups because they are usually living in multiple
occupancy houses, sharing rooms/beds and have their movements
(job/accommodation) controlled by the gangmasters.
This "control" in conjunction with
the inability to obtain an accurate picture of demographic and
population changes and the mapping of population clusters in different
localities in the area has serious implications for cohesion and
is a barrier to integration.
Also communities like Boston do not have the
infrastructure in place to deal with rapid surges of migration
introducing new cultures/communities to the area, as many large
cities/London Boroughs have, who have experienced migration at
different times over the last 50 years or so. And while much can
be learned from these more mature communities, because many aspects
of this new wave are different to anything previously experienced,
Boston (and other similarly affected communities) are having to
develop New Learning, in real time, with limited capacity and
resources, where we cannot always rely on the old solutions to
work and must therefore create new systems and networks to determine
new solutions.
DEMOGRAPHIC AND
POPULATION STATISTICS
Our current official population statistics are
58,300 (mid term census figures). However through our research
with the PCT the GP registrations reveal 79,000 patients registered
and the National Insurance number applications reveal 10,000 registrations
for 2005-06 alone.
The recent ONS/Worker Registration Scheme population
trends 8 EU (A8 Countries) indicated that Boston has the 2nd highest
number of A8 migrants per 1,000 of total population in the UK
(2nd only to City of London).
Some local schools have up to 50% of children
with English as a second language (average in many schools is
35%) but do not have the resources available to deal with this.
Boston College (FE) are oversubscribed on ESOL
courses, they presently have learners from 51 different countries
and the Citizens Advice Bureau record over 30 nationalities, living
and working in Boston.
Our current estimates stand at around 15,000
to 20,000 economic migrants living and working in the Boston area,
which is not recognised by Government and not reflected in the
RSG which provides local councils with the funds to deliver services.
However clearly there is a need to have more
accurate statistics which will enable authorities to better plan
for the future and shape our services to support all of our community.
We are utilising the toolkit with the Institute of Community Cohesion
and working in partnership with the County Council and the Lincs
Primary Care Trust to establish a more accurate picture of our
changing communities.
IMPACT ON
SERVICES
TRANSLATION SERVICES
It is difficult to quantify the impact on services
across the Council in monetary terms with the exception of the
additional spend on translation services. This totals £2,000
for 2006-07 but is increasing monthly. The need to translate key
documentation is essential in terms of achieving future efficiencies,
for example the difficulties with ensuring customers fully understand
the documentation which is required for a variety of services
where English is not their first language, can cause delays in
assessing applications or dealing with requests.
This can lead to inequality on service provision,
impact on customer satisfaction and targets where application
process time is critical.
Translation is necessary at the front end when
people first arrive but we need more resources for ESOL provision
as learning the language is a faster track process towards integration.
SERVICE PROVISION
Some of the additional strain on key service
areas within the Council is due to the increase in population
rather than the specific nationality issues and this is agreed
across the public and voluntary sector providers in Boston. But
for other service areas there are specific issues which have put
an additional strain on service providers:
— Complaints regarding refuse.
— Lack of understanding of many new
arrivals of refuse and recycling service.
— Anti social behaviour complaints
have risen as have the incidents of Hate Crime, even though many
are believed to remain unreported.
— Housing and HMO's (see attachment).
— Proactive Communications and the
need to dispel myths.
— Monetary value for publications and
methods to support myth busting.
— Schools/College require more resources
for ESOL and addressing the needs of the increased capacity of
pupils/students.
— Resource Contribution to tackle community
cohesion through multi agency delivery group.
— Resource contribution as Community
Leaders.
HOUSING AND ECONOMIC MIGRANTS
In housing terms, the impact of economic migration
from countries like Portugal initially and then from A8 states
(from 2004) began to have a significant impact within the community
and local housing market from 2002-03.
Until 2002-03, the local housing market was
relatively stable; whilst property prices had increased since
1999, affordability problems could not be described as acute (entry
level two properties could be accessed for £60,000 compared
to £97,000 today).
From 2002-03, it was the private rented sector
that took the strain of in migration. The result was a rapid increase
in the number of properties let in multiple occupancy, and, as
demand grew within this segment of the market, room rents in housing
occupied by economic migrants were driven up to levels which supported
vocabulary like "exploitation".
Given that the drivers of migration in our local
context are largely economic, the demand for labour strengthened
the relationship between housing and employment with "gangmasters"
quickly becoming large landlords and exacerbating the challenges
faced by the proliferation of houses in multiple occupation.
The change in the housing market was most stark
in 2004 following EU enlargement which fuelled a "nimby"
mentality locally with complaints about houses in multiple occupation
dominating the complaint base of the Local Housing Authority.
Unfortunately the concept of "new plus different" resulted
in most houses occupied by economic migrants being brought to
the attention of the Local Housing Authority as being "illegal"
houses in multiple occupation.
The table below evidences how the private rented
sector was affected and shows how the resources of the local authority
have been stretched.
|
| Year | All Enforcement Requests
| Of which requests in
relation to HMOs
|
|
| 2002-03 | 72
| 21 |
| 2003-04 | 107
| 71 |
| 2004-05 | 215
| 148 |
| 2005-06 | 144
| 105 |
| 2006-07 | 186
| 116 |
|
| Enforcement Action | 2000-01
| 5 | by 2006-07
| 95 |
| Enforcement Notices | 2000-01
| 27 | by 2006-07
| 201 |
Whilst the Council has taken a very significant number of
enforcement actions against houses in multiple occupation since
2004 especially, the private rented sector remains buoyant and
houses the vast majority of economic migrants who live in the
area.
Although Housing Enforcement resources remain stretched,
the partnership working between agencies locally enable the local
housing authority to target its resources in order to concentrate
on properties which pose greatest risk to the health and wellbeing
of their occupants and greatest challenges to the community at
large.
RESPONSE TO
THE 15 QUESTIONS
1. The majority of economic migrants within Lincolnshire
are from the Accession A8 and A2 Countries. Evidence from the
local Citizens Advice Bureau confirms a change in trend in relation
to the source country—initially the Portuguese community
but later followed by a wide selection of European Countries most
notably, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia. We
currently have around 33 Nationalities recorded with a corresponding
number of languages spoken.
Estimated numbers of economic migrants in Boston : between
15,000 and 20,000
The Dynamics of Migrant Labour in South Lincolnshire Report
produced in 2006 carried out a survey based on employment of migrant
workers by gangmasters. Of the 33 nationalities recorded the largest
groups were identified as:
The former USSR non EU countries contain (4.1%) mainly students
working through the SAWS agricultural scheme.
There were 49 different languages spoken in S Lincs at the
time of the survey but many migrant workers are multi lingual.
On average migrant workers speak four languages. The dominant
languages are Polish and Portuguese, Russian and Latvian.
Interestingly with Bulgaria / Romania entering the EU in
January we have not seen the same level of take up as other Nationalities.
Re Duration of stay and motivation:
This is complex and difficult to specify. Research locally
has shown that there are a variety of different reasons that people
come to Britain:
— Short stay earn money to send back home.
— Long stay to support families or lifestyles in
country of origin.
— Visit with view to staying permanently—we
now have some settled communities.
Research has also shown motivations change so for example
someone who has come over for a short stay initially may decide
to settle and conversely as work availability changes people decide
to leave. This uncertainty brings with it challenges as people
who are motivated by earning as much money as possible to save
and send home are less likely to integrate into the local community.
Another complicating factor relating to motivation which
can impact on the local economy is in the purchase of consumer
goods. There is evidence to suggest that when people are living
here with the intention of sending money home, they work consistently
long hours and their spending within the local economy is on cheap
necessity goods only, so they are able to save the majority of
their wages. This triggers a debate about cost v benefit to the
local economy.
LENGTH OF
STAY14.9% of those surveyed—were
here less than three months
33.8% of those surveyed—stayed three months and one year
36.7% of those surveyed—stayed between one and three years
The Portuguese make up the majority of the 14% who have stayed
longer than three years.
QUALIFICATIONS
Many people have skills and qualifications well above the
jobs they do within our area. There are barriers to securing skilled
jobs both in terms of language and also the accreditation of qualifications
from other countries. Hence there is often a trend of securing
low pay low skill jobs on arrival into our community, and following
improved language skills a progression to semi professional/professional
employment.
Of those surveyed:
26.3% possess a degree qualification
11.4% have vocational qualifications
12.7% have undertaken special secondary education providing
occupational skills. Some migrant workers have more than one job
skill and many have trade skills such as building / mechanics.
Re question relating to characterisation of migrants from
EU compared to other countries: It is difficult to compare. But
in general, whilst there is settlement, there is still a significant
transient number whereas other migrant groups are more likely
to be coming to the UK with the view to permanently work and reside
in the country.
2. Re sectors of economy employed:
In Boston/Lincolnshire the majority work is within the agricultural
industry. However it would be unfair to say that's the whole picture
as many work within the service industry, cafes, pubs, restaurants
with some small businesses emerging. Also in Lincolnshire out
of 7000 jobs within the NHS, 500 are taken by economic migrants
doing a range of jobs from doctors to cleaning staff.
The agricultural industry in Boston/Lincolnshire is now heavily
dependant on migrant labour, in effect the local industry would
collapse without economic migrants.
Evidence from employers reveal in many cases 50-75% employees
are economic migrants.
AREAS OF
WORK
At time of survey
62% worked in packhouses / food industry
14% in agriculture
7% service industry
SOME POINTS
TO CONSIDER
— Impact on wage levels. Many appear to be earning
the minimum wage but we are aware of national research that suggests
migration can have a negative effect on depressing local wages.
This may be anecdotal.
At the time of the survey 5.6% stated they were being paid
below the minimum wage:
5.9% didn't have pay slips and did not know what their rate
of pay was.
35.4% had additional deductions from their wages for transport,
accommodation or food. 6% of deductions were for cleaning / internet
use/ cashing cheques.
— Impact of unscrupulous landlords and accommodation/
work links, reduces the amount of money economic migrant's plough
back into the local economy due to lack of disposable income and
is also a barrier to integration, ie people are "hard to
reach" in such employment/accommodation situations.
— Productivity. Research has revealed that the employers
notice an increase in productivity per foreign national worker
compared to an indigenous worker. Many are more willing to work
long hours and less likely to complain.
Re the question "what determines migrants performance
and integration in the workplace". The language barrier is
the biggest obstacle to integration and even though employers
have been subject to a steep learning curve many of which have
responded positively ensuring workers have health and safety information
and translation, there are still many examples where employers
are simply not playing their part. A new study researched by the
Learning and Skills Council with the University of Nottingham
reveals that 55% of migrant workers quit courses within the first
five weeks citing reasons of changing shifts and personal circumstances.
In SMEs this figure rises to 68%.
Boston College (FE) currently have learners from 51 different
countries. The largest group of learners are Polish.
The other main barrier to integration are the operations
of illegal gangmasters tying people's jobs to accommodation and
constantly moving people around work/home location.
3 and 4. To some extent covered in above responses.
— Increased productivity from foreign nationals
compared to indigenous workers.
— Agriculture industry main employer but widening
to include service sectors.
— Boston has always been a low unemployment area,
but generally low skilled/low wage work available.
5. This is a difficult one as we have no accurate evidence
available to effectively track the movement of people and we have
very low incidences of illegal immigration.
With regard however to economic migrants sourced by illegal
gangmasters, it is perhaps possible to speculate the potential
impact due to how the labour is procured.
— Willingness to work for less than minimum wage.
— Attractive to unscrupulous gangmasters.
— Lack of taxes back into economy.
— Increased exploitation.
6. 8 and 9 difficult to fully respond to these questions.
There is some research nationally which examines the linkages
with migration as a growing solution to elderly people health
care.
Re question 8 the impact locally in health care and schools.
Our GP registrations presently stand at 79,000 against an official
population of 58,300 and increased numbers of people attend A
and E at the local General Hospital (rather than GP) due to a
lack of understanding about health care provision in the UK. Many
local schools have up to 50% of children with English as a second
language (average in many schools is 35%).
Re Links between taxes and use of public services is a really
difficult one to quantify. There is an increase in advice services
which is a result of other service providers inability to deliver
adequate information. A lot of evidence from police, health etc
on increase in numbers and ability to deliver services to a wider
population without adequate resources.
Also note attachment enclosed headed Housing and Economic
Migrants and increase on enforcement activity as a stark example
of pressure on local resources, difficult for a small local authority
tight on resource capacity.
7. In the main still having difficulty accurately quantifying
GDP impact.
However, regarding housing, we have experienced large increases
in buy to let across all house types (ie to be turned into Houses
in Multiple Occupation: HMOs) but particularly terraced housing
which would usually serve the first time buyer market. The Haven
Village development also saw high spec town houses priced at 200k+
three years ago snapped up by investor landlords. This new housing
development is now almost wholly occupied by economic migrants.
An early draft of the Housing Market Assessment Executive
Summary section reveals that increase in migrant worker numbers
does not seem to correlate with an increase in housing demand
per se. It also reveals that Boston and Lincoln are strongest
areas in economic activity and employment growth although this
itself is not necessarily linked to the growth in economic migrants,
but clearly is a factor.
I have separately posted a report on "The Dynamics of
Migrant Labour in South Lincolnshire" produced by South Holland
District Council, assisted by Boston Borough Council. This document
is now two years old but contains the most up to date information
on the economic impact of migrant labour in South Lincolnshire.
It's useful as a guide but needs to be treated with a degree of
caution, as the further rapid growth locally continues to significantly
alter the dynamics.
10 and 11. Again are difficult questions to respond to
as we do not have the evidence base to support any constructive
comment.
12. Again little evidence to support but local (above)
and national research on the skills level of economic migrants
reveals some quite high percentages of very well qualified people.
Presently the accreditation system is very slow, but undoubtedly
this growth represents a major opportunity to fill skills gaps
in the UK with a swifter accreditation system.
13. Methods of data collection are inadequate and significant
improvements to data collection are required from ONS.
NI numbers and GP registrations only provide a partial and
temporary picture. Resource provision based on old Census information
is flawed and perpetuates the strain on service providers who
have witnessed rapid increases.
14. In principle it's difficult to argue against the
theory of the Government's new points system. A tougher approach
from British Embassies abroad to weed out false applications will
place increased obligations on UK businesses and universities/colleges
who in turn will be required to sponsor migrants and assist in
ensuring visa terms are adhered to.
In practice? Without effective data collection, tracking
systems, geographic recording of number of people/skills qualifications/
industries employed, it will be very difficult still to ensure
the right labour supply and skills is matched to the need in each
area of the country.
Furthermore, while there are still too many illegal operations
in procuring labour, simply bypassing the points system, exploitation
will still continue, integration will still prove difficult and
pressures on local services will remain.
15. The simple answer is yes.
— Improving the qualification accreditation system
will fast track highly skilled individuals into high demand employment
areas/jobs.
— Increase resources to the GLA to address continued
illegal gangmaster operations.
— Government must work with Consulates and Embassies
in other countries to devise an agreed system for labour procurement
that benefits the UK and the countries of origin.
5 December 2007
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