Memorandum by the Economic and Social
Research Council
INTRODUCTION
1. The Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC) funds research and training in social and economic issues.
We are an independent organisation, established by Royal Charter,
but receive most of our funding through the Department for Innovation,
Universities and Skills. Our budget of £181 million (2007-08)
funds over 2,500 researchers in academic institutions and policy
research institutes throughout the UK. We also support more than
2,000 postgraduate students.
2. This memorandum is submitted by the ESRC
and represents our independent evidence, drawing on relevant research
which we have funded. It does not include, or necessarily reflect,
the view of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
(DIUS).
RELEVANT ESRC FUNDED
RESEARCH
3. The ESRC funds a number of centres which
carry out research in areas relevant to this inquiry. The most
obvious of these is the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society
(COMPAS) at the University of Oxford. However, we understand that
this inquiry is being co-ordinated by Martin Ruhs, who is a Senior
Researcher at the Centre, and that two of the Centre's staff will
be providing oral evidence. To avoid repetition we will therefore
not be setting out any evidence from the work of this centre here.
4. The ESRC Centre for Economic Performance
(CEP) at the London School of Economics and Political Science
(http://cep.lse.ac.uk) has done some work on the economic impact
of immigration. At the time of the last General Election, CEP
produced a policy briefing which provided their overview of the
evidence from economic research (http://cep.lse.ac.uk/briefings/ea_wadsworth.pdf).
This set out that there are many economic benefits associated
with migration, especially to fill gaps in the UK labour market—where
there are shortages of workers, whether high skilled or low skilled.
In theory, there could also be costs to particular groups, but
there is little evidence of an overall negative impact on jobs
or wages.
5. Some of the Centre's other publications
have looked at this issue in detail. In particular, Manacorda,
Manning and Wadsworth (2006) "The Impact of Immigration on
the Structure of Male Wages: Theory and Evidence from Britain"
(CEP discussion paper no. 754, http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0754.pdf).
This found that immigration to the UK has risen in the past 10
years and has had a measurable effect on the supply of different
types of labour. However, existing studies of the impact of immigration
on the wages of native-born workers in the UK had failed to find
any significant effect. This is something of a puzzle since others
had shown that changes in the relative supply of educated natives
did seem to have measurable effects on the wage structure. This
paper offers a resolution of the puzzle—natives and immigrants
are imperfect substitutes, so that an increase in immigration
reduces the wages of immigrants relative to natives. This is shown
using a pooled time series of British cross-sectional micro data
of observations on male wages and employment from the mid-1970s
to the mid-2000s. This lack of substitution also means that there
is little discernable effect of increased immigration on the wages
of native-born workers. Their estimates suggest that the only
sizeable effect of increased immigration is on the wages of those
immigrants who are already here.
6. The following CEP papers on related topics
might also be of relevance:
De Coulon and Wolff (2005) "Immigrants
at Retirement: Stay/Return of `Va-et-Vient'?" CEP discussion
paper no: 691 http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0691.pdf
This paper investigates the location choice of immigrants
at retirement and the determinants of that choice. It looks at
a new migration strategy for immigrants at retirement, which is
to spend a fraction of the year in the host and the rest in the
origin country.
De Coulon and Wolff (2006) "Immigrants
in Europe: will they return home when they retire?" CentrePiece
Winter 2005-06 http://cep.lse.ac.uk/centrepiece/v10i3/decoulon_wolff.pdf
[Summarises the paper above]
Aleman-Castilla (2007) "The Returns to
Temporary Migration to the United States: Evidence from the Mexican
Urban Employment Survey." CEP discussion paper 804
http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0804.pdf
This paper presents evidence on the effect that temporary
migration to the United States has on the earnings of Mexican
workers. The analysis indicates that Mexicans that migrate temporarily
to the United States for work reasons get significantly higher
earnings in the US labour market than in the Mexican one during
the period of migration. They also tend to work longer hours and
face a higher likelihood of non-employment during the period immediately
after returning to Mexico. The gains from temporary migration
are lower for more skilled workers and for those migrating from
the most distant regions in Mexico, relative to the United States.
Manning and Roy (2007) "Culture Clash or
Culture Club? The Identity and Attitudes of Immigrants in Britain"
CEP discussion paper no. 790 http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0790.pdf
This paper investigates the extent and determinants
of British identity among those living in Britain and the views
on rights and responsibilities in society.
7. An ESRC funded project on "Immigration:
Impact, Outcomes, and Reception", led by Professor Christian
Dustmann of University College London, reported many of its conclusions
in a discussion paper in 2005 on the impact of immigration on
the UK labour market. This is available from UCL's Centre for
Research and Analysis of Migration: http://www.econ.ucl.ac.uk/cream/.
This paper provides an empirical investigation of the way immigration
affects labour market outcomes of native born workers in the UK.
It shows that the overall skill distribution of Britain's immigrant
workforce is remarkably similar to that of the native born workforce.
It investigates the impact of immigration on employment, participation,
unemployment and wages of the resident population and finds no
evidence that immigration has overall effects on any of these
outcomes at the aggregate level. If there is evidence of negative
effects on employment in any group, then it is for those with
intermediate education levels, but this is offset in the aggregate
by positive effects on employment among the better qualified.
8. An ESRC funded project on "Mobility
and Excellence in Scientific Labour Markets: The Question of Balanced
Growth", led by Professor Louise Ackers of the University
of Leeds examined the international movement of scientists within
Europe. The 12 month pilot study focused on the flow of scientists
between Italy and the UK: http://www.sci-soc.net/SciSoc/Projects/Economics/Mobility+and+excellence+in+scientific
+labour+ markets.htm
A second, follow-up project on "The Impact of
Enlargement on Scientific Labour Markets" examines the relationship
between scientific careers and mobility in the context of EU enlargement:
http://www.sci-soc.net/SciSoc/Projects/ Economics/The+Impact+of+enlargement+on+scientific+
labour+ markets.htm
It focuses on the flow of scientists from Poland
and Bulgaria to the UK and Germany. It seeks to develop our understanding
of science mobility, and factors involved in the career, migration
and location decisions of scientists. The study aims to better
understand the benefits of mobility to receiving countries and
to mitigate the effects of this on sending regions within the
European Research Area. As such, it aims to inform our understanding
of the contribution of mobility to science labour markets (specifically
in the context of skills shortages in the UK), economic growth
and competitiveness. This second project has only recently been
completed and results are expected in the autumn. Both of these
projects were part of the ESRC's Science in Society Programme.
9. An ESRC funded project on "The New
Zimbabwean Diaspora: Inclusion and Exclusion in the UK" led
by Dr JoAnn McGregor (then of the University of Reading, now of
UCL) explored the experiences and perspectives of recent Zimbabwean
migrants to the UK, focusing on skilled and unskilled employment
in the welfare sector. It included an examination of the reasons
why social care has become an important focus of employment for
Zimbabweans and explored the means by which migrants of different
legal status have negotiated work in a diverse sector. The study
highlighted how a combination of vacancies for carers, and deteriorating
conditions of work resulting from privatization had encouraged
the incorporation of migrants into this sector. It showed the
clustering of Zimbabwean social networks around the industry,
partly because entrepreneurs with connections to Zimbabwean networks
had set up in business as care and temporary labour agencies.
The study highlighted the particular problems faced by those with
irregular status, particularly failed asylum seekers and recent
arrivals, some of whom experienced various forms of labour exploitation,
including "bonded" labour. Most Zimbabweans interviewed
had been able to manoeuvre out of the most abusive forms of employment,
but were still concentrated in sectors of the market where conditions
of work are poorest, particularly as "bank" staff provided
by private agencies. The research findings on Zimbabwean migrants
and the care sector have been published in the Journal of Ethnic
and Migration Studies (Volume 33, Issue 5 July 2007) as "Joining
the BBC (British Bottom Cleaners)": Zimbabwean Migrants and
the UK Care Industry. The findings on Zimbabwean nurses and teachers
have been published in Geographical Paper No. 178 of the University
of Reading (http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/geog/GP178.pdf).
10. As part of the ESRC's research programme
"One Europe or Several? The Dynamics of Change Across Europe",
Dr Matloob Piracha and Professor Roger Vickerman of the University
of Kent carried out a study on "Borders, Migration and Labour
Market Dynamics in a Changing Europe" between 1999-2001 (http://www.kent.ac.uk/economics/research/1europe/ESRC-FullReport.pdf).
Although this project was obviously carried out some time ago,
and focused on a number of case study areas (in particular Albania
and Greece), some of its findings are of interest in this context.
One of the results of the analysis was that the effectiveness
of migration in improving the efficiency of both home and host
labour markets depends on the extent to which migrants with particular
skills can be effectively matched with the labour market needs
of potential employers.
FORTHCOMING ESRC
FUNDED RESEARCH
11."Migration and Population Change"
is one of the ESRC's key research challenges. A Research Centres
competition with a steer towards population change is currently
being commissioned. It is expected that a new Research Centre
including work on migration will be announced in March 2008.
12. The ESRC's Understanding Population
Trends and Processes initiative (http://www.uptap.net) aims to
improve understanding of demographic trends and processes which
affect society and the population. Under this initiative it has
recently been agreed to fund projects on "Understanding the
Labour Market Impact of Immigration in Britain" and "What
Happens When International Migrants Settle? Ethnic Group Population
Trends and Projections for UK Local Areas under Alternative Scenarios".
13. In addition, the ESRC expects to participate
in a Transnational Research Programme on Migration with our partners
in the New Opportunities for Research Funding Co-operation in
Europe (NORFACE) network, commencing in 2008.
12 October 2007
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