A political economy of the dynamics of migrant labour in an enlarged Europe: the case of Polish migration to the UK Jane Hardy (University of Hertfordshire)

A political economy of the dynamics of migrant labour in an enlarged Europe: the case of Polish

migration to the UK

Jane Hardy (University of Hertfordshire)

To be presented at ESRC seminar seriesAt the University of East Anglia, 17 June 2010

The impact of migrant workers on the functioning of labour markets and industrial relations

Conceptual framework

• Uneven development creates structural conditions of push and pull

• Specificity of migrant workers at the point of production in the context of an intensification of competition

• The role of the state in managing competing demands of capital

• Individual and collective agency of migrant workers

Uneven development in an enlarged Europe

Country

GDP per capita

EU 27 = 100

Unemployment

(% of working

population)

2004 2008 2004 2010

Slovakia 57 72 18.2 14.1

Czech

Republic

76 80 8.3 7.7

Hungary 64 64 6.1 10.4

Poland 51 56 19.0 9.9

Ireland 142 135 4.6 13.2

Latvia 46 57 10.4 22.5

Lithuania 51 62 11.4 17.4

United

Kingdom

124 116 4.7 7.9

Table 1GDP per capita and unemployment for selected countries, 2004 and 2008/2010

Intensification of competition and drive to flexibility

Mobile and immobile capital

The role of migrant labour in production

Reserve army of labourExtensive accumulationExpendable during downturns Provision of labour under ‘special conditions’Can obtain labour at lower costs and/or

increased flexibilityDivide and ruleIncrease intensity of exploitation

Sector registered Number of

workers

registered

Administration, business &

management

317,540

Hospitality & catering 151,945

Agriculture 80,310

Manufacturing 58,810

Food/fish/meat processing 39,145

Health & medical 34,915

Retail 35,230

Construction & land 33,105

Transport 21,425

Table 2: Sectoral profile of A8 registered workers

OTTO Uitzend Kracht BV was established in the Netherlands in 2000.  Frank van Gool identified a demand for reliable, hard working and motivated personel within the Dutch marketplace, and he saw an opportunity to bring these types of personnel from Poland to the Netherlands. 

 OTTO in the Netherlands is now the market leader in the supply of temporary Polish workers and Eastern European personnel.

 Why are we different?We only offer our clients recruitment solutions in the form of personnel from Eastern Europe. Our clients are generally companies, who have difficulty finding, and retaining, production / shop floor personnel.  .

Advert from web page:Specialist Suppliers of Personnel from Eastern Europe

The role of employment agencies

Migrant workers in the food retailing value chain

‘Picking it, sorting it, moving it, selling it’

The UK state: contradictory views, competing discourses

Managing tensions and contradictions: the state

• Maximise the supply, flexibility and skills of labour

• Minimise the cost of reproducing and maintaining workers

• Balance the demands of different sections of capital

• Involves intensive management of labour mobility and hierarchy of status for migrant workers

Story 1 UK Home Office

‘ there are obviously enormous benefits of immigration…There is a big positive impact on the economy which is worth £6 billion. (Immigration Minister)

‘The empirical literature from around the world suggests little or no evidence that immigrants have had a major impact on native labour markets outcomes such as wages and unemployment’ (Danny Blanchflower speech to Bank of England)

Story 2 UK House of Lords Report

• Immigration has a positive effect on the wages of higher paid workers

• There is pressure on the wages of the worst paid workers

The Polish State

• 2004 safety valve for unemployment• Emergent labour shortages (geographically

specific)• Emergence of ‘brain drain’ argument• Ran ‘return to Poland’ campaigns

Individual and collective agency in the context of supermobility

Migrant workers as complex agents: individually and collectively

It is their [migrant workers] humanity that causes authorities (and employers) problems. They don’t only migrate to work. The categories – refugee, economic migrant, tourist, family member, business visitor, student, stubbornly merge one into another, and people impose their own wishes on the system. All of them, apart from the very rich, need some means of material support, but this is not necessarily the only reason why they move, or stay. When I asked a (small) sample of people who had settled, none of them planned to, but most of them did because they fell in love. (Nick Clark)

Harvey (1982)

• argues that workers are active agents in trying to manage the differential of uneven development to their own advantage. He describes workers as;

• creative subjects...perpetually roam the world seeking to escape the depredations of capital, shunning the worst aspects of exploitation, always struggling, often with some success, to better their lot (: 380)

Historian James Barrett (2000) found that;

‘the existence of separate racial and ethnic continuities could lead to either unity or fragmentation, depending on the role played by important community leaders or institutions.’

Labour organisations and cross border solidarity

• Inclusion or exclusion• Strength of labour in sender and receiver

countries• Rhetorical or concrete solidarity

Migrant workers, crisis and recession

• World recession widespread job loss• UK experience contradictory 2008• Employment of UK nationals 27.12m. to

26.74m.• Employment of non-UK nationals 2.29m to

2.35m

According to a public policy advisor ‘The idea that migrant workers comprise a marginal segment of the UK workforce that is dispensed of when times are tough is clearly wide of the mark’ (Churchard, 2009).

Migrants choosing to stay in adopted countries rather than return home despite high unemployment and lack of jobs.