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

1
A political economy of the dynamics of
migrant labour in an enlarged Europe the case of
Polish migration to the UK
To be presented at ESRC seminar series At the
University of East Anglia, 17 June 2010

• Jane Hardy (University of Hertfordshire)

The impact of migrant workers on the functioning
of labour markets and industrial relations
2
(No Transcript)
3
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

4
Uneven development in an enlarged Europe
5
(No Transcript)
6
Table 1 GDP per capita and unemployment for
selected countries, 2004 and 2008/2010
Country GDP per capita EU 27 100 GDP per capita EU 27 100 Unemployment ( of working population) 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
7
Intensification of competition and drive to
flexibility
8
Mobile and immobile capital
9
The role of migrant labour in production

• Reserve army of labour
• Extensive accumulation
• Expendable during downturns
• Provision of labour under special conditions
• Can obtain labour at lower costs and/or increased
  flexibility
• Divide and rule
• Increase intensity of exploitation

10
Table 2 Sectoral profile of A8 registered
workers
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
11
The role of employment agencies
Advert from web page Specialist Suppliers of
Personnel from Eastern Europe
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.   .
12
Migrant workers in the food retailing value
chain Picking it, sorting it, moving it,
selling it
13
The UK state contradictory views, competing
discourses
14
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

15
Story 1 UK Home Office

• there are obviously enormous benefits of
  immigrationThere 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)

16
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

17
The Polish State

• 2004 safety valve for unemployment
• Emergent labour shortages (geographically
  specific)
• Emergence of brain drain argument
• Ran return to Poland campaigns

18

• Individual and collective agency in the context
  of supermobility

19
Migrant workers as complex agents individually
and collectively

• It is their migrant workers humanity that
  causes authorities (and employers) problems. They
  dont 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)

20
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)

21
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.

22
Labour organisations and cross border solidarity

• Inclusion or exclusion
• Strength of labour in sender and receiver
  countries
• Rhetorical or concrete solidarity

23
(No Transcript)
24
Migrant workers, crisis and recession
25

• 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

26

• 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.