Many east European migrants are prepared to take low-skilled and low-wage jobs in the UK and Ireland, but while some improve their lives, research suggests others face a future in a poverty trap, writes Martin Ruhs.
Since EU enlargement two years ago, more than half a million migrants from the new EU member states in central and east Europe (A8 workers) have taken up legal employment in Ireland and the UK. In Ireland, more than 200,000 PPS numbers have been issued to A8 nationals since May 1st, 2004.
In the UK, about 345,000 A8 workers registered for employment during May 2004 and December 2005, up to a third of whom may already have been working in the UK - legally or illegally - before May 1st, 2004.
Although employed across a wide range of occupations, the majority of A8 migrants working in Ireland and the UK are carrying out relatively low-skilled and low-waged jobs in a variety of sectors including hotels, restaurants, construction, agriculture and care.
Given the high numbers involved, there is an urgent need to explore the motivations and employment experiences of A8 workers in these jobs and to scrutinise the determinants of employer-demand for their labour.
A major study that investigates these issues in the UK has just been published. It is based on surveys and interviews with over 500 employers and more than 600 east European migrants working in low-wage jobs in hospitality, agriculture, construction and the au pair sector in the UK.
The great majority of those interviewed in this study worked in jobs that offered low wages at or close to the minimum wage, and poor working conditions. Working hours were longer than the occupational average and many migrants had not received paid holiday or written contracts. Often the interviewees had skills significantly above those required for their job. Overall, it looked like a pretty bad deal.
However, in contrast to the "bad employer-exploited migrant" story frequently making the media headlines over the past two years, when asked to evaluate their own situation most of the migrants interviewed did not see themselves as victims but as people making tough choices and trade-offs.
The migrants interviewed suggested that they often tolerated low-skilled work and poor conditions because the pay was significantly better than at home. But the trade-offs were not just economic; many were motivated by the desire to learn English, or gain experience. Importantly, whatever the motivation, migrants were typically prepared to put up with poor conditions because the job was perceived as temporary. Most migrants had a clear expectation to eventually move on to better jobs in or outside the UK.
The study also surveyed UK employers who valued and praised A8 migrants as "high-quality workers" for low-skilled and low-waged work. Employers repeatedly compared the "work ethic" and reliability of migrants to the negative attitudes of British workers. Employers blamed their difficulties with recruiting British workers on long anti-social hours, high physical demands, low status and low pay of the jobs they were offering.
Employers of A8 workers were clearly aware of the economic trade-offs that well-qualified migrants were making by taking up low-waged employment in the UK. As one construction employer interviewed in the study said: "I've had doctors bit of a sad waste really, doing laddering work because it paid better than being a doctor back home." These research findings make clear that employers in the UK and Ireland have access to an almost unlimited pool of relatively well-qualified migrants who can be employed in low-skilled jobs at wages and conditions that are rock bottom - or sometimes even below - minimum standards set out in employment laws and regulations.
One fairly obvious policy implication - seemingly well-recognised in Ireland but perhaps less so in the UK - is the need to more effectively enforce employment laws and regulations. In addition to helping protect the rights of all workers, improved enforcement of minimum standards would also reduce employer demand for migrant labour compared to what it would be in the absence of enforcement. Clearly, the lower the wages and employment conditions that employers can offer and migrants are willing to accept, the greater employer-demand for migrant labour will be.
This point is well-illustrated by the experience of Sweden, which has seen very limited inflows of east European migrants despite joining Ireland and the UK in allowing A8 workers unrestricted access to the labour market since May 2004. One of the reasons for this is the high level of regulation within Sweden's labour market which makes it almost impossible for employers to hire migrants at conditions that are different from those collectively agreed - and effectively enforced - for all workers.
Another important question arising from the research findings of the UK study is whether the employment of well-qualified A8 migrants in low-wage jobs will turn out to be as temporary as migrants expect. Research from other immigration countries suggests that there is significant diversity in different migrant groups' experiences of upward mobility in the host country's labour market. While some migrants do get better jobs over time, others sometimes get stuck in low-wage "poverty traps".
It thus remains to be seen whether the majority of east European migrants working in low-wage jobs in the UK and Ireland will be able to fulfil their expectations and eventually get better jobs. If they can't achieve these aspirations, they may well become a workforce that enters the UK's and Ireland's labour markets well-qualified and highly motivated but quickly ends up being neither. What is considered a tough choice or a trade-off at the start could rapidly become that "bad employer-exploited migrant" story that governments are concerned to avoid.
• Martin Ruhs is an economist at the ESRC centre on migration, policy and society (Compas) based at the University of Oxford. He is a lead author of Fair enough? Central and East European migrants in low-wage employment in the UK, available at www.compas.ox.ac.uk/changingstatus