The Labour Market and Migration

The demand for migrant labour has become one of the most prominent features of labour markets in high-income countries. COMPAS research studies the determinants of this demand including the role of migrant's legal status, recruitment agencies, and subcontracting. We also explore: the impacts of labour migration on wages, employment conditions and employment relations more generally; as well as the migration and labour market policies required to make the employment of migrants beneficial for receiving countries, migrants and their countries of origin.

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Current Projects:

1. Who Cares? Migrants providing paid care for the elderly in private households
2. “The return of the guest worker? Temporary migration programmes in theory and practice”
3. Migrant workers and vulnerable employment: a review of existing data
4. Migration and Precarious Work

1) Who Cares? Migrants providing paid care for the elderly in private households

This is a collaborative research project with the London-based charity Kalayaan, an organization that supports migrants working in private households. There is very little research available on migrants who work in private households providing elder care. However, demographic, social and policy changes (including cash payments for care) suggest that this sector is likely to be increasingly reliant on migrant labour. Kalayaan and COMPAS have developed a qualitative study investigating the role of migrants in the provision of elder care, their characteristics, their living and working conditions, and the impact of race and racism on the employment of migrant carers. The methodology will be based on 50 in-depth interviews with migrant carers, with particular focus on socially-isolated MDWs (migrant domestic workers). Analysis will draw from these interviews, plus consultations with migrant groups, policymakers, academics, trades unions, and the Kalayaan MDW database, which provides socio-economic information on over 1000 registered clients.

Researchers: Lourdes Gordolan (main contact), Bridget Anderson
Timeline: January 2007 – July 2009
Funding: The Big Lottery Fund
Collaborating institutions: Kalayaan
Outputs: Click here to download Project Briefing; Click here to link to project website.

2) “The return of the guest worker? Temporary migration programmes in theory and practice”

This research project contributes to current debates about the potential of temporary migration programmes (TMPs) for helping to manage international labour migration in a way that is both practical and sensitive to the interests of receiving countries, migrants and their countries of origin. The project engages with the theory of and policy considerations in the design and implementation of TMPs. It addresses the following research questions:

• What are the impacts of TMPs on migrants, non-migrants, employers and states?
• What are the normative arguments in favour and against TMPs?
• What have been the consequences –of past guest worker programmes? What have been the factors determining their success or failure?
• How do employers and migrants perceive and experience TMPs? Can TMPs help with efforts to combat the illegal employment of migrant workers?
• What policies are needed to design new and effective TMPs that avoid past policy mistakes? What has been the experience of the UK 's Sector-based Scheme (SBS)?
• What should be the rights of migrants admitted under a TMP and how can they be best protected?

Researcher: Martin Ruhs
Timeline: Dec 2003 – ongoing
Funding: ESRC, IOM, GCIM
Outputs: four research papers to date, Project Briefing

3) Migrant workers and vulnerable employment: a review of existing data

In 2007 the Trades Union Congress (TUC) established the Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE) to investigate the causes of, and solutions to, vulnerable employment. COMPAS have been comissioned to examine existing datasets in order to understand the extent of vulnerable employment for recent migrant workers (i.e. those who have arrived in the UK within the last 10 years), as well as explanations for its occurence.  The project compares data from smaller-scale regional/local datasets with data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Workers’ Registration Scheme (WRS).

Researchers: Hiranthi Jayaweera and Bridget Anderson
Timeline: Jan 2008 to Summer 2008
Outputs: Click here for a Project Briefing. Press release issued by TUC 11.08.08: 'Female migrant workers most at risk of not being paid minimum wage'. Click here for press release [external link]. Click here to download final report [.pdf].

4. Migration and Precarious Work

This project examines the relation between migration and “precarious work”, locating this both within “trafficking” debates and the broader context of low wage labour and groups that are marginalised in labour markets. It critiques the “trafficking” paradigm as limiting the analysis of the relation between migration and low/no waged, low status work and is concerned to centralise the state and immigration controls in the analysis of precarity. Building on work and ideas developed through a number of previous COMPAS projects, Bridget Anderson is currently working on a number of activities within this subject area.

Researcher: Bridget Anderson (link to biography)
Timeline: Jan 2008 ongoing
Outputs include: two policy/practitioner reports, one online debate paper, two journal special editions, one submitted journal article, two conference papers and two working papers. Click here for further information on this area of work.

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Previous COMPAS Projects:

Are you being served? An exploration of the demand for migrant labour in the UK’s hospitality sector: Starting in 2004 this two-year project investigated the recruitment and employment of migrant workers in the UK's hospitality industry in the context of employment relations and the government's policy of managed migration. Martin Ruhs and Gareth Matthews (University of Nottingham) focussed on the determinants of employers' demand for migrant labour and the government's policies – including the recent Sector-based scheme (SBS) - for helping employers meet perceived labour shortages before and after EU enlargement. COMPAS Research Briefing - Click here to download .pdf. COMPAS working paper -WP-07-51.

Changing status, changing lives? The socio-economic impact of EU accession on low wage migrant labour in the UK: This project studied the consequences of granting, on 1st May 2004, most of the economic and social rights of an EU national to accession state nationals who are already working in the UK with regular or irregular status. The research methodology allowed for comparison between nationals from accession countries and those working in the UK whose countries of origin remain outside of the enlarged EU. The analysis focussed on the short and long term impacts of EU accession on: (i) accession state nationals already in the UK; (ii) current employers of accession state nationals; and (iii) the migrant worker recruitment industry. Bridget Anderson, Sarah Spencer, Martin Ruhs (all COMPAS); Ben Rogaly (Sussex University) ran this study between Jan 2004 and May 2008, funded by the ESRC COMPAS core funds and Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Click here to link to the project webpages.

'Forced labour and immigration': Working with the Trades Union Congress, individual unions, Citizens’ Advice Bureaux and other NGOs and agencies, the study examines cases of forced labour and super exploitation of migrant labour within their industry context. Click here for further detail on the report and to download. Click here for a project findings sheet (.pdf).

Filipinos and Care Work in the United Kingdom: This project examined the living and working conditions of Filipino migrant workers who provide care in three sites: NHS hospitals, care homes, and private households. These workers may be professionals or informally skilled. Bridget Anderson and Lourdes Gordolan explored the impact of site of employment on living and working experiences in the UK betweeen October 2004 – Summer 2007. Click here to link to the project webpages, with access to briefings, newsletters and other outputs

Markets for migrant sex and domestic work: Paid domestic work in private households and commercial sex are both sectors in which many migrant women are found. The two are often are often linked, but continuities and discontinuities between them have not been subject to systematic empirical or theoretical attention. Funded by ESRC response-mode project funding, Julia O’Connell-Davidson (Notthingham University) and Bridget Anderson ran this study between July 2002 – July 2006
Outputs include: Pilot research published by IOM and Save the Children Sweden, ‘IOMpressrelease' (.pdf) and publication. Response to “Tackling Human Trafficking – Consultation on Proposals for a UK Action Plan”. Click here to download (.pdf). Project Findings (.pdf). Link to ESRC website for details on all research investments.

Polish and Lithuanian Workers: Opportunities and Challenges for Trades Unions: This research project, run by Bridget Anderson between 2005-6, aimed to explore the kinds of difficulties experienced by Polish and Lithuanian workers in the labour market, and their potential for joining trades unions. More specifically it addresses:Who is a member of/wants to join a trades union and why? What are the obstacles to joining a trades union? Where are prospective union members working?and What are the kinds of difficulties that Polish and Lithuanian workers face in their employment relations and conditions? Outputs include: COMPAS Research Briefing - Click here to download .pdf. Click here for final report for TUC.

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Related COMPAS Projects:

1) Emigration Dynamism and Social Transformation in Northeast China - Link

2) Immigrant Work Strategies and Networks - Link

3) Integration, Diversity and the Economy - Link

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Events and Publications:

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COMPAS Staff Members working on this issue:

Bridget Anderson, Senior Researcher- Link to Biography
Hiranthi Jayaweera, Research Officer- Link to Biography
Martin Ruhs, Senior Labour Market Economist - Link to Biography
Sarah Spencer, Associate Director - Link to Biography

Associated DPhil students:

Karin Heissler, DPhil Student- Researching child labour migration and children's agency, focusing on West Bengal, in India. Link to Biography