Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration, and Public Policy
Edited by Martin Ruhs and Bridget Anderson, COMPAS
Published by Oxford University Press, September 2010. Available for purchase (UK and USA).
Paperback edition available in May
Are migrant workers needed to 'do the jobs that locals will not do' or are they simply a more exploitable labour force? Do they have a better 'work ethic' or are they less able to complain? Is migrant labour the solution to 'skills shortages' or actually part of the problem? This book provides a comprehensive framework for analysing the demand for migrant workers in high-income countries. It demonstrates how a wide range of government policies, often unrelated to migration, contribute to creating a growing demand for migrant labour. This demand can persist even during economic downturns. The book includes quantitative and qualitative analyses of the changing role of migrants in the UK economy. The empirical chapters include in-depth examinations of the nature of staff shortages and the use of migrant workers in six sectors: health; social care; hospitality; food production; construction; and financial services.
The book' s conceptual framework and empirical findings are of importance to academic and policy debates about labour immigration in all high-income countries. The final chapter presents a comparative analysis of research and policy approaches to assessing labour shortages in the UK and the US. It examines the potential lessons of the UK's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) for current debates about labour shortages and immigration reform in the US. The book will be of significant interest to policy-makers, stakeholders, academics and students.
Table of Contents and Contributors:
Chapter 1: 'Introduction', Martin Ruhs, and Bridget Anderson, COMPAS, University of Oxford
Chapter 2: 'Migrant workers: who needs them? A framework for the analysis of shortages, immigration, and public policy', Martin Ruhs, and Bridget Anderson, COMPAS, University of Oxford
Commentary by Ken Mayhew, University of Oxford
Chapter 3: 'The changing shares of migrant labour in different sectors and occupation in the UK economy: An overview', Vanna Aldin, Migration Advisory Committee, Dan James, Migration Advisory Committee, and Jonathan Wadsworth, Royal Holloway College, University of London
Chapter 4: 'Achieving a self-sufficient workforce? The utilization of migrant labour in healthcare', Stephen Bach, King's College, London
Commentary by Robert F. Elliott, University of Aberdeen, UK
Chapter 5: 'Competing with myths: migrant labour in social care', Jo Moriarty, King's College, London
Commentary by Alessio Cangiano, COMPAS, University of Oxford
Chapter 6: 'The use of migrant labour in the hospitality sector: current and future implications', Rosemary Lucas and Steve Mansfield, Manchester Metropolitan University
Commentary by Linda McDowell, University of Oxford
Chapter 7: 'UK food businesses' reliance on low-wage migrant labour: A case of choice or constraint?', Andrew Geddes, University of Sheffield and Sam Scott , University of Liverpool, UK
Commentary by Ben Rogaly, University of Sussex
Chapter 8: 'The dynamics of migrant employment in construction: Can supply of skilled labour ever match demand?', Paul Chan, University of Manchester,
Linda Clarke, University of Westminster, and Andrew Dainty, Loughborough University
Commentary by Howard Gospel, King's College, London
Chapter 9: 'Immigration and the UK labour market in financial services: A case of conflicting policy challenges?', Andrew Jones, Birkbeck College
Commentary by Jonathan Beaverstock, University of Nottingham
Chapter 10: 'A need for migrant labour? UK-US comparisons', Philip Martin, University of California-Davis, US
Press
Britain's growing reliance on migrant labour: inevitability or policy choice?, Open Democracy, 6 March 2011, by Martin Ruhs and Bridget Anderson
Cutting immigration: Shutting the door, The Economist, 18 November 2010
Government faces immigration cap dilemma, The Independent, by Wesley Johnson, 18 November 2010
Myth Busting, Financial Times, by James Boxell, 3 October 2010
The Price of Cheap Labour, Opinion Piece, Guardian, 7 October 2010 (print), by Martin Ruhs and Bridget Anderson
Also available online
Reducing the UK’s reliance on migrant labour needs more than a cap on immigration, Press release, 12 October 2010
Will the migration cap fit?, Blog, British Politics and Policy at LSE, by Martin Ruhs
Book reviews
Zinovijus Ciupijus, British Journal of Industrial Relations, March 2012 pp. 185 - 187
"The book’s chapters alongside short commentaries, which follow them, provide an authoritative and valuable source for industrial relations scholars interested in migration."
Alexandre Afonso, Swiss Political Science Review (2011) Vol. 17(4)
"Who Needs Migrant Workers should be highly recommended to anybody interested not only in immigration but in the governance of modern economies and labour markets in general"
Nigel Harris (2012): Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration and Public Policy, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, January 05 2012 DOI:10.1080/1369183X.2011.648768
Better immigration policies? ....it’s not just the economy, stupid!, Migrants' Rights Network (MRN) blog, by Don Flynn, Director MRN, October 18 2010
Basten, S., 2011, "Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration and Public Policy", European Journal of Population 27:263–264
Tindal, S., 2011, "Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration, and Public Policy", Population, Space and Place Vol. 17:5, 693–695
Kopinak, K., 2011, "Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration, and Public Policy", Population, Space and Place Vol. 17:5, 696–697
Book Endorsements
"Who Needs Migrant Workers? presents both a rigorous analytical methodology to measure labor shortages and a practical conceptual framework to assess whether migrants should be imported to fill those shortages. Who Needs Migrant Workers? is must reading for all who are interested in this important subject." - Ray Marshall, US Secretary of Labor (1977-1981); Professor Emeritus, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas.
"A masterful volume on the role of immigration policy in addressing current and future labor shortages. Drawing on a stellar group of experts, the edited volume addresses the employment of foreign workers in a wide range of industries at all skill levels. This comprehensive review of migrant worker programs is a welcome compendium for academics, practitioners and policy makers alike." - Susan Martin, Director, Institute for the Study of International Migrations, Georgetown University
"Ruhs and Anderson have put together a terrific team to analyse immigration for work in the UK. An excellent overview by the editors is followed by detailed studies of six sectors: health; social-care; hospitality; food production; construction; and financial services. This is the definitive research on the demand for migrant workers and will inform the debate for years to come." - David Metcalf, CBE, Emeritus Professor, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics
"How labour migration can and should be regulated is one of the most pressing issues of our time. This excellent book is a feasibility study dealing with perceived staff shortages. It provides substantial insights by an outstanding group of scientists and contributes significantly to our understanding of an extremely contentious policy problem." - Klaus F. Zimmerman, Director IZA and Professor of Economics, University of Bonn
"In good times many people profit from the goods and services produced by migrant workers. In times if crisis the same people see them as unfair competitors. This masterly written and edited book fights prejudices with empirical evidence from the UK on labour shortage and the ways in which such gaps can be filled. This is of significance well beyond the UK. It is a must read for everyone interested in migration policy development and the evolution of labour markets." - Rainer Münz, Erste Bank and Hamburg Institute of International Economics