Accession Monitoring Report May 2004-September 2008: A8 Countries

A report on the migration of A8 citizens to the UK focusing on three key data areas: worker registration scheme (WRS), A8 benefits and tax credits, A8 housing and homelessness support. One key finding is that "nationals from the A8 countries continue to come to the UK to work, contributing to the UK economy, while making few demands on our welfare system.

Assessing the Fiscal Costs and Benefits of A8 Migration to the UK

A8 immigrants who are eligible to receive state benefits are 60% less likely to claim for them than the native population -- and are 13% less likely to do so adjusting for demographics. Since 2004, A8 migrants have made net contributions to public finances. Immigrants also tend to be more highly educated, more likely to participate in the job market, and have much higher employment rates

Assessing the Fiscal Costs and Benefits of A8 Migration to the UK

A8 immigrants who are eligible to receive state benefits are 60% less likely to claim for them than the native population -- and are 13% less likely to do so adjusting for demographics. Since 2004, A8 migrants have made net contributions to public finances. Immigrants also tend to be more highly educated, more likely to participate in the job market, and have much higher employment rates

Thinking outside the box? Trade union organising strategies and Polish migrant workers in the UK

On the 1 May 2004 the EU witnessed its most challenging enlargement, with the accession of eight post-communist countries (known as the A8)1. Despite the EU’s espoused ‘fundamental freedom’ of labour mobility, the UK was only one of three countries to open up its labour market to entrants from the A8 economies2 Predictions in the UK, that the number of workers seeking jobs in the labour market from post-communist economies would only be modest, could not have been more wrong and attempts to establish accurate figures have been a source of vexation for both national and local government. All A8 workers who are employed in the UK have to register on the Worker Registration Scheme and Poles comprise 66 per cent of A8 migrants (Border and Immigration Agency, 2007). But this is a cumulative total and does not include those who are self-employed or indeed those who have just not registered. There is, however, a growing consensus that this Polish migration constitutes the largest single in-migration ever to the UK (Salt and Millar, 2006). As an interviewee commented ‘what is different with this migration is the scale and in particular the Poles’ (Senior officer TUC Organising Department)

Spatial, sectoral and temporal trends in A8 migration to the UK 2004-2011. Evidence from the worker registration scheme

Since the enlargement of the European Union on 1st May 2004, large numbers of migrants from the A8 countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Estonia) have joined the UK labour market and East-Central Europe has become one of the principal source regions of migrants to Britain. Nationals from these states now constitute some of the largest foreign-born populations in the country. As part of the transitional arrangements following accession, A8 migrants were required to register under the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) if they took up employment in the UK for one month or longer. The WRS operated between May 2004 and April 2011. The WRS represents a uniquely detailed source of information on East-Central European labour migration to the UK in terms of the employment taken up by A8 migrants immediately after arrival in the UK. The research presented here analysed administrative data from the WRS in order to shed light on spatial, sectoral and temporal trends in registration flows. The findings in this report can help inform understanding of migration patterns, and responses to them, at the national and local government levels.The volume of labour migration flows from East-Central Europe has been substantial, with 1,133,950 registrations recorded over the lifetime of the WRS (May 2004 – April 2011). These flows have been concentrated in particular segments of the labour market, with most A8 migrants engaging with the hospitality and agricultural sectors and often working through recruitment agencies as opposed to directly for employers. The volume of new arrivals from the A8 countries has decreased since the onset of the recession in 2008 but still remained substantial at the end of the WRS period. The demand for migrant labour has been relatively consistent in agriculture compared to other sectors of the economy during the recession, suggesting that employers in this sector may still require overseas workers as they struggle to source labour regardless of prevailing labour market conditions. In other sectors the requirement for overseas workers had receded to a large extent by 2011. Conceptually this points to A8 migrant labour serving distinct ‘functions’ in the UK labour market

The impacts of new A8 migration in Leeds

New arrivals from Eastern Europe have made regular headlines in the popular press in recent times, not only for the unprecedented magnitude of the flows involved, but also for their impacts – positive and negative – on regions and localities up and down the country. This paper reports on a recently completed research project aimed at finding out more about A8 migrants in Leeds

A study of A8 and A2 migrants in Nottingham

The research was commissioned by Nottingham City Council and One Nottingham in August 2008 and was conducted by a team of researchers from the Salford Housing & Urban Studies Unit at the University of Salford. The study was greatly aided by research support from Nottingham City Council Children’s Services Asylum Seeker/Refugee Support Team, as well as a number of community interviewers. The project was managed by a steering group composed of officers representing Nottingham City Council, One Nottingham, Nottingham City Homes, NHS Nottingham City, Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service, Nottinghamshire Police and Basic Educational Guidance in Nottinghamshire (BEGIN). The main objective of this research was to explore the needs and experiences of A8 and A2 migrants living and working in Nottingham

‘Good relations’ among neighbours and workmates? The everyday encounters of Accession 8 migrants and established communities in urban England

Drawing on data generated in a recently completed qualitative study in a northern, English city, this paper explores the everyday social encounters of Accession 8 (A8) migrants who entered the UK following the expansion of the European Union in 2004. A number of options from permanent residence in another Member State on the one hand, to more fleeting circulatory and multiple short-term moves on the other, now exist for these new European citizens. The relatively short-term and temporary residence of some A8 migrants calls into question the focus of much UK government policy, which emphasises the need for migrants to integrate into diverse yet cohesive communities. Against this backdrop, the aim of this paper is two-fold. First, it considers the somewhat different character of A8 migration (encompassing a spectrum from permanency to temporariness) and what this means for routine experiences of mixing between new migrants and established host communities. Second, the paper explores such interactions in terms of ‘everyday encounters’ in both neighbourhood and work spaces and asks whether such spatio-temporal practices and experiences enhance or inhibit the building of ‘good relations’ in a multicultural city

An analysis of the North East Worker Registration Scheme Data: A briefing paper for the Regional Migrant Worker Steering Group

It has recently been stated that the opening up of the UK labour market to the new accession countries (A8s) has initiated the largest ever in-migration to these shores . Whilst there are no accurate figures of the precise number of migrants involved in this, there are a number of statistical sources that provide data on it. One of these is the Worker Registration Scheme , which whilst carrying a number of ‘health warnings’ as to accuracy of flows is useful for labour market data. For the North East, though, the publicly available accession reports include Yorkshire and Humber in their overall totals. However, the author has obtained, through freedom of information, the full North East data set . What follows are the key regional headlines and then three more in-depth sections on (1) the nationality of North East A8 workers (2) their age and gender and (3) their occupation. The key regional headlines are: Between May 2004 and September 2006, 4,934 A8 workers registered to the Scheme in the North East. This is by far the lowest number of registered A8 workers of any UK region; Sixty-six per cent of these workers were Polish. This is slightly higher than the overall UK proportion of sixty-three per cent. With the only other notable group regionally being Lithuanians (13%) again slightly higher than the UK proportion (11%);The male:female ratio of registered workers was 64:36. This is a higher male proportion than at a national level where the ratio was 57:43. Seventy-four per cent of registered workers were aged 18-34. This, though, is lower than the UK proportion of eighty-two per cent; The most frequent occupation of A8 registered workers was factory process operative (1,660). A third of all regional registered workers were classified as undertaking this occupation

The experiences of accession 8 migrants in England : motivations, work and agency

Drawing on a recently completed qualitative study in a northern English city, this paper explores motivations and experiences of Accession 8 (A8) migrants who have entered the United Kingdom following the expansion of the European Union in 2004. The paper considers commonalities and differences among the group of migrants routinely referred to as A8 migrant workers/labourers. Diversity is apparent in three particular respects: first, the motivations and forms of movement undertaken; second, their experiences of work within the UK paid labour market; and third, the extent to which the act and experience of migration offers new individual and collective opportunities and potentially opens up spaces for people to negotiate structural constraints and reconfigure aspects of their identity