Migrant Workers
Dr Eddy Donnelly, Dr Paul Freedman & Barbara Wilczek
Overview
The recent influx of CEE migrants from the A8 countries into the UK has attracted considerable interest from policy makers, business communities, workers and civil society alike. Our studies explore the challenges and dilemmas arising from new migrants’ integration and assimilation into both the world of work and the wider community.
Further Details
This study aims to explore the assimilation of Polish migrant workers into UK workplaces. Their introduction into our own regional economy as a way of filling skills shortages is particularly striking and warrants further investigation. Of particular interest are their strategies for integrating themselves into local labour markets and the possible barriers to be overcome.
Accordingly, this regionally-focused research assesses likely effects on workplaces and identifies any associated issues confronting employer organisations unused to significant diversity in the composition of their workforces. Polish workers are the focus of the study since they represent the largest grouping of CEE in the locale.
This project is intended to complement comparable studies elsewhere that are likewise looking into the impact of migrant workers on both sectoral job markets and work relations. To this end, CRiM researchers are forming collaborative partnerships with other Centres similarly interested in undertaking comparative regional studies.
Field work is intended to contribute to broader debates surrounding both the integration and transience of migrant workers in British labour markets. More specifically, its purpose is to identify key relational challenges that employers and other actors need to address in order to assimilate Polish workers into indigenous workforces in a sustained way.
