Employment and the labour market

Currently comprising 13% of the British workforce, migrants make a critical contribution to the UK economy. However, many migrants experience difficulties in accessing the UK labour force and in exercising their employment rights at work – issues which have been heighted in the context of a national recession.

The roll-out of the new Points-Based System (PBS) for economic migration from 2008 has made the immigration system more challenging to enter and navigate, particularly for migrant workers within low-paid sectors.Many migrants coming to work in the UK from within the European Union face employment issues, including substandard working conditions, de-skilling and under-employment. Other migrants, such as asylum seekers, face particular difficulties in gaining access to the labour market in the UK. The extension of workplace document checks and immigration raids has heightened tensions around migrants’ right to work in the UK.

Our work aims to provide an ongoing assessment of the employment issues faced by migrants, and to identify where work can be developed to combat these problems. We regularly collaborate with trades unions and community organizations in the UK to bolster support for migrant workers, particularly in the context of immigration checks and raids at work. Most recently, we have embarked on a project which will map out key issues related to migrants and employment in three regions of the UK and Scotland.

Key projects

  • ‘Papers Please’ project (February 2008 – ongoing)

This project looks at the effects of the 'civil penalty' regime which imposed additional responsibilities on employers for the immigration status of their workforce in February 2008. MRN commissioned the ‘Papers Please’ report, which looked at the impact of these regulations on migrant workers’ employment rights, and on undocumented migrant workers. MRN developed a training programme to raise awareness among trade union activists with the financial support of Unite the Union in 2009. As the culmination of this work, we collaborated with the Trades Union Congress, Unite the Union, UNISON and the GMB, and legal expert Barbara Cohen to produce a trade union ‘Negotiators Guide on Immigration Document Checks and Workplace Raids’.

Contact: Ruth Grove-White

 

  • Migrants and Entrepreneurialism Project (October 2008 - November 2010)

MRN is a partner in this two-year project funded by the European Union Leonardo da Vinci Programme. This project aims to provide support and assist the development of business entrepreneurialism in migrant communities across five EU countries (UK, Ireland, Romania, Poland and Denmark) by producing an online training tool for would-be migrant entrepreneurs across the EU. MRN's input is as the 'principle social partner', focusing on disseminating project activities and outcomes to migrant communities in the UK.

Contact: Ruth Grove-White