Labour, Mobility and Temporary Migration

A Comparative Study of Polish Migration to Wales

Julie Knight, John Lever, Andrew Thompson

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786830821
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Emigration & Immigration
• Index: Social Sciences

Labour, Mobility and Temporary Migration delves into sociological research on Polish migrants who migrated to the lesser-explored South Wales region after Poland joined the European Union in 2004. At the time of enlargement, Polish migrants were characterised as being economically motivated, short-term migrants who would enter the UK for work purposes, save money and return home. However, over ten years after enlargement, this initial characterisation has been challenged with many of the once considered 'short-term' Poles remaining in the UK. In the case of Wales, the long-term impact of this migration is only starting to be fully realised, particularly in consideration of the different spatial areas – urban, semi-urban and rural – explored in this book. Such impact is occurring in the post-Brexit referendum period, a time when the UK's position in the EU is itself complex and changing.

PART I

1

EU Enlargement, Migration and the UK

Introduction

In 2004, the European Union (EU) expanded to include ten new member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The new member states to join at this time were: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.¹ While Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007 and Croatia in 2013, the 2004 EU enlargement was one of the most contentious, not least because the strengths of the economies of the existing fifteen member states were juxtaposed with the weaknesses of the economies of the ten new members.² As a result, the 2004 enlargement was met with a variety of responses within the national governments in Europe. Many of the old member states used restrictive policies to curb or completely stop the flow of migrants from CEE countries on a temporary basis. Interestingly, not all of the CEE countries were viewed as a threat to the old member states’ labour markets. Eight of the ten countries posed a concern for old member states. These eight countries became known as the ‘Accession 8’, or ‘A8’, and included all of the aforementioned CEE countries with the exception of Malta and Cyprus.

In the period immediately following accession, thousands of CEE migrants entered the UK, the majority coming from Poland. Academics, policy-makers and the media classified these Polish migrants as young, well-educated and economically motivated individuals who were planning to migrate to the UK for the short term and return home. However, it is only in hindsight, a decade after this enlargement, that academics are beginning to understand how these Polish migrants have influenced the labour market of Britain and how their motivations and characteristics have evolved over time. This is where the book begins: looking back over the past ten years to understand how the Polish migrants have changed in the UK, including their changing labour market mobility, their social network formation and their plans to stay in the UK. The last point is of particular importance as the vast majority of these migrants originally intended to stay in the UK for less than a year. However, ten years after enlargement, many have remained in the UK with no immediate plan to remigrate making their migration marked by temporariness and migratory drift.

Labour, Mobility and Temporary Migration draws on a substantial body of qualitative data derived from interviews with Polish migrants living and working in three localities across the South Wales region – in Cardiff, Llanelli and Merthyr Tydfil – to explore the forces and stories behind one of the largest population movements in recent European history. It will fill a significant gap in the literature on labour migration in the EU in three distinct ways.

First, it is unique in reviewing the topic of Polish migration to the UK over time to understand the continuing evolution of migrants’ motivations and characteristics. This is of particular importance for policy-makers, who have only recently begun to understand the major impact that these migrants have on the British labour market. Migrants almost always plan to come only for a relatively short stay abroad, but the majority stay considerably longer, often years after they had expected to return. Understanding why this ‘migratory drift’ occurs is critical for policy knowledge, especially in learning more about how migrants’ analyses of comparative economic conditions in their home and destination countries influence how far they stretch their stay abroad. This book will contribute to this knowledge because the early studies on which it is based were undertaken as the financial crisis and subsequent recession in the UK were breaking, while the later research was undertaken when the recession was peaking. Our research enables us to show that for as long as migrants are able to secure work, the quality of life in the UK, especially for those with children, has an important bearing on the decision of many to ride out the economic downturn.

Second, the book will fill a gap in the literature on migration to Wales. Historians of Wales have skilfully dissected previous migrations from Ireland and, later, from Italy. However, more contemporary migration patterns to Wales, particularly those from further afield, such as Poland, have not received a significant amount of attention. This book brings together the single largest body of data on Polish migration to Wales which, significantly, was undertaken as it was unfolding after EU enlargement in 2004. It thus provides a unique snapshot of social change in Wales at an important moment when the UK was experiencing and adjusting to an unexpectedly large wave of migration from CEE countries. The experience of Wales, and the lessons of the book, will nevertheless be of wider significance. A striking feature of A8 migration was the movement of migrants to all parts of the UK, and across urban and rural localities alike. Staffing agencies played a key role in shuttling workers to all four corners of the UK, and in the cases of Llanelli and Merthyr Tydfil we are able to report on just how important these commercial middlemen are for labour migration.

Third, the book is unique in its ability to capture the migrants’ story across different localities. As mentioned, many of the studies completed on post-2004 Polish migrants in England and other parts of the UK are largely city-based. It has only been in the recent past that a handful of journal articles have begun to approach the subject of Polish migration from a more spatial dimension focusing on non-city regions; however, these articles focus on specific areas outside of Wales and are not comparable. This comparative study aims to highlight the evolution of post-2004 Poles throughout three distinct regions in the South Wales area, making the implications for its use considerably more widespread.

This last point regarding the comparative spatial considerations is a major theme of this book, which was born out of three independently conducted studies coming together in this monograph. Despite the methodological commonalities across these studies, their findings were considerably different. These variations in the findings make this book essential reading for those interested in understanding the evolution of post-2004 Polish migrants’ characteristics and motivations in the South Wales region. The findings from each study will contribute to three locality chapters – urban, semi-urban and rural – using specific cross-cutting themes to shape each chapter. These cross-cutting themes include, but are not limited to, the following: labour market experiences, human capital development, social network construction and usage, and future plans.

This Introduction will set the stage for the rest of the book by outlining three distinct points. First, the role of history in shaping both EU and UK government policy in relation to migration will be explored to understand why migrants chose to migrate to the UK. Second, the number of CEE migrants, particularly Poles, that have entered the UK since 2004 will be reviewed. Owing to the number of sources that collect information on migrant numbers, as well as the limitations of each of these sources, the number of Poles that actually entered and stayed in the UK is highly contentious. Third, this chapter will review the economic, social and political landscape of Wales to provide the reader with a better understanding of the attractiveness of this country to a new migrant group.

By arranging this chapter in this way, the government hierarchy is subtly presented, highlighting how the EU policy on migration informs UK policy, and how UK policy, with the exception of certain social issues like housing and education, informs Wales policy. This was an intentional effort by the authors to explain how individual countries such as Wales are engaged in a complex political system in regard to migration. The authors also acknowledge that there are significant political, social and economic changes occurring across the EU and the UK at the time of writing. These changes can have an impact on both UK and EU migration policy and the role of devolved governments like the Welsh Assembly Government in future.

The EU referendum on 23 June 2016, with a vote in favour of the UK leaving the EU, has sparked the resignation of a Prime Minister, the appointment of a new Prime Minister with a new Cabinet, and the strong possibility of the UK starting the process to leave the EU.^{3, 4} These changes have all occurred in the course of the last three months, making the topic of migration, particularly from the EU member states into the UK, both a pivotal point of discussion and also an option that may not exist in the near future. As the large-scale migration of EU migrants to Britain formed a significant argument in the Leave campaign in these times of uncertainty, it is of the utmost importance to understand the impact of migration to the UK, and more specifically, Wales.⁵

EU History and the 2004 Enlargement

Over the last fifty years, since the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957 which established the EU, the number of EU member states has grown from the six founding members to twenty-eight.⁶ The original aim of the EU was to prevent future conflict among the member states. To meet this aim, the principles of free movement of goods, finance and labour within the EU area were the core tenets to increase cohesion among the member states.^{7, 8} The free movement of finance and goods was widely accepted from the outset, particularly with the creation of the Eurozone in 1999; however, the free movement of labour has traditionally been less accepted. For new member states, the right to free movement of labour is traditionally received last, on the date of accession, with the barriers to trade and capital flows being lifted in advance.⁹ The rationale for the free movement of labour is that it would allow supplies of labour to move where a demand for labour exists as well as creating social cohesion among the EU member states.¹⁰ In addition, there are economic benefits associated with the free movement of labour such as a boost in economic productivity and migrants are less likely to claim benefits.¹¹

While the free movement of labour was intended to support both cultural and economic development between the new and the old member states, initially limitations existed for those interested in migrating within the EU for labour purposes. For example, from 1990 to 1993 the EU migrant was expected to be at least in part-time employment in the settlement location, which then allowed a five-year right of abode that was renewable.¹² In 1993 with the Treaty of Maastricht, this limitation was removed, which allowed a truly free movement of labour within the EU member states. This also included European Free Trade Association (EFTA) immigrants, as they were no longer required to register for a visa. In 1997 the Schengen Agreement (1985) which allowed completely free movement, with no passport checks, between thirteen of the fifteen EU member states (excluding Ireland and the UK) was adopted in the Amsterdam Treaty. This treaty made the Schengen Agreement a part of EU law which new EU members would have to adopt. More recently, in 2004, the Free Movement Directive, the core legislation on free movement of labour in the EU, was constructed. This allows the free movement of labour, but, if the ‘EU citizen’ in question does not have a job or a means of financial support in the destination country, then the migrant must return home after three months. If migrants intend to stay beyond the three months, they could be required to register with the host member state. Under this scheme, it is difficult to track intra-EU migrants and for the destination country to have them removed after the three-month period.

This brief review of EU doctrine relating to the free movement of labour highlights two points. First, there is a changing emphasis on labour movement among the member states. Second, with the Free Movement Directive, ‘free movement’ is still not actually possible in the EU among existing members. However, the most severe limitations to labour movement within the EU are established for new member states through transition arrangements which the fifth enlargement of the EU, starting in 2004, clearly demonstrates. The transition arrangements allow a buffer between EU accession and labour movement to reduce the impact of mass migration on the labour markets of the existing EU countries. These arrangements are on a country-to-country basis, subject to a periodic review, and can vary from one accession to another. These restrictions do not traditionally apply to students or self-employed migrants. The transition arrangements for the 2004 accession were set out in the Accession Treaty of 2003.¹³ In the 2004 enlargement of the EU, ‘the provisional arrangements for the transition policy combine a two-phase transition period of five years with a review after two years. There is the possibility of a prolongation for individual member states, if requested, of a period of two years.’¹⁴ In total, with the prolongation of the transition policy by the member state, the transition period is potentially seven years.

For the 2004 enlargement, the individual member states’ transition arrangements were carried out in phases starting on the day of accession on 1 May 2004 and ending, at the latest, on 30 April 2011. To protect their labour markets from the anticipated mass migration of A8 migrants, the existing EU member countries invoked their right to a transition arrangement requiring visas, and visa-like access or a complete delay to access their labour markets. The majority of existing EU members imposed a two- to four-year tr...