The problem with migrants? Too much exploitation!

Submitted by AWL on 15 July, 2014 - 5:05

According to a report by the an independent government advisory committee, non-British born migrants face a high level of exploitation while policies designed to offer workers some minimal protection are only weakly enforced.

The Migration Advisory Committee report The growth of EU and non-EU labour in low-skilled jobs and its impact on the UK published last week looks at the 13 million jobs in the UK that are classified as low skilled (requiring little or no training) which comprise about 45% of UK jobs. 2 million are held by immigrants, half of these are recent migrants mainly from Eastern Europe. Among the conclusions of this full and detailed report are:

First, the increase in migrants has not displaced UK-born workers, but has been part of a shift of UK-born workers from low-skill to high-jobs. In 1997, 49% of UK born workers were in high skill jobs, in 2013 the figure was 55%. Although there are now less low skilled jobs, a greater proportion are now filled by migrants.

Second, where UK born workers cannot gain jobs, and this is most prevalent amongst those under 25, this is not a result of migration. It is caused by the education system that gives low priority to students unlikely to gain five A*-C GCSEs with vocational training and apprenticeships becoming increasingly of low quality. It is because of this lack of skills that UK born workers might lose out to migrants with better skills.

Third, migrants are often proactively sought in the UK because they are easy for employers to exploit and are paid below the minimum wage. The government is, in effect, complicit with this by failing to enforce these workers rights. Only one in four hundred companies are inspected for minimum wage compliance every year. Even if it is found the minimum wage has not been paid, criminal prosecutions are unlikely with only nine being initiated in the seven years 2007-2013. Civil penalties are more common but in 2012/2013, 708 employers faced penalties averaging only £1,000 each. Meanwhile, many of the orders to pay workers’ arrears (totalling £45 million to over 200,000 workers from 1999 to 2013) were avoided as employers declared themselves bankrupt and resumed business under a new corporate identity. This is aided by the weakening of trade unions’ collective bargaining power.

Lastly, the report’s analysis suggests that such migration “cost” Britain nothing. From 2001-2011 there was more spent on UK-born people than the taxes they paid totalling £624 billion, migrants paid a surplus of tax of £78 billion. EU migrants paid a surplus of tax of around £2,700 per year each.

Although the report does not spell out the political conclusions to its analysis, it is clear that the “problem” of migration is much more a problem of exploitation. Migrant workers’ rights should be strongly policed, especially agencies and gangmasters, and the minimum wage enforced. Local authorities with large migrant settlements should be given money for more social housing and education. And barriers to unions organising these workers should be removed.

Sources: Migrants in low-skilled work

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