It's all about the Flex: Preference, Flexibility and Power in the Employment of EU Migrants in Low-Skilled Sectors

Rolfe, Heather

doi:10.1017/s1474746417000240

Cited by 9 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Where migrants are valued over British workers it is often in relation to the flexibility they offer in hours of work which enables employers to reduce risk and costs incurred with a permanent, full-time workforce. Migrant workers are more willing to work on a flexible basis while such contracts can be less feasible for British workers, including for reasons relating to welfare benefits and childcare (Rolfe, 2017). Industries including food processing, hospitality and construction have developed flexible production models which have benefited from the supply of EU migrants (Chan et al, 2008;Geddes, 2008;Scott, 2013).…”

Section: Employer Immigration Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Driven by concerns, or expectations, that free movement will end, employers have been looking at how they might increase the supply of domestic labour, including young people, to their sector (Rolfe, 2016;Davies and Rolfe, 2017;London First, 2018). Some report progress with this (Davies and Rolfe, 2017).…”

Section: The Development Of New Post-brexit Immigration Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On this matter, our research found divergent views between sectors and individual employers with some saying they are happy to recruit from any country, including potentially those with whom the UK signs trade deals. Employers' views are influenced by factors such as language skills and qualification equivalence where non-EU labour is sometimes preferred (Dolton et al, 2018) and proximity and ease of recruitment where EU labour is sometimes favoured (Rolfe, 2016;Davies and Rolfe, 2017).…”

Section: Employers' Preferences For Post-brexit Immigration Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over the most recent decade, this tension has intensified and was played out strongly in debates leading up to the vote to leave the EU. Free movement, while undoubtedly benefitting employers (Rolfe et al, 2016), was presented as preventing the UK from controlling its borders and undermining pay and job prospects for British workers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Immigration Policy from Post-War to Post-Brexit: How New Immigration Policy can Reconcile Public Attitudes and Employer Preferences

Rolfe¹,

Runge²,

Hudson-Sharp³

2019

Natl. Inst. econ. rev.

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As Britain prepares to leave the EU immigration policy has come to the top of the policy agenda. The Brexit vote was seen as a vote against free movement and new policies are aimed at introducing more restrictive controls. The report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) in September 2018 recommended little new provision for low-skilled migration post-Brexit (MAC, 2018). This was then adopted by the Home Office in its Immigration White Paper, published in November 2018 (Home Affairs Committee, 2018). The White Paper explicitly references public concerns that migrant labour reduces opportunities for British workers and undermines their pay and conditions. Yet employers have argued that they need to be able to continue to recruit lower, as well as highly skilled labour because the supply of British workers is insufficient. The paper explores the likely impact of proposed restrictions on immigration post-Brexit, using data from NIESR studies of employers and of the general public. It combines an assessment of what is needed to meet the needs of employers, the economy and to address public concerns, finding that there is more consensus than there is often considered to be.

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Section: Employer Immigration Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Development Of New Post-brexit Immigration Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Employers' Preferences For Post-brexit Immigration Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Immigration Policy from Post-War to Post-Brexit: How New Immigration Policy can Reconcile Public Attitudes and Employer Preferences

Rolfe¹,

Runge²,

Hudson-Sharp³

2019

Natl. Inst. econ. rev.

Self Cite

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“…The expected lower supply of EU workers after Brexit has been raised as an immediate concern by employers in the Brexit context (e.g. Rolfe, 2017).…”

Section: A Brexit Paradox?mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘High-Skilled Good, Low-Skilled Bad?’ British, Polish and Romanian Attitudes Towards Low-Skilled EU Migration

Bulat¹

2019

Natl. Inst. econ. rev.

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A new skills-based immigration system, with a preference for the highly-skilled, is central to UK policy debates in the Brexit context, arguably responding to majority public opinion on migration. Through qualitative fieldwork with British, Polish and Romanian citizens living in two local authorities in England, this paper shows what participants understand by ‘low-skilled’ and how there is broad support of those who ‘contribute’, but are ‘controlled’ at the same time. Migrants’ narratives of downskilling also illustrate why the category of ‘low-skilled’ migration needs to be seen through a more critical lens in research and policymaking.

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Migrant subjectivities and temporal flexibility of East‐Central European labour migration to the United Kingdom

Shubin

McCollum

2021

Population Space and Place

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This paper seeks to broaden existing understandings of migrant worker flexibility drawing on the data from the two ethnographic studies of low-wage employers and Eastern European migrants in Scotland. It focuses on the temporal aspects of flexibility production in employment discourse and temporal expectations about flexible migrant workers. Our findings reveal double movement of interruption and remaking of temporal flexibility, which challenges directional expectations about time and unsettles the assumed connectivity between flexibility's temporal elements. Uncertainty and instability of migration and employment frameworks undermine the attempts of employers and migrants to manage time, to develop continuous portfolio careers and coherent temporal horizons. Furthermore, contested temporal expectations about flexible migrant workers create fragmented and fractured "flexiworkers" that do not fit within the existing temporal frameworks of signs, routines, and rhythms. The paper suggests re-orientation of flexibility debates beyond temporal measurement, outside familiar temporal structures, and towards redefinition of flexible worker identities.

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It's all about the Flex: Preference, Flexibility and Power in the Employment of EU Migrants in Low-Skilled Sectors

Abstract: In the last ten years, EU migrants have come to play an important role in the UK

Cited by 9 publications

References 17 publications

Immigration Policy from Post-War to Post-Brexit: How New Immigration Policy can Reconcile Public Attitudes and Employer Preferences

Immigration Policy from Post-War to Post-Brexit: How New Immigration Policy can Reconcile Public Attitudes and Employer Preferences

‘High-Skilled Good, Low-Skilled Bad?’ British, Polish and Romanian Attitudes Towards Low-Skilled EU Migration

Migrant subjectivities and temporal flexibility of East‐Central European labour migration to the United Kingdom

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