On the Labour Market Progress of Polish Accession Workers in South-East England

Abstract

The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in May 2004 produced a very significant wave of immigration to the United Kingdom that is likely to continue to impact its labour market in forthcoming years. Polish migrants were by far the largest cohort of the new entrants. This paper complements previous work that has begun to establish the characteristics and labour market performance of migrants from the new member states who have entered the United Kingdom. This paper uses a unique microlevel data base to investigate the labour market evolution of Polish migrants in the UK labour market. We find that in the first UK job returns to human capital were negligible. However, for the current job an extra year of education increases the weekly gross wage by 3.2 per cent. There is evidence of a gender differential in pay in both jobs and that older workers are paid more than their younger counterparts but this effect becomes insignificant in the current job. We find that hours worked is a significant factor in wage determination. However, the influence of hours worked on wages declined by approximately 38 per cent between the first and current job. Results from multinomial logit models suggest that overtime there is some ''match'' between the occupational groupings that these workers were attached to in Poland and the United Kingdom. We also find evidence that the use of employment agencies by some of these workers increases the likelihood of employment in skilled manual and nonmanual occupations. Workers who have had supervisory responsibility in the United Kingdom are more likely to be in professional or intermediate occupations.

Migrant Diversity, Migration Motivations and Early Integration: The Case of Poles in Germany, the Netherlands, London and Dublin

“…A number of studies have demonstrated poor economic outcomes among Polish workers in Western European (Clark and Drinkwater, 2008, Pollard et al, 2008, Campbell, 2013. At the same time we have little information on the relative significance of these labour market 'penalties'; though a growing literature suggests first occupations may be transition occupations which complicates how we interpret them (Parutis, 2011, Bachan andSheehan, 2011). Paying attention to migration rationales and to multiple forms of integration -structural, subjective and social --gives us a way of enhancing existing studies.…”

“…Moreover, economic returns may be seen as contingent and part of a 'pathway' (Bachan andSheehan, 2011, Parutis, 2011) to the eventual desired destination, with return being a viable option should the progression not materialise.…”

“…Indeed, they typically exclude non-workers such as students (see e.g. Bachan and Sheehan, 2011, Drinkwater et al, 2009, Campbell, 2013.…”

Migration and Differential Labour Market Participation: Theoretical Directions, Recurring Themes, Implications of Brexit and Areas for Future Research

“…Creese and Wiebe (2009) identify a number of structural factors to explain the difficulty which migrants face in transferring their skills, knowledge and experience including labour market shortages in low-paid sectors and economic restructuring. Bachan and Sheehan (2010) outline factors related to migrant agency, including migrants' willingness to take up work for which they are over-qualified, perhaps due to lack of choice, and their use of recruitment agencies, which may not make efforts to find them jobs that match their qualifications. These factors contribute to the phenomenon of 'occupational downgrading' where migrants take up jobs in their destination country which are not commensurate with their educational qualifications and skills (Creese and Wiebe, 2009).…”

“…The challenges that migrants face in transferring human capital to their destination countries have been established in diverse international contexts, including the US (Borjas, 1995), the UK (Bachan and Sheehan, 2010), Canada (Creese and Wiebe, 2009) and Norway (Christensen and Guldvik, 2014). Creese and Wiebe (2009) identify a number of structural factors to explain the difficulty which migrants face in transferring their skills, knowledge and experience including labour market shortages in low-paid sectors and economic restructuring.…”