Poles Apart? EU Enlargement and the Labour Market Outcomes of Immigrants in the UK

By Stephen Drinkwater, J. Eade, M. Garapich. Social Science Research Network, 2006

227 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The UK was one of only three countries to allow migrants from accession countries to enter their labour markets more or less without restriction following EU enlargement in May 2004. Therefore, it is important to establish the characteristics and labour market performance of migrants from these countries who have subsequently entered the UK. We principally analyse Labour Force Survey data to compare the labour market outcomes of recent migrants from Poland and other accession countries to those of earlier migrant cohorts from these countries as well as to those of other recent migrants to the UK. We find that the majority of post-enlargement migrants from accession countries have found employment in low paying jobs, despite some (especially Poles) having relatively high levels of education. It follows that recent Polish migrants typically have lower returns to their education than other recent arrivals. Migrants from the new entrants who arrived immediately prior to enlargement possess similar characteristics and labour market outcomes, apart from having a higher propensity to be self-employed. These results are discussed in the context of policy changes, migration strategies, assimilation effects and possible impacts on the sending countries.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cc93b3591ebcaacaff0adcbc1ec65e253d8188da

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

1. Klaus F. Zimmermann
2. M. Kahanec

In Sociology and Political Science

1. A. Zaiceva
2. Klaus F. Zimmermann
3. M. Kahanec

Citations in the corpus

• Lessons from Migration after EU Enlargement (2009, background): “…high educational levels, in the UK these immigrants are concentrated in low-skilled sectors, such as hotels and restaurants, manufacturing and agriculture and in the low-skilled occupations (Gilpin et al., 2006; Drinkwater et al., 2006; Blanchflower et al., 2007; Blanchflower and Lawton, 2009).”
• EU Enlargement and Migration: Assessing the Macroeconomic Impacts (2010, unknown): “Our estimate of a 26 per cent productivity differential is within the range of figures provided by estimates of migrant pay penalties; for example, the pay penalty estimates for Polish workers in the UK in Drinkwater et al. (2006) and for non-English speaking migrants in Ireland in Barrett and McC”
• Fear, Unemployment and Migration (2009, unknown): “These results are consistent with those of Drinkwater et al. (2006) who consider data from the Worker Registration Scheme for Polish migrants.”
• The Impact of the Recent Migration from Eastern Europe on the UK Economy (2007, unknown): “Drinkwater et al (2006) found similar results.”
• Migration in an Enlarged EU: A Challenging Solution? (2009, methodology): “Drinkwater et al. (2008) analyse the performance of Polish immigrants in the UK labour market using the UK Labour Force Survey data.”