Migrant workers 'have difficulty integrating'
Migrant workers get little advice from official agencies, researchers warn
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Tuesday, 29, May 2007 03:02
Migrant workers from eastern Europe are not receiving enough support to help them integrate into British society, a series of new studies have concluded.
A growing number of immigrants choose to settle here permanently after originally entering the country with the aim of staying for a short time, but overseas workers are given little practical information by the authorities on their arrival and competition for housing and jobs is driving racial tension within local communities, three separate studies published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) warn.
In one study conducted by researchers from the Oxford and Sussex universities, just six per cent of 307 eastern European migrants said that they intended to stay in Britain permanently when they were interviewed in April 2004 - before the European Union expansion.
But six to eight months after enlargement, the proportion of those who said they intended to stay increased to 29 per cent - with women more likely than men to wish to remain in the UK permanently.
The study, entitled Migrants' lives beyond the workplace: the experiences of central and east Europeans in the UK, drew on surveys and interviews with over 600 immigrants from across Europe working in four low-wage sectors - agriculture, construction, hospitality and the au pair industry.
It also found that just 17 per cent of migrants had received adequate advice and information from official UK agencies when they arrived in Britain, with some reporting that a lack of guidance had created practical difficulties for them and left them feeling vulnerable.
Only 47 per cent had received information about their working rights in Britain, while just 33 per cent knew how to register with a GP.
Meanwhile one in four migrants surveyed after spending two years in the UK reported that they spent no social time mixing with British people, instead working and living with other migrants.
Just four out of ten migrants also said that they felt Britons treated them as equals.
Commenting on the results of the three studies into the effects of migration in Britain, JRF director Julia Unwin called on the government to do more to assist new immigrants.
"These three reports suggest that the government should value migrants as more than simply an economic resource and must continue to place importance on ensuring their integration into wider British society, even when their stay is expected to be temporary," she said.