British low paid workers affected by Eastern European immigration

A new report has suggested that Britain’s lowest paid workers are now earning less than before thanks to the rush of new migrants from Eastern Europe.

In the past six years there has been an influx of an estimated 1.5 million migrant workers from Eastern Europe following the Labour governments much criticised policy of opening British borders to foreign workers some years ago. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said in its newly commissioned report that these numbers were driving down the wages of the lowest paid workers in the UK.

The report was authored by the Migration Policy Institute and while it does imply that overall immigration has had a small but probably positive effect of the UK economy it notes that there is a new group of ‘vulnerable’ home-based workers who have likely had their wages reduced due to the unskilled labour market competition. The report also suggests that some areas which are facing an economic depression could be experiencing a low-skill equilibrium.

Of the 1.5 million workers who have travelled from Eastern Europe since the expansion of the EU in 2004 it is estimated that around half have returned home, with the remainder being predominantly based in unskilled jobs. The report further claims that nearly 50 percent of labour immigration in Britain now comes from Eastern Europe.

Nearly all of Eastern European migrants (95 percent for males and 80 percent for females) are able to find work on arrival in the UK and during times of recession their unemployment levels remain markedly lower than their British counterparts, leading to fears that they may be being exploited.