Transcript Europe`s Eastern Borders, Migration from an Economic and

Europe’s Eastern Borders:
Migration from an Economic and
Geographic Periphery?
I G Shuttleworth
School of Geography, Archaeology and
Paleoecology
QUB
Outline
Earlier migrations from the East – a
biographical note from Poland
 The paradoxes of contemporary labour
migration
 Cores and peripheries in the New Europe?
 Conclusion

Earlier migrations from the East – a
biographical note from Poland
Poland has
traditionally been a
country of emigration
 Immobility of the Iron
Curtain the exception
rather than the rule
 Most EU states have
substantial numbers
of Poles and people of
Polish descent

Earlier migrations from the East – a
biographical note from Poland
The fall of the Iron Curtain and the
accessions of May 2004 have meant a
return to ‘business as normal’ – a new
period of emigration to the West
 A unified European labour market (in part)
 But is it business as normal?
 Is the current migration different to that
seen in the past?

The Paradoxes of Contemporary
Labour Migration

Poles in the UK are very diverse in their
characteristics (so hard to generalise)
– Skilled and young people practicing English
– But a less-skilled component
 Repairs, cleaning, driving
 From diverse parts of Poland
Hard to estimate numbers with such a
mobile population
 But something new is happening in NI;
rural parts of the UK; small towns etc

The Paradoxes of Contemporary
Labour Migration
Argument: the current emigration from countries
like Poland to the old EU differs qualitatively
from that seen in the past; more than just a
result of the opening of borders; more complex
than just filling labour shortages
 One reason: the 1990s and the early 21st
Century saw large-scale immigration to the USA
and other developed economies
 Are we looking at some broad structural change
in the world economy? Perhaps so…

The Paradoxes of Contemporary
Labour Migration

Paradox I: Much immigration is to areas
with labour surpluses as measured by low
economic activity rates
– What is happening to local labour markets in
the UK and Ireland?
– Attempts to encourage (force?) economic
activity rates of host population up by govt.

Paradox II: Govt policy welcomes
migrants; as do employers; assessments
of positive impact on the UK and some
sectors of the economy
The Paradoxes of Contemporary
Labour Migration
Paradox II (Cont): But schizophrenic
attitudes towards migration controls and
borders (cuts across orthodox lines of left
and right in politics); open borders and
employers’ needs versus anti-migration
rhetoric and policies
 Paradox III: Wider contradictions in views
about globalisation, the EU and the state

The Paradoxes of Contemporary
Labour Migration
Much contemporary migration is
individualistic, privatised (eg through
employment agencies – not closely
regulated), and unlike migratory flows in
the 1950s and 1960s (eg bilateral
arrangements between employers and
states)
 What then are we seeing?

The Paradoxes of Contemporary
Labour Migration
Crisis and transformation in the labour
markets of countries like the UK
 Deregulation, the ideology of ‘flexibility’,
and competitive market pressures causing
downward pressure in some sectors on
wages have created a demand for
disciplined, cheap immigrant labour

– Example, agribusiness
– Brings the ‘periphery’ to the ‘core’
The Paradoxes of Contemporary
Labour Migration

Cheap labour is essential for some sectors
of the UK economy; hence
– Govt and employer views on migration
Paradox I: Not a paradox if seen in light of
problems in ‘encouraging’ engagement
with low-wage sector of the UK economy
 Paradox II & III: Not paradoxes if
recognised that state border crossing
migrants are more open to exploitation
than host workers

The Paradoxes of Contemporary
Labour Migration
Paradoxes II & III (cont.): Especially so if
unsure of rights; and recognition that
international migrant labour is qualitatively
different to host labour by virtue of
crossing borders
 This is especially true if non-EU borders
are crossed; but still true if we consider
migrants within the EU

Cores and Peripheries in the New
Europe?
At one level, countries like Poland have
resumed a ‘traditional’ role as a labourexporting periphery to Western Europe
 The loss of skilled workers through ‘brain
drain’ may limit the economic
development potential for some parts of
Poland and some types of activity (eg in
Health)
 But what we are seeing now is far more
than a simple core-periphery pattern

Cores and Peripheries in the New
Europe?
Neo-liberalism and the acceptance of
market discipline in Western Europe
means that the periphery’ is increasingly
‘coming home’ to Western labour markets
 The consequences of labour market
restructuring in the periphery in places like
Poland mean that there are jobless people
who can fill labour demands elsewhere in
the EU

Cores and Peripheries in the New
Europe?
At the same time, Poland has been said to
be a destination for immigrants from
further East (500,000 Ukrainians in Poland
(Iglicka 2001))
 As investment increases in the East, the
attractiveness of countries like Poland for
immigrants is likely to grow
 A cascading system of cores and
peripheries marked out by migratory flows

Cores and Peripheries in the New
Europe?
A Rio Grande on the Bug for Fortress
Europe?
 May restrict immigration from the East in
the short term but if employers’ taste for
cheap labour (in Poland) and Western
Europe to cut costs and increase market
share continues then the Bug may prove
as permeable as the Rio Grande

Conclusion
Remarks made in the absence of extensive
empirical information
 Needs recognised by NI govt to collect
information on

– Immigrant numbers (improve estimation
techniques)
– The use of immigrants by employers
– Interactions with local labour markets

These are difficult issues to address
Conclusion
These are added to by the need to
understand more about migration from the
perspective of sending as well as receiving
countries
 Nevertheless, despite these limitations,
there is a good case that we have entered
a new age of migration in Europe; one
that is related to fundamental changes in
the labour markets of sending and
receiving countries
