Truth, Lies and Migrants

The issues of immigration and population are hotly debated and affect how people are treated at work and in our communities.

Trade unions speak up for working people. That means protecting wages and conditions from being undercut. It also means supporting workers when they are being exploited by employers and gang masters.

We take for granted our freedom to travel. Migration brings economic benefits and the richness of diversity but it can unsettle people. People least likely to meet a migrant are most likely to believe the scare stories. We need to address the fears with facts and the problems with solutions.

It is not surprising that we are confused about migration issues. There is a daily diet of scare stories.

The pressure to twist the news led Express NUJ journalists to lodge a formal complaint to the Press Complaints Commission against their own newspaper.

Reporters on the Daily Star refused to work on a mock-up front page attacking Muslims.

When challenged about a front page story headed “Swan Bake” about asylum seekers stealing swans, The Sun could offer no real evidence to back up the claims.

The hype reached fever-pitch around 1st January 2014 when regulations for Romanians and Bulgarians changed. Scaremongering turned into farce when very few migrants arrived.

Most migrants come to the UK to work. But does this mean they are stopping local people getting into work and keeping pay down?

Unemployment levels in the area are higher than the national average but pay has been squeezed and many workers are taking part-time jobs when they want full-time ones.

Some foreign workers take highly-skilled jobs such as computer specialists and health professionals.

A few come as senior managers in foreign owned companies that invest here.

In these jobs, international recruitment pushes up pay – consider footballers for example. In the less skilled labour market, migrants take jobs locals don’t want to do especially in agriculture and food production.

These tend to be low-paid jobs protected by the National Minimum Wage. Past experience has shown that migrants tend to start on low pay but quickly move on to better paid work.

Trade unions have worked hard to protect established pay rates and it has been the recession and bad employers that have squeezed wages, not competition from migrant workers.

Migrants tend to raise productivity levels as they have scarce skills, high motivation and fresh ideas.

17.2% of migrants set up their own firms compared to 10.4% of UK nationals.

A government report that studied the impact on jobs, found “little evidence of displacement” caused by migrants. Some employers will try to rip off migrants and unions will fight exploitation to protect all workers.

The TUC believes effective enforcement of the Minimum Wage and protection for established pay rates will stop migrants being blamed for the actions of bad employers.

Unions want fair pay for all workers.

Beth Farhat – Regional Secretary