Eastern European Migration to the UK
Positive and Negative impacts at source :
Intervening Obstacles
Push and Pull Factors
Fun Facts
Push Factors
The scale of the migration:
In 2015, inflows of EU nationals migrating to the UK stood at 269,000, up from 264,000 in 2014.
As of the first quarter of 2016, approximately 2.2 million EU born were employed in the UK labour market
Negative: heightened tension between ethnic groups in areas with large number of migrants, especially where there is contest for empoyment between migrants and native-born population.
The intervening obstacles for new migrants were relatively minor since:
Positive: Migrants are often willing to take on low paid work that ethnically British individuals view as too lowly for them or else jobs that pay lower wages than a British worker might expect
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a worker registration scheme allowed migrants right of entry & the right to work
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◦cheap bus & air travel reduced costs of travelling
Positive- European immigrants who have arrived in the UK since 2000 have contibued to more than 20bn to UK public finances between 2001 and 2011.
◦existing established immigrant groups, such as the Poles, provided community & cultural support for newcomers
◦immigrant-friendly services, such as 'Polish' UK bank accounts, were quickly set up, allowing remittances to be sent back home.
Pull Factors
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As a result British business has benefited greatly from
the influx of migrant workers.
Those who come generally do so to work and as result unemployment among polish-born UK residents is 2% lower than the UK unemployment rate.
These people also actively contribute to consumer culture, boosting retail.
European immigrats to the UK have paid more in taxes than they received in benefits, helping to relieve he fiscal burden on UK-born workers and contributing to the financing of public sevices
The number of UK workers from eight eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 has passed one million for the first time.
From April to June, workers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia increased by 44,000 compared to the same period in 2015.
Official figures showed there were now a total of 2.23m EU workers in Britain.
UK unemployment fell by 52,000 to 1.64m during the same three-month period.
There are over 1 million Eastern European workers in UK and over 2.3 million in Britain.
It is perceived that tthere and more and higher paid jobs in the Uk
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Negative: Ethnically British workers have grown angry at what they see as Polish semi-skilled workers setting a precedent for lower wages as well as out-competing their British counterparts who believe they should be paid higher wages.
Average unemployment in Poland was 8.5% in 2005
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Postive and Negative impacts at host country:
Negative: due to influx of tradesmen and semi-skilled workers to the UK, Poland has suffered from a deficit in tradesmen meaning that there arre simply not enough tradesmen to meet the demand
Youth Unemployment was around 40% in 2005 as well as rural unemployment in some areas.
Positive: Polish unemployment rate has fallen from 20% to just 10% as a result of emigration of young workers who can find work in the UK but not Poland
Unemplyment in the Uk is only 5%
GDP in Poland per Capita was $12,700 where as in the UK it was $30,900
Increase in remittances to Poland (£4 billion each year)
has resulted in many poles in Poland having increased disposable incomes which has increased retail profit and waulity of life
Polish divorce rate has doubled in just 7 years, this is due to the pressure of migration of the spouses that migrants left behind.
Language barriers: Eastern Europeans strugged to communicate in English
Improved medical care such as vacines
brexit:•The vote to leave the EU gives the government an unprecedented opportunity to reduce current record levels of net migration (half of which comes from