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The coronavirus pandemic and the post-Brexit regulation of migration CERIC Briefing Paper

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Abstract and Figures

The pandemic has led to emergency measures restricting travel that creating a new, albeit temporary, regulation of migration, with more than 200 countries implementing coronavirus-related restrictions on border entries, and with 93 per cent of the world’s population living in countries where restrictions have been imposed In the UK, the COVID-19 crisis has brought into even sharper relief the crisis of labour mobility that was triggered by the UK Exit from the European Union. A new post-Brexit points-based system of migration has been proposed by the government, which will have significant impacts on migration flows, and on those groups of migrants who will be able to work in the UK. This briefing looks in more detail proposed post-Brexit immigration regime in the UK. It highlights the contradictions between the restrictions on free movement in the proposals, and employers’ labour needs in particular sectors, amplified even more by the coronavirus pandemic.
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The coronavirus pandemic and the post-Brexit regulation of
migration
CERIC Briefing Paper
Gabriella Alberti, Ioulia Bessa, Zyama Ciupijus,
Jo Cutter, Chris Forde, Maisie Roberts
April 2020
Report Number 2020/1.
2
Centre for Employment Relations Change and Innovation
Leeds University Business School
https://business.leeds.ac.uk/research-ceric/doc/about-us-4
Corresponding author and Contact: Dr Gabriella Alberti
g.alberti@leeds.ac.uk
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Contents
Summary ................................................................................................ 4
Introduction ........................................................................................... 5
The new landscape of migration regulation in the UK and the fault
lines exposed by COVID-19 .................................................................. 7
The vexed questions of salary thresholds and the shortage
occupation list ..................................................................................... 10
Shifting perceptions of jobs with high public value?...................... 12
Transnational labour mobility on the front line of the COVID-19
pandemic .............................................................................................. 15
Conclusions ........................................................................ 17
References .......................................................................... 19
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Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic is having profound effects on work and employment across
the world. The pandemic has led to emergency measures restricting travel that creating
a new, albeit temporary, regulation of migration, with more than 200countries
implementing coronavirus-related restrictions on border entries, and with 93 per cent
of the world’s population living in countries where restrictions have been imposed In
the UK, the COVID-19 crisis has brought into even sharper relief the crisis of labour
mobility that was triggered by the UK Exit from the European Union. A new post-Brexit
points-based system of migration has been proposed by the government, which will
have significant impacts on migration flows, and on those groups of migrants who will
be able to work in the UK.
This briefing looks in more detail proposed post-Brexit immigration regime in the UK.
It highlights the contradictions between the restrictions on free movement in the
proposals, and employers’ labour needs in particular sectors. The briefing highlights
how these contradictions have been amplified even more by the coronavirus
pandemic. The briefing looks in detail at the points-based system, considering the
proposals around qualifications, shortage occupations, post-Brexit salary thresholds,
and possible exemptions. The briefing concludes with reflections on whether the
coronavirus crisis is likely to lead to a shift in perceptions about the value of particular
jobs, and whether this may have any impact on regulation of migration in the post-
Brexit era.
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Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic is having profound effects on work and employment across
the world. Data from the International Labour Organisation have shown that by the
start of April 2020, 4 out of 5 workers, out of a total workforce of 3.3 billion globally,
have had their workplaces partially or totally closed as a result of the coronavirus
pandemic. Lockdowns and restrictions on daily life have led many firms to make staff
redundant, or to lay them off temporarily.
The impact of coronavirus on global mobility and migration flows is also unprecedented
in the post World-War II era. The pandemic has led to an urgent re-assessment of the
regulation of migration, with more than 200 countries implementing coronavirus-related
restrictions on border entries, and with 7.3 billion people (93 per cent of the world’s
population) living in countries where there are restrictions on travel (Shoichet, 2020).
These restrictions include migration for economic reasons, and with movement within
countries for work also being stopped or severely curtailed.
In the UK, the COVID-19 crisis has brought into even sharper relief the crisis of labour
mobility that was triggered by the UK Exit from the European Union. It has raised
crucial questions over whether UK government should seek to extend the transition
period beyond December 31st 2020, with bodies including the International Monetary
Fund calling for the UK to be flexible over the Brexit transition deadline in order to avoid
inflicting a double pain for UK economy from the coronavirus crisis and Brexit (Islam,
2020).
Even more fundamentally the crisis has also brought into focus the importance of the
role of the state in the management of international mobility. The coronavirus pandemic
may present opportunities to re-think the ways governments intervene to regulate
migration. The categorisation of some jobs as ‘essential’ by governments for example,
has stimulated a broader debate about the value of particular occupations: which jobs
are seen to be vital to protect public health and allow for the essential services needed
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in our communities at a time of crisis, how are these valued materially and what is the
role of migrant workers in fulfilling these roles? In the UK, some of the jobs that are
now defined as essential for example elements of healthcare work, the provision of
food and necessary goods, transport (see Cabinet Office and Department for
Education 2020)- are among those considered to be of low-skill and value to the UK
under the post-Brexit Points Based system. These are also the very jobs where
migrant workers are over-represented and have long played a vital role.
At the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change (CERIC) at Leeds
University Business School, since the EU referendum in 2016, we have been
researching what the end of free movement will look like under the new post-Brexit
immigration system. We have examined the Government’s various, and evolving
proposals for new immigration rules, as well as reports published by the government’s
Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). We have looked at commentaries and position
papers by trade unions, employer bodies, migrant advisory support groups and other
stakeholders, and have held our own stakeholder events to gather views on Brexit and
migration. We have also analysed secondary data and looked within particular sectors
to explore the likely effects of the new immigration regime in particular areas.
Critically, the MAC reports of the past 2 years include an in-depth, predominantly
economic analysis of the different sectors and occupations according to their economic
and public value, and their relative reliance on EU and European Economic Area (EEA)
migrant workers in particular, and migrants in general. The COVID-19 crisis merits an
examination of sectors of high public value with new eyes.
In this briefing we begin by looking at the proposed post-Brexit immigration regime in
the UK, highlighting the contradictions between the restrictions on free movement in
the proposals, and employers’ labour needs in particular sectors. We highlight how
these contradictions have been amplified even more by the coronavirus pandemic. We
then move on to consider the proposed Points-Based System of immigration in more
detail and look at the ongoing debate over post-Brexit salary thresholds for migrants.
We then look briefly at the case examples of the healthcare and agriculture sectors.
We conclude by reflecting on whether the coronavirus crisis is likely to lead to a shift
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in perceptions about the value of particular jobs, and whether this may have any impact
on regulation of migration in the post-Brexit era.
The new landscape of migration regulation in the UK and the
fault lines exposed by COVID-19
In April 2020, the UK Government published guidance (UK Visas and Immigration,
2020) on the implementation of the new Points-Based System for immigration. This
points-based approach will replace the current ‘Tier system’, and bring all categories
of migrants, including EU nationals, under the same migration regime. The end of free
movement rights for EU workers is planned for the 1st of January 2021, although the
practical application of the new rules will not apply to EU nationals who are already
based in the UK by 31 December 2020. This includes those who will be able to apply
(together with their family members) to the EU Settlement Scheme until 30 June 2021
1
.
The most recent government data available (Sturge and Hawkins, 2020), indicate that
by the end of March 2020, 3.4 million applications had been made to the EU Settlement
Scheme. Nearly 3.15 million of these cases had been concluded (1.8 million have been
given settled status and 1.3 million pre-settled status). Whilst this suggests that the
scheme has been relatively successful in terms of registering EU citizens in the UK,
there is likely to be significant double counting in these figures. Furthermore, it has also
been stressed that the limited timescale of the scheme, and the numbers of EU citizens
in the UK would result in some of those eligible missing the registration deadline
(Migration Observatory, 2020; O’Carroll, 2020).Moreover, according to an interview our
research team conducted with the head of a social enterprise involved in helping EU
migrants to register with the scheme, the process of applications has been especially
difficult for those citizens with rudimentary IT skills and those with low English language
1
Until the same date, employers are expected to accept the passport or ID cards of the EU
national as a proof of their right to work in the UK.
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proficiency, leading to some potentially serious misunderstandings. For example,
some citizens eligible for settled status (given to those who have been in the UK for
more than 5 years) have applied for pre-settled status which would put them in a
potentially disadvantaged position should they seek to settle longer-term in the UK.
Furthermore, much of the local level support that was in place for EU citizens is likely
to have come to a halt, or been significantly reduced as a result of social distancing
measures (Home Office, 2020)
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, there was already widespread criticism of the
proposed new points-based system. Employer associations and business advocacy
organisations argued that the underlying approach of seeking to attract ‘the brightest
and the best’ was outdated and failed to reflect the realities of the UK labour market
and employer ‘low-road’ strategies to competitiveness. A House of Commons review
of responses to the proposals for a points-based system (Pepin, Holland and Gower,
2020) revealed particular concerns around the acute labour shortages that would
result in some sectors, should the proposals go ahead in their current form. Responses
also argue for a lowering of the salary and skills thresholds.
The coronavirus pandemic has further exposed the fault lines in this points-based
system. Under the new Points-Based system, EU and non-EU nationals will be brought
under the same regulatory framework for migration. In addition, the new policy requires
a sponsor (an employer) for all occupations before moving to the UK, a job offer at the
“required skill level” (RQF 3 - A Level and equivalent or above) and a required level of
English language. The first two of these compulsory elements are ‘worth’ 20 points
each, while English language proficiency carries 10 points. Applicant will need to
collect a minimum of 70 points including other non- compulsory but “tradable”
characteristics, which range from: the level of salary (which in every cases cannot go
below £20,480; whether the job falls under the shortage occupation list (currently this
includes 24 occupations in health and education but will be reviewed by the MAC, and
there will still be a special scheme for farm workers); and type and level of educational
qualifications (with higher level STEM qualification particularly favoured).
The bottom line is that the new system regulating migrants’ entry in the UK does not
include a channel for so called “low skilled” workers, and only allows entry in
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exceptional circumstances workers classified by the MAC under a shortage occupation
list . In other words the current system does not envisage any specific entry route into
the country for the likes of whom have been so essential to the front line of the
coronavirus pandemic, including delivery drivers, supermarket workers, home-care
assistants, hospital porters and cleaners (Child, 2020). Migrant workers are over-
represented in many of these sectors and occupations. The transport sector, for
example, employed 10 per cent of workers from new EU member states, compared to
5 per cent of UK workers. Food preparation is the occupation with the third highest
proportion of EU workers, at 13 per cent, whilst drivers are the occupation with the fifth
highest concentration (Fernandez-Reino and Rienzo, 2019)
The capacity to retain EU workers in these sectors will depend on the effective
functioning of the EU settlement scheme and the capacity and willingness of migrant
workers to regularise themselves through this scheme. Many EU citizens in the UK
have already made alternative choices: to go back home or leave the UK for another
EU member state where they can still enjoy free movement. According to the latest
quarterly report on migration from the Office for National Statistics (ONS, 2020), whilst
overall net migration to the UK increased by 240,000 in the 12 months ending
September 2019, EU net migration fell by 64,000 (with the number of EU migrants
arriving in the year to September 2019 being 196,000 and the number leaving being
133,000). In terms of migration for work specifically the ONS note that “following a
peak of 190,000 in the year ending June 2016, the number of EU citizens arriving for
work has fallen to 79,000, the lowest level since 2004(ONS, 2020). Current virus-
induced shortages of labour, resulting from workers becoming ill with the virus, and
from the increased demand for labour in some sectors are likely to have been
exacerbated by EU workers leaving the UK in large numbers since the referendum
results. There are also significant numbers returning to EU home countries from the
UK or unable to move from their country of origin as lockdown and travel restrictions
have been put in place.
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The vexed questions of salary thresholds and the shortage
occupation list
Defining the salary threshold for the new immigration system has been one of the most
controversial aspects during the different rounds of the government’s consultation of
stakeholders on the post-Brexit immigration rules. It was also highlighted in the two
Roundtables on Brexit and Labour Mobility that we conducted at CERIC researchers
in 2018 and 2019 with representatives from labour, business and civil society
organizations. (see for example, Alberti et al, 2018).
Most of the employer representatives of sectors considered to be low-skilled have been
highly critical of the initial recommendation of a proposal of a salary threshold of
£30,000 (MAC, 2018), considering it ‘unrealistic’. Employers in sectors including
hospitality, social care and food manufacturing denounced the proposal pointing to the
massive shortages that this threshold would generate for their businesses. Whilst the
argument of the MAC was that it was seeking to avoid wage undercutting, employers
argued that they were unwilling and unable to pay higher wages. Furthermore, trades
unions and charities supporting precariously employed migrants expressed their
concerns about the counterproductive nature of such thresholds. The most recent MAC
report shows that even the trade union umbrella organization, the TUC, pointed to the
contradictory effects of setting such a high salary threshold in a post- free movement
scenario. They further expressed a preference for the continuation of free movement,
highlighting that such thresholds could make migrant employees more dependent to
employers and therefore at greater risk of exploitation (MAC, 2020). The Government
response to these critiques was that employers can choose to up-skill existing ‘home’
workers or invest in new technologies that limit the need for migrant labour.
The latest MAC report proposes a salary threshold of £25,600 and can therefore be
considered a compromise by the Home Office, following the criticism of employers and
other stakeholders. At the same time, the various elements of ‘tradability’ in the system,
such as higher qualifications traded against a lower salary threshold, indicates a much
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more flexible system and potentially provides a backdoor for employers who cannot or
simply do not intend to stop their reliance on hiring migrant labour on lower wages than
those prescribed by the policy. For instance, those earning between £20,480 and
£23,039 will, under the latest proposals, get zero points for salary, but will be able to
reach 70 points by using other characteristics. Those earning between £23,040 and
£25,599 will still obtain 10 points, making the £23,040 the real minimum salary outside
of shortage occupation list, and £20,480 the absolute minimum salary.
One strategic response by the government would be to lower the salary threshold if a
migrant’s job is among the Shortage Occupation List. In this sense the government
did not really follow the MAC’s (2020) recommendations, arguing at various points the
need not to create exceptions on the basis of a Shortage Occupation List, precisely to
avoid a pressure on wages in those areas considered the most valuable in terms of
their social and economic functions. Their final recommendation was indeed that
“Occupations on the Shortage Occupation List should not lower salary thresholds on
entry”, further arguing that “Instead of solving skills shortages by improving the offer to
attract workers into the occupation, this would have the opposite effect of perpetuating
or even exacerbating the shortages. This would have distortionary impacts across the
labour market where some sectors are disincentivised to make pay or conditions more
attractive” (MAC, 2020: 149).
Some have argued that in a number of respects the proposed new system is more
‘liberal’ than the previous Tier system, as rules will be in fact partly “relaxed” for
migration from outside the EU (Portes, 2020). Indeed the new Points-Based system
combines some elements of de-regulation (lowering the skills threshold down from
RQF6 to RQF3; eliminating the cap on the number of people who can come on the
skilled worker route; and removing the resident labour market test). However, as
Portes notes, these are accompanied by a much tougher migration regime for all
migrant categories, with the requirement of a sponsored job offer for all ‘tiers’ and the
need to show specific skills routinely assessed by the MAC. In addition, of course,
there is the new restriction imposed now on a much larger group of migrant workers
including those from within the EU who are losing their free movement rights.
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In light of the COVID-19 crisis and given the areas of work where migrant workers are
concentrated, a critical area of policy intervention will be the definition of the Shortage
Occupation list. It is not clear yet what jobs will be included in this list, with latest
government advice indicating that the list will be expanded, and that this will be based
on already published advice from the MAC (UK Visas and Immigration, 2020). The
MAC has already warned that it is inadvisable to carry out the review of the Shortage
Occupation list yet, because the effects of the end of free movement still need tile to
be visible once free movement has ended (MAC 2020: 267). In the interim, the
government concludes that allocating extra points for occupations that
the MAC determines to be in shortage in the UK will provide immediate temporary
relief for shortage areas, making it easier to recruit migrants. However, we expect
employers to take other measures to address shortages and the MAC will look at this
when they review whether an occupation is still in shortage”. (Home Office and UK
Visas and Immigration, 2020: point 8.
Shifting perceptions of jobs with high public value?
Returning now to the question of the exceptions to the salary threshold, in the light of
the COVID-19 crisis, will government views about jobs that are to be considered of
high public value alter? The government has already stated (prior to the pandemic)
that certain occupations will be exempt from the new migration salary threshold and
will be rather based on published pay scales, noting: “We will set the requirements for
new entrants 30% lower than the rate for experienced workers in any occupation and
only use the base salary (and not the allowances or pension contributions) to determine
whether the salary threshold is met” (Home Office and UK Visas and Immigration,
2020: point 4). Among the sectors that will follow these pay scales are the NHS and
schools, currently in the front line in the fight against the virus and/or supporting key
workers during the pandemic. However, social care and domiciliary care, food
processing, delivery and cleaning, also of vital importance under the virus-imposed
lockdown, are currently left out and remain among those who are set to be affected
hugely, even with the lower salary threshold, as they have historically relied on low-
paid labour from within and outside Europe.
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The UK Government’s own economic appraisal of its proposals for a skills-based
immigration system (Home Office, 2018) is a good starting point to identify perceptions
and government definition of what is considered an essential sector. Even though the
report was published under the previous (Theresa May) government, it is this analysis
which has been mostly incorporated in the 2020 MAC report and has been used as the
evidence base for the current Points-Based System.
The policy paper develops a classification of all jobs according to the skill level, the
potential scope of adjustment of the occupation to labour market change, and whether
the occupation is of high wage or high public value. Particularly important to the new
immigration regime are those skilled occupations “which-have high economic or public
value, have been heavily reliant on long-term EEA migrant labour and may find
adjustment to labour market changes difficult. Examples include teaching
professionals and nurses and midwives.” (Home Office, 2018: 139) Agricultural
occupations are included in the difficult to adjust’ category but are not among those
that are seen to provide a high contribution to public services. Indeed this 2018 Home
Office classification appears to be at odds with those groups that are understood as
“essential sectors or key workers” during the current coronavirus pandemic.
Another group defined in the Policy paper are “lower-skilled occupations facing labour
market adjustment difficulties and of high relative value” (Home Office, 2018: 142). The
Policy Paper notes that 55 per cent of EEA migrants work in occupations at a skill level
below RQF3, and thus would not be eligible for the skilled workers’ route. Figure 12
from the report, reproduced below as Figure 1, identifies many of so-called ‘low skill’
occupations where employers in the UK are heavily reliant on this labour, and/or where
the occupation is seen to be of high public value. Carers (including childcare);
construction and building trade supervisors, and skilled metal trade supervisors are
recognised as having high public value. Road transport drivers are positioned as an
occupation facing difficulties of adjustments and where employers are heavily reliant
on labour from the EEA, rather than being seen as having high public value. ‘Other
drivers and transport operatives’ are however, seen as having high public value.
Process plants occupations (including food processing and packaging) are not
included in the high public value, rather they are simply recognised as being sectors
where there is a heavy reliance on migrant labour. Similarly, food preparation
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occupations are considered as ones that will find it difficult to adjust to sudden changes
in labour market conditions, and where there is a reliance of employers on migrant
labour but are not seen as having a high public value.
Figure 1: Low Skill Occupations and their perceived public value in the Home
Office Policy Paper on a Future Skills Based Immigration System, 2018
While some perceptions about the public or social values of these occupations might
have already been shifted in light of the coronavirus crisis, the fundamental separation
in the proposed points-based system between highly or medium skilled on the one
hand, and the lower skilled on the other is stark. This distinction reflects the persistent
assumption by the Government of the greater economic and fiscal impact of higher
skilled workers to the national economy and the continued need to “attract the brightest
and the best”.
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Transnational labour mobility on the front line of the COVID-
19 pandemic
Evidence suggests that the sectors that have been mostly affected by a ‘Brexodus’ are
also those that are most acutely in need of labour during the current coronavirus
pandemic. Here, we focus briefly on two sectors, health, and agriculture.
Health workers
As the powerful, moving and arresting images of nurses, doctors and other healthcare
workers in the media have shown over recent weeks, a significant proportion of the
NHS and private care workforce are migrant workers. This is borne out by official
statistics. In 2018, 12 per cent of the 1.8 million strong healthcare workforce in the UK
were non-UK nationals (ONS, 2019), whilst according to data from Skills for Care
(2020) one in six of the 840,000 care workers in England were non-UK nationals. The
pressing need of the NHS for healthcare workers during the pandemic has certainly
not been helped by the large outflow of migrant workers since the EU referendum.
Data collected by the Royal College of Nursing indicates a steep fall in the workforce
from the EU, with a total of 3,962 Nursing and Midwifery Council registered staff from
EEA countries leaving the Council between 2017 and 2018 (Campbell, 2018).
According to more recent data (but not focusing on migration specifically), the number
of nurses and health workers leaving the NHS increased by 25 per cent from 2012 to
2018, from 27,300 to 34,100 (Nuffield Trust, 2019). The same report reports a drop in
EEA doctors. Whilst there has been a surge in non-EEA migrants working in the UK,
there were many unfilled healthcare vacancies before the pandemic, with levels
unsuitable for the current demand. In December 2019, for example there were 25,573
FTE vacancies in the NHS alone (NHS Digital, 2020). There have already been calls
for a rethink of the proposed migration system to ensure that care workers are not
classified as low skilled (Sylvester, 2020). According to one report, Liz Kendall, the
new shadow social care minister, has already written to the Health Secretary,
requesting a fast-track visa regime to be created for care workers, noting: ‘The whole
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world has changed as a result of the coronavirus crisis…It beggars belief that this
policy will not change as well.” (Sylvester, 2020).
Agriculture
The maintenance of food supplies has featured prominently in the COVID-19 pandemic
in the UK, with shortages of key products, slow responding supply chains, and urgent
requests for labour all being highlighted. With the social isolation of vulnerable
categories of citizens, and with barriers to charities and food banks to operate normally,
exceptional measures may still need to be taken to allow for the necessary mobility to
maintain food supply chains.
Agricultural workers in particular, whilst often paid low wages and engaged in highly
precarious and demanding seasonal work, are categorised by the MAC report (2018)
as high and medium skilled. Indeed, the coronavirus pandemic has revealed just how
difficult it is to recruit labour to this sector, now that UK borders are (partly) closed and
airlines have shut down large parts of their daily operations. There have also been
challenges in “convertingBritish volunteers into efficient pickers of fruit and vegetables.
Those that have signed up to the Feed the Nation/Pick for Britain initiative include many
students, laid off and furloughed workers, most of whom had little or no previous
experience in the agricultural sector. According to one report, whilst 32,000 signed up
for the Pick for Britain initiative, only 13,000 (32 per cent) have so far turned up for
online interviews (The Economist, 2020). Whilst the recruitment of EU migrants from
such countries as Romania appears to be extremely complicated during the health
crisis these workers have to go through health checks and need to be placed in the
temporary quarantine - there are indications amongst some in the agriculture industry
that they are still preferred to British workers.
The sector is therefore facing a double crisis of drying supply because of Brexit, and
new physical border impediments to seasonal migration. According to one recent
report there is currently a shortage of 80,000 workers in the agricultural sector for fruits
and vegetable picking, despite 10,000 people signing up to work at more than 500
farms across the country as part of the new 'Feed the Nation' campaign (Farming UK,
2020). Some specialist labour providers such as Concordia, plan to charter planes to
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bring workers in, highlighting the continued if not greater - importance of labour
brokers and intermediaries, in transnational labour mobility despite the end of free
movement.
Conclusions
The COVID-19 crisis has brought into even sharper relief the “crisis of labour mobility”
that the UK Exit from the EU had already triggered, together with the growing
importance of the role and intervention of the state both in the economy and in the
management of international mobility. More specifically, it has raised questions over
whether UK government should seek to extend for one more year the Brexit transition
period in order to avoid inflicting a double pain for UK economy from the coronavirus
crisis and Brexit.
The sudden suspension of free movement within the EU and across the world has
been the only possible response to the crisis, with borders being shut to save lives. At
the same time, the continued mobility of workers is critical in the very sectors that
sustain the response to the crisis, such as health care, agriculture, food processing
and food retail, transportation and delivery.
Looking at the proposed re-regulation of labour mobility post-Brexit for employers and
workers, and our ongoing work in CERIC to understand the responses of stakeholders,
the current crisis has brought to the fore the relevance of many of these same sectors
in terms of their relative ‘vulnerability’ in the Brexit context. Health and nursing, social
care and elderly care, food delivery, food manufacturing, and agriculture are all sectors
highlighted by unions, employers and other stakeholders as critical, and ones which
will face significant challenges under the proposed new points-based system of
immigration. Many of these sectors have been identified as having high economic or
social value by the government in their economic analysis and shaping of the new
migration system post-Brexit. Their value has become even more evident during the
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current health and socio-economic crisis under the effects of the lockdown. Significant
numbers of key workers employed in these sectors would not be eligible to come to
the UK if the proposed earnings thresholds and shortage occupation lists are in place.
Will the COVID-19 crisis lead to a re-think by policy makers in their approach to post-
Brexit migration regulation? Will perceptions of the value of particular occupations
move beyond narrow economic modelling and salary threshold criteria? Does the
current crisis offer a new terrain for migrant workers themselves to show their ‘value’,
not only to the economy but for society at large and to bargain for better conditions
beyond statutory and employer-controlled salary thresholds?
It seems to us that even in the field of migrant labour the pandemic opens up opposite
scenarios, between utilitarian and draconian approaches focused on state self-
sufficiency and enclosures on the hand, and the recognition of the inevitable
interconnectedness of our lives, mobilities, care and survival in a world that cannot
travel back from globalisation.
Further Information
This report is based on an ongoing wider programme of research undertaken within
CERIC on migration. If you would like to comment on the issues covered in this report,
or be involved in future events around migration, please contact:
Dr Gabriella Alberti
Email: g.alberti@leeds.ac.uk
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... In the new 'point-based immigration system' the rules (applied to both EU and non-EU workers) include: the requirement of employer sponsorship, a minimum salary of £25,600 (with exceptions set out by the Government's shortage occupation list [SOL]), and an English language test (Home Office, 2020). These proposals were expected to (Teague and Donaghey, 2018) and are in fact creating, considerable recruitment challenges in sectors reliant on migrant workers in jobs paid below the salary threshold (Alberti et al., 2020). 1 Even before the new rules came into force, net migration began to fall after the Referendum in 2016, registering a steep decline from the end of 2019 and into 2020 (Migration Observatory, 2022). Furthermore, during the shock of Covid-19, around one and half a million of non-UK workers are believed to have left the country (Portes & Connor, 2021;The Guardian, 2021). ...
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The end of free movement of labour from the European Union represents an unprecedented form of re‐regulation of the UK labour market. This study explores how old and new actors engage with the sphere of migration, arguing that not only their economic interests but also different political agendas and meanings of regulation shape dialogue on migration regulation post‐Brexit. Our findings suggest moving away from a unilateral, positive view of regulation in work and employment as well as to overcome any artificial distinction between the economic and the social implications of international migration.
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After 1993, the Czech Republic became the target of Ukrainian migrants thanks to its economic development. The migration policy was then set in 2004 and this new political action made Ukrainian migration more controlled and vulnerable. At the same time, non-qualified or low-qualified migrants became the most important workforce. After the economic crisis in 2008, the Czech Republic aspired to receive highly qualified (and low-qualified “important”) migrants, and no suitable dispositions were created for nonqualified migrants. Following this trend, mobility was hindered overall by the epidemic of COVID-19 in 2020. In accordance with this situation, a new restrictionist policy was introduced by the Czech government; however, it did not have an impact on “lowering” immigration. The epidemic of COVID-19 also triggered “changes” for Ukrainian migrants on the job market, and this became an opportunity for non qualified migrants.
Article
Full-text available
After 1993, the Czech Republic became the target of Ukrainian migrants thanks to its economic development. The migration policy was then set in 2004 and this new political action made Ukrainian migration more controlled and vulnerable. At the same time, non-qualified or low-qualified migrants became the most important workforce. After the economic crisis in 2008, the Czech Republic aspired to receive highly qualified (and low-qualified "important") migrants, and no suitable dispositions were created for non-qualified migrants. Following this trend, mobility was hindered overall by the epidemic of COVID-19 in 2020. In accordance with this situation, a new restrictionist policy was introduced by the Czech government; however, it did not have an impact on "lowering" immigration. The epidemic of COVID-19 also triggered "changes" for Ukrainian migrants on the job market, and this became an opportunity for non-qualified migrants. Ukrajinská imigrace do českých zemí je svým způsobem tradiční. Probíhala již na počátku 20. století (Zilynskyj 2002) a je tak dlouhodobějšího rázu, ale poměrně razantní početní nárůst ukrajinských migrantů můžeme vysledovat * Autor by rád na tomto místě poděkoval oběma anonymním recenzentům za jejich věcné připomínky, které vedly k vyšší kvalitě článku. L I D É M Ě S T A | U R B A N P E O P L E | 2 3 | 2 0 2 1 | 3
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