Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour shortages, immigration, and public policy

Are migrant workers needed to 'do the jobs that locals will not do' or are they simply a more exploitable labour force? Do they have a better 'work ethic' or are they less able to complain? Is migrant labour the solution to 'skills shortages' or actually part of the problem? This book provides a comprehensive framework for analysing the demand for migrant workers in high-income countries. It demonstrates how a wide range of government policies, often unrelated to migration, contribute to creating a growing demand for migrant labour. This demand can persist even during economic downturns. The book includes quantitative and qualitative analyses of the changing role of migrants in the UK economy. The empirical chapters include in-depth examinations of the nature of staff shortages and the use of migrant workers in six sectors: health; social care; hospitality; food production; construction; and financial services. The book' s conceptual framework and empirical findings are of importance to academic and policy debates about labour immigration in all high-income countries. The final chapter presents a comparative analysis of research and policy approaches to assessing labour shortages in the UK and the US. It examines the potential lessons of the UK's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) for current debates about labour shortages and immigration reform in the US. The book will be of significant interest to policy-makers, stakeholders, academics and students.

1. Introduction. 2. Migrant workers: who needs them? A framework for the analysis of shortages, immigration, and public policy. Commentary by Ken Mayhew. 3. The changing shares of migrant labour in different sectors and occupation in the UK economy: An overview. 4. Achieving a self-sufficient workforce? The utilization of migrant labour in healthcare. Commentary by Robert Elliott. 5. Competing with myths: migrant labour in social care. Commentary by Alessio Cangiano. 6. The use of migrant labour in the hospitality sector: current and future implications. Commentary by Linda McDowell. 7. UK food businesses' reliance on low-wage migrant labour: A case of choice or constraint?. Commentary by Ben Rogaly. 8. The dynamics of migrant employment in construction: Can supply of skilled labour ever match demand?. Commentary by Howard Gospel. 9. Immigration and the UK labour market in financial services: A case of conflicting policy challenges?. Commentary by Jonathan Beaverstock. 10. A need for migrant labour? UK-US comparisons.

Martin Ruhs' research focuses on the economics and politics of labour immigration, with a strong international comparative dimension. Recent publications include 'Economic Research and Labour Immigration Policy' and 'Semi-compliance and illegality in migrant labour markets.' Martin is a member of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), a highly influential body of independent academic economists advising the UK government on labour immigration policy. He was Specialist Adviser to a recent House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee Inquiry into the economic impacts of immigration in the UK. He has provided migration policy analysis and advice for various national governments and international institutions including the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Bridget Anderson's research interests include low waged labour migration, legal status, and citizenship. Publications include 'Migrants and Work Related Rights' (Ethics and International Affairs 2008), and Doing the Dirty Work? The global politics of Domestic Labour (Zed Books 2000). She has worked with the Trades Union Congress, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the International Labour Organisation, and a wide range of national and international NGOs.

The volume is excellent, and the sectoral studies provide a wealth of data on the unique character of labour demand in each. The editors provide a thoughtful and careful meditation on the complexities.