Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration, and Public Policy

Labor immigration is one of the most controversial policy issues in high-income countries. Employers often claim that migrants are "needed" to fill "skills shortages" and "to do the jobs that locals will not do". Sceptics respond that this reflects a preference for exploitable migrant workers over improving wages and employment conditions. This book provides, for the first time, a framework for analyzing shortages, immigration and public policy in a balanced way. It shows how a wide range of different government policies help create demand for migrant workers that often persists during the economic downturn. It includes quantitative and qualitative analyses of the changing role of migrants in key sectors of the UK economy. The empirical chapters include quantitative analysis of the changing role of migrant workers, and in-depth examinations of demand for migrant workers in six sectors: health; social care; hospitality; food production; construction; and financial services. The research in this book has had a major impact on policy development in the UK, while its conceptual framework and findings are highly relevant to debates about shortages and immigration policy in all high-income countries. The book concludes with a comparative analysis of research and policy approaches to assessing labor shortages with a particular focus on the potential lessons of the UK's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), whose work has been heavily influenced by the research for this book, for current debates about immigration reform in the US. It will be of interest to policy-makers, stakeholders, academics and students.

Martin Ruhs is Senior Economist at the Centre on Migration, Policy & Society (COMPAS)at the University of Oxford.

Bridget Anderson is Senior Researcher at the Centre on Migration, Policy & Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford.

1. Introduction, Martin Ruhs and Bridget Anderson
2. Migrant workers: who needs them? A framework for the analysis of shortages, immigration, and public policy, Martin Ruhs and Bridget Anderson
Commentary by Ken Mayhew
3. The changing shares of migrant labour in different sectors and occupation in the UK economy: An overview, Vanna Aldin, Dan James and Jonathan Wadsworth
4. Achieving a self-sufficient workforce? The utilization of migrant labour in healthcare, Stephen Bach
Commentary by Robert Elliott
5. Competing with myths: migrant labour in social care, Jo Moriarty
Commentary by Alessio Cangiano
6. The use of migrant labour in the hospitality sector: current and future implications, Rosemary Lucas and Steven Mansfield
Commentary by Linda McDowell
7. UK food businesses' reliance on low-wage migrant labour: A case of choice or constraint?, Andrew Geddes and Sam Scott
Commentary by Ben Rogaly
8. The dynamics of migrant employment in construction: Can supply of skilled labour ever match demand?, Paul Chan, Linda Clarke and Andy Dainty
Commentary by Howard Gospel
9. Immigration and the UK labour market in financial services: A case of conflicting policy challenges?, Andrew Jones
Commentary by Jonathan Beaverstock
10. A need for migrant labour? UK-US comparisons, Philip Martin