Is Money Always Most Important? Polish Construction Sector Workers in Ireland After The

Is money always most important? Polish construction sector workers in Ireland after the Celtic Tiger.

AlicjaBobek, Sally Daly, TorbenKrings, Elaine Moriarty, JustynaSalamonska and James Wickham

31st International Labour Process Conference

Rutgers University 18-20 March 2013

(full paper)

Learning from Poland Project

Department of Sociology

TrinityCollegeDublin

Email:

Alicja Bobek:

Sally Daly:

TorbenKrings:

Elaine Moriarty:

Justyna Salamonska:

James Wickham:

Abstract

This paper presents data from a longitudinal study on group of Polish migrants in Ireland as an exemplification of migration and employment in construction sector. The first part of the paper provides an overview of the theoretical context of this phenomenon and the relation between construction industry and migrant workers. The remaining part focuses on the analysis of data collected through interviews that were collected as part of a Qualitative Panel Study on a group of young Poles living in the Greater Dublin Area. We argue that, unlike ‘traditional’ migrants working on European construction sites as manual labourers, the motivation for migration was much more complex in case of the QPS participants. Finally, through the analyses of the interviews conducted during the recession, we argue that not all migrants leave at the time of an economic crisis and those who stay adopt a variety of strategies that help them survive in the host country.

Introduction

Europe has now a strong tradition of employing migrant workers in the construction sector. After the Second World War countries in this region gradually started to import workforce from abroad, by either reaching out to their former colonies or by introducing guest workers programmes for migrants from less developed regions in Europe and beyond. This industry has also attracted irregular migrants who were willing to accept worse employment condition and wages. Traditionally these migrants are perceived as ‘target earners’ whose centre of interest remains ‘back at home’ and thus they are mainly interested in the financial aspect of their experience abroad. This paper, however, raise a question of whether the money are always of the most importance for migrant workers. By using the example of young Polish migrants working as unskilled workers and as professionals in the Irish construction sector we will argue that some of them had other than economic reasons for migrating and also decided then to stay in Ireland during the recession due to the better ‘lifestyle’ conditions.

Unlike most of the EU15 countries, Ireland experienced boom in the construction only recently. The peak in this sector coincided with one of the most significant EU Enlargements of 2004 that included eight of the post-socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe. One of them was Poland, country of almost 40 million population, high levels of unemployment and lower wages when compared to those available in most of the EU15 countries. At that time Ireland, facing both, labour and skills shortages, was one of the three countries that opened their labour markets to New Member States citizens. As a result, it also became a very popular destination for those who decided to leave Poland and seek better employment opportunities abroad. Large proportion of these found jobs in construction as both, higher and lower skilled. In addition to the availability of employment, Irish construction sector also offered relatively high earnings at all levels of the occupational structure. It could be thus argued that this movement was yet another example of labour migration. As it will be further argued in this paper, however, the economic factor was not always the most important for some Polish migrants coming to Ireland after the 2004 Enlargement and other reasons, such as life experience, started to play a crucial role in making a decision about moving abroad.

Furthermore, by the year 2008, however, Ireland was strongly hit by the financial crisis and construction was the industry that was severely affected by this crisis and consequently employment in this sector fell dramatically. As the good times were over, Poles became a group who was perceived as those who will ‘go back home’ (or move somewhere else), especially given the fact that Polish economy, contrary to Ireland, was improving. While this was the case of many, there is also statistical evidence proving that a large proportion of Polish migrants in Ireland stayed in this country despite the recession, adopting different strategies in order to survive these harsh times. This could also lead to a question whether the original economic motivations to leave Poland remained unchanged after spending certain period of time in Ireland.

Data presented in this paper was collected through the Qualitative Panel Study that involved a relatively small sample of Polish migrants living in the Greater Dublin Area and working in four particular sectors: construction, hospitality, finance and IT. The individuals selected from the construction sector worked as both lower skilled (including manual labourers) and higher skilled positions (such as architects and engineers). What needs to be emphasised is that most of them had a relatively good education and were coming from a more ‘privileged’ background. They were all young and, to a certain extent, had different characteristics of the ‘traditional’ Polish migrants from the early 1990s and the early 2000s. One of the reasons for such sampling selection was to give more attention to this type of young, well-educated migrants from Poland who became a part of the post-2004 migration cohort. Further on, this allowed us to discover new patterns emerging in this migratory process and to draw attention to those who did not fit to a stereotypical model of migrants from Central and Eastern Europe who have worked in the EU15.

All participants were interviewed several times over a period of two years. As the project started just after the recession and continued through the times of economic crisis, it became possible to observe change in participants’ employment situation as well as their motivation to either stay or leave Ireland. All of the participants remained throughout the duration of the project, regardless of their location. Furthermore, the analysis will also include interviews with employers and recruitment agents who dealt directly with the construction sector.

After presenting the theoretical overview of migration and construction sector the paper will then explore the specific issue of Polish migrants entering the construction sector in Ireland. This part of the paper will examine a variety of migrants’ mobility to move as well as their employment situation after the arrival. Finally, the discussion will include the analysis of change in individuals’ motivations for further mobility (or lack of it) as well as the strategies that migrants undertake during the economic crisis.

Theoretical framework

Migrants who move to another country for the purpose of employment are usually classified as labour migrants. It is then assumed that economic factors are the most important in making the decision about the relocation. Very few scholars currently explore other factors such as lifestyle or quality of life influencing the individuals in relation to the international movements. Furthermore, this so-called lifestyle migration is mainly analysed in the Western European context and focuses on middle class, affluent migrants. As argued by Kurekova (2010), the EU East to West movements, on the other hand, is often examined in the light of neo-classical approach that assumes that people move to countries with better economic situation and financial benefits are of the most importance (Arango, 2000; Stark, 1991; Stark and Bloom, 1985). This represents the classical ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors model, where people move between countries based on the ‘objective’ factors that may include unemployment rates or wage differentials (Piore, 1979).

Furthermore, migrants from the New Member States, including the post-accession Polish migrants in the UK and Ireland, are often presented as ‘target earners’, whose main goal is to accumulate financial capital and who are also willing to accept employment below their qualifications (Currie, 2007; Cook et al, 2009; Datta et al., 2007; Fihel and Kaczmarczyk, 2009; Fitzgerald, 2007; Janta, 2009; MacKenzie and Ford, 2009; Morawska, 2001). This corresponds with the Dual Labour Market approach that assumes that migrants are located outside of the host country social structure and their main centre of interest remains in their home countries (Piore, 1979). It could be further argued that highly-develop countries can be characterised by segmented labour markets with jobs in lower positions that can be characterised as ‘3D’ jobs (Dickens and Lang, 1988). These jobs are not attractive for the members of indigenous workforce not only because of the low financial incentives but also because the inferior social status that these jobs can offer. Migrants, on the other do not focus on their social standings in the host country. Their main goal, on the contrary, is to improve or maintain their position in the sending country and this can be achieved by accumulating maximum financial capital available during their stay abroad (Piore, 1979). In addition, legal status of these migrants is often irregular, and in such case working in the secondary sector of the host country labour market becomes their only option. They often get ‘stuck’ at the bottom with little possibilities of vertical or horizontal mobility.

Another framework frequently adopted by those analysing migration from the post-communist Poland is the New Economics of Labour Migration. According to this theory the decision about finding employment abroad is not made on the individual level, but it is rather family as a unit that ‘delegates’ one member of household to move to another country(Stark and Bloom, 1985; Stark, 1991). Migrants then are more likely to be involved in circular movements and act as ‘people on a swing’ (Okolski, 2001). Yet again, their main centre of interest remains back at home and the focus is the accumulation of the financial capital.

Finally, what is often emphasised in the relevant literature is the role of social networks in these migration processes. Unlike studies of highly-skilled migrants that examine the role of human capital in the international movements of individuals, those analysing large movements from poorer to richer countries tend to focus on social capital (Portes, 1995; Massay, 1990). Migrant networks can act as additional pull factor in the decision making process as having relatives or acquaintances in potential destination makes the movement easier. They can be defined as ‘sets of interpersonal ties that link together migrants, former migrants, and non-migrants in origin and destination areas through the bonds of kinship, friendship and shared community of origin’ (Massey, 1990:69). These networks can compensate for the lack of skills or language competency of the newly arrived migrants. By having a membership in such network, migrant can obtain initial accommodation, secure jobs and make new social connection in the host country. As previously mentioned, these networks are usually analysed in relation to the lower-skilled migrants. The case of Polish migrants in the EU seems to be similar as studies that examine migrant networks tend to focus on those who have jobs in the secondary sector of the destination labour markets (e.g.: Grzymala-Kazlowska, 2001; Osipowicz, 2002; Gorny and Stola, 2001; Rosinska-Kordasiewicz, 2005).

While these theoretical approaches proved to be useful in many cases, this paper will argue that the situation of Polish post-accession migrants in Ireland can be, to a certain extent, different. Regardless of the initial motivations for movements, they don’t necessarily need to follow the patterns of Poles who were travelling for work within the EU in the 1990s and early 2000s. First of all, the profile of these migrants has changed as those who were coming to Ireland from 2004 onwards tended to be relatively young and well educated. Furthermore, their legal situation is also different. With the open labour market, there are more options available to them, including finding work within their professions with no work permit complications, climbing up the career ladder within their occupations or moving between different jobs and sectors. As it will be further examined, such possibilities were also offered to them within the construction industry, which is a sector that was traditionally associated with low-skilled migrants who were often deprived by working in a deregulated environment.

Migrants and the construction sector

Construction sector in Europe (and beyond) can be characterised by having a relatively high share of migrant workers. This can be explained by a number of factors including immobility of products, labour demanding work and fragmented nature of the production process. First factor relates to the fact that most of the work in this sector needs to be done on the final site. Unlike in other industries, such as for example manufacturing, production cannot be moved abroad. In such case employers need to seek other means of lowering the costs of labour and recruiting migrant workers to work on sites is one way of achieving that (Fellini, 2007). Secondly, most of the jobs in construction require physical and often dangerous work that may not be attractive for the members of the indigenous population (Ive and Grunberg, 2008). Finally, construction sector can be characterised by expanded level of subcontracting, which can be explained by a number of factors such as labour shortage, rising wage costs, rise in state impost and also the culture of the industry that is often characterised by the individualistic ethos (Winch, 1998: 534-535). Growing number of medium and small size firm also leads to higher number of migrants as such firms are more likely to employ migrants, in some cases on irregular basis (Fellini et al, 2007). Furthermore, subcontracting often involves employing foreign companies who provide their own employees, workers who are ‘posted’ to another country. This raises a number of questions, often including the violation of workers’ rights and also the extent to which the international movements of such workers is voluntary or imposed by the employer. The degree of the subcontracting varies amongst different European countries and usually depends on the level of the labour market regulations. In highly regulated countries like Denmark subcontracting is less common; in countries with more casualised workforce like the UK, Spain or Italy, such practices are more widespread. Construction sector in Ireland, on the other hand, has been regulated by the Registered Employment Agreements, yet the subcontracting and self-employment played an important role in early and mid-2000s (Bobek et al, 2008). As it will be further analysed in the following section, although the number of migrants employed in the Irish construction industry was not as high as in some other EU15 countries, it still attracted migrants and became one of the most popular employment for Polish migrants coming to this country directly after the 2004 EU enlargement. High wages in low and medium skilled jobs, the result of the REA, was a definite pull factor for many Poles migrating to that country.

The degree of the immobility is also often the case of higher skilled workers, such as architects and engineers who need to supervise or at least visit construction sites. Although they do not have to be physically involved in the process of ‘production’, their presence in the country may also be important for that reason. These professionals usually are not discussed in relation to migrants in construction. As it is their qualifications and experience that is of most importance in their case, lowering the cost of labour should not be the factor for an employer. Furthermore these jobs do not have a negative social stigma, thus there is no reason why the indigenous workers should not be interested in them. What could be an important factor, however, is a skill shortage that can occur in the host country, especially in case of a rapid boom in the industry. As it will be further discussed, Ireland experienced such shortages and back in the early 2000s there was a high demand for higher skilled construction workers, especially architects and engineers. They were thus outsourced, mainly from the non-EU countries at the begging of the boom, and then, to a large extent, from the NMS country after the labour market was opened. That relative easiness in securing the employment for those of higher skills became an important factor for young graduates who decided to leave Poland due to the lack of adequate career (and financial) opportunities in their home country.

Post-accession movements between Poland and Ireland.

The overlook of Polish and Irish economy in the early 2000s suggests that the movement between these two countries can be characterised as a labour migration. According to Eurostat, at the time of EU accession the unemployment rate in Poland was at 19 per cent compared to the 9.1 per cent EU 25 average and slightly below 4 per cent in Ireland. Furthermore, the unemployment amongst young people (25 years old and younger) was relatively high as 39.6 per cent of this age group was out of work (Rajkiewicz, 2005). Wage differentials between Poland and the EU15 were also significant. In 2004 the minimum wage in Poland was 175.25 Euros per month compared to over 1000 Euros in countries like France, Netherlands, the UK or Ireland.