How/ why are Eastern-European migrant workers vulnerable in the UK hospitality sector?

Abstract: UK hospitality sector has experienced the rapid influx of Eastern-European migrant workers especially after the EU enlargement in 2014, and they are the essential workforce for tourism industry in the UK. However, those migrants are considered as vulnerable workers as they are working under the bad condition.

Key words: migrant workers, vulnerability, tourism/ hospitality sector

Nowadays, large number of migrants have moved to the UK tourism/ hospitality sector to work as it is reported that roughly 5 million and 16 per cent of all workforce are from outside of the UK (people 1st, 2016). Further, especially after the EU enlargement in 2004, the UK experienced the rapid influx of Eastern-European migrants as the enlargement allow ‘A8 countries’ (Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic) joined European Union and migrate to the UK without restrictions. After that, in 2007, Bulgaria and Romania called ‘A2 nationals’ has newly been enabled to join to EU by the second enlargement happened,. These policies allow migrant workers from Eastern-Europe work in the UK much easier than before.

Eastern-European people prefer to work in the UK hospitality sector to that industry in their countries due to the fact that they can gain higher wage. It is showed that the average salary in Eastern-Europe is much lower than that in UK (£2083 per month) (Salary Explorer, 2019). Moreover, the jobs in hospitality sector can provide a lot of opportunities for them to contact with customers especially if they work as front-of-house staff, and it helps them to improve their linguistic ability. Further, it is stated that the shift and work patterns are permanent and flexible in this sector. Thus migrant workers can take holidays and go back to their home countries easily.

However, not only that migrant workers can take some advantages by working in the UK hospitality sector, but also they are vulnerable at their work place. First of all, they are working under the under-paid and low-paid conditions. It is reported that most of migrant workers get much less than locals or the minimum wage although it is illegal based on National Minimum Wage Act 1996 (Janta, et al., 2010). Secondly, most of migrant workers from Eastern-Europe are over qualified for their jobs. Although the hospitality industry is known as low-skilled job, mostly half of Eastern-European workers have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree and one out of five of them are involved in working holidays (Janta, et al., 2011). Even though they can get better jobs such as marketing or management that allow them to get better salary, but they do not have option of the place to work. Thirdly, sometimes they are discriminated at their work place as it is reported that sometimes they are allowed to work in only back-of-house as employer think they do not have enough language skills. Also, they are sometimes bullied from other colleagues, customers or employers because they are not natives.

It can be considered that there are some reasons why they are vulnerable as it is stated previously. Firstly, many of migrant workers do not have any certification to work or written employment contract that have legal power; it is showed that 670,000 migrants settled and worked illegally in the UK in 2007 (London School of Economics, 2009). Thus, both employers and migrant workers think that workers cannot sue employers because of their illegal working status even if they are working under the illegal condition. Besides, it is reported that many of Eastern-European migrant workers have language difficulty as they do not use English as mother tongue in their countries. Thirdly, the lack of knowledge of local labour practices can be a part of factors of their vulnerability. It does not allow them to choose appropriate jobs for them and to know their rights as a worker in the UK (Janta, 2011).

However, this illegal conditions can be improved in various ways. Firstly, migrant workers should connect with other migrants to gain information, and should know their rights as an employee in the UK. Additionally, government should force employers to treat migrant workers equally to locals, and also should provide some HRM approaches for migrant workers to reveal if they have difficulties at work. Finally, also customers in hospitality sector can give understanding for them that they are from other countries.

References
Anderson, B., Ruhs, M., Rogaly, B. and Spencer, S. (2006) Fair enough? Central and East European migrants in low-wage employment in the UK. York, UK: The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford.

Janta, H., Lugosi, P., Brown, L., Ladkin, A. (2011) Migrant Relationships and Tourism Employment. London, UK: Annals of Tourism Research.

Janta, H., Lugosi, P., Brown, L., Ladkin, A. (2011) Migrant networks, language learning and tourism employment. Poole, UK: Science Direct.

While this paper only explores the dimension of the tourism factor of the UK it is easily applicable to various destinations across the globe and thus can be seen as a general study of foreign workers. With the world becoming more and more globally connected and the current free market capitalism making mobility one of its top priorities the field of migrant workers needs to be explored more in-depth (Joppe, 2012).

The paper is logically structured, starting by show-casing the historical development that led to the influx from newly European countries to the UK. This is followed by the explanation of advantages and disadvantages for migrant workers. Finally, the author states what exactly causes their vulnerability and finishes with proposals to better the current situation.

This paper’s strongest point is the very well depicted situation of the migrant workers. However, this could be also seen as a weakness as this hinders the paper to really go beyond its descriptive nature. The work of (Irimiás and Michalkó, 2015) could have been an interesting starting point to go deeper into reasons of the precarious situations. In it the researchers describe how one of the biggest problems is the discrepancy between the information of the working environment prior to the migration and the actual circumstances. While this paper lacks the explicit mention of the upcoming Brexit its findings surely can be used to further examine and tackle the consequences that Brexit causes for the work force sector. These consequences should not only be considered from the country the migrants are possibly returning from but also their old (and new) home country (Filimonau and Mika, 2017).

To conclude, this piece displays some interesting research while not losing the main focus of the paper. It could be seen as a good starting point for some further, more in-depth examination of the migrant worker situation – a topic which surely will be of great importance in the future of the tourism industry.

Filimonau, V. and Mika, M. (2017). Return labour migration: an exploratory study of Polish migrant workers from the UK hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism, 22(3), pp.357-378.
Irimiás, A. and Michalkó, G. (2015). Hosting while being hosted: A perspective of Hungarian migrant hospitality workers in London, UK. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 16(2), pp.172-183.
Joppe, M. (2012). Migrant workers: Challenges and opportunities in addressing tourism labour shortages. Tourism Management, 33(3), pp.662-671.

The main reason I have chosen to comment on this paper is that it discusses similar aspects which I debated in my paper, where I discussed the vulnerability of migrant workers in the United Kingdom (UK) hospitality sector. Moreover, this topic concerns my personal and observed experiences regarding the exploitation of migrant workers.

The paper outlines that since the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and 2007, the hospitality sector in the UK experienced an influx of Eastern-European workers. Consequently, the characteristics of the UK hospitality sector are demonstrated, showcasing both advantages and disadvantages for migrant workers.

The author identifies key problems, such as power imbalance in the UK hospitality sector between migrant employees and their employers. The key imbalance reflects the fact that many migrant workers have a high level of education (Bachelor’s or Master’s degree), however are forced to accept low-paid and low-skilled jobs, due to their poor financial situation and lack of language proficiency, which facilitate their vulnerability and exploitation (Anderson et al., 2006).

The statement that migrants are discriminated by allowing them to work only in the back of house roles is debatable. Lack of English language proficiency necessitates migrants to accept low-skilled jobs because the front of house jobs require a good English level and often familiarity with the local culture (Kandampully, 2002). However, it is important to pinpoint the fact that discrimination towards migrant workers exists and manifests, in the form of hate speech, racism, unequal treatments and being less rewarded compared to British colleagues (Janta et al., 2010).

Overall, this discussion paper is well structured and highlights different factors for migrant vulnerability, such as lack of certification to work and formal employment contracts as well as the lack of knowledge regarding local labour practices and legislation. Moreover, the author provides a comprehensive conclusion, suggesting options on how to improve the working conditions of the migrant workers that could favour both migrant workers and the hospitality industry. Future research could be conducted to explore alternative vulnerability areas, such as irregular and zero-hour contracts, the persistent nature of the hospitality industry and the implications of exploitation by labour agencies.

Anderson, B., Ruhs, M., Rogaly, B., and Spencer, S. (2006) Fair Enough? Central and East European migrants in low wage employment in the UK. Available from: https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/1617-migrants-low-wage-employment.pdf [accessed 21 May 2019]

Janta, H., Ladkin, A., Brown, L. and Lugosi, P. (2010) Employment experiences of Polish migrant workers in the UK hospitality sector. Tourism Management, 32 (5) 1006-1019.

Kandampully, J. (2002) Service management- the new paradigm in hospitality. Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education Australia.