Between Promises and Reality - Migrant Workers

By Ariadna Olteanu

In search of a better life, many Eastern Europeans leave all behind and head for 'fortress Britain' searching for work, only to find disillusionment rather than the golden Western promise. Much of Western Europe's prosperity now depends on this cheap labour, while the migrants themselves are forced to live in a sordid underworld. Their existence is only brought to the surface when someone is needed to hate or take the blame. The expression ‘bite the hand that feeds you’ seems to take on a new meaning.

Migrant workers seem to be a strange breed: they are the invisible, vital side of Britain economically, and yet its most visible scapegoats politically; exploited yet vilified.

The debate on migrant workers has surfaced in the British media mainly in the aftermath of the February 2004 Morecambe Bay tragedy, when 23 Chinese cockle pickers died. It was at the same time that this darker side of the British economy became more exposed, with an underworld of gangmastered labour and hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, working to keep the British standard of life comfortable. The number of documented migrant workers has increased by a third since 1995. No one really knows the number of undocumented ones. This means that there is demand for it. Cheap labour, long hours, no complaints - a perfect combination to keep the system moving. According to TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, ‘Most migrant workers only stay for short periods, and their precarious legal status means many end up working incredibly long hours for not much pay, in jobs that UK workers wouldn't want to do.’

Britain's migrant workers, most of them Eastern European and Asian, are really little more than slaves in Britain's factories and building sites. They leave behind the depressing situation of their home countries, only to find themselves exploited on foreign soil. It is usually the agricultural, food processing, catering and construction industries that are the most accessible to them, and they are the industries that profit most - financially - from this situation.

As revealed by a TUC report, the stories of the migrant workforce begin by bribing state officials back home to be taken on work schemes as seasonal or unskilled workers, or turning to mafia-like agencies specialising in human trafficking. They end up (often after life-threatening journeys) working 16-hour days, underpaid and with poor living conditions. Their rights become merely a theory. If they have no documents or choose to stay on once their visas expire, they can expect even more exploitation - no pay for weeks, and eventually being denounced to the authorities. Employer abuse is widespread - being ‘illegal’ only means cheaper labour. The employer gets the profit, while the immigrant gets…well, nothing much but misery and prejudice.

Businesses with no moral principles are not the only ones who profit from this modern-day form of slavery. We do too when we shop at supermarkets, and politicians do, they have someone to blame and use as an excuse to extend their control plans, while the media feeds and, in turn, is fed by our racism. Ignorance, hypocrisy and lack of scruples dominate the political and the economic sides of the argument.

In the past people were slaves against their will - now they pay bribes to become slaves. Ukrainians and Poles are Britain's cleaners and builders. Romanians have become Spain's strawberry-pickers. Much of the immigrant work force is educated at university level in their home countries. But leaving behind a professional career, because the wages were too low to cover even the household bills in Ukraine, to become a cabbage-packer with no basic rights in Britain, sends a very disturbing message about the system we live under, in the East as well as the West.

In his book ‘The Work of Strangers’, Peter Stalker writes: "Workers in the developing countries showed little inclination to migrate. The colonial powers had to move them around, by force if necessary - first as slaves, then as indentured workers and finally as voluntary recruits. Migrant workers leave their countries of origin because they are compelled to do so by serious economic and political conditions - which have been created by the very states to which they turn for a better life. They have become a vital resource for the survival of the very system responsible for their situation."

Gary Younge sums up the situation in the most eloquent manner: "Economically, without the huge pool of cheap labour emanating from the developing world, documented or not, we simply could not function as we do at present. Politically, if Britain's last election campaign is anything to go by, without scapegoating and marginalizing that same pool of labour it appears our political culture would be unable to function. We are left despising the very people on whom we depend, and immigrants are left with the worst of all worlds - economically exploited and socially demonised."

On the 1st of July 2003 the "International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families" came into force - it took thirteen years for this to be achieved, but whether or not its stipulations are being respected is another matter… Politicians hope that the 2004 Gangmaster Licensing Act will help curb illegal activity - but no one should have to be 'illegal' in the first place. And as we know, the interests of business always have the upper hand over the interests of the vulnerable.

If you would like to read more about migrant workers:
www.guardian.co.uk
www.oneworld.net
www.amnesty.org
www.noii.org.uk
www.tuc.org.uk
www.ohchr.org