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Highlands at risk of labour crisis after fall in migrants



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Published Date: 09 July 2008
By Andrew Hamilton
THE Highlands is facing a recruitment crisis due to a dramatic fall in migrant labour, figures showed yesterday.
The number of approved applications for eastern Europeans to work in the region dropped by almost a third last year.

And Jack McConnell, the former First Minister, called on the Scottish Government to reverse the trend and attract more foreign workers to the country.

Higher living costs in the UK and an improving economy in eastern Europe have been cited as reasons for migrants returning home.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) compiled figures showing that between April and December 2006, 1,960 applications from eastern Europeans for the government's worker registration scheme were approved.

In the same period last year only 1,530 were approved – a drop of 28 per cent.

An HIE spokeswoman said the inward flow of migrants had been declining, although an increasing number chose to settle in the region.



The full article contains 161 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 08 July 2008 9:58 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

SouthernSkye,

09/07/2008 07:07:06
The pound is weak against the € (€1 = 80pence)so eastern europeans are going to head for the euro-zone and avoid pound-land !

You cannot change this unless you change the economy and €-GBP exchange rate.
2

Mist001,

Marseille 09/07/2008 07:25:05
There shouldn't be a problem because according some folk on here, Donald Trump is going to staff his Menie Estate with immigrant workers. That should balance the figures a bit, no?

Michael.
3

we the people,

09/07/2008 07:42:29
maybe we should look further afield than eastern europe to attract newcomers then?
4

sam the god,

09/07/2008 08:22:49
Just get the dole merchants to do some work for the money they get (if you say you are and alcoholic and a druggie you get more money for both bits).
5

Dileas,

09/07/2008 14:18:42
Economy improving in eastern Europe? Do they accept Brits?
6

Neil,

Glasgow 09/07/2008 16:25:32
I don't know. Not coming over here, not taking our jobs.
7

gkc,

ALLOA 09/07/2008 16:42:30
WHILST IT IS TRUE THAT MANY ECONOMIC MIGRANTS ARE RETURNING THERE IS STILL A LARGE NUMBER WHO STILL WANT TO COME AND WORK IN THE UK, THIS IS FOR SEVERAL REASONS BUT THE GROUND WORK HAS ALREADY BEEN LAID FOR THEM BY THE FIRST WAVE FOUR YEARS AGO.

MANY HAVE SETTLED AND THE INFRASTRUCTURE IS IN PLACE FO THEM TO FEEL MORE AT HOME IN THE UK THAN ELSEWHERE IN EUROPE, I DO NOT RECALL SEEING POLISH SHOPS IN MALAGA OR ROME !!!

I HAVE AN AGENCY CONCERNED WITH THE EASTERN EUROPEAN EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY AND I SEE NOT LET UP IN THE NUMBERS WHO WANT TO COME TO THE UK JUST YET, WHAT WOUD HELP WOULD BE THE OPENING UP OF THE BARRIERS FOR ROMANIA AND BULGARIA WHICH SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED ABOUT 18 MONTHS AGO BUT THE TABLOID PRESS SCAREMONGERED SO MUCH THAT THE TEHN HOME SECRETARY - CELTICS JOHN REID - PUT UP THE BARRICADES.

EMPLOYERS MAY ALSO HELP THEM SELVES IN A LOT OF WAYS

1 DO NOT TREAT THEM AS CASUAL THROWAWAY LABOUR, THEY HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS AS OTHER UK WORKERS.

2 PROVIDE PARITY OF PAY

3 PROVIDE BETTER LIVING AND WORKING ON FARMS

I VISITED A FRUIT FARM IN ANGUS LAST MONTH AND THE CONDITIONS OF LIVING AND WORKING WERE APPALLING, NO WONDER THE FRUIT FARMERS ARE IN DESPARATE NEED OF LABOUR, THE CARAVANS WERE OLD, TATTY AND COLD AND DIRTY.

ONLY ANGUS COUNCIL POLICES THE QUALITY FO THE ACCOMODATION FOLLOWING THE HORRIFIC DEATH OF A STUDENT LAST YEAR, THIS IS AN ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN.

LOCAL PEOPE DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY SKILLS TO FILL SOME OF THE HIGHLY SKILLEED JOBS THE MIGRANT WORKERS CAME OVER TO DO, THIS IS A MIXTURE OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT ASSISTING BTHE CLOSURE OF TRADITUIONAL INDUSTRIES AND ALSO LOCAL TRADEMEN NOT BEING GIVEN ENOUH FINANCIAL HELP TO EMPLOY AND TRAIN APPRENTICES.

THE POPULATION WIL CONTINUE TO RISE WITH THE EASTERN EUROPEAN MIGRATION, WE TEND TO FIND THOSE WHO HAVE WORKED IN THE HIGHLANDS THEN WANT TO MOVE SOUTH TO THE BIGGER CITIES, THIS IS THE TREND WE ARE SEEING.
8

SouthernSkye,

Bonnie Bonn 09/07/2008 17:06:10
#7 gkc
There are vast swathes of Poles and East Europeans here in Germany.Many things are available in Polish language, there are Polish shops and markets and beer and the € is a better deal for them than GBP.
The only Poles I meet here want to go to UK for a shopping trip as the GBP is so weak against the €.

But, to a dergree, I agree. There are traditional historical links twixt UK and Poland from the free Poles who came and settled during WW2 and there-after.

As to #3 we the people....There are limits on seeking non EU staff these days to such a degree that Asian restaurants are having trouble getting qualified hard working staff, especially Indian restaurants, due to the quotas imposed by HMG.

Suffice to say, until the GBP becomes a better deal we will only get shoppers and holiday makers.
9

Schot,

09/07/2008 20:30:11
I left my last contract and was replaced by six Indian contractors whose total salary was lower than mine. They weren't more skilled than me individually, they just worked for a lower wage because it was a high wage for India.

The recent news NCR is taking 10 Indians to replace Scottish redundancies is common in high-tech careers nowadays. Skilled, English-language, non-EU citizens have no problem getting papers to work here, and that undercuts the wages of the majority while profiting only the employers.

My own job today pays 50% less in real terms than it did 8 years ago. Perhaps this is an inevitable feature of globalisation, but it isn't desirable. I like all the Polish, Slovak and Indian immigrants I have met, and I realise many of them have been treated atrociously here, but if those countries don't have minimum social standards for their workers then we soon won't either. All the hard won victories of the union movement have been lost through being undercut by imported, unprovisoned, and unlimited labour.

The Labour governments estimates of Eastern European immigrants were in the tens of thousands, but the real figures were hundreds of thousands. This incompetence and lack of planning is what caused strife between locals and newcomers, as schools and other social services were left underfunded and unprepared.

I have the perfect solution to this. Indian MPs earn £1600 a year. British politicians get about £600000. If we were to bring in Indian MPs to replace our corrupt, incompetent MPs and MSPs, we would save enough to pay us all a living wage.

10

BLMac,

Cairns 11/07/2008 08:22:11
The original intention a few centuries back was to exterminate the local highlanders and replace them with sturdy lowland stock. When extermination failed, expulsion was used, and when that didn't manage to clear us all out, then dole queues around the corner worked.

The real headline should be about how highlanders have been driven out by poor economic conditions and how these economic conditions are now so dire that they are failing to attract our cheap replacements.

How about something to attract the highland diaspora home?

 

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