Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 2006 > Committee on European Affairs > Report No. 08 - Report on Migration - Interim Report

ANNEX 1 — Report on Position of EU Migrant Workers in Ireland, March 2006

INDEX

Introduction

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs believes that the issues around inward migration are of crucial importance to the social and economic future of this country. Because free movement is the cornerstone of the European Union and one of the fundamental conditions of membership, it is a subject which the Committee is well placed to deal with.

Ireland has moved from being a country of emigration to one of immigration within a generation. Therefore there are many who can understand the challenges facing immigrants, and are concerned about their future welfare. On the other hand, there are very few countries which have experienced such rapid growth in inward migration and this country must now respond rapidly and effectively to put in place appropriate procedures and systems.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs is undertaking a substantial review of the issues around inward migration. The subject is extensive, information flows are disjointed and circumstances are changing. Therefore, it was decided to start with a preliminary report on inward migration from the countries which joined the European Union in May 20004. This is particularly important because the first review of the transitional measures for opening up the labour markets of the EU15 is due to take place in April, and the Committee wishes to be in a position to take a comprehensive over-view of the issues.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs plans to undertake study visits to European states of particular relevance to this area of its work. The production of this Report is part of the Committee’s preparations to ensure that they are in a position to use the opportunities provided by these visits. The Committee will also be exploring the issue of free access for other nationals to the labour markets of the existing member states.

Further reports will be produced on issues such as work permits, trafficking in humans, bonded labour etc.

Legislative Background

Ten new member states joined the European Union on 1^st April 2004. There is a disparity in income per head between the older members and many of the newer members — the so-called Accession States. There were concerns about labour migration from the Accession States, and for this reason 12 older member states have introduced “transitional restrictions” on the movement of those seeking work from the new member states. The restrictions only apply to eight of the ten countries, because Malta and Cyprus have been exempted.

The United Kingdom allows the free movement of workers, but opted for a compulsory workers’ registration scheme. In this case, the worker must prove that a job is available. Sweden offered full access to workers, and Ireland offered full access to the jobs market, but very restricted access to any form of social welfare support. Access to support is based on a Habitual Residence Condition.

This transitional period will last a maximum of seven years, during which the EU15 may maintain their respective national rules or bi- and multilateral agreements with regard to their labour markets. Under the so-called “2+3+2” decision, all EU15 apply national measures between 2004 and 2006. Following a non-binding review by the Commission of the European labour market situation in 2006, each old member state will have the right to either continue to apply its national measures, or to adopt the relevant EU provisions. By 2009, all national measures relating to labour market access should be phased out, except in cases where the unrestricted movement of labour might cause any kind of disturbance in the local labour market. By 2011 all transitional measures should be eliminated.

The European Commission has recently published its report¹ on the working of the transitional arrangements. It finds no evidence of a surge in either numbers of workers or welfare expenditure following enlargement, compared to the previous two years. New Member State (EU10) nationals represented less than 1% of the working age population in all countries except Austria (1.4% in 2005) and Ireland (3.8% in 2005). EU10 workers alleviated skills bottlenecks, and had a much lower percentage of unskilled workers than the national equivalent.

In particular the Report makes the point

There is no evidence to show a direct link between the magnitude of mobility flows from EU10 Member States and the Transitional Arrangements in place. Ultimately, mobility flows are driven by factors related to supply and demand conditions. If anything, Transitional Arrangements will only delay labour market adjustments, with the risk of creating “biased” destination patterns even on a more permanent basis.

It seems likely that when the Transitional Arrangements are reviewed in April that Spain and Finland will lift the barriers. France, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal are undecided, while Austria and Germany are unlikely to change.²

⁶ COM(2006) 48 final. Report on the Functioning of the Transitional Arrangements set out in the 2003 Accession Treaty (period 1 May 2004—30 April 2006)

⁷ Financial Times 10^th February 2006

○Over the period 2000 to 2005, over 100,000 persons from outside the EEA1 came to Ireland for employment purposes.

○Employers are expected to procure their labour requirements from within the EEA; new work permits, for workers from outside the EEA, are now confined to highly skilled/highly paid positions. Reflecting these changes the number of new permits issued in the nine months to end September 2005 was just in excess of 6000. This compares with a figure of 22,000 for 2003, the year immediately prior to enlargement.²

○According to the CSO figures for Q4 of 2005, there are 159,300 non-nationals in employment, representing 8% of total employment, which is towards the top end of the range in the European Union. There were 61,600 workers from the Accession States in employment in Ireland, up from 28,100 in Q4 2004. Those from the Accession States account for 36% of non- Irish national workers in Q4 2005, compared to 22% for the same period a year earlier.

○Non-national workers are fairly evenly distributed by sector, with about 9% of the workforce in the construction industry made up of non-nationals. This appears to be about the international standard. Of that 9% approximately half are from the Accession States. The sector with the highest number of non-national workers is the hotel and restaurant sector, representing 19.2% of the workforce. Approximately a quarter of the non-national workers are from Asia.³

○Those who entered the country are overwhelmingly in the 15 to 44 age group, with very few over 65. According to the overall immigration figures, 6,500 under 15 year olds arrived. (A yearly addition of this number to the school-going, or potential school-going, cohort is a significant challenge to service providers.)

○The figures in the 25 to 64 age group are 2:1 males to females, which also has social implications.

¹ The EU 25+Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein

² These figures are taken from a submission by the Irish government to the European Commission Lisbon Agenda: Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs National Reform Programme, Ireland, October 2005

³ This treatment of the figures is taken from Non-National Workers in the Irish Economy, published by AIB Global Treasury Economic Research.

Registrations are tracked and published quarterly in Accession Monitoring Report. A joint online report by the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, the HM Revenue & Customs and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister1

Information is available classified under the following headings

APPLICANT PROFILE

Nationality of applicants

PROFILE OF REGISTERED WORKERS

Age and Gender of registered workers

Dependants of registered workers

Sectors in which registered workers are employed

Occupations in which registered workers are employed

Registered workers’ hours of work and wages

Proportion of registered workers in temporary/permanent employment

Geographical distribution of registered workers

Geographical distribution of registered workers by sector

Nationality of registered workers by sector

NATIONAL INSURANCE NUMBERS

National Insurance Numbers allocated and purpose of allocation

National Insurance Number applications by region

BENEFITS

Applications for tax-funded, income-related benefits

Nationality of applicants for tax-funded, income-related benefits

Applications for tax-funded, income-related benefits by region

Applications for Child Benefit

Applications for Tax Credits

HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS SUPPORT

Local Authority Lettings

Homelessness assistance

ANNEX A All occupations in which registered workers are employed

¹ Available at http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk

Issues with Data

Because it is just 18 months since enlargement, information on workers from central Europe and the Baltics is only beginning to become available. The absence of data has posed problems for a number of state agencies, and considerable efforts have been made to devise new systems to capture information. It should be pointed out that Ireland does not register travellers at the point of entry, nor has it any kind of identity card system. This means that information must be captured in a series of snapshots over time, such as the Quarterly Household Survey which is carried out by the Central Statistics Office.¹

On registering for tax, personal details provided to the Revenue Commissioners are recorded on a Common Registration system(CRS). The CRS is a central database for personal details that other tax databases/applications link to. The personal details included on that system are the basic name and address details, date of birth and date of registration. Although nationality is requested on the registration forms, the CRS does not take that data.

The Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Garda Shiochana and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment are all involved in various stages of the identity certification. They hold identity data about a person from the point of entry to the State, the holding of a work permit and where relevant, the date of deportation. The Immigration Act 2003 provides for the exchange of information between “information holders” in relation to non-nationals.

On the other hand the Department of Social and Family Affairs has included a nationality classification on their systems since mid-2000 and they update the nationality record on their system on an ongoing basis². They provide information on a regular basis to the Revenue Commissioners. This can be used for verification but cannot be used by the Revenue Commissioners themselves to group the customer base. So while it is possible on an historical basis to see how many of those to whom new PPS numbers were issued actually entered the workforce and paid tax, this cannot be done in real time. Efforts are being made in a number of different working groups, to improve the sharing of data.³

¹ The Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs is grateful to the Director and members of staff of the CSO who attended a meeting of the Committee and provided useful information.

² The Department of Family and Social Affairs is responsible for allocating Personal Public Service Number. (PPSN). This is the unique number which is used for accessing public services including taxation, social welfare and eg driving licences.

³ See also evidence given to the PAC ........................................

Some of the difficulties associated with the different data streams are dealt with in a Fás Survey.1 They deal with the number of PPSNs issued, compared to the number of workers from the Accession States showing up in the CSO Survey.

In the twelve months ending in April 2005, just over 83,000 new numbers were issued to EU10 nationals. However, 36,000 migrants appeared in the Survey figures. The difference is explained by the different concepts behind the figures:

An immigrant, by the CSO definition, is someone who was resident in the country as at April 2005 who had not been resident 12 months earlier. Thus only EU10 nationals who enter the country during the year and remain resident at the end of the year are counted as immigrants.

By contrast, the PPSN data relate to all allocations of new numbers to EU10 nationals, regardless of how long the person visits the country for (or indeed whether the person enters the country at all). Thus, of the 83,000 persons referred to above for whom PPSNs had been issued in the year to April:-

○Based on “commencement of employment” returns from employers, only about two-thirds (55,000) were known to have actually taken up a job in Ireland by the end of April.

○Based on a partial analysis of P35 forms for 2004² (completed by employers at end-December to update the social contributions of employees) many of those who do take up employment remain here only for relatively short periods. (These would include, for example, students and others coming specifically for seasonal employment, or persons who fail to find the kind of work and conditions they had hoped for and decide to return to their home country). The rate of turnover indicated in the P35s suggests that less than half of those who took up employment over the twelve months were still working in the country at the end of the period.

○Some of the discrepancies may be due to the fact some of those for whom PPSNs were allocated over the year may have been present in the country for some time previously and decided to avail of the opportunity, presented by the accession of their home countries to the EU, to regularise their situation.

¹ FÁS Quarterly Labour Market Commentary Third Quarter 2005

² See also the information provide to the Committee by Mr Brian O’Raghallaight on 3^rd November 2005

The continued internationalisation of education and migration patterns within Europe mean that mutual trust in the quality of inputs and outputs from National education and training systems is becoming more important.1

Protection of Rights

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has responsibility for the protection of workers’ rights. It operates

○The Employment Rights Information Unit

The Unit operates an information service to answer enquiries. It deals with personal callers, telephone callers and written correspondence. It also provides leaflets etc on entitlements — in nine languages.

○The Labour Inspectorate

This has been substantially increased. It operates on the basis of investigation of complaints and a mix of planned/targeted sectoral and random inspections, throughout the country.

○Legal Services Unit.

This unit processes the enforcement of awards of both the Labour Court and the Employment Appeals Tribunal through the Courts.

Where there are abuses, experience seems to indicate that it happens in a work place where the majority of the workers are foreign. Redress is theoretically possible in eg the case of underpayment or payments withheld, but the issue of record keeping arises. If the employer has provided no payslip, it is difficult to prove underpayment. Foreign workers have the same access to labour mechanisms as Irish workers, and can complain to the Rights Commissioner. But the process can be slow. For instance if a complaint is made to the Labour Inspectorate, it can take up to eight months to process. Confusion can be caused if workers are not aware of their rights, in addition to language difficulties.

What is striking is the reluctance of migrant workers to pursue claims against employers. The Labour Relations Commission has published a study of the experiences of migrant workers with disputes mechanism². While a very high proportion of the claims which go all the way are settled in favour of the claimant, a significant number do not proceed all the way, even when the claimant has a very strong case. (Admittedly, given the time when this report was compiled, it related mainly to workers who were here on work permits and were very anxious to protect that permit. All the same, the reluctance to pursue claims is remarkable.)

¹ Consultation on the European Commission Proposal for a European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning, September / October 2005. Response to the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland consultation procedure by Forfas,/IDA and Enterprise Ireland

² Migrant Workers and Access to the Statutory Dispute Resolution Agencies Labour Relations Commission October 2005

A November circular from the Department of Social and Family Affairs has relaxed some of the conditions relating to Supplementary Welfare Allowance. (The Department of Social and Family Affairs has issued a press release announcing the publication of information for migrant workers, in a range of languages, on their entitlements. It has not however published details of this change, or of another change to entitlement to Child Benefit.1)

A common complaint across the entire system is the lack of transparency of rights. A great deal left to the discretion of eg Community Welfare Officer, and it is difficult ever to be certain of the outcome of an interaction.

Recommendation

The discretionary nature of the system has removed all transparency. The system should be made more certain and less arbitrary.

¹ Irish Times 30^th September 2005

A recent report on the use of homelessness services by nationals of the Accession States1 seeks to track a trend of increasing use of homeless services in Dublin, including emergency accommodation and food services, by non-nationals — particularly those from the new EU states. This research was based on a survey of all outreach and food centres, a sample of emergency hostels, transitional and long-term housing services and the majority of information and support services. The report estimates

Through these contacts we can estimate that during an average day in the month of September in Dublin between 35 and 85 EU10 Nationals were using food centers; a maximum of one or two EU10 Nationals were accommodated in hostels for homeless people; approximately ten EU10 Nationals were met by outreach services for homeless people and no EU10 Nationals were using transitional and long-term housing services. Between 10 and 25 people who are without an income or homeless met with information and support organisations during an average week, while contact with statutory agencies is likely to have been very limited, with up to five people being accommodated by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) at any one time.

This would suggest that there are between 60 and 120 people from the EU10 states seeking support from services for homeless people in Dublin in an average day in September.

………

The research indicates that for the overwhelming majority of EU10 Nationals using homeless services, the problem is predominantly an income and employment issue. 92% (46 people) said that their primary reason for traveling to Ireland was ‘to find work’ (the remaining 8% listed finding work as one of their reasons for traveling to Ireland), and 96% said that either inability to find employment, loss of employment or lack of money was the primary reason for their homelessness. None the less, extreme hardship is experienced by some of these individuals, with over a third of people having no source of income (only 20% were in full-time employment) and a third of interviewees reported to be sleeping rough. In total 57% (28 people) using homeless services considered themselves homeless. For the great majority this was their first time homeless. However 10% (five people) had previous experience of homelessness in their own country.

………

¹ Away from Home and Homeless Quantification and profile of EU10Nationals using homeless services and recommendations to address their needs. Homeless Agency 2005

It seems clear that there are few informal support networks for immigrants in these categories. Referrals have also come from the embassies and consulates of the home countries of the migrants, as they often cannot support their citizens1. National embassies either do not see it as their function to support welfare cases, or do not have the capacity. The only known centre is sponsored, perfectly correctly, by a commercial organisation.

Many of the problems which are encountered are capable of easy resolution, but given the lack of access to emergency payments and the problems with the cost of accommodation in this country currently, someone who needs, for instance, to wait a little while to change jobs or get social welfare payments from home etc., may find themselves in a crisis. The report of the Homelessness Agency demonstrates this.

A similarity to the attitude of the Irish in Britain has been remarked on. Because workers from the Accession Countries are free to go and come as they please, most do not see themselves as settling in Ireland. They regard their stay as temporary. It is workers who have come on a work permit system, or perhaps the high skills worker from the Accession Countries who consider that they have made a commitment to living in Ireland. However, experience with the Irish in Britain has shown that this “temporary” status can last for a very long time, but the kind of long term financial and other planning which should go with it does not happen.

Considerable efforts are being made to improve the support levels for migrants, on the economic front. However, the Committee has not been able to find out which agency has responsibility for the social integration of migrants. This is a serious gap.

In order to help solve this problem, and to help provide informal support to migrants, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs believes that it might be possible to establish a network for semi-formal “drop-in centres” for migrants. While the absence of data is a problem which should be worked on over time, it is not necessary to have detailed information on every single migrant. However, the provision of such a network would provide a focal point in different areas. Information could be gained and shared on numbers, nationalities etc. The growth of informal support groups could be fostered; information on exploitation or poor work practices could be picked up and acted on. English language classes could be provided.

Such a network need not be very resource heavy. Several centres would be necessary in cities, but a centre open only for a day to two a week might be adequate in smaller towns.

¹ Quote

“While she believes that it would not be beneficial for Poles to gain some work experience abroad, she fears a brain drain to the West if economic conditions do not improve in Poland.”1

So far economic conditions have improved only slightly. Unemployment in Poland is at 19% and around 10% in Latvia and Lithuania. There is also fear that not only are they loosing skills, but they are loosing young people and the demographic profile will deteriorate.

Issues for Irish economy

The economic theory of migration is that its benefits to the host country are short term. The economy as a whole grows because of the increased economic activity, but GDP per head does not grow because the increased wealth is divided among an increased number of people. The increased wealth is rapidly consumed because of the need to provide more services to the immigrants, such as health care, housing etc. Therefore immigration is not an alternative to ongoing improvement of the quality of the domestic labour supply.

That is not to say that some individuals benefit from migration, including those who can earn higher wages in the host country than at home or individuals in certain industries. Also if particular skill bottle necks can be eased by importing skills, that is a real benefit.

The CSO Population and Labour Force Projections 2006-2036 estimates that for the period up to 2011, net migration will be in the region of 100,000 to 150,000 depending on the level of economic growth, ie somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000 per annum.

According to Fás², inward migration will be at a rate of 50,000 to 70,00 per annum for the next five years. Allowing for emigration to continue at a rate of 15,000 per annum, that is a net migration of 35,000 to 55,000 per annum

Projections of future needs for migrant workers are arrived at by a number of routes. The CSO provides a possible number, effectively by determining a number of economic scenarios and estimating the likely labour force requirements. By calculating the Irish labour force, an assumption is made that the difference will be made up by immigrant labour. However, this is done on the basis of extrapolating existing trends — it is not based on a review of alternative policy options.

¹ Euractive Interview 17^th August 2004

² In conversation

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has laid out its policy in relation to the development of the labour market in its Programme for the Lisbon Process.1 However, little mention is made of migration in this report.

in order to ensure that labour market policy contributes to making the economy more knowledge based and innovation driven Ireland will focus in particular on two major challenges:

○ensuring and adequate supply of labour to meet the needs of the economy and to sustain economic growth. Labour will be supplied through a number of sources: the underlying population increase; increased participation by the unemployed and those outside the labour force (including Lone parent, Travellers and people with a disability), and migration

○.....

A list of measures to improve labour market functioning is included in this report to the European Commission. Workers from within the EU are entitle to the same conditions — including access to training etc, as Irish workers. But no particular measures are envisaged for planning for workers, or for their integration.

In so far as the Report deals with numbers of migrant workers, it restates the CSO figures, which are an extrapolation of existing trends. Apart from that, reference is made only to the administrative work permit arrangements and says the Department will

“provide new and increase protections for migrant workers”

The policy role of the Department for the labour market appears to relate only to a “skills based migration policy.”

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment asked the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs

(i) To produce a document outlining current and ongoing skills shortages in key sectors of the Irish economy;

(ii) To identify where such skills may be sourced;

(iii) To contribute to the development of an appropriate skills-based economic migration policy in conjunction with DETE.

¹ Lisbon Agenda. Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs. National Reform Programme Ireland. October 2005