Eastern European migrant workers and the Danish labour ... - CReAM

Ruth Emerek & Anja KirkebyEastern European migrant workers and the Danish labour marketThe projectThe paper is the first and preliminary results of a project, which, based on Danish registers, aimto analyze the consequences of labour migration and mobility from the new Eastern EuropeanEU member countries at the Danish labour market regarding pay, working conditions andhealth and safety in the non-skilled and skilled labour market, with special focus on the buildingand construction - and cleaning industries. The project seeks to answer the following researchquestions:How does this labour migration in general affect the Danish non-skilled and skilledlabour market in form of new segregation and wage developments? Which differences(if any) can be identified between the two selected industries and other sectors?What is the significance at trade level of this labour migration (combined with theongoing crisis) of workers' living conditions, health and withdrawal from the labourmarket among Eastern European as well as Danish employees?How has the changes in the various enterprises’ composition of Danish and EasternEuropean employees and the crisis affected the employees’ health, pay and mobility (toother jobs, unemployment or early retirement)?Ruth Emerek & Anja Kirkeby • CoMID (Center for the Study of Migration and Diversity • Aalborg University • Denmark Page 1

with special focus on the skilled and non-skilled labour market. The purpose is to identifyinappropriate development trends and on that basis, produce concrete solutions, such asmanagement strategies and tools for the reception and inclusion of the new workers fromEastern Europe. The need to examine conditions for this type of labour migration is reinforcedby indications that an increasing proportion of these labour migrants choose to settle inDenmark, turning labour migration/mobility into immigration. This development can be tracedin the growing number of new and very young dependants originating from the new EUcountries (see figure below).Sources: Statistics Denmark, Statistikbanken, KRBEF3 and FOLK1Furthermore the economic crisis has apparently not stopped immigration from the East (seefigure next page); official Danish statistics reveal almost 46,000 immigrants of the working age20-59 years from the Eastern European EU countries in Denmark at the beginning of 2012,more than twice as many as at the beginning of 2007 (13). The growth has been especiallyRuth Emerek & Anja Kirkeby • CoMID (Center for the Study of Migration and Diversity • Aalborg University • Denmark Page 3

strong among young men in the late twenties to late thirties. Authorities and professionalorganizations estimate that there are similar numbers of irregular migrant workers withoutwork permits.Sources: Statistics Denmark, Statistikbanken, KRBEF3 and FOLK1The inclusion of the 10 East European countries into the EU from 2004 and onwards has meantchanges in the European migration patterns with a significant flow from East to West – also forDenmark - despite the fact that Denmark until 2009 has had an ' East-agreement ' with therequirement that workers from the eight Eastern European EU countries, which were includedin the EU per 1. May 2004 as well as Bulgaria and Romania (from 2007), in a transitional phaseshould have a residence and a work permit before they could work for a Danish employer (9).Ruth Emerek & Anja Kirkeby • CoMID (Center for the Study of Migration and Diversity • Aalborg University • Denmark Page 4

The aim was to ensure the new Eastern European workers acceptable wages and workingconditions on the Danish labour market, as well as ensuring that working conditions for Danishworkers were not impaired (25). The gradual phase-out of the East-agreement, however, hasincreased the possibility of various forms of exploitation of the new Eastern European workers,both in Danish jobs and in connection with sub-contracting. This – together with the fastgrowing number of Eastern European workers - challenges the norms and traditions of theDanish labour market and can result in deterioration of occupational health and safety of bothimmigrant and Danish workers, for example, the want for more time and more overtime work,involve potential conflicts between the various groups. Previous studies of immigration beforethe crisis has shown that it is mainly younger Danes without education, who are paying theprice for immigration in the form of lower wages and lost jobs/changes (32,33). The problemsmay be enlarged by the fact that East-agreement was phased out at the time the crisis andunemployment grew, and the already declining employment in the male-dominated jobs forskilled and non-skilled workers declined further (17).Push and pull factorsEastern European labour migrants go to Denmark or other Western European countries in theexpectation of higher wages, better working conditions and social conditions and/or becausethe socio-economic conditions are generally poor (inter alia, higher unemployment and lowerwages) in the Eastern Europe countries (21, 16, 49).There are thus both pull and push factorsbehind the migration (11). Migrant workers are in many cases prepared to accept the so-called3-d jobs (Dirty, Dangerous and Demeaning), which are characterized by having a high risk ofinjuries and accidents. The acceptance of flexibility with regard to working time and length aswell as the generally poor working conditions must, therefore, be assumed to be high amongmigrant workers (21), who also will have limited knowledge of Danish agreements, taxconditions and rules on occupational health and safety, and relatively few of the migrantworkers are members of a Danish Trade Union (22). Migrant workers also lack knowledge of theDanish language and Danish working and safety culture (25). A recent report shows that socialdumping is widespread and that there is a lack of knowledge about social rights (36). Thesefactors, combined with the poor housing, wages lower than the minimum wage, illegal longworking days and breach of security requirements with work accidents, implies a risk ofweakening of a number of working conditions on the Danish labour market. This also suggeststhat Eastern European workers' increasing share of the labour force in Denmark has hadsignificance for a further and new segregation of work, both on the labour market and atworkplace level.Ruth Emerek & Anja Kirkeby • CoMID (Center for the Study of Migration and Diversity • Aalborg University • Denmark Page 5

There are as yet no published studies on the significance of changes in the composition of theworkforce at the enterprise level for the employees ' living conditions (salary, job opportunities,health and accidents), but studies of organizational changes in Danish companies have shownthat changes can lead to health problems (26).New knowledgeThe project will contribute with new knowledge about the importance of globalisation – here inparticular the importance of labour migration from the new EU countries from Eastern Europewith regard to health, working conditions and environment on skilled and non-skilled jobs. Theproject will, among other things, identify the cooperation and potential tensions betweenEastern European workers and Danish workers as well as former and new potential segregationon the labour market. Furthermore, the project puts focus on how safety culture is developingalong with the changes the free mobility of labour is creating on the Danish labour market. Theproject will thus qualify the debate on the organisation of the future Danish labour market forthe benefit of both workers and employers/business and the Danish society.The lack of knowledge of migrant workers' working conditions also means that there is a lack oftools to facilitate the migrant workers' inclusion and, in the long term retention on the Danishlabour market, and to ensure the retention of the current Danish standard for the workingenvironment, working conditions and wage levels. It is the research initiative’s vision tocontribute with new knowledge and practical tools for the management and handling of thechange and the growing diversity, as the free mobility of labour in the EU has created on theDanish labour market.The research initiative focuses specifically on the construction and cleaning industry, but at thesame time, examines the extent to which the problems and therefore the results can begeneralized from these two industries. The two industries are chosen for several reasons: bothindustries have a high concentration of Eastern European workers; in both industries, work isrisky in relation to accidents and health; the one industry (construction/plant) is maledominatedand the other (cleaning) traditionally female dominated, and the two branches of alinear transformation between the spectrum of the status of a skilled trade and the lowestimated cleaning work.Ruth Emerek & Anja Kirkeby • CoMID (Center for the Study of Migration and Diversity • Aalborg University • Denmark Page 6

Preliminary resultsSurvival and duration analysis reveal that almost half the migrants from the new EasternEuropean EU-countries settle in Denmark for a longer period.Five years (60 months) after the their first encounter into Denmark since the EU-enlargementbetween 20 % (from Bulgaria) and 60% (from Czech Republic) of migrants from the variousEastern European EU-countries have left Denmark (figure next page).A duration analysis on first entrance to first exit after the EU-enlargement shows that origin (inform of citizenship) has significant influence on the duration of stay. Migrants from Romaniaand Bulgaria have a twice as long an estimated continuous first stay than other easternEuropean migrants.Migrants who stayed a period in Denmark before the EU-enlargement and prior to the end ofthe special Danish East agreement had a shorter stay than persons immigrated after (83%).Women have a significant longer stay than men, while age at immigration seems less importantexcept for migrants younger than 30 years of age.Ruth Emerek & Anja Kirkeby • CoMID (Center for the Study of Migration and Diversity • Aalborg University • Denmark Page 7

The result furthermore suggests that the regulations in form of the East Agreement (which isnow repealed) had some impact on the time of stay.The duration analysis below is based on 45.326 immigrants aged 18-64 years.Parameter Estimate Ratio -expectedsurvivaltimeIntercept 4,71* .Country of origin/Citizen Ship Czech Republic -0,93* 40%Slovenia -0,73* 48%Slovakia -0,37* 69%Hungary -0,21* 81%Estonia -0,08 ns 92%Lithuania 0,11* 112%Latvia 0,14* 115%Romania 0,75* 212%Bulgaria 0,85* 235%Poland . .Sex Women 0,39* 147%Men . .Age at immigration 60-65 years 0,61 ns 183%55-59 years 0,03 ns 103%50-54 years -0,04 ns 96%45-49 years 0,01 ns 101%40-44 years 0,02 ns 102%35-39 years 0,02 ns 102%25-29 years -0,17* 84%18-24 years -0,74* 48%30-34 years . .Residence in DK before enlargement -0,07 ns 93%No residence in DK before enlargement . .Immigrated before end of East Agreement -0,19* 83%Immigrated after end of East agreement . .Scale 1,75 .*Pr

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