Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T04:50:32.016Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is Employer Sponsorship a Good Way to Manage Labour Migration? Implications for Post-Brexit Migration Policies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Madeleine Sumption
Madeleine Sumption*
Affiliation:
Oxford University, Director, Migration Observatory
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of labour migration models that rely on employer sponsorship. According to UK government proposals, long-term migration into high-skilled jobs after Brexit will require workers to be sponsored by employers, while workers in low-skilled and low-wage jobs will receive short-term work permits that do not require an employer sponsor. The paper argues that choosing employer sponsorship over worker-driven routes has three key effects: it gives the government greater ability to regulate which jobs migrants fill; it gives employers more power over their workforce; and it increases the administrative burden associated with hiring workers from overseas. This implies that in high-skilled jobs, employer sponsorship is likely to improve the skill composition of labour migrants but reduce the total number of skilled workers admitted; and that in low-skilled positions the government faces a trade-off between the ability to channel workers to specific jobs (including those where employers struggle to attract workers) and the risk of increasing underpayment or exploitation.

Keywords

international migrationwork permitsmigrant workersF22J61
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 248 , May 2019 , pp. R28 - R39
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

An earlier version of this paper was produced as a Migration Observatory report, funded by Trust for London and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Thanks to Martin Ruhs, Joe Owen, Carlos Vargas Silva, Jonathan Portes and Sarah Kyambi for comments on earlier versions of this paper.

References

Albin, A. (2014), ‘The sectoral regulatory regime: when work migration controls and the sectorally differentiated labour market meet’, in Costello, C. and Freedland, F. (eds), Migrants at Work: Immigration and Vulnerability in Labour Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, A. (2010), ‘Migration, immigration controls and the fashioning of precarious workers’, Work, Employment and Society, 24(2), pp. 300–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, A., Ruhs, R., Rogaly, R. and Spencer, S. (2006), Fair Enough? Central and Eastern European Migrants in Low-wage Employment in the UK, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Barnard, B. (2014), ‘Enforcement of employment rights by migrant workers in the UK: the case of EU-8 nationals’, in Costello, C. and Freedland, F. (eds), Migrants at Work: Immigration and Vulnerability in Labour Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
BEIS (2017), Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions, 2017, London: BEIS.Google Scholar
Boeri, B., Brücker, c., Docquier, D. and Rapoport, R. (2012), Brain Drain and Brain Gain: The Global Competition to Attract High-Skilled Migrants, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
British Future (2017), Time to Get it Right: Finding Consensus on Britain's Future Immigration Policy, London: British Future.Google Scholar
Chaloff, C. and Lemaitre, L. (2009), ‘Managing highly-skilled labour migration: a comparative analysis of migration policies and challenges in OECD countries’, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Paper 79.Google Scholar
Ci, C., Feng Hou and Morisette, M. (2018), ‘Acquisition of permanent residence by temporary foreign workers in Canada: a panel study of labour market outcomes before and after the status transition’, IZA Journal of Development and Migration, (8) 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (2010), Evaluation of the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Ottawa: CIC.Google Scholar
Costello, C. and Freedland, F. (eds), ‘Migrants at work and the division of labour law’, in Costello, C. and Freedland, F. (eds), Migrants at Work: Immigration and Vulnerability in Labour Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtain, C., Dornan, D., Howes, H. and Sherrell, S. (2017), ‘Backpackers v. seasonal workers: learning from the contrasting temporary migration outcomes in Australian and New Zealand Horticulture’, Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper no 65, November.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Czaika, C. and Parsons, P. (2017), ‘The gravity of high-skilled migration policies’, Demography, 54, pp. 603–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davies, D. and Rolfe, R. (2017), Facing the Future: Tackling Post-Brexit Labour and Skills Shortages, CIPD and NIESR, Policy report.Google Scholar
Dubow, D., Marchand, M. and Siegel, S. (2018), ‘Evidence on the determinants of migration in the EU’, unpublished working paper.Google Scholar
Ewins, E. (2015), Independent Review of the Overseas Domestic Workers Visa.Google Scholar
Facchini, F. and Lodigiani, L. (2014), ‘Attracting skilled immigrants: an overview of recent policy developments in advanced countries’, National Institute Economic Review, 229, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fudge, F. (2012), ‘Precarious migrant status and precarious employment: the paradox of international rights for migrant workers’, Journal of Comparative Labor Law and Policy, 95.Google Scholar
GAO (Government Accountability Office) (2015), H-2A and H2B Visa Programs: Increased Protections Needed for Foreign Workers, March 2015 (revised May, 2017).Google Scholar
Goodhart, G. (2018), Immigration after Brexit, London: Policy Exchange.Google Scholar
Global Future (2018), 100,000 Carers Missing, London: Global Future.Google Scholar
Home Office (2005), Sectors-Based Scheme Review, London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Home Office (2018), The UK's Future Skills-based Immigration System, London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Jasso, J. and Rosenzweig, R. (2009), ‘Selection criteria and the skill composition of immigrants: a comparative analysis of Australian and U.S. employment immigration’, pp. 153–83 in Bhagwati, B. and Hanson, H.H. (eds), Skilled Migration Today: Prospects, Problems, and Policies, New York: Oxford.Google Scholar
Joppke, J. (2010), Citizenship and Immigration, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Koslowski, K. (2013), ‘Selective migration policy models and changing realities of implementation’, International Migration, 52 (3).Google Scholar
Lowell, L.L. and Avato, A. (2014), ‘The wages of skilled temporary migrants: effects of visa pathways and job portability’, International Migration, 52 (3).Google Scholar
MacKenzie, M. and Forde, F. (2009), ‘The rhetoric of the good workers versus the realities of employers' use and the experiences of migrant workers’, Work, Employment and Society, 23(1), pp. 142–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menon, M. and Portes, P. (2018), The Economic Consequences of the Brexit Deal, London: UK in a Changing Europe Initiative.Google Scholar
Metcalf, M. (2018), United Kingdom Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2018/19.Google Scholar
Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) (2013), Migrant Seasonal Workers: The impact on the horticulture and food processing sectors of closing the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme and the Sectors Based Scheme, London: MAC.Google Scholar
Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) (2018), EEA Migration in the UK: Final Report, London: MAC.Google Scholar
NFU (2017), ‘Worker shortages could cause supply chain disruption in 2018, NFU warn’, NFU news release, 26 October.Google Scholar
OECD (2014a), Recruiting Immigrant Workers: Netherlands, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2014b), Recruiting Immigrant Workers: Norway, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2014c), Recruiting Immigrant Workers: New Zealand, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Papademetriou, P. and Sumption, S. (2011), Rethinking Points Systems and Employer-selected Immigration, Washington DC: Migration Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Papademetriou, P., Somerville, S. and Tanaka, T. (2008), Talent in the 21st-Century Economy, Washington DC: Migration Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Parliament of Australia (2016), A National Disgrace: The Exploitation of Temporary Work Visa Holders.Google Scholar
Ruhs, R. (2013), The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labour Migration, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ruhs, R. (2017), ‘The impact of acquiring EU status on the earnings of East European migrants in the UK: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 55 (4).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, S. (2015), ‘Making the case for temporary migrant worker programmes: evidence from the UK's rural guestworker (SAWS) scheme’, Journal of Rural Studies, 40, p. 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, S., Ruhs, R., Anderson, A. and Rogaly, R. (2007), The Experiences of Central and East European Migrants in the UK, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Stringer, S. (2016), Worker Exploitation in New Zealand: A Troubling Landscape.Google Scholar
Sumption, S. and Fernandez, Reino R. (2018), Exploiting the Opportunity? Low-Skilled Work Migration After Brexit, Oxford: Migration Observatory.Google Scholar
UKBA (2007), Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme: Information for Workers, London: Home Office.Google Scholar