Migrant Essential Workers

Covid-19 exposed the UK’s socio-economic dependence on a chronically insecure migrant essential workforce. While risking their lives to offset the devastating effects of the pandemic, migrant workers reportedly found themselves in precarious professional and personal circumstances (e.g. temporary zero-hours contracts, with limited access to adequate health and financial support including Universal Credit).

This project investigates how the pandemic affected their everyday lives and settlement plans within the UK.

Given their critical role in ‘protecting the NHS and saving lives’ and their structurally disadvantaged position, we need to know more about the health, social, economic and cultural impacts of Covid-19 on their lives, and whether these impacts coincide with migrants’ intentions to stay in the UK. To explore these issues with an adequate level of nuance and detail, this study focused on one prominent migrant group, Polish migrants, as a case study. The project investigates how the pandemic affected their everyday lives and settlement plans in the UK.

Methodologically, the project involved an online survey to map Covid-19 impacts on Polish essential workers in the UK, online interviews with Polish essential workers and expert interviews with key stakeholders providing information and support to migrant workers in the UK.

The project was carried out by a group of researchers at the University of Glasgow, Middlesex University and the University of Sheffield with the support of the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK), Centrala, Fife Migrants Forum and PKAVS Minority Communities Hub.

Funder:

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Partners:

University of Glasgow, Middlesex University and the University of Sheffield with the support of the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK), Fife Migrants Forum and PKAVS Minority Communities Hub.