IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/niesru/v248y2019i1pr49-r57.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘High-Skilled Good, Low-Skilled Bad?’ British, Polish and Romanian Attitudes Towards Low-Skilled EU Migration

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandra Bulat

Abstract

A new skills-based immigration system, with a preference for the highly-skilled, is central to UK policy debates in the Brexit context, arguably responding to majority public opinion on migration. Through qualitative fieldwork with British, Polish and Romanian citizens living in two local authorities in England, this paper shows what participants understand by ‘low-skilled’ and how there is broad support of those who ‘contribute’, but are ‘controlled’ at the same time. Migrants’ narratives of downskilling also illustrate why the category of ‘low-skilled’ migration needs to be seen through a more critical lens in research and policymaking.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandra Bulat, 2019. "‘High-Skilled Good, Low-Skilled Bad?’ British, Polish and Romanian Attitudes Towards Low-Skilled EU Migration," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 248(1), pages 49-57, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:niesru:v:248:y:2019:i:1:p:r49-r57
    DOI: 10.1177/002795011924800113
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002795011924800113
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/002795011924800113?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Braakmann Nils & Waqas Muhammad & Wildman John, 2017. "Are Immigrants in Favour of Immigration? Evidence from England and Wales," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 1-16, February.
    2. Diego Battiston & Richard Dickens & Alan Manning & Jonathan Wadsworth, 2014. "Immigration and the Access to Social Housing in the UK," CEP Discussion Papers dp1264, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Magdalena Nowicka, 2014. "Migrating skills, skilled migrants and migration skills: The influence of contexts on the validation of migrants’ skills," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 11(2), pages 171-186, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michaela Šedovič & Lenka Dražanová, 2025. "Migrant and Non-migrant Views on Immigration in Europe," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 41(1), pages 1-38, December.
    2. Stewart, Kitty & Cooper, Kerris & Shutes, Isabel, 2019. "What does Brexit mean for social policy in the UK? An exploration of the potential consequences of the 2016 referendum for public services, inequalities and social rights," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121548, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Paweł Strzelecki & Katarzyna Saczuk & Izabela Grabowska & Irena E. Kotowska, 2015. "Household living conditions. Labour Market," Contemporary Economics, Vizja University, vol. 9(4), December.
    4. Michaela Šedovič & Lenka Dražanová, 2023. "What determines the shape of migrant and non-migrant populations’ attitudes toward immigration in Europe?," RSCAS Working Papers 2023/04, European University Institute.
    5. Deole, Sumit S. & Huang, Yue, 2020. "How do new immigration flows affect existing immigrants? Evidence from the refugee crisis in Germany," GLO Discussion Paper Series 579, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Schmutz, Benoît & Verdugo, Gregory, 2023. "Do elections affect immigration? Evidence from French municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    7. Huw Vasey, 2017. "The Emergence of a Low-Skill Migrant Labour Market: Structural Constraints, Discourses of Difference and Blocked Mobility," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 863-879, August.
    8. Jonathan Wadsworth, 2014. "Immigration, the European Union and the UK Labour Market," Policy Analysis Papers 015, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    9. repec:cep:spccrr:spdorp03 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Cihan Aydiner & Erin L. Rider, 2022. "Reskilled and Integrated, but How? Navigating Trauma and Temporary Hardships," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-18, October.
    11. Kitty Stewart & Kerris Cooper & Isabel Shutes, 2019. "What does Brexit mean for social policy in the UK? An exploration of the potential consequences of the 2016 referendum for public services, inequalities and social rights," CASE - Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes Research Papers 03, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    12. Benoît SCHMUTZ & Grégory VERDUGO, 2020. "Do Politicians Shape the Electorate ? Evidence from French Municipalities," Working Papers 2020-18, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics, revised 01 Apr 2021.
    13. Niklas Luft & Paula Wallmeyer & Karolina Barglowski & Lisa Bonfert, 2022. "‘Finding My Own Way’: Mobilization of Cultural Capital through Migrant Organizations in Germany," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, December.
    14. Galli Fausto & Russo Giuseppe, 2023. "Preferences of Immigrants on Immigration: Convergence or Persistence? Evidence from the European Social Survey," Timisoara Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 41-64.
    15. Marino, Alba & Mudambi, Ram & Perri, Alessandra & Scalera, Vittoria G., 2020. "Ties that bind: Ethnic inventors in multinational enterprises’ knowledge integration and exploitation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(9).
    16. Galli, Fausto & Russo, Giuseppe, 2023. "The transmission of preferences on immigration from the first to the second generation of immigrants: an analysis of the European Social Survey," MPRA Paper 119513, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:niesru:v:248:y:2019:i:1:p:r49-r57. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/niesruk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.