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New Labour? The Impact of Migration from Central and Eastern European Countries on the UK Labour Market

Author Info

  • Lemos, Sara

    ()

    (University of Leicester)

  • Portes, Jonathan

    ()

    (National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR))

Abstract

The UK was one of only three countries that granted free movement of workers to accession nationals following the enlargement of the European Union in May 2004. The resulting large, rapid and concentrated migration inflow can be seen as a natural experiment that arguably corresponds closely to an exogenous supply shock. We evaluate the impact of this migration inflow – one of the largest in British history – on the UK labour market. We use new monthly micro level data and an empirical approach that ascertains which particular labour markets in the UK – with varying degrees of natives' mobility and migrants' self-selection – may have been affected. Our results suggest modest effects throughout the labour market. Despite anecdotal evidence, we found little hard evidence that the inflow of accession migrants contributed to a fall in wages or a rise in claimant unemployment in the UK between 2004 and 2006.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 3756.

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Length: 55 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2008
Date of revision:
Publication status: published in: B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, 2013, 14(1), 299-338.
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3756
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Keywords: wages; employment; migration; Central and Eastern Europe; UK;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. The academic evidence regarding immigration is overwhelmingly positive
    by Joel Suss in British Politics and Policy at LSE on 2014-12-15 08:00:08
  2. Facts, & the Establishment
    by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-10-21 13:35:47
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