According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Europe constitutes the region with the largest volume of migrant workers (27.5 million or 34%), followed by Asia with 22.1 million or 27% foreign labour. In Europe and elsewhere, demographic, economic and labour-market related trends have resulted in the increased demand for skilled foreigners (e.g. in the health and care sector) and the revival or intensification of temporary (‘guest worker’) migration schemes. At the same time, rising numbers of undocumented migrants working in lower skilled jobs, often in specific sectors, can be witnessed as for instance in the UK. Migrant workers’ specific location within labour markets and the temporary or undocumented nature of their migration status entail specific legal, social and economic constraints. This is likely to have implications also for rights advocacy by civil society organisations.

From a global perspective, we can observe a trend toward increasing diversification, resulting in highly stratified migratory movements. ‘Diversification’ can refer to intra-group differences as well as to inter-group differences (more nationalities have appeared on the migration ‘scene’ than before; there is also more diversity with regard to the temporal component: migrants of a specific nationality might migrate either on a long-term or short-term basis to the same destination; and immigrants engage in a diversity of socio-economic activities, ranging from being entrepreneurs to civil society advocates). In all of these roles, they make important contributions to society.

Diversification also plays out geographically: recent studies on newly arrived migrants in the UK have shown that the preponderance to concentrate in the South/Southeast of England is less noticeable today than in the 1990s and more migrants now reside and work in smaller towns and rural countries of the UK, including Wales. These changes can also be observed with regard to internal migration which show a reverse trend from rural-to-urban involving increasingly urban to rural flows. All of these changes pose new challenges as well as opportunities to local communities, regional and national governments as well as to the im/migrants themselves.

 

Projects

Gender and labour migration: an Asian perspective

Immigrant enterprise

Migration and labour market differences in Wales

Urban-rural migration

Temporary Migration, integration and the role of Policies (TEMPO)

 

Publications

Ball, R.E. and Piper, N (2001) ‘Globalisation of Asian Migrant Labour: The Philippine-Japan Connection', Journal of Contemporary Asia 31(4), 533-554

Clark, K and Drinkwater, S. (2010), "Recent Trends in Minority Ethnic Entrepreneurship in the UK", International Small Business Journal, 28, 136-146.

Clark, K. and Drinkwater, S. (2010), "Patterns of Ethnic Self-Employment in Time and Space: Evidence from British Census Microdata", Small Business Economics, 34, 323-328.

Clark, K. and Drinkwater, S. (2009), "Dynamics and Diversity: Ethnic Employment Differences in England and Wales, 1991-2001", Research in Labor Economics, 29, 299-333.

Clark, K. and Drinkwater, S. (2009), "The Labour Market Impact of Recent Immigration on Ethnic Groups in the UK", Nordic Journal of Political Economy, 35, Article 4.

Clark, K. and Drinkwater, S. (2009) 'Immigrant self-employment adjustment: ethnic groups in the UK', International Journal of Manpower, 30(1):  163-175.

Drinkwater, S  and Garapich, M. (2011), Using Survey Data to Identify Migration Patterns WISERD Methods Briefing 001

Drinkwater, S., Levine, P. and Lotti, E. (2009) 'The labour market and investment effects of remittances', in S. Ghatak and P. Levine (eds), Development Macroeconomics, Routledge, London,

Drinkwater, S and Blackaby, D (2004) ‘Migration and labour market difference: the case of Wales’, University of Surrey Discussion Papers in Economics  DP06/04

Eade, J, Drinkwater, S. and Garapich, M. (2009) 'Poles apart? EU enlargement and the labour market outcomes of immigrants in the UK', International Migration,  47(1): 161-190.

Halfacree, K. (2004) ‘A utopian imagination in migration’s terra incognita? Acknowledging the non-economic worlds of migration decision-making’, Population, Space and Place 10, 239-253

Panayiotopoulos, P. (2008) Turkish immigrant entrepreneurs in the European Union: a political-institutional approach,  International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 14(6): 395-414     PDF version can be downloaded here:   Turkish entrepreneurs EU 2008

Panayiotopoulos, P. (2007) Turkish Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the European Union’, in K. Hafeez, D. McEvoy and A. Keoy (eds) Changing Faces of Ethnic Entrepreneurship, The University of Bradford School of Management: Centre for Ethnic Entrepreneurship

Panayiotopoulos, P (2006) Immigrant Enterprise in Europe and the USA, London: Routledge

Panayiotopoulos, P.  (2005) 'The globalisation of care: Filipina domestic workers and care for the elderly in Cyprus', Capital and Class 88, 1-36  PDF version can be downloaded here:  The globalisation of care 2005

Piper, N. (2010) 'Temporary Economic Migration and Rights Activism - an organisational perspective', in: Ethnic and Racial Studies, Special Issue on Mobilization of Migrants and Minorities, guest-edited by John Solomos and Davide Peron, issue no. 1, pp. 1-33

Piper, N (2003) ‘Wife or worker? Worker or wife? Marriage and cross-border migration in contemporary Japan’, International Journal for Population Geography 9 (6), 457-469

Piper, N and Roces, M (eds) (2003) Wife or Worker? Asian Women and Migration, Boulder/Colorado: Rowan & Littlefield