‘Negotiating the Recession: Polish Migrants in post Celtic Tiger Ireland’

1. ‘Negotiating the Recession: Polish Migrants in post Celtic Tiger Ireland’ Labour Market Vulnerability, Precarious Work and Migrant Worker in the Economic Downturn Queen Mary University of London 16 November 2011 Dr Elaine Moriarty and JustynaSalamońska Trinity College Dublin

2. Overview • Migrant Careers and Aspirations • Migrant workers in a recession – precarious turn from boom to bust • Migration and Social welfare in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland • Portability of welfare rights in the new Europe

3. Migrant Careers and Aspirations • Core: Qualitative Panel Study (2008-2010) • 22 Polish migrants interviewed in 6 waves (132 inters) • 10 female and 12 male; aged between 22 and 38; majority 3rd level education • Participants in various occupational positions in 4 sectors: construction, hospitality, software and financial services • Labour force survey (QNHS carried out by the CSO)

4. Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and immigration • Immigration into Ireland slowed down recently (e.g. 94,000 PPS numbers issued to Poles in 2006; but less than 9,000 in 2010) • Also, some outflows of NMS migrants, but not on a mass scale. Stocks from peak 216,000 (2008, Q1) to 170,000 (2011, Q2) • Ireland badly hit by recession; unemployment increased from 5% (2004) to 14.3% (2011, Q2) • Migrants, especially from NMS, more affected by downturn: 19.4% out of work compared to 13.9% of Irish workers (2011, Q2) • NMS employment loss 2008-10: Construction over 60%; Manufacturing 23%; Retail 30% • Employment rate of NMS migrants falls from 84% (2006, Q1) to 66% (2011, Q2)

5. Non-Irish Nationals on Live Register (2008-2011) Source: Central Statistics Office, 2011

6. NMS migrant workers in a recession As shown, so far limited evidence of migrant outflows This is reflected in our QPS where only 6 have left Ireland, mainly for Poland, continental Europe, America Most participants across sectors reported an intensification of work longer working hours extension of work duties They also reported employers favouring a ‘return of the Irish’ use of ‘flexible’ contracts’ use of redundancy options supported by the state

7. Greater sense of insecurity ‘I feel good in this job [as a Restaurant Floor Manager]. The cooperation with people that I work with is excellent. The atmosphere at work is simply great. I feel like I’m at home here…I think that I would be still satisfied working here in a few years time’ (W1). ‘There is a bit of a different attitude towards work. Everybody is more afraid…a time of waiting that something will happen…They [restaurant owner and manager] are not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow’ (W3). ‘Well, the tension [at work] is kind of stronger. You know, people earn less and so on…In fact I am thinking about looking for something else…At the moment this company is a sinking ship’ (W6). (Lukas, 29, Hospitality)

8. Deteriorating work conditions ‘They are trying to get more and more out of us…Before [the recession] we had a norm of installing 50 plates per day. And now it is 70 per day…If you are asking too many questions…then he [the boss] will simply tell you that you are the fixer and you will get fired’ (W4) ‘You know, he cannot humiliate me like that…I would end up going to a doctor. Because seriously, I had those moments [when I thought] that I would go to a psychiatrist, because I couldn’t cope here. I was actually taking anti-anxiety pills’ (W5) (Wiktor, 31, Construction)

9. Migration and Social Welfare in post Celtic Tiger Ireland • It is clear from the QPS interviews that welfare benefits did not feature in the initial migration decision (Kvist, 2004) • For those migrants who do lose their job, social welfare arrangements offer some protection. ‘You can always get…I wouldn’t want to…but you can get the benefit here, the one for the unemployed. So it gives you some survival’ (Marek).

10. Migration and the Irish welfare state “habitually resident …is intended to convey a degree of permanence evidenced by a regular physical presence enduring for some time…and intended to continue … the foreseeable future” “A person’s main centre of interest would normally be in the country in which s/he has lived all his/her life and has his/her home and family. This may be maintained even where a person lives and works for a period of time in another country” Dept of Social and Family Affairs (2009)

11. Portability of welfare rights in the new Europe • While welfare states are still regulated primarily at the national level, there is a growing European-wide dimension to welfare rights (Kvist, 2004) • Transnational dimension of welfare rights: ‘Before I left Ireland, I finally got the social [Job Seekers Benefit]…I collected all of the documents three weeks before leaving…You can move it for three months. It is very beneficial…if you are going back to Poland then you are entitled to it…it is lots of money for Polish conditions’(Pawel)

12. Conclusion • Researching migration at micro level demonstrates a diverse set of experiences of the recession • The recession has seen work conditions and security of employment diminish greatly • We suggest that there was already an attempt to qualify EU social rights with the introduction of ‘HRC’ at time of accession. • The ‘crisis’ has helped to facilitate the further rolling back of social rights by emphasizing ‘centre of interest’. • In effect we argue that these social policy adjustments attempt to reassert the notion that people live in one place. However, the reality of EU mobility undermines this.