| Scottish Economic Research (SER), based at the university’s Dundee Business School, will study their impact in agriculture, food and drink manufacturing, construction, tourism and other industries, as well as the public sector.
Researchers will endeavour to gauge the importance of the foreign workforce to local businesses and the regional economy.
Recent Home Office figures suggest that just over 10,000 workers from the new EU accession countries registered to work in Scotland between May 2004 and March 2005. That is around 6% of the overall total of 165,000 who came to the UK in that time.
What isn’t known, and what the project hopes to identify, is the number of workers who made their homes in Tayside.
SER director Neil McGregor explained, “Tayside has long been the destination of workers from other parts of the world — particularly those who have come here to work on the farms in the summer months.
“With countries like Poland and the Czech Republic recently joining the European Union, this source of potential labour has increased dramatically.”
With sponsorship from Scottish Enterprise Tayside, Communities Scotland, Angus Council and Perth and Kinross Council, SER has written to nearly 2000 local employers with a brief survey to gather initial data.
As well as estimating the size of the migrant workforce in the area, the research also aims to identify why employers are recruiting from overseas and the impact the foreign workers have on housing, health and other services.
It is understood, for instance, that the construction industry in Tayside has had to start employing overseas tradesmen because of a shortage of skilled workers locally.
However, the project will also highlight the experiences of the migrant workers during their time here.
Mr McGregor added, “We certainly believe that the study can make a positive contribution to local businesses, communities and the migrant workers themselves.” |
