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Low-Skilled Employment in a New Immigration Regime: Challenges and Opportunities for Business Transitions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Anne Green
Anne Green*
Affiliation:
City-REDI, University of Birmingham
*
E-mail: A.E.Green.1@bham.ac.uk
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Abstract

In an era of free movement UK employers have had ready access to a supply of labour from the European Union to fill low-skilled jobs. This has enabled them to adopt business models, operating within broader supply chains, that take advantage of this source of labour and the flexibility that many migrant workers – especially those who are new arrivals to the UK – are prepared to offer them. Drawing mainly on evidence from employers on the role of migrant workers in selected sectors with a substantial proportion of low-skilled jobs, this article explores the challenges and opportunities they face in transitioning to a new post-Brexit immigration regime.

Keywords

business modelflexibilityimmigrationmigrant workerlow-skilled employmentJ61J68R58
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 248 , May 2019 , pp. R17 - R27
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

This article draws on research undertaken with IFF Research commissioned by the Construction Industry Training Board and also research for the Migration Advisory Committee undertaken with Gaby Atfield, Teresa Staniewicz, Duncan Adam and Beate Baldauf.

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