Original Letter to
The Rt. Hon. Hazel Blears,
Secretary of State,
Department for Communities and Local Government
Eland House,
Bressenden Place,
London SW1E 5DU
Dear Secretary of State,
As President of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, the umbrella organization representing Polish social and cultural organizations in the UK, I would like to convey to you our growing concern at the way the immigration debate is deteriorating in this country. I would also like to suggest how the Government could alleviate that tension.
The negative nature of the immigration debate is conducive to a growing social tension between different communities in this country. This has manifested itself in an increasing number of hate crimes recorded by the police against Polish nationals and fellow central Europeans, particularly in Britain's rural areas and small provincial towns. At the same time many Central European workers remain exploited as cheap labour earning less than the minimum wage, especially those employed by gang masters and by recruitment agencies. They are deprived of basic health insurance and live in overcrowded accommodation. Tension increases too as a growing number of indigenous workers complain that they are losing employment prospects in their own country because of unfair competition from cheaper migrant labour from Central Europe and this could get even worse in case of a downturn in the economy. Recently journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown explained this phenomenon by stating "that Poles are the new blacks".
The Federation, which includes organizations from both the old post-war Polish community as well a number of dynamic new organizations set up by recent Polish arrivals in the UK, believe that the Government decision in 2004 to open up the UK labour market to workers from A8 countries was a courageous one. It was also the correct decision. The large intake of A8 visitors (amongst whom Poles were the most significant statistically) have made a lasting contribution to the British economy with a welcome annual increase of £4 billion in the gross national product, a boost in revenues and a temporary slowing down in the rate of inflation. Demographically it has rejuvenated an ageing population and helped the British economy to grow.
Initially the reaction of the public and the media was positive and, despite a lot of bad or tendentious publicity, recent surveys show that up to half of the indigenous population still sees the arrival of our countrymen as largely beneficial. In contrast a vehement minority of British people, especially those unemployed or reliant on social benefit, remain hostile to the Polish presence. This hostility often appears to be exacerbated by journalists, publications and organizations with a political agenda, aimed against immigration, Europe and your government policies.
There was always going to be a downside to the new migrations in the form of a social cost. Yet the sheer numbers of those arriving have made this cost more than the Government expected. Although initially 80% of the new arrivals were young and single, with time, inevitably, the new migrants have set up families with children, require better housing and adequate health provision. Some inevitably are made redundant after several years and find themselves on unemployment benefit. Now the local government authorities, the primary care trusts, police authorities and GP surgeries in the pinch-point areas like East Anglia and the Home Counties, where there was a much larger number of the new arrivals, have begun to complain about a lack of adequate financial resources exceeding even the amount paid by the new residents through Council Tax. The Local Government Association have made a genuine plea on behalf of all local authorities for more financial support from central Government to cope with all new arrivals, whether EU or non-EU.
The Federation was sure that this potential conflict over resources and the debate around it could be adequately resolved by relying on accurate statistical data. Unfortunately government statistics, particularly the initial underestimation of the new intake in 2004, but also data that is based on the Worker Registration Scheme, have so far proved so unreliable that the population at large is distrusting any new Government pronouncements on immigration. The public is increasingly aware for instance that much of the information on employment and immigration springs from the Labour Force Survey and the International Passenger Survey, both of which are not based on concrete total figures, but merely extrapolate their figures from an analysis of pilot samples. Statistics cited by local government and those by national government often do not agree, leaving a vital gap in the population figures for each municipality and district.
Consequently, according to the LGA, there appears to be a serious shortfall in central government grants to many local governments. This verbal conflict over vital resources between two branches of government is being conducted publicly in the media. This leaves the government even more exposed to criticism from those who have always wanted to prevent the arrival of Central Europeans and it allows pressure groups like Migrationwatch UK to set the agenda on this debate. We fear that Polish visitors are becoming a political football between national and local governments and a whipping boy for attacks on the Government by hostile media outlets which are a main contributory factor to the increasingly visible rise in social tension in relation to Central Europeans. It is easy to blame the media or extremist organizations for this but the lack of reliable data makes it difficult to make debate on this topic rational.
We are concerned for instance that, in the case of Government statistics for London boroughs, the DWP statistics for uptake of national insurance registration in the years 2002 to 2006 do not correlate geographically with Home Office statistics for worker registration for the same period. The first shows Ealing and Brent as the boroughs with the largest concentration of Polish nationals, while the latter shows Westminster and Camden as having by far the largest concentration. Local government statistics on Polish nationals placed on the election register and Polish-speaking children at local schools seems to indicate that the DWP figures are more reliable than the Home Office ones. However in these circumstances, how can we now trust either figure? How are the local authorities supposed to budget on the strength of these separate conflicting data?
Accurate statistics are important so that local authorities can prepare appropriate plans with appropriate budgets to cope with the required level of provision in education, social housing, social services, library facilities, consumer protection and staff recruitment with relevant language skills. Similarly police authorities and health services have to prepare the appropriate language facilities. Private industry would also benefit from accurate statistics in order to target specific consumers. The Polish community organizations themselves would also be better aware, given proper statistics, where it would be advantageous to set up new or else expand existing parishes, Saturday schools, mobile library services and newspaper distribution. Obviously we are aware where new Polish communities have suddenly arisen or increased in size but the true extent of that change is often not realized until it can be confirmed by reliable Government statistics.
In view of this we would like to propose that the Government take the following steps to recover confidence in their current policy of integration of A8 nationals, to ease social tension and to encourage an informed public debate:
1/ For the time being, bring back the registering of those leaving the country as well as those entering it. Poles are constantly commuting between Poland and the UK. Only when the true number of A8 nationals leaving the country is recorded as well as those arriving (or returning) will public fears about being "swamped" by Central European migrants be allayed.
2/ Bring forward the National Census to 2009, speed up the publication of its more vital statistics and hold it every 5 years instead of 10. The Census is the one institution which retains the confidence of the public as a reliable source of information, but the administration of this great lumbering colossus of information normally takes 3 to 5 years to publish its findings by which time some of the information is out of date. For example, the current census details for 2001 show only 60,000 UK residents born in Poland when we expect the true figure to be more than 10 times that. Migration movements worldwide in the age of cheap air travel and the Schengen agreement makes any information of this nature outdated very quickly. Only a Census held every 5 years would be of value to planners, politicians and community groups. The earlier you promise the people of Britain a new census the quicker you will restore public confidence.
3/ Introduce legislation that will oblige recruitment agencies to pay their workers a minimum wage and to allow them the right to join trade unions. By recruiting A8 workers as union members and seeking proper working conditions and pay for them the trade unions are playing a vital and positive role in protecting the rights and working conditions of indigenous British workers. This right should be encouraged and extended to those employed by recruitment agencies.
4/ Ensure that each local education authority offers free 6 month English lessons and induction classes on life in Britain to all A8 workers who are registered for national insurance and wish to learn English.
5/ Abolish the Worker Registration Scheme for A8 workers as it has served its initial purpose but is now a restrictive and expensive bureaucratic burden on both employers and employees, limits the flexibility of workers in changing jobs and no longer serves any statistical or legislative purpose. At the same time ensure compliance of registering for national insurance for all EU nationals seeking employment here.
6/ Offer higher central government support grants to those local authorities who can show more than 2000 A8 nationals on their electoral register and more than 300 children on their school rolls who have an A8 language as their primary language. The actual threshold levels are debateable but this kind of target will encourage local election registration officers to enfranchise as many EU citizens as possible in order to obtain the necessary extra resources for the relative council authority to cope with the increase in population and provision of extra school places and induction courses.
7/ Facilitate the registration of A8 nationals with GP surgeries. Many surgeries bureaucratically require proof of residence through presentation of utility invoices. If banks can register people solely on their ID cards and a record of registration on the electoral register, the same requirements should be adequate for GPs. At present many A8 nationals who are not registered with local doctors turn up for treatment at A&E departments and thus swamp the hospital services unnecessarily.
8/ Ensure a greater Central European input into the work of the newly formed Commission for Equality and Human Rights, the Electoral Commission and any bodies or boards of inquiry which are to investigate the impact of migration in this country. The Polish community has a long history since 1945 of integrating into British society without losing their cultural identity and has much experience to contribute to the debate and decision-making on immigration and integration.
9/ Fund an information campaign for A8 nationals here and in their country of origin about their rights and obligations in this country. In our case, you could give us financial support in producing and distributing a fourth edition of our popular leaflet "Jak żyć i pracować w Wielkiej Brytanii" which informs Polish visitors how to live, work and integrate in the UK.
10/ Encourage teaching about Central European cultures and values in schools as you have done with other statistically significant racial and national minorities in this country. This could reduce intra-community tension and bullying in schools and encourage Polish and other Central European families to participate more fully in the life and work of the community at large.
As the Federation of Poles in Great Britain is not a political organization we wish to avoid taking sides in any debate on migration which follow specifically party political lines. We prefer that the debate and the solutions are reached in a spirit of compromise and common sense and are based on reliable statistics. This is in the interests of both the indigenous population and the new arrivals from the A8 countries. We also insist that any debate about the presence of Poles in this country should not be conducted without an input from the Polish community itself.
We thank you for your attention and we would be pleased to discuss these matters with yourself or your colleagues in more detail if you should so wish.
Yours sincerely,
Jan Mokrzycki
President
ZPWB
