Community building

Carlisle City Council Community Overview & Scrutiny Committee (O&S) has formed a Task and Finish Group to carry out a subject review looking at the issues and opportunities for migrant workers in the District. This is closely linked to the Policy and Performance Team’s current review of the Council’s Race Equality Scheme. The first meeting of the group is set to take place on Monday 3 December at 10.00am in Flensburg Room at the Civic Centre and is open to the public.

As part of an innovative approach, O&S Members considered it was important to co-opt someone with close links to a section of the migrant workers community onto the task and finish group. This person was Larysa Samuels who has close links to the Russian community and is doing research into the settlement of Eastern European migrants in Cumbria.

Additionally to further involve community groups a number have been asked to get involved in some evidence sessions. Witnesses from these various organisations will be more able to work with O&S Members in an informal way, with migrant workers being directly involved in discussions with Members. The first batch of evidence sessions will take place on Monday 3 December, with groups including Voluntary Action Cumbria, Citizens Advice, The Law Centre and Father Greg Turner amongst others participating.

The issues being examined by the Task and Finish Group are complex and varied, including housing, communication, community cohesion / discrimination and employment opportunities. For example from an employment perspective issues could include:

• the potential to exploit migrant workers through poor wages and conditions;
• migrant workers are often over-qualified for the jobs they are doing;
• concern over the unemployment levels;
• downward pressure on wage levels;
• as new migrants have limited entitlement to benefits, any migrant who fails to find a job or loses a job at short notice can become homeless and destitute.

Since 2004, as more countries have joined the European Union, there has been an influx of workers from the new accession states to the UK, with a significant number coming to Cumbria to work, including several hundred now living and working in Carlisle. Nationally, the proportion of the workforce that is comprised of foreign nationals has risen from 3.5% in 1996 to 6% in 2006. Over the last 18 months, an estimated 2000 migrant workers have come to work in Cumbria. The two largest groups of migrant workers in Carlisle come originally from Poland and Portugal.

This trend of increasing numbers of migrant workers is starting to change the make-up of the community and, of course, this is a continuing trend – migrant workers are continuing to come to Carlisle. Until recently, Carlisle has been an area with relatively little ethnic and cultural diversity. For instance, the 2001 Census showed that just 2.2% of Carlisle’s population came from an ethnic minority. As the number of migrant workers from the new EU accession states continues to increase, this brings new issues and opportunities for the city.

Quotes

Cllr James Bainbridge Chair of the Task and Finish Group said,

‘’this task and finish group has been set up to examine some of the many issues affecting migrant workers. There are often myths and rumours about migrant workers but we hope that by talking to people, we will be able to establish a more balanced picture of their positive contribution to the local economy and community. Just as importantly, we will also look at the needs of migrant workers and how we, as public authorities, can best meet those needs – for example, whether we should be making any changes to the services we provide or the way we communicate about those services.

We are thrilled to be able as part of our study to have representation from the community itself in Larysa, and we are all looking forward to getting on with the task at hand."