THE EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS OF BEING A MIGRANT IN BRITAIN
Other routes also contribute to the supply of labour. Migrants here as a result of family migration (that is, the migrant dependants of British citizens, those with permanent residence status, work permit holders and students) have the right to work and need to be considered as part of the potential labour supply. Higher levels of skilled labour migration and of students have resulted in larger numbers of dependants who have the right to work. It is estimated that about half of work permit holders have dependants, of whom half again work (so about 25 per cent of the number of work permit holders needs to be added to the numbers who are able to work) (UKBA, 2008a). Such family members (spouses, children and parents) form the largest group granted settlement status. Students are also growing in number. Though generally only spending a few years in the country, some remain for longer and settle either through seeking work at the end of their degree and/or marrying a permanent resident or citizen. The Scottish Fresh Talent initiative launched in 2005 has in particular encouraged students to remain. To date, 8,000 students have remained in Scotland after the completion of their studies (personal communication). Table 1.2 indicates the numbers of migrants entering the UK through the main routes – labour, family and students. It does not include European Economic Area migrants exercising treaty rights (including those coming from non-accession countries to work, and accession country self-employed), or those who should appear but do not register their presence officially (A8 unregistered workers and other irregular migrants). The Highly Skilled Migrant Programme was replaced on 30 June 2008 by tier 1 designated for the highly skilled who do not need to have pre-arranged employment. The work permit scheme was replaced by tier 2 on 27 November 2008. A fuller discussion of these changes and breakdown of migrants in these categories can be found in Chapter 2. In addition to those who are authorised to reside and work in the UK, we should include among new migrants substantial numbers of irregular migrants (see Chapter 6), about whom there have been few studies and for whom it is obviously difficult to give reliable statistics (Wright and McKay, 2007; Farrant et al, 2006). Estimates accepted by the Home Office vary between 310,000 and 570,000 irregular migrants, who primarily work in less skilled sectors such as agriculture, care, cleaning, construction, domestic work, hotel and catering, and textiles.
8