Anyone who lives in London or an urban area will be subliminally aware that the last decade or so has brought an increase in immigration to the UK: it’s evident in the shops and services, the languages we hear on the street or on public transport, and of course on construction sites.
But looking at the data from the Labour Force Survey by the government’s Office of National Statistics brings a jolt of surprise: 16.5% of the working population in the UK is “foreign born”, up from 13.5% in 2010. Of course, that includes anyone born overseas, including people who have lived in the UK for decades and are naturalised citizens. According to Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, the percentage of the workforce who were “foreign citizens” in 2013 was 9.3%, up from 3.5% in 1993.
The number of overseas workers in construction – although high in absolute terms due to the size of the industry – is certainly no higher as a proportion of the workforce than in other major employment sectors. In 2014, 11% of NHS workers were foreign citizens, rising to 14% of clinically qualified staff and 26% of hospital doctors.
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And according to the Migration Observatory, in 2013 construction did not feature in the top 10 industries with the highest proportion of foreign-born workers. The top five were: manufacture of food products 37.4%; manufacture of wearing apparel 33.8%; domestic personnel 31.2%; accommodation 27.8%; food and beverage sector 27.1%.
In CM’s look at the subject, and also in the recent CIOB Perspectives report, it comes across that construction migration is both deeply embedded in the way we operate, and intrinsically linked to our free-market economy. In other words, if there was a political will to “do something” to reduce this, it would go against decades of policies towards liberalising markets – which also opened up overseas export markets for the UK industry.
What if, though, there were moves to ring-fence more jobs for UK workers? Recent efforts to boost training and apprenticeships are having some effect, but there’s unlikely to be a major shift while the industry is made up of long chains of SMEs that are weakly positioned to offer both training and long-term career progression.
So should it be the industry’s goal to change this structure, to cut the value of subcontracted work from 80% of projects’ value, to perhaps 50%? Again, it’s hard to see that happening: not when we have a nation that prizes entrepreneurship and self-direction, competition and innovation.
On construction migration, employment patterns and UK skills training, we are dealing with global phenomena and deep structural issues rather than problems that will be immediately responsive to “initiatives”. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we shouldn’t do everything in our power to boost our home-grown skills. Just that, instead of beating ourselves up when it’s difficult, we should recognise the true nature of the problems. And also, that we should be loudly celebrating the successes we do achieve.
Elaine Knutt, editor
