UK employers prefer to appoint migrant workers for low-skilled, low-waged jobs, rather than reluctant, ‘lazy’ UK nationals, a new study has revealed.

Employers in the construction, hospitality and agricultural sectors, interviewed as part of a Joseph Rowntree Foundation survey, said they preferred the reliability and ‘work ethic’ of migrant workers for low-waged jobs as opposed to UK nationals who were often perceived as ‘lazy’, the survey found.

As many as 75 per cent of employers said they felt European enlargement had been good for business, with migrant workers prepared to carryout jobs under conditions many UK nationals found unacceptable. Employers also said they found it hard to attract UK workers even when pay and non-wage benefits were increased.

The survey - published on the second anniversary of European enlargement, also International Workers Day, 1 May - was conducted both before and after EU enlargement. It interviewed over a thousand UK employers and migrant workers from four accession countries: Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, and from two non-accession countries, the Ukraine and Bulgaria.

Before EU enlargement, survey results suggested migrants worked for relatively low earnings and longer basic hours than the occupational average, and many had no paid holiday, sick leave or written contracts. Many workers had skills significantly above those required for their job and none of the migrants interviewed belonged to a trade union.

The majority of respondents were legally resident in the UK although some were working in breach of their immigration status. Almost 50 per cent of migrants illegally resident or working in violation of conditions were paying national insurance.

However, after EU enlargement, 71 per cent of nationals from accession countries felt their lives had changed as a result, and 28 per cent said working conditions had improved, with 59 per cent felt it was easier to find work.

In the comparison group of non-accession migrants - Bulgarians and Ukrainians - interviewed, 64 per cent said they felt it was harder to keep their job and 85 per cent said it was harder to find work. As many as 30 per cent claimed work conditions had deteriorated.

Employers were also found to prefer employing particular nationalities for particular jobs, regardless of immigration status.

Lead researcher Dr Bridget Anderson said: “Many migrant workers tolerated low-skilled work and poor conditions because the pay was significantly better than the wages in their own countries. Sometimes they put up with negative aspects of their jobs in order to learn English or because conditions were only temporary.”

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