ISS

Instytut Studiów Społecznych Institute for Social Studies

Uniwersytet Warszawski * Warsaw Universtiy

Seria: PRACE MIGRACYJNE, nr 54

Polish undocumented immigrants,

regular high-skilled workers and
entrepreneurs in the UK

Franck Düvell

Maj 2004
_______________________________________________________
ISS is affiliated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
 Ośrodek Badań nad Migracjami
Instytut Studiów Społecznych UW
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00–183 Warszawa
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www.iss.uw.edu.pl
issinfo@samba.iss.uw.edu.pl

Seria: PRACE MIGRACYJNE, nr 54

Polish undocumented immigrants,

regular high-skilled workers
and entrepreneurs in the UK
A comparative analysis of migration patterns,
strategies and identity processes

Franck Düvell*

© Copyright by Instytut Studiów Społecznych UW

maj 2004
2

Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3
1. Polish migration and the Polish community in a historical perspective ................................ 3
2. Methodologies and fieldwork................................................................................................. 5
3. Immigration and stay strategies.............................................................................................. 6
3.1. Polish undocumented immigrants ................................................................................... 6
3.2. Polish business visa holders .......................................................................................... 13
3.3. Polish work permit holders ........................................................................................... 14
4. The immigrants’ identities ................................................................................................... 17
5. Comparison and conclusion ................................................................................................. 21
References: ............................................................................................................................... 26

* Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies/European University Institute;

University of Bremen

email: fduvell@uni-bremen.de
 3

Introduction

In Britain, for ten years, the topic of 'illegal immigration' ranks high on the political
agenda. It is mostly associated with illegal entry of asylum seekers, frequently peaking in
'moral panics', or with rejected asylum applicants 'going underground' but less with 'illegal
working'. In fact, a thriving and in the same time deregulated economy provides for large-
scale shadow activities, and the politics of entrepreneurial freedom that objects too much
interferences in business activities allows immigrants of any status to make their living by
undocumented working and represents an incentive to chose Britain in the first instance.
And an immigration enforcement authority that is low-staffed, and, in order to respect non-
discriminatory policies, only keeps a low profile and by prioritising asylum seekers
otherwise expresses a 'laissez faire' policy in most other areas. Meanwhile, one can observe
a new approach in British immigration policy, that appreciates the positive economic and
social contributions of immigrants to society, opens up new channels for migration not at
least in order to regulate migration flows and to prevent immigrants from turning to illegal
strategies.
The following contribution presents some findings from two consecutive qualitative
research projects into regular and undocumented immigrant workers in the United
Kingdom1. Both have been pioneering in several ways. The first study into Polish and
Turkish undocumented immigrant workers in London was conducted between 1997 and
1999 and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); the second study
into Polish and Indian undocumented immigrant workers and work permit holders in
Britain2 was funded under the EC fifth framework programme3. The similar design of both
projects allowed to identity shifting immigrants' strategies, and to compare documented and
undocumented immigrant workers.

1. Polish migration and the Polish community in a historical perspective

Central and East European including Polish immigration is nothing new to Britain, it
goes back to the times of the ‘Great European Emigration’ (Hoerder and Knauf 1992). Such
immigrants, about 120.000 predominantly Russian Jews (Lipman 1954, Rees 1978, Holmes
1982) have been absorbed into British society as many others were before, such as
Huguenots or Germans. It needs to be remembered that it was East European and Jewish
immigration that sparked off the first anti-immigration campaign in modern Britain resulting
in the first immigration restrictions in 1905 (Layton-Henry 1989). In social geography
places such as London’s East End (Whitechapel), West End (Chelsea) or Cheethill in
Manchester are associated with ‘old’ East European migration. Polish post-war immigration
followed the traces of the exiled London-based Polish government during the Russian-
German occupation. The core were 120.000 members of different Polish units within the
allied armed forces also identified with anti-communism and anti-Russian ideologies.
Another 20.000 to 30.000 immigrants were mainly Ukrainian prisoners of war and some

1
These studies have been jointly conducted by Bill Jordan and Franck Düvell, both University of Exeter
2
Does implementation matter? Informal administration practices and shifting immigrant strategies in four member states –
IAPASIS, for all reports see www.iue.it/RSCAS/Research/IAPASIS/Index.html
3
'Improving the human research potential and the socio-economic knowledge base'
4

Balts fleeing the Russian occupation (Harris 1987). And also amongst the 350.000
immigrants from the European Volunteer Workers scheme many were Poles (Miles and Kay
1990). These were treated as a desirable and wanted replacement population, the
government took any measure to integrate these immigrants into the British society (CAB
1946, Rees 1978). Although meanwhile perfectly absorbed in parts of London and
Manchester there still exist an infrastructure of social amenities such as ethnic shops,
cultural centres and churches serving the particular customs of that group.
New Polish immigration to the UK relates to post-war processes, but has its own causes
and needs to be seen as a separate movement. Only when the communist years of isolation
from the West came to an end there was an increasing flow of illegal emigration in the
1980’s, mainly of educated, prime-age citizens, and mainly to Germany (Okólski 1996).
From 1980, the time of the military coup, one can also notice a small stream of asylum
applicants into the UK counting for 2.900 applications between 1986 and 1996 peaking in
1995, when asylum applications in general were at its highest (Refugee Council 1997).
That led to the current situation of Polish travel and migration to the UK and represents a
fourth separate process, which is related to the break-up up the Eastern bloc (Castles and
Miller 1993). But only 2 per cent of the one million Polish regular migrants annually go
elsewhere than Germany, USA or Canada, hence only a very small proportion comes to the
UK (Okólski 1996). On the other hand, Polish nationals currently have either been identified
by the Immigration Service Enforcement Directorate for its illegal strategies or, as most
recently by Work Permit UK as a noticeable group. In 1996, Polish nationals came third
amongst those being identified for illegal entry (Hansard, 19.12.1996). In 1998, East
Europeans counted for 10 % of the cases of the Immigration Service Enforcement
Directorate office we have been studying. In general, they are perceived as a group easy to
deal with, “we find that the Poles, Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, they tend to be sort of very
co-operative, …they will actually be able to be removed within a day or two” (ISED 6
1998). Regarding legal immigration a Work Permit UK’s manager stated “Poland at the
moment, I think I’ve seen a lot of applications for Poles coming over” (WP UK 18, 2000).
Poles are amongst the 63.000 ‘Other Europe’ category of foreign nationals living and
working in the UK, more detailed data is not yet available (Salt and Clark 2001).
The latest census counted the figure of Polish-born residence with 74.000, however, that
figure does not give any reliable indication of the number of Polish nationals or Polish-born
residents in the UK (OPCS 1991). Whilst the ‘old’ Polish community is identified with
Chelsea and other West London boroughs, the settlement of newcomers is associated with
North and East London (Camden, Islington, Newham and Barking) (Düvell 1998).
Media coverage occasionally focuses on irregular Polish workers in service,
construction, food processing and agriculture (Channel 4, Panorama 30.9.1998 and again
7.10.1998). The stereotypes that such reports transmit are those of a group of migrants
identified with irregular work but otherwise nothing-to-worry about nationality.
From the economic boom in the 1970s well into present days British economy
developed some economic links with Poland initially in coal and steel trade, later followed
by textile and food processing. Meanwhile, the UK is Poland’s fifth largest trade partner and
comes sixth in foreign direct investments (EBRD 2001, PAIZ 2000). This also developed
into some political-cultural links. Although chain migration occurred within each historical
cycle there are no hints for chain migration between the main three distinct migration
cycles. Only the third and fourth phase in the 1980s and 1990s could include such features,
 5

but no research is available on that. Such features and our previous research rather indicate
the potential for the development of a historically, culturally, politically and economically
based migration system (Sassen 1996, Stalker 2000) and of migration networks (Boyd 1989,
Fawcett 1989).

2. Methodologies and fieldwork

By and large, the project applied qualitative empirical and analytical methods, such as
narrative interviews, game theory and identity theory (Oakes et al. 1994). It follows another
pioneering work (Jordan and Vogel 1997), that identified a range of 'accounts' and
'repertoires' used by migrants to conceptualise their decisions.
A Polish interviewer conducted all interviewees with undocumented migrants, with the
business visa applicants and with a work permit holders, though most work permit holders
have been interviewed by the researcher. The interviewer has had access to Polish
immigrants in East London through her employment as a health advocate and translator for
a solicitor firm. But also a Polish priest had been approached and churches and other
meeting places visited to identify interviewees. In this way, several key agencies and key
persons in community have been relevant to identify initial interviewees (Biernacki and
Waldorf 1981). Further interviewees had been identified through snowball sampling.
Furthermore, quotas have been specified to ensure the inclusion of key theoretical variables
such as age, gender, immigration status, and length of residence (Stein 1981; Leiberson
1996). In that the methodology follows the concept of theoretical sampling. The
combination of gatekeepers and quotas, an approach which has been used successfully by
others (Bloch 1996), ensured first, that the data collected is more rigorous than is usually the
case with research with refugees and asylum seekers and second, that the patterns which
emerge from the data are more meaningful in particular to the Polish undocumented migrant
workers population as a whole.
However, after six month of using every contact it proved to be unsuccessful to identify
Polish work permit holders, these were not known to anybody within these immigrant
networks. At the point of realising that work permit holders cannot be identified by the
usual strategy it was decided to seek the assistance of Work Permit UK. A process was
agreed on to establish contacts between the researchers and businesses and their Polish work
permit holders. The mechanism chosen was that Work Permit UK would randomly choose
their data base for a numbers of businesses to ask them for approval in co-operation in this
matter. This was necessary to operate in conjunction with Data Protection Act and rules of
confidentiality, which restricts the passing on of applicants’ data on to third parties. About
half of the businesses replied, and agreed to take part in the research. Thus four Polish work
permit holders have been identified and another one through chain referral. They were
working for separate businesses, mostly outside London in small towns identified with the
UK’s booming IT and service industry.
The sample consists of 25 interviews conducted in 1998 and 10 interviews conducted in
2001. Regarding immigration status, of the 35 Polish interviewees, 28 have been
undocumented, four have been work permit holders and three business visa applicants.
However, Poles show a considerable degree of status switching. Additionally, nine of the
Poles kept coming and going, four made several trips. Polish interviewees are equally
distributed in both sexes.
6

3. Immigration and stay strategies

As we learned from previous research Polish undocumented immigrants rely on the

particular shadow economy of East London and the agriculture around the metropolis, such
as Kent, Cambridgeshire or Sussex. They also rely on the infrastructure of Polish
information brokers and Polish houses (Jordan and Düvell 2002). In contrast, as explained it
proved to be impossible even to a well connected Polish interviewer to identify Polish work
permit holders. She argued that it would have been easy to interview a hundred
undocumented immigrants but even after 6 months of exploiting every possible channel
such as community centres, churches, community networks, Polish businesses or hospitals’
personnel not one single work permit holder could be found. From our fieldwork we found
that Polish work permit holders are not known to these networks and vice versa that these
networks obviously are not approached by work permit holders. It was interesting to find
why that is.
Through conversation with Work Permit UK we have already understood that Polish
work permit holders are not necessarily employed by London-based businesses, just the
contrary, they are, as other work permit holders spread across the country. Those legal
Polish professionals based in London apparent form a small separate cluster and network.
That is supported by the embassy, which hosts a regular round table meeting. Therefore
such professions could not have been identified through the main migrants or community
networks.

3.1. Polish undocumented immigrants

Polish undocumented immigrants provide for a case study into individuals who break
immigration rules to travel to a particular city (London). There are two factors that make the
lives of irregular migrants – those without proper immigration status, either to be present, or
to be working – more difficult than those of citizens or legal entrants. The first is that they
have to remain invisible to the immigration authorities and (presumably) to other officials
concerned with law enforcement, and to citizens and legal residents who might perceive
them as harmful in some way to their interests. The second is that they have to live without
the support of those institutions designed to sustain the lives of lawful members of that
society, including welfare systems, regulatory bodies and agencies for the protection of
persons and property.
We therefore tried to learn why they did come despite clear immigration regulations;
how they managed to enter the UK; how they were able to get employment; and how they
were able to stay in irregular employment and in the country, hence how did they evade
detection. Additionally, we tried to understand which factors did influence their decisions
and which features did support this way of living.
First, we tried to learn why they actually come. All but one basically gave
straightforward workers’ accounts for migrating, in which it was taken for granted that the
UK offered wages and employment that were absent in Poland. A typical answer would be:
 7

‘We came to England to earn money’ (2: 1)4.

‘cause it’s obvious that there aren’t such jobs that you could earn money in Poland.
My dream is to build a house in Poland, to buy a new car. …It’s common knowledge
that in Poland it doesn’t matter how much you work, you would never earn this kind
of money’ (8: 1).

As expected, these have been the reason for particular choosing the UK. Most Polish
interviewees built into their accounts the assumption that work prospects and earning
opportunities were extremely limited in their home country (‘a disaster’ - 9: 4) and that
experience of working in London would be helpful rather than damaging for their longer
term prospects. However, some also gave accounts in which travel or learning played a
significant part in shaping their migration stories. The latter is explained by the generally
good education background, most had at least finish secondary school, and reflect further
education aspirations.
In order to understand decision making Stark suggests ‘placing the family rather than the
individual at the centre of the migration decision’, taking it as the decisive unit or coalition
of which the individual migrant is a member (Stark 1991: 5). Our research however, cannot
fully verify this. Some Polish migrants discussed matters with their family but most did not,
for example single mothers, single or divorced men and women, or young students. They
appeared to be individual agents on their own rather relating on their networks and social
capital (see below).
Another reason for choosing the UK, was that there are no visa requirements, ‘you don’t
need visas to England any more, so it makes it much easier to come’ (25: 1). Some Polish
undocumented immigrant workers are aware of the situation in other potential destinations
or had immigration experiences with staying in another country. Those who compared their
opportunities with those in other countries did so rather within the framework of
immigration control matters than in relation to labour market opportunities.

‘Because you can feel and be free here. Not like in Germany. That is a country based
on a police regime. You see I had been to Germany before; the police would stop you
everywhere and ask for your passport and ask a lot of questions about you: what you
were doing there and so on. You had no problems entering the country but then it
would start, you would be watched everywhere’ (13: 1).

Because the UK implements immigration control primarily through checks at the point
of entry, those arriving in the country faced the moment of maximum jeopardy for their
plans to migrate to London when they reached the border. Most interviewees had contacts
(either family or friends) to advise and ease their entry to the UK (20 out of 25). The great
majority of them were prepared for this moment, had rehearsed the story they would tell
immigration officials, and had made sure that their luggage and personal effects were
consistent with it.

4
Numbers in brackets refer to number of interview.
8

‘She (a friend) also gave us some instructions what to say to the Immigration Officer at
the port of entry; that we were students, that we were coming to see some interesting
places in England, and we had about £300 to show at the port of entry, so we were
prepared’ (16: 1).

Undocumented migrants from Poland all tended to come as tourists and to use the same
route – the bus – but had two strategies. The most reliable was an invitation from someone
in the UK, of these five had letters from a family member (three were to be carers), and five
more from friends. Other introduced themselves as tourists.

‘I talked, using my poor English, showed him my passport and letter inviting me, and
I smiled at the Immigration Officer and showed them my small travel bag and said
that was all I had with me. Finally I got my passport stamped and I had a six-month
visa’ (22: 1).
‘When I came here the first time I came with a tourist trip. The other two times I
came with invitation letters and had no problems entering the country’ (21: 2).
‘It needs someone who would agree to write you an invitation or confirm over the
phone that they are waiting for you if the Immigration Officer has any doubts’ (25: 5).

Some complained that they had been questioned intensively but managed to mislead the
immigration officer.

‘When I came here for the first time they interrogated me like some bandit, literally. I
was nervous. They asked me thousands of questions. …They took me to some
special room, …it lasted for about two hours’ (7: 5-6).

Only one (3) mentioned false papers, she came to the UK, her attempted deceit was
spotted and she was sent back to France. In Calais, she met a man who offered to get her to
the UK for £200. She joined a party of French tourists with a borrowed passport, which she
returned after getting through immigration control. Others, however, reported that large
proportions of bus passengers have been denied entry.

‘When our coach arrived in Dover it was only 7 out of 50 people who were allowed
to enter the UK’ (13: 1).

All but one had some sort of contacts in the UK which encouraged and support them to
come. But in terms of social capital these seemed to be rather weak compared with findings
from Mexican-US migration strategies (Espinosa and Massey 1997), where first time
migrants have about two contacts, and second time-migrants have contacts equivalent to
four immediate family ties. In the Polish context they mentioned two parents, five uncles
and aunts, and one cousin as initial contact. Otherwise there were six friends, three friends
of others and such dubious contacts as boyfriend of neighbour (13) or English teacher from
Poland (5). However, most could obtain information about UK and survival strategies from
contacts in Poland. And also there is not much risk involved in terms of physical damage,
therefore less social capital seems to be acceptable. Three mentioned either contact with the
post-war immigration community (7, 20) or a 1980s refugee (23), verifying that there is
 9

some but not much of a chain migration or migration networks stemming from earlier
migration processes.
Undocumented Polish immigrants in order to manage their survival and stay relied on a
distinct informal network and small commercial systems of partly underground institutions.
These range from ‘Polish houses’ – Polish owned, run and populated premises – Polish
corner shops as a source of information, Polish sub-contractors as a source of getting
employment to brokers, who provide them with information, with National Insurance
numbers or jobs.

‘The owners, a Polish couple staying here illegally, rent a house and then rent the
rooms out to other Poles. And this couple – the man worked at a building site and
anyone who lived at their house had to work either at a building site with him, or in
that textile factory she was in contact with. So that was their way of getting tenants;
finding people work as well as guaranteeing that people had money to pay their rent’
(8: 5).

However, staying in the UK was less of a theme than repeated entry. Returning home for
a period, for a holiday or to give birth to a child and starting again – often with a new
passport – were the main strategies described. Several said that they had come for three or
four trips.

‘I simply was given six month visa every single time I went to Poland and back with a
stamp ‘employment prohibited’. I have always worked illegally. Six or eight month
passed by, I went back to Poland and was coming back here with a six month visa’ (5:
8).
‘I also considered going back to Poland and coming here again with a brand new visa.
That’s what most people do. When your visa expires, or just before that, you leave
England, they don’t stamp your visa when you leave the country any more, so nobody
knows when you left Britain. When you come back in a week or maybe in a month’s
time and say at the border that you were in England about a year ago for a week, and
now you are coming for a week again to visit your friends or family, whomever' (25: 5).

We also found evidence for return migration, some interviewees mentioned friends who
have meanwhile left; others were replacing returning compatriots. That confirms patterns
establish in research into undocumented Mexican migration into the US (Portes 1979).
All but one interviewee, a Romany asylum seeker, managed to get into employment
within a few days of starting to look (most within a few days of arriving). The first
employment was usually found within the framework of either Polish or Turkish and
occasionally also at Asian or other foreign shadow economy. Only those who had well
established Polish contacts could also get work with English employers.
10

Table 1. Poles, means of finding work

Recruited by friends or employers (when in Poland) 6
Through friends 12
Agency (one Polish) 2
Own search 1
Advertisement in centre or shop 4
Unemployed (Roma asylum seeker) 1
No information 2

Money, markets and exchange provide a kind of universal language for all kinds of
transactions in the age of globalisation. Our Polish interviewees were adept at finding
commercial suppliers of information, accommodation, National Insurance numbers and
other important items, including employment. They represented themselves primarily as
rational market actors, responding to economic opportunities and price signals, it was
therefore no surprise to them to have to pay for information about jobs, for National
Insurance numbers, and often for the jobs themselves.

‘So I found a job there through a gypsy man, I had to pay for it of course’ (23: 2).
‘He bought the job from some bloke. He had to pay £50 for it. There is a trade like
this, and it still exists – selling jobs. But I think that it exists only amongst Polish
people, because I saw the ads at the [name of place where Polish people met]. “I am
selling cleaning jobs”’. ‘Poles don’t help one another for free. Poles make money out
of each other’ (12: 2).

With the help of a few trusted friends from their own countries, and a small initial sum
to pay for their induction into UK society, they could find their way through the shadow
reaches of London’s economy.
Getting into the country and getting into employment was often inter-linked. It is clear
from seven of the accounts that the interviewee was recruited for undocumented work by
family or friends working in England. One interviewee simply came to replace a returnee.
Another, who was made redundant by her employee, was effectively transferred to a job in
England.

‘My boss offered me a trip to England to work. They were the ones who would
arrange everything’ (19: 1).

Another, who came on a tourist visa several times but only for short periods always
worked for the same employer (21). Pre-arranged contracts were clearest in the case of
skilled building workers, men who came to London to work on renovating old houses,
usually for Polish subcontractors. They knew before they came that they could earn decent
wages (£3.50 - £4.00 per hour, much more than they could get in Poland) from the moment
they arrived, and had the contacts to do so. They tended to be older (in their late 30s or early
40s), and several had worked abroad before, but saw the UK as their best option. One
respondent even had herself become a recruiter for his employer (11).
Staying in employment indeed included considerable upward mobility. Most of those
who stayed were able to increase their earnings, by changing jobs or by being promoted. For
 11

example, a man who started working in a textile factory for £2 an hour in 1994 was by 1998
working as a bricklayer’s assistant for £58 a day (4). A woman who started on £1.50 an hour
in a fish factory in 1994 was by 1998 earning £3.50 an hour working for a fish wholesaler
(5). A man who started sewing in a factory for £2.50 an hour was earning £6 an hour in
another textile factory less than 2 years later (11). A women who started washing the dishes
made it to a computer operator, ‘so in a way I have developed’ (5: 10).
Being able to present a National Insurance number (NIN) is crucial to disguise irregular
status, it is no surprise that there is a market for that. Five Polish respondents had bought or
paid to borrow National Insurance numbers, one even from his employer.

‘…these Polish guys …said they know a guy who was selling NINs …I met him and
I bought it. I paid £260 for it’ (4: 9).
‘We needed NINs to work there. The boss gave it to me. It belonged to some Spanish
guy. Naturally I had to pay for it’ (23: 2-3).

Narratives about evading detection show a range of experiences and strategies. Poles are
less likely to mention risk of detection at work than by home visits of immigration officials
or for suspected criminal offences. Regarding home visits it was feared that ‘the Home
Office might come here to look for somebody else and find us as well. You don’t know
what other tenants do. The police might be after them if they come and look around. We
might be found out like this’ (3: 11).
However, when interviewees were picked up by the police for suspected criminal
offences, Home Office responses were usually less than dynamic or decisive. One man had
been arrested when walking down the street, holding a piece of glass he had found in a
nearby garden. He had dirty hands and was carrying the tools of his (building) trade, both
indications that he could be either a burglar (the original reason for arresting him) or an
undocumented worker. Having no further evidence to support the former suspicion, the
police held him at the station while they tried to check his (manifestly irregular)
immigration status. His account reads as followed,

‘I said …that I had lost my Home Office paper, and that I had tried to go to the
Home Office to get a replacement …I told them a different name as well …She
[policewoman] said that she would check it, and she told that she would come back
at midnight to see the passports. An officer came in and asked who that criminal was,
pointing at me, and she said, “Polish glazier”. …And she also said that I didn’t have
any papers, couldn’t speak any English, so all I deserved was to be sent back to
Poland. I said nothing at all. Finally she told me I could go home and I should go to
the Home Office to get a new paper, and that they would come to check up on me
after Christmas. And nobody has turned up ever since’ (6: 7).
"A policeman walked into XY burger. When I saw him for the first time my heart
stopped, I didn’t know why he was there. A policeman. But my boss was smiling and
started talking to him, very friendly. And he introduced me as a new worker. And
then we became friends. So it was a stress that passed very quickly’ (5: 7).
12

These example shows how the stay of irregular migrants is related to inefficient
implementation and cooperation between police and immigration authorities; and also to the
relatively low priority the police gives to immigration offences (see Jordan and Düvell
2002).
As might be expected, these irregular migrants were conscious of the need to make
themselves invisible, to avoid drawing the authorities’ attention to them, and to be careful
not to infringe against minor rules. Polish interviewees were either blithely relaxed or
nervous, more by temperament and in general response to the environment than from
specific information.

‘I don’t know if I’m so stupid, but I never thought about it. Because I thought no
immigration people would get as far as [outer London borough]. So that wasn’t a
problem at all’ (5: 7).
‘Rafal [husband] is careful, when he goes to work. …After work he comes straight
home. He doesn’t go anywhere, to any pubs. We don’t go out in the evenings. …We
avoid situations, places, where we might be asked for documents’ (2: 7).

In fact, as other interviewees were aware the possibility of being stopped in the street or
randomly asked for immigration status was negligible in London.

‘Here in England this is good that nobody cares if you have a work permit or not. For
example policemen were coming to my restaurant and they never cared who I was,
they never made me feel nervous’ (27: 10).

What we had instead was massive evidence from Poles that denunciation was part of a
culture of unrestrained competition among this group. Without any prompting by the
interviewer, many respondents spoke of fearing denunciation, knowing others who had been
denounced, or directly experiencing being denounced, even by family members. ‘My
friend’s brother was deported. Somebody grassed on him’ (8: 8), ‘in the beginning we lived
with my uncle. The one who eventually called the police on us.’ (6: 1), ‘Poles envy you for
having something, for having a good job and so on’ (4: 11), ‘too many people looking for
work.’ (10: 5).
In order to regularise a stay, three means have been identified, applying for asylum,
marriage and applying for a business visa under EEC agreements. One interview confirms,
that there are cases where economic migrants facing a lack of a legal status draw to the
opportunities of asylum in order to regularise their stay at least temporarily; and also to get
over a period of economic hardship. Even asylum opportunities were in one case evaluated
within the framework of economic opportunities.

‘Darek (husband) had known about asylum for some time, but that evening he
somehow realised that it would help us financially. You see it was difficult to make
ends meet that time. He said that way we could rent a flat and have it paid and get
some money to spend as well. That we would stay here for some time as we knew
there was no chance to get leave to remain here. Why shouldn’t we take advantage of
that possibility? And that’s what we did. I was on asylum for a year’ (3: 6).
 13

Regarding marriage, only two out of 16 married Polish nationals have an English
husband and both are genuine relationships. Otherwise no indication for a strategic marriage
have been found.

3.2. Polish business visa holders

All three business visa holders (one interviewed in 1998, the other two in 2001), came to
London as undocumented workers, and used the business visa as a strategy for legalising
their status. The man interviewed in 1998 had submitted a business plan to the Home Office,
claiming to provide ‘culturally-sensitive funerals for Polish war veterans’. He said that this
required no capital, as all he did was supply a Polish flag and translation; the actual funeral
arrangements were done by a British firm. He had not actually conducted any funeral – he
was living from undocumented work as a minicab driver. One business visa holder
interviewed in 2001 was an entrepreneur who had worked in the Soviet Union and the USA,
and who had owned a building firm in Poland that went bankrupt. He came to London as an
undocumented building worker, and his boss and former landlord had persuaded him to
apply for a business visa. The boss had paid the solicitor for the work, and was deducting
the £500 fees from his wages.

‘My boss suggested I should do it to be here legally, to be able to go back to Poland

any time I like, to have some rights. I will pay taxes; I’ll have some rights. I got
impression that he wanted me to apply for a business visa for his own good because
he realises that he employs people illegally and he might face consequences.
Whereas when I pay for getting business visa myself, he will be safe as well.’ (26: 8
and 10).

Asked about his business plan, he replied:

‘It’s all fiction. I have never seen the my business plan myself. I don’t even know
what’s written there. …I did tell them I wanted to be in the building game, but they
know that’ (26: 10).

The third interviewee had come as an undocumented workers, with her husband, who
did undocumented building work. They both now had been accepted for business visas, and
were awaiting their final documents from the Home office. Both were simply legitimating
their previous work, and their ‘business plans’ were elaborations of this.

‘I for example had to get letters from all the people that I worked for stating how
many hours, what work I did and how much I got paid. Jacek had to do the same,
because I’m not in his business visa and he is not in mine; everyone has an
independent visa. …I think there is some requirement of how much you have to earn
in order to be able to apply for a business visa so I’m sure the accountant stretched
our earnings a bit so that we qualified, but that’s the way it is’ (31, 2001: 8).

She also emphasised how slow the process was partly because it took her five visits to
the DSS office to get a National Insurance number (8), but also because of Home Office
processes.
14

‘And Jacek got his visa is six months time, and my documents got lost somewhere. I
had to deal with everything again. … I remember the solicitor telling us that some of
his clients have been waiting for over a year, some for even longer' (31, 2001: 9-10).

These examples have been given at some length, because they illustrate that the business
visa strategy is directly related to irregular migration rather than to labour market
recruitment through the work permit system. It also shows how UK systems that deal
directly with migrants (DSS, Home Office) are far more characterised with delays and
frustrations than those who deal with employers.

3.3. Polish work permit holders

The four interviewees represent a high-skilled and demanded section of the global
workforce. Two were employed because of language skills and familiarity with Polish
markets, but two were chosen because of their professional skills. Correspondingly, they
represented themselves as kind of ideal typical rational choice agents and pure economic
actors, as consciously responding to market signals and market laws. They reflected a
concept of the world as a 'me and the market' relation; the 'who pays best' strategy has been
accepted as central to their role as individual agents. An IT-expert explained ‘you have to
keep looking around and seeing in the way the market it developing, where the money is
and what gives you the better perspective for the future’ (31: 11). Job opportunities were
identified all over the world, ‘the first job offer was in South Africa’ (33: 6); ‘I had some job
offers in Poland, but they weren't very good, and this job offer was very good compared to
the ones I had in the country’ (ibid.: 7). Consequently, they represented themselves as
players in a flexible global economy:

‘…we are not in the nineteenth-century economy where you are finding a job,
…staying till the end of your life. It's, you are coming there for six months, three
months depending on how long the job will last’ (31: 12).
‘We have people working in the US, Australia, France, so it's really global, …this is
really a global company’ (34: 1 and 7).

Although they argued that for them employment opportunities and earnings in Poland
would be excellent; and calculating salaries against price levels they found that working in
Poland would pay either they migrated to the UK for working. All argued with the lack of
opportunities either of employment or as self-employed.
Migration networks were of some relevance, two interviewees kept contacts to school
mates who went to the UK for working, ‘I have a few friends that used to work, or were
working in London, in different banks, and I knew them pretty well. I was talking with them
on a daily basis’ (33: 7). But two did not know anybody in the UK prior entry and contacts
to earlier Polish immigrants did not play any role in their decision making. No-one did in
any way indicate that their families played a role in their decision making, which is
confirmed as non mentioned any kind of remittances. That shows that our interviewees act
as individual agents. Otherwise, there are specific migration channels – head hunters,
 15

business networks, company merger – that facilitate finding employment and the migration
of Polish professionals.

Table 2. Poles, means of finding employment mentioned

Headhunter/agency 2
Result of business take-over 1
Approached by company 1
Own search/advertisement 1

The relevance of headhunters and business take-overs reveal two different mechanisms.
The activities of headhunters show that (Polish) experts are actively searched for for posts
on the global labour market; whilst mobility as a result of transnational companies taking
over national businesses leaves the individuals as the passive agent.
Polish work permit holders too reflect a workers account, ‘I earn money. That’s what
I’m here for; I’m here for money and for nothing else’ (30: 2). Their strategies or rather
explanations why they came to the UK varied. One only came because his Polish bank has
been taken over by a multinational (33). Faced with the alternatives to either being made
redundant or being transferred to another branch he opted for the later and had been placed
at the London headquarter. It was also argued that working abroad is a feature or even
career requirement in particular professions such as banking. He wants to go back as soon as
there are opportunities for him in Poland. An IT-expert has been working all over the world,
Belgium, Netherlands, Australia, Turkey, Italy and now he is in the UK. He worked self-
employed or as a subcontractor but now appreciates being an employee with a comparably
safe unlimited contract. Meanwhile, with wife and child he seems to be ready to get settled
and thinks about where that could be. England may or may not become the last stop of his
global mobile life. The forth has been a trainee with his present company in the UK, whilst
he was a student. Afterwards, he started his own small business in Poland but when the
opportunity came up to apply for a regular post with his previous UK employer he did not
hesitate. One interviewee seeks to adjust to global capitalist working environment and add
value to his human capital, ‘[to] get to know how it is working in …the real capitalistic
country where you have to work very hard and where you are judged by the results’ (33: 6-
7). It is also part of their return perspectives (see below), ‘in fact I have one friend who
came here, worked a year and now he came back to Poland already, and found a job' (ibid.:
8). That – also reflecting a learners account - is a theme running through to all accounts,
learning from working in an international environment, learning about the culture of a
multinational business, building a network of contacts etc., has all been interpreted as
improving human and social capital.
Dealings with UK authorities were mainly limited to immigration officers and to
benefits agencies’ staff. Pre-Entry-Clearance was not an issue as Polish nationals, they are
not subject to visa requirements. In consequence, they do not have any dealings with the UK
embassies, after having obtained a work permit they simply turn up at the border. However,
three informants complained about what has been perceived as a longish, suspicious and
therefore discriminating interview by immigration officers at the airport. In that they share
some experiences with their undocumented compatriots.
16

‘What I don’t like is that when I come to the UK they ask lots of questions….What
kind of questions are these? It annoys everyone. All my friends are fed up with it.
And when my girlfriend comes here, it’s not that she is maltreated but it’s not
pleasant that she is asked lots of questions, that she is questioned like a child: why,
what, for what purpose? …But still the way they talk to Poles is… Well, as a Pole
you can feel that you are not treated the way you should be treated’ (30: 7).
‘…they were really suspicious, I think that the way that the English immigration is
still very suspicious’ (34: 10).

One was irritated about the work permit procedure too, and complaint that he was
treated differently than his Polish colleagues, ‘there are three of us from Poland, they didn't
have to supply nothing, and I had to supply lots of different things, so I don't know how it
works’ (34: 9).
Dealings with Benefits Agencies regarding NINus varied greatly. Whilst one employee
did not even know whether he has got one because everything has been dealt with by his
company, another had to visit his local BA office for an intensive interview but still after six
month waits for the number to be issued (31).
One, who had previous migration experiences in several countries compared the UK
work permit system with those of other countries. Germany was found impossible:

‘I already signed the contract. …But the problem is that German law is saying that if
anybody wants to hire people, this company …has to have a registered office in
Germany …I couldn't find a reasonable way of sorting it out. So I just dropped it and
went to Istanbul’ (31: 6-7).

Also the UK regulations have been found too complicated, hence comparably less
competitive,

‘In Europe, when you are in Schengen countries, you can just travel freely, if
anybody asks you can say 'I'm a tourist', yeah? But in the UK, it's not a part of
Schengen and the customs is asking you stupid questions, …so I think that, because
of this the UK is a bit more closed, people are not so keen on coming here. …It's
much easier to go to Holland, Belgium or Italy’ (31: 12).

Consequently, it has been argued ‘I don't understand why the procedure is different in
different European countries. It should be the same’ (31: 23).
Strategies for staying and getting settled have been straight forward as all interviewees
have been provided with accommodation and other benefits by their employers, ‘it's an
excellent service, …it's perfect’ (33, p. 10). One even got a car (34); and two private health
insurance arrangements. Such migration channels represent comfortable means for global
mobility. Most Polish work permit holders then turn to migrants’ networks, such as the
embassy's monthly meetings. They form kind of a cluster in London, which is deliberately
seen as different from the post-war communities. However, they did not intend to stay for
good. An IT-expert only intends to stay in the UK for a year or two and then move on to
another country, where his company has a branch. A banker argued, ‘Great Britain doesn’t
appeal to me as a place you could stay till the end of your life’ (30: 2).
 17

Interestingly, all without having been encouraged by the interviewers spoke intensively
about illegal work by themselves, their compatriots and mates. A stockbroker told how he
financed his studies by working illegally in Germany. It is perceived an integral and
undisputed part of his live story and is justified by final success and career.

‘I used to work illegally in Germany; I went there and worked at a building site when
I was still at High School, then I went again, I went to work because I had to pay my
student fees. I had to work abroad during holidays; otherwise I wouldn’t be able to
study’ (30: 7).

An IT-expert referred to inefficiency and regulations no longer adequate to serve the

flexible markets as a reason for working illegally. ‘Sometimes, nobody will wait for you for
three months because the application procedure must be sorted out. So you either take the
risk of working not completely legally until you are entitled to work’ (31: 12). This reflects
that also Polish professionals accepted illegal work as a natural, legitimate and necessary
choice where no legal opportunities are available.

4. The immigrants’ identities

The interviewees aimed to make sense of their experience by reflecting on their relation
to UK society and its social fabric; to other foreigners and their position in a multi-ethnic
society; to their position in society and to their gains. They asked themselves ‘Where I am?’,
‘Who I am?’, ‘What I am?’ and ‘How I am?’. There were a few main themes running
through Polish identities drawn from their experiences in the host country.
First and foremost, Polish migrants represented themselves primarily as workers and
rational market actors, responding to economic opportunities. They relied on a rather small
number of contacts, tended to build relationships on market forces rather than personal
values and thereby tended to develop an individualistic identity. That is true for
undocumented workers as well as for work permit holders. In the most extreme version a
woman argued ‘you are here to earn some money not to socialise with English people’ (3:
10). They also proudly present themselves as competitive, ‘I think that we Polish people
have very good attitude to work. We know that we work abroad, that we have to show that
we work well’ (5: 4). In one case a man build his identity around his contribution to UK
society.

‘So why are Polish people put on the spot for working here, working hard for the
money their earn? And they produce some goods here. For this country. I always ask
“What would happen if all Polish people were sent away from London?” All the
building sites would stop working. Who would work in London then?’ (12: 11).
Secondly, they interpreted their host country quite favourably. Some emphasised the
freedom their enjoyed, ‘you see, when I came here from communist Poland I felt free
here’ (7: 3).
18

Others in-build into their accounts what they saw as English character and
characteristics, such as ‘more honest’, ‘decent’, ‘more pleasant’, or ‘more polite’. It became
part of their identities that they were privileged enough to enjoy that.
Work permit holders by and large did not have English friends or socialise with English
organisations or sports clubs. They either stick to their family or they meet with other Polish
professionals. That shows strong individualistic identities and also the emergence of another
generation of Polonia, the Polish diaspora.

‘…we stick together. We are a close group of five people. …I also went to a meeting
[Polish Economic and Business Association], …There also is a ‘list’ on Yahoo where
you can ask all the members of that group anything you like. …They all are Poles
living abroad, doing all kind of things; …so here you go – that’s your Polish
community’ (30: 5).
‘I have some friends here, the guys from Poland, or the girls from Poland who are
working, just like myself. I mean we just meet, go to a football match or the pub or
whatever. So it's probably, there is not much different, difference in spending the
time from what I had in Poland’ (33: 11).
‘Those centres [community centres in West London] are more for people who came
here during the second World War or after the second World War and are living
here. …What I'm talking about [meeting of Polish Economic and Business
Association] is more like for people who came from Poland and work here in
different companies’ (33: 13).

Only a young single man from outside London, where there is no Polish cluster
mentioned that he frequently goes out with his English colleagues (35).
Thirdly, undocumented Poles, foreigners they are in the UK were trying to make sense
of themselves by exerting the framework of nationality and ethnicity. They were really
struggling with defining their place in such a setting. Some expressed their irritation about
the fact that they mainly met or worked with other foreigners. Part of their stories also
showed an outsiders identity whilst their worker’s accounts served to justify that. ‘I haven’t
met any English people. I only meet Russians, Indians. I didn’t have any opportunity to
meet any English people. So you hear Russian all day long, nothing else’ (10: 2 and 6).
Polish work permit holders showed a completely different approach as they appreciated
joining a multi-national staff. Working in such a globalised environment has been rather
integrated into their learning and human capital concept. However, the concept provides for
a whole complex set of identities ranging from
(a) being victims of English discrimination (‘Why are we treated differently?’ (7: 5) to
being bluntly racist themselves (’Every nationality is of a different nature. But Indian
people are the worst.’ (7: 9);
(b) from critical distance from their countrymen (‘It’s terrible that Poles are like that to
one another’ (2: 10). to proudly pointing to what is perceived as Polish qualities (‘I
think that we Polish people have very good attitude to work (5: 4);
(c) or from presenting themselves as outsiders in the UK context to appreciating the
multi-national society (‘There is so many foreigners here in London so it’s not
suspicious when someone is a foreigner and lives here. In other countries where there
aren’t so many foreigners everyone asks immediately is that person a resident here or
 19

not. In here it’s normal, people come, stay, live, work; lots of them doesn’t speak
English and it’s normal (4: 11);
(d) in some instances, a Pole would throw his workers identity into the competition with
other types of immigrants to justify his rights to do what he does. ‘You know, they
talk about Polish people coming to work here and at the same time they don’t see
Black people selling drugs. They don’t see people who don’t work at all, just drain
English people’s money. People waiting for political asylum. For example, gypsies
who are here as asylum seekers’ (12: 10). One man also combined his workers
identity with some racism. In that he in the same time reflected some English work
ethos and what is perceived as common sense. ‘You see, you want to work and you
can’t and there are people coming from other countries, getting benefits, hanging
around, doing nothing and the government pays for everything. They work off the
books and that’s supposed to be fair? And when you openly go and ask because you
want to work and to pay taxes, you have work, you are a good worker and you can’t’
(4: 10);
(e) On the other hand one interpret their membership in a multi-ethnic, multi-national
society in a positive way. ‘I like that people are tolerant here. I like freedom, that you
can be yourself, you don’t have to pretend; if you are dirty you are dirty, if you are
dressed up you are dressed up and you can’t do this in Poland cause they would call
you odd at once. Nobody is bothered by the fact that someone is culturally different.
There is everyone here; Indian, Black, other nationalities. I used to live in Ealing and
there were four different temples on one street and the children were playing together,
they all went to different churches were dressed differently and they skin was of
different colour as well’ (20: 2);
(f) Another interviewee even revealed an emerging European identity when questioning
discrimination, ‘why are we treated differently? We are supposed to join European
Community and what. We don’t steel; we work honestly and very hard. We pay for
everything’ (7: 5).

Part of their identity seems to be that although they all rely on the particular market
structure of social relations (including unrestrained competition for jobs and other
advantages) they are in the same time ashamed of it. Some used that to distance themselves
from being Polish.

‘I don’t really have much contact with Polish people because Poles are not kind for
one another here. I prefer to have foreign, English friends than Poles’ (4: 11).
‘You see, it’s better to work for English than it is for Polish because an English
person treats you like a normal person. And a Pole takes advantage of another Pole’
(4: 8).

And a women explained that that is how Poles make sense of the environment in the
UK, whilst in Poland things are different.
20

‘…soon after my arrival to England she told me that Polish people didn’t help one
another abroad, just the opposite they would try to make their fellow country men’s
life as hard as possible. …Other nationals help one another; they support one
another, whereas Polish people are not friendly, not tolerant at all. It’s common
knowledge that everyone comes to earn money. If my situation in Poland were
different I wouldn’t come here. What for? To live at somebody else’s places, to be
humiliated. I’m sorry but I was treated very well in Poland until my work place
closed. I was respected at work and I had to respect others. It was totally different
and now it’s very difficult to switch and be so dependent on others. It’s terrible for
me’ (28: 5).

Another theme running through was how they managed to survive the risks and
adventures of the underground, there were talks of Mafioso, of alcoholics (6), of sexual
harassment or drug trafficking (3), being locked up and exploited (8), or troubled by crazy
folks (11). Otherwise, Polish interviewees left few grounds for disappointment, because
their accounts were so narrowly economistic, their aim from the start was to work and save.
Some emphasised their success. Others would even not complain about low wages or
obvious exploitation. They enjoyed presenting themselves as successful in that sense.

‘I don’t work as a finisher any more. As you can see I climb up; I work at a machine
again doing pleats. But I still supervise the work of finishers’ (11: 6).
‘I don’t think it’s using people. I accept the fact that I have come here to earn money
not for holiday so it’s obvious that you have to work. Nobody will give you money
for nothing. I definitely don’t feel like being taken advantage of’ (9: 6).
‘It [job and payment] was good comparing with Polish reality’ (7: 2).
‘I don’t feel abused working and living here. You see, it’s my choice to work
illegally and everyone knows what it means to work illegally. Anyway I think I have
done quite well for a person who is here illegally’ (11: 7).

Also their reputation back in Poland was effected positively.

’I went home for two weeks. …I had so many presents for everyone back at home.
My sister called me a god aunt from America. I had a big suitcase of gifts for
everyone. …I was so happy that I could get something for them from London’ (5: 7).

Meanwhile, others gave critical reflections on humiliating conditions, their rank in the
social hierarchy and admitted to themselves that they socially moved downwards, ‘I am a
person who graduated from university. I cannot keep hoovering all my life. I form here...
Cleaners are the lowest layer, the lowest caste of working people’ (12: 10). One man, who
owned his own small sewing business in Poland, but was invited to London by a friend who
promised high earnings, found himself sewing in a textile factory for £2.50 an hour. ‘I could
have earned that money in Poland; …I was shocked, well, very unpleasantly surprised. …I
was terribly disappointed’ (11: 2-3). Others too gave depressing accounts:
 21

‘We lived in a caravan, four of us there. There was no heating there, no toilet,
bathroom or cooking facilities. It was only after a few days that we were told that we
could use nearby bathrooms, which were very dirty. We had to phone and then
someone would come and open these bathroom for us. The working and living
conditions very terribly’ (13: 4).
‘It was very humiliating. I mean working for £1 an hour; I don’t know who is paid so
little; it really was very humiliating’ (5: 4).
‘He used and abused me’ (27: 5).

One of the more cynical comments on how some Polish undocumented immigrants see
themselves shall not be disclosed.

‘But from English people’s point of view I would never give visa to anyone.
Seriously. And I definitely wouldn’t give visas to Polish people. Everyone knows
that they don’t come to study or to be tourists here. …I don’t think that out of
hundred self declared tourists as many as ten really are tourists. We take people’s
jobs. We keep or even make the wages low. The standard of live is lower because of
us. I’m not one of those people of course. Everyone is bad apart from me. But I’m
sure that people like me do no good for this country, we are only cheap labour’ (11: 9).

5. Comparison and conclusion

The interviews with work permit holders and business visa holders in comparison with
patterns identified from studying illegal immigrants did not only allow to evaluate
administration practices in the light of immigrants strategies but also offer a whole new
range of migration patterns and challenges to existing analytical frameworks. What was
most striking was, that the overwhelming majority of our interviewees who have been
chosen for their participation in the labour market presented themselves as rational market
actors, indeed they argued as if they have read rational choice theory before making their
comments. The interviews expose shortcomings in immigration policy and also help to
understand the game between immigrants and immigration authorities.

(i) The Work Permit Scheme

In course of the other parts of our study we found that the work permit scheme serves
the UK based businesses efficiently and successful. In the opinion of their clients they are
easy to deal with, approachable and client-friendly (Düvell and Jordan 2003). On the other
hand, the Polish work permit holders too strongly appreciate that scheme. In their view the
way it is implemented reflects that they are wanted and welcomed instead of being the
applicants. They were not yet confronted with the downside of the system, such as breach of
contract, exploitation, negligence, lack of training, unequal treatment and discrimination, as
our interviews with their Indian counterparts revealed (Düvell and Jordan 2002).
22

(ii) Undocumented migrants’ strategies and immigration enforcement

Undocumented Polish workers respond to clear labour market demands and to the
incentives of what is perceived as good earning opportunities. They represent a,
nevertheless, tiny proportion of the otherwise appreciated stream of visitors to the UK.
There are established strategies to disguise their intents to immigration officials, however,
only a proportion is successful but many are refused entry, too. Such immigrants usually
find accommodation, support and employment through immigrants‘ networks and informal
brokers. Employment is frequently waiting for them and there are well established channels
into the UK’s shadow economy. In immigration enforcement we found that the ISED knows
pretty well about the variety of illegal immigrants strategies how to stay and how to evade
detection, whilst on the other hand the immigrants too showed awareness of enforcement
strategies and developed adequate responses (see Jordan and Düvell 2001).
In social security matters it does not seem to be the same.

‘…there is a problem with National Insurance numbers; the key to employment is a

National Insurance number issued by the Benefits Agency, and they’ve lost control
over that, there are a vast number of these numbers in the system that are unlawfully
issued.’ (Interview 3, 1998: 7).

Meanwhile undocumented Polish immigrants explained that they tend to use NINs of
legitimate members of their community, either borrowed or bought, but not so much
falsified.

(iii) Migration strategies and labour markets

Studies into strategies of labour market participation of migrants of different status,
different culture and ethnicity also must take into account the kind of labour market
migrants enter. Migrants ‘are not randomly dispersed across the absorbing economy nor are
they all concentrated in one single labour market. Migrants tend to form clusters’, there are
specific patterns to be identified of the interaction between migrants and markets and
specific features applying to each individual market (Stark 1991: 32). From the findings it
becomes obvious that there are considerable differences between the ethnic niches that for
example Turkish and Kurdish refugees enter; the open global labour market for IT-experts
Indian work permit holders for example move on; the kind of internal labour market of
transnational businesses employee move within; or the shadow strata of the UK labour
market undocumented Poles make use of. That may become clear by comparing the two
extremes. Internal labour markets have been understood as one within a company, where
employees move from one branch to another, based in another part of a country (Johnson
and Salt 1990). Meanwhile, with transnational companies increasingly moving staff from
branch to branch based in different countries, the concept of internal labour markets needs
to be reconsidered within the framework of the global economy (Stalker 2000). It is the
market a company acts on that is globalised but its in-company labour market nevertheless
remains internal. In labour market theory such employees would be labelled mobile
workforce as they move within the organisational structure of the same company but in
migration theory they would be labelled international migrants because border crossing is
involved. And equally, in politics and immigration policy they would be taken as migrants.
From the perspective that migration involves moving from one functional system to another
 23

(Bommes 1999), these migrants remain in the same functional system, the businesses
internal labour market, whilst in the same time they move from on functional system to
another, the different national contexts. As one can see, there is considerable tension
involved, which some of the interviewees actually reflected. Some intra-company
transferees already experience hassle-free entry controls and appreciated that, but others still
complained about treated the same way as any other foreigner (6).
Interestingly, irregular labour markets reflect some border-crossing but nevertheless
internal structures as well. These are provided by migration networks, by friends and kin
who recruit new staff across borders, and migrants vice versa often know in advance where
they will find work and accommodation. Such structures readily integrate newcomers in
existing economic niches build by previous generations of migrants, all together they
represent migration systems. Migration systems combined with migration networks provide
for the emergence of transnational communities including their internal markets for
information, accommodation and labour (Pries 1999, Sassen 1996, Faist 2000 etc).
The other extreme however, is for example those Polish migrants trying to enter section
of the UK labour market either from the beginning or as a step in their strategy of stay. In
that case the labour market is in no way internal, the migrant rather aims to move from one
functional system to another (Bommes 1999). Obviously, that involves far more
uncertainties and risks than the other two types, even though the migrant also may well have
some previous information about the how to do that and where to start from. It is no surprise
that it is those migrants who do not need to travel long distances and who do not pay a
fortune to get here find it acceptable to opt for this strategy, such as Poles.

(iv) Migration strategies evaluated in the light of new approaches in migration theories
‘The decision for border-crossing migration is almost always realised within the
framework of network structures of inter-personal relations’ (Pries 1999: 33). Whilst this
can be verified for undocumented migrants from Poland, the case of work permit holders is
different. Whilst some did point to university mates or colleagues, who have already
migrated to the UK, others did come without prior relevant contacts in the receiving
country. They acted within migration channels provided by multinationals, by company
links or by recruitment agencies. In this light, network structures and migration channels
represent separate and alternative provisions for migration, sometimes adding to each other.
That also effects the kind of communities emerging. Undocumented migrants from
Poland, pendeling between two countries and in the same time members of a new type of a
migrants community in the UK confirm the concept of transnational communities (Glick-
Schiller et all 1992). Though this is still a dual, two-country pattern, whilst the geographical
space remains the same the migration pattern between two countries has changed. In
contrast, Polish work permit holders, when referring to the networks they have, frequently
refer to global contacts. That indicates a version which stretched beyond transnationalism. It
spread about multiple countries covering a far larger geographical space and is transglobal.

(v) Shifting immigrants strategies

Interviews with Polish migrants, most of them irregular and business visa applicants in
2001-2 suggested that strategies have only changed in some ways in the three years since
our earlier research. Getting invitations from friends, coming on the bus as a tourist, living
in multi-occupation Polish houses, working in textile factories, construction, or as cleaners,
24

exploitation by Poles of fellow Poles, all feature in these accounts. Two aspects suggest a
development of the systems by which those who have been in the UK for longer come to
occupy new niches within immigration chains, either as brokers for new arrivals, or bridging
with older Polish communities. However, it seems as if business visa, then a rather knew
feature has been gaining relevance as a migration and stay strategy, whilst clearly work
permit holders are a completely new feature for Poles, which is indeed interpreted within the
context of avoiding an illegal status.
Regarding undocumented work brokerage ‘buying and selling’ jobs now seems more
relevant than during our first study. Another new finding shows some links with post-war
migrants and refugees. A man in his late 40s was living with a 70-year-old Polish pensioner,
and also caring for another elderly man. He originally came as a tourist, with a friend who
was working, and drifted into undocumented work in a restaurant. He met the older people
through attending a church, one was providing very cheap accommodation, the other paying
him a small sum for providing care (27, 2001: 8).
Both these cases seem to indicate a ‘deepening’ of the infrastructure of Polish social
relations in London (the establishment of ‘services’ by Poles for fellow undocumented
workers). However, these still exist within a culture of exploitation, resentment and
unrestrained competition.

(vi) Comparing documented and undocumented immigrants narratives.

Other than one might expect, undocumented Polish workers are not in every aspect
different from their work permit holding counterparts. In both cases they respond to clear
labour market demands for the man power and skills they offer. In their narratives the Polish
undocumented immigrants in particular show strong referrals to that, they explain fare more
about the opportunities in the UK, than their chances back in Poland. In that, expressing the
forces at work with the push-and-pull model, the pull factor seems to be the driving force in
this game. Consequently, they show a clear workers account, they come because of the
labour market opportunities and for the money. In both categories one finds individuals who
aim to invest in themselves through improving their language or by working abroad. They
reflect a strong preference for temporary stay and the strategy of coming repeatedly could
be found with both groups. Polish undocumented migrants did often know in advance, as
the work permit holders, where to work and what the conditions would be, as there are also
developed channels into London’s shadow economy.
Surprisingly, migration narratives, strategies and aspirations reflect some similarities.
The main differences though are language (better with work permit holders) and skills-level
(higher with work permit holders, though undocumented Poles show some examples of
well-educated workers), human capital (higher with work permit holders) and social capital
(higher with irregular immigrants).
A comparison rather points to the question why such individuals as yet are treated
differently? In theory, that is because one category is acknowledged as shortage-skills
workers and comes under the work permit provisions, whilst the other group is not
acknowledged under any such provisions, though obviously the labour market demand is
there, too.
 25

(vii) The migration experience and identity developing

When it comes to the construction of identities Poles most clearly emphasise kind of
‘whiteness’ (Phoenix 1998) in order to construct some belonging to the UK host society.
They do that in particular by drawing a demarcation line between themselves and what is
perceived ‘non-white’ migrants and ethnic minorities. That however, did not safe them from
a form of discrimination that Sivanandan defined as xeno-racism (Sivanandan 2001).
Beyond that, one could say that irregular Poles carved out for themselves a kind of ruthless
economic niche, in which they could get higher rewards the longer they stayed.
26

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