Geographical Association

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The case of economic migrants from inside the European Union

Learning Objectives

• to understand why people migrate from their country of origin to the UK
• to analyse the impact of their migration on the people themselves and their families
• to understand the challenges and benefits that the immigrants bring to the UK

Learning Outcomes

• an appreciation and an understanding of the wide range of reasons for people to migrate
• an understanding of the complex feelings and emotions that immigrants have when living and working in the UK
• deeper knowledge and understanding of the benefits that immigrants bring and the challenges that have to be dealt with by government and other agencies as well as members of the communities where immigrants live

Resources

The main resource used in this session is a section from a DVD called Population Change: Causes, impacts and management of migration produced by Pumpkin TV in association with the Geographical Association. The DVD contains several short video clips which case study the stories of different types of migrant. You may also find further useful material in the Links and Resources section in the Plenary.

As a topic, immigration can be looked at just as a national issue with debatable benefits and challenges for the country as a whole. The teaching and learning process could then almost inevitably involve large amounts of immigration statistics with little opportunity to develop any empathy for the people involved on both sides. National newspapers often use the tactic of quoting numbers at people when they want to get a particular message across - such messages are rarely subtle and pander to the prejudices of certain groups of people that regularly read these newspapers.

Here are just some examples of newspaper quotes:

It is important that pupils use statistics wisely and in context and are given opportunities to understand at the personal level what immigration means for the people arriving in the UK and for the communities where they settle. Many pupils will, of course, have their own personal experience of this issue if they or their parents are recent immigrants. Even if they don't have this background, they will have relevant experiences from their schools and from the communities where they live. This could apply equally to inner city schools and communities as well as more remote rural farming communities. In a few cases, it may be a topic that pupils regularly hear people talking about but they have no personal experience of.

Take some time to note down your thoughts on the situation pertaining to the school and community where you teach. How might you tap into and use the personal experiences of your pupils?

A useful starting point to give context to the case studies is to start with some of the immigration vocabulary that will be used in the resources. This exercise can be carried out in a number of ways and you should choose whatever method you feel most comfortable with. It can be done successfully as a sensitively handled brain-storming exercise with pupils contributing words and phrases either orally or on mini whiteboards or on the IWB or anonymously on pieces of paper. As well as sorting out which words are acceptable to use, the teacher can begin to encourage the pupils to categorise the words in various ways. A simpler exercise might involve the teacher in preparing on cards or on the IWB their own set of words and definitions. These could then also be grouped in various ways. Many adults as well as school age children seem unable to distinguish between the basic terms 'immigrant', 'refugee', 'asylum seeker' and 'illegal immigrant'.

Key resource
'Europe's Economic Migrants' [Pumpkin TV] Clip Length: 11 minutes

The video resource begins with a short introduction to the European Union and to the economic migrants moving from country to country seeking work. It then deals with two case studies that could be used separately or together. The first case study concerns a dairy farm and ice cream business in Devon and a Latvian worker called Andrejs. The second case study looks at Polish construction workers living in South Wales and the example of a worker called Lukesz. Both video case studies provide a good balance in terms of dealing with the mixed feelings of the workers themselves and with the benefits they bring to their employers.

Below is a low quality version of the clip.
The DVD can be purchased at the GA Online Shop.

Please note: the Pumpkin video was created prior to the economic recession which hit the UK and other countries across the world in late 2008. One impact of this change was the worsening of the UK job market, which means there has been growing antagonism against immigrants taking 'British jobs' and the falling value of the pound against the Euro has also meant that wages in the UK are less attractive than they were previously. Any discussions that take place will need to take these changes into account. 

The video provides a good stimulus for a variety of work based on its content. Pupils may well benefit initially from doing some basic research on the two countries featured in the video (Latvia and Poland) - it is unlikely in most cases that pupils have any preconceptions about what life is like in these two countries. Students may be surprised, for example, by the fact that Riga (the capital of Latvia in case you didn't know) is 2,222 kilometres away from London - in many cases, these European migrants have travelled long distances to get to the UK. To get you started here are some websites about these two countries.

The Latvian Institute
Welcome to Latvia
BBC Country Profile on Latvia
Poland website
BBC Country Profile on Poland

The key point to draw out in the case of these two countries is that superficially, life appears to look very much like that in the UK. The key difference is that wages are very low and the people find it difficult to have a standard of living comparable to that of people in the UK. So there is a strong pull factor based on wages.

Having watched the video clips, the pupils can look at the case studies from either the viewpoint of the employers or that of the immigrants themselves. Many employers want to employ immigrant workers and pupils can produce a piece of persuasive writing in the form of a letter or e-mail to the Prime Minister arguing why it is a good thing to allow people to migrate to the UK to work. They should aim to highlight two or three key reasons why the employers benefit from this process. The immigrants themselves often have very mixed feelings about living and working in a strange country and the pupils can draw on both the good and bad points and put together a piece of writing in the form of a letter or an e-mail to a friend back in the country that they have come from. Again, the pupils should aim to include at least two or three key points from the video. It is probably best to concentrate on Andrejs from Latvia who has experienced both working away from his family and dealing with the problems/benefits of having his family with him in the UK.

The work can be extended by getting the pupils to think about whether many of the European economic migrants will want to stay in the UK long term or whether they will eventually return back to their home countries. It is worth remembering that since these migrants can move freely between EU member countries and are not recorded by the government as immigrants, there is little data to show whether there is a movement back or not. With older pupils, and to a certain extent with younger pupils, it is also worth going a little further and reminding them that substantial numbers of UK workers go to work in other European countries - this helps to give a balance to any discussions on the topic. This BBC video news clip and Times newspaper report give a good insight into this aspect of the debate: 

BBC News: 'British workers welcomed in Italy'

The Times: 'We go where jobs are, say British workers on Italian gas platform'

In order to assess understanding and to draw many of the key points together, the pupils could outline their own feelings about accepting (in the future) a job working in France, Italy or some other European country. Get them to say 'yes' or 'no' and then to give reasons why. This could be developed into a longer piece of work done at home and perhaps assessed.

Some other questions to consider...

Do you think that your pupils find it easy in most cases to understand what it feels like to go and live in a different country? Are there any other classroom activities that you can think of that might make understanding easier? Are you able to use the personal experiences of any of the pupils that you teach or perhaps the parents of pupils? Would it be a useful exercise to arrange for someone to come into the class so that pupils could ask their own questions?

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