There was an uproar in the business sector when Greencore, a London-listed Irish company and the UK’s leading sandwich producer, stirred controversy due to its hiring practices. Previously known as Irish Sugar, the company was accused of travelling to Hungary to source inexpensive labour for its prominent sandwich factory based in Northampton.
Executives from the company took a trip to Budapest with an aim of hiring around 300 employees to fill positions at the plant, which has a workforce of approximately 2,000. Residents of Northampton felt disrespected by this action, arguing that they had been ignored by the company.
Initially, Greencore rationalised that the robust UK economy forced them to hire from overseas. However, they later admitted to unsuccessful attempts at local recruitment despite the existence of more than 8,000 jobless individuals in the town at the time.
A seemingly innocuous comment made by a Greencore representative that the firm’s decision to hire abroad was due to lack of interest from British individuals, escalated the issue into a national dispute about immigration and low wages. It was expected that some of the newly-hired employees were to earn minimum wage, which was £6.50 per hour at the time.
Interrogative headlines from the Daily Mail, such as “Is there no one left in Britain who can make a sandwich?”, further ignited the controversy, bringing Greencore’s employment methods and payment structures under scrutiny. This matter attracted attention as far as the House of Commons, with Northampton North MP Michael Ellis drawing attention to it during a parliamentary debate session. This situation served to underline then Prime Minister David Cameron’s call for an effective immigration policy.
In retrospect, this dispute was indicative of the political climate in the UK at the time. Within two years, the anti-immigrant campaign led by the UK Independence Party and promises from Brexit supporters of an improved economy with enhanced trade agreements culminated in the country exiting the EU. As witnessed in many other western countries, the UK still has an intense aversion to immigration. Thus far, Brexit hasn’t eased these tensions, and Rishi Sunak’s government is caught up in a flawed plan to extradite asylum seekers to Rwanda. Depending on their political leanings, politicians continue to frame their narratives around immigration.
Ex-US president and Republican leader Donald Trump has informed voters that years of elevated immigration have resulted in decreased wages and increased joblessness for Americans, notably among African-American and Latino labourers. In contrast, the Democrats, led by Joe Biden, push for the necessity of immigration control while acknowledging the considerable economic contributions made by tenacious migrants through enhanced productivity and wealth.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar repeatedly emphasises the advantages of immigration, pointing out that a significant number of individuals now paying income tax in the country weren’t born there. The real effect of immigration, akin to the Greencore incident, offers a more intricate perspective than these two stances. Certainly, immigration raises productivity and wealth, however, its benefits are not universal. Some, like US economist George Borjas, even write that immigration could decrease the wages of workers in direct competition with immigrants, indicating a wage reduction of 3-4% in response to a 10% increased labour supply.
However, considering the rapid growth and financial recovery of the Irish economy post-2012, it’s hard to conceive its success without the inclusion of immigrant workers. Essential sectors, ranging from taxi services, coffee shops to restaurants in Dublin, primarily rely on foreign labour. Similarly, the setup of tech giants like Google or Facebook in Ireland largely depended on the country’s pool of foreign employees.
There still exists a stereotype that immigrants are seizing jobs, founded on the potentially erroneous assumption that there is a finite stock of work in any given economy. But the expansion of an economy depends on various elements, and in some cases, an increased labour pool can enhance the economy’s size and lead to further job generation. In Ireland’s context, labour statistics demonstrate this point, indicating that we currently have the highest employment figures – 2.71 million – in the history of the state, even amidst considerable foreign worker influx. Ireland’s bigger, richer, more efficient economy is operating at near maximum employment and thriving with the significant migrant population.
While there’s a perception that local workers shun some jobs due to their low pay, unremarkable status and associated stigmatization, this notion relies more on personal observations than systematic evidence.
A significant pressure point arising from Ireland’s swift economic growth is the mounting tension on public services. The rising influx of immigrants coupled with a strain on the already limited and deteriorating state facilities – augmented stress on welfare, education, health, and housing systems – are likely to foster tensions. Effective management of these tensions will necessitate improved planning and robust political steering.
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