Migrant Workers In Europe

BEYOND the tranquil Lincolnshire village of Gedney Dyke, along a winding lane lined with willow trees, some of the 96 farm workers due in for the growing season are busy at work at the Norfolk House Farm, picking, cutting, washing and packing spring onions for a British supermarket chain. But these are not local labourers, hired from the surrounding villages and towns. They are young Latvians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Poles, Czechs and Belarussians, just a handful of the 10,000 seasonal workers recruited each year under an official British scheme to import farm hands.

"The East Europeans aren't cheap labour," explains Stuart Piccaver, one of the Norfolk House directors, "but they are reliable and good quality. An 18-year-old local doesn't consider it trendy to work on a farm; he would prefer a job in a bar or a shop. Anyway, you get such a poor work rate from the locals that you could only let them do something simple, like cut daffodils. We couldn't let them loose harvesting iceberg lettuces." Today, Britain is far from alone in hiring workers from abroad, whether legally or illegally, to fill such jobs. Moroccans pick tomatoes and peppers in hothouses in south-eastern Spain. Poles harvest vegetables in Germany. Sikhs from India's Punjab pick fruit in Belgium. Russians harvest crops in Ireland. Nor is farming the only industry to recruit foreigners. Many Europeans rely daily on foreigners to clean their houses, mind their children, lay their bricks or deliver their pizza.

Source: The Economist, 6 May 2000.