Polish Migrants on the Danish Labour Market – Free Birds or New Outsiders?

Abstract

Since the EU Enlargement in 2004, Denmark has experienced a large influx of labour from the new Central- and Eastern European member countries. More than 40,000 working permits have been issued and in addition a large number of unknown posted and non-registered migrant workers from Eastern Europe have entered Denmark. The influx has triggered a public debate about increased risk of wage dumping and lowering of work quality for the incumbent Danish labour. However, research findings suggest that it is mainly the Eastern European migrant workers who experience low wages and a low quality of work. This article compares Polish migrant workers and incumbent Danish employees based on a survey of 500 Polish migrant workers, using a respondent driven sampling method. It argues that significant differences exist in the pay and working conditions of Polish and Danish workers. This is largely down to the type of jobs held by the Polish migrant workers. Three groups of Polish migrant workers can be identified; a low quality work group, a small group with “better” jobs and finally migrants working within construction. The majority of the Polish migrant workers are in low quality and low skilled jobs, where the salary is low and working conditions are relatively poor for both Danish and foreign workers. The second group of Polish migrant workers hold “better” jobs, where to some extent they use their qualifications and knowledge such as within nursing or administration. Although their work experiences are diverse, our data indicates that they experience poorer working conditions than their Danish counterparts. The third group – mainly men working within construction – has a significantly lower wage than Danish construction workers. However the opportunities for Polish construction workers’ to utilize their qualifications is greater, and this group also report higher job satisfaction. Hence, the incumbent Danish workers and the trade unions in this sector are severely concerned about wage dumping and impairing of general working conditions. Generally speaking, Polish migrant workers all experience to some extent lower wages and poorer working conditions that their Danish counterparts and as such hold a weaker position in the Danish labour market with respect to improving their own work and labour conditions either through negotiation or job change. Indeed, they are “free birds” in the sense that they are free to move on and offer their labour elsewhere. However, this article suggests that the classic segmentation mechanisms appear to question the success of the free movement of labour within the EU, calling for further research into this area.