Log in
Research in COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, in the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, Oxford) on low-waged migrant labour, particularly in the care sector, has contributed significantly to public debate and policy development on migrant labour, labour demand, and trafficking and forced labour.
Led by Anderson, COMPAS's work in these fields has directly impacted upon (1) international debate, by informing the position of the UN and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on trafficking; (2) UK immigration policy and practice by making a key contribution to how skills and labour shortages are conceptualized for the purposes of policy; and (3) the work of trade unions and NGOs in the UK by demonstrating links between forced labour and labour market flexibility, a connection that has been taken up in campaigning.
Bell and Blanchflower's research on youth unemployment has been highly influential in affecting policy directions in both the UK and Europe during the Great Recession. It has also generated substantial public concern for a `lost generation' of unemployed young people through their sustained engagement in media and public debate.
Research by Alan Manning and colleagues at LSE's Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) has contributed to widespread acceptance of the view that minimum wages set at an appropriate level are a valuable tool of public policy. CEP researchers had a direct impact on the design of the UK's National Minimum Wage (NMW) and thus on the living standards of poorer workers and their families. They provided the intellectual context for the policy, advised on its implementation and evaluated its effects. CEP research has had some initial impact on the introduction of the minimum wage in Hong Kong. It has also influenced debates around the world about the introduction or modification of minimum wages.
Research at UCL provided the primary analysis of the effects of immigration on wages and the fiscal costs and benefits of A8 migration to the UK. These provided important and ongoing contributions to policy and media debates in the UK, as demonstrated by citations in key debates and policy documents in both Houses of Parliament, in commissioned studies and in the financial press. As a result, research successfully put facts and figures on immigration into a highly emotional and partisan debate.
The regulation of labour immigration and the rights of migrant workers are among the most contested public policy issues in high-income countries. Oxford research by Ruhs and Anderson, in conjunction with Martin (UC Davis), on how labour markets, welfare states and other public policies shape the demand for migrant workers, has directly impacted on: labour immigration policymaking in the UK (via the recommendations of the Migration Advisory Committee); the development of legislation for comprehensive immigration reform in the US; and policy debates in the Netherlands. The related research by Ruhs on the trade-offs between openness and rights in labour immigration policymaking has also informed debates and proposals about the global governance of international labour migration at the United Nations and other international institutions.
Southampton based research on the interactions of a minimum wage policy and tax evasion has had a direct and clearly acknowledged impact on shaping the labour market policies of Hungary and other Southern European countries, while its research on the role of universal versus targeted benefits on employment has had a significant impact on Swedish fiscal policy. Looking at labour market policies in a broader context and from a behavioural economics point of view (e.g. payroll giving), our findings on charitable giving and workers' motivation have also been used by the UK government's Behavioural Insights Team and impacted its recommendations on giving. The same research is currently influencing US policy on the tax treatment of charitable contributions.
Our research has impacted on policy and practice in the area of welfare to work, employment and skills, especially at regional and national levels. The most important impact has been through Professor Campbell's move to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills as Director of Research and Policy and subsequent applied research work by the PRI for the UK Commission on Employment and Skills (UKCES), which has contributed to the development of their policies on skills and employment. These policies in turn have informed government policy on skills, training and workforce development, and the work of the Sector Skills Councils to influence employers' practices, for example in the area of career development of staff. At the regional level, the main impact has been on skills policy through work for the Regional Development Agency.
Research carried out at the University of Oxford's Centre on Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS) and disseminated through an accessible multimedia website, `The Migration Observatory', has transformed public and policy debate on migration and changed the practices of government departments, media, and third-sector organizations regarding migration data. As a result of COMPAS's research on public attitudes to immigration, migrants' remittance payments, and employers' demand for migrant labour, these groups have been able to make stronger, evidence-based arguments and decisions.
The impact has occurred in two main ways: (1) direct impact on public debates; and (2) changes in the practices of those participating in, or reporting on, those debates. The direct impact has included evidence for arguments against new restrictions on student immigration, and related arguments in favour of changing the way student immigration statistics are tracked. It has also included shaping deliberations on the potential for developing new measures of remittances by the Office of National Statistics. Changes in practice have involved the dissemination of research and data through the vehicle of the Migration Observatory. The Observatory has enabled journalists, civil servants, parliamentarians, and NGOs to use a more accurate and impartial evidence base in debates on migration issues, and to inform the public about such issues.
There is an inherent tension between progress in the European Union's marketization agenda on the one hand, and the agenda for the development of European social citizenship on the other. Although markets internalise and manage many aspects of economic activity, the process of marketization also creates and ignores negative social and economic consequences. Focussing on uncertainty and insecurity in labour markets, the research by Crouch, Marginson and Meardi addressed the capacity of public and private employee relations and corporate governance arrangements, including collective bargaining and immigration, to offset these negative consequences. European policy makers are now gaining an interest in mitigating the effects of marketization. As a result, this timely research has challenged conventional wisdom that marketization promises unqualified gains and has stimulated significant ongoing policy and trade union debate across Europe.
The UK National Minimum Wage (NMW) is a mandatory wage floor, set annually by government following recommendations from the Low Pay Commission (LPC) that directly affect around a million low-wage workers, their families and their employers and influence the UK economy more widely. Research at York on the effects of minimum wages on the labour market outcomes of low- wage workers, particularly on hours worked, wage growth and the incentives for young people to acquire skills/education, has contributed to the LPC's evidence-base and influenced recommendations by the LPC on the NMW rates. In addition the underpinning research has informed the recent Living Wage policy debate (nationally and locally in York) and has had impact via two important York employers (City of York Council (CYC) and Joseph Rowntree Foundation/Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRF/JRHT)) in relation to their deliberations on the adoption (CYC) and the benefits of adopting this voluntary wage floor within their organisations; decisions that directly affected more than 600 York-based employees in early 2013.