News

Migrant workers fill the gaps - by Dominic O'Connell and Archna Shukla

The Sunday Times - Business Section - 16th January 2005

In affluent north London surburb of St John's Wood, a favourite with well-heeled expat Americans, porsches and Mercedes are Vying for Parking spaces outside the starbucks coffee shop.  Inside, Luca Russo, the store's manager, greets his regulars.  Russo, a 32-year-old native of Casale Monferrato in Italy's Piemonte region, heads a multinational team.  Four of his staff are from South Korea, four from Poland, two from Brazil, two from Spain, and one from Hungary.  Russo's mini United Nations - and the complete absence of British staff - is an increasing common phenomenon in the UK workplaces.  Despite having more than 800,000 unemployed, britain is packed with foreign workers, filling jobs that locals can't or won't do.  According to the goverment, foreigh labour is a good thing.  Ministers maintain that although immigrants make up only 8% of the workforce, they account for 10% of GDP.  Without their entrepreneurial drive, Tony Blair told the CBI last year, Britain's rate of growth would be half a percentage point lower.