Equality of Opportunity Committee

Inquiry into Migrant Workers

Response from Swansea University

Jobs created by immigrants

Most of the evidence tends to view immigrants as primarilly labour migrants. This has been strongly reinforced by immigration from the EU accession states. There is, however, a growing body of evidence which points to the jobs created by immigrant and second generation black and ethnic minority entrepreneurs. Research by Dr Prodromos Panayiotopoulos at Swansea University and others, points to the clustering of ethnic enterprises, such as Bengali and Pakistani owned enterprise in St Helens Road, Swansea, as significant areas of employment growth. These includes the evident employment of fellow co-ethnics as cooks, waiters, shop assistants, but also employment generated through a wider and more discrete multiplier effect. Many native workers in industries producing plates, knives and forks for the restaurant trade, or who are self-employed as electricians, plumbers, painters and decorators, also have more work than they would, due to minority owned enterprises. Major beneficiaries include local and central government through the taxation of enterprises. Often entrepreneurs have to find their own starting capital and are rarely beneficiaries of development assistance. A good example of this is again, offered by St Helens Road, Swansea. The entrepreneurs transformed an area which was long abandoned by most businesses by raising their own start-up capital and with very limited assistance from the Swansea local authority. This stands in marked contrast to the large sums invested by the local authority in the development of the Wind Street leisure complex. In discussing the economic impact of migration to Wales, we also need to consider the employment generated by immigrant owned enterprises.

Dr Prodromos Ioannou Panayiotopoulos
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
School of the Environment and Society
Margam Building
University of Wales, Swansea
Singleton Park
Swansea SA2 8PP
Wales UK
email m.pany@swansea.ac.uk

Author
Immigrant enterprise in Europe and the United States, 2006, (London: Routledge) (269 pp. +i-xii) (ISBN 0415353718).