UNISON hails migrants’ contribution

Public services in the UK have only been able to expand quickly and efficiently because of migrant workers’ labour, public services union UNISON has claimed.

At its annual conference last month, the union reported that over 14,000 registered care workers in the UK arrived from the EU accession states between July 2004 and September 2006. And thousands more registered as kitchen assistants, cleaners, nurses, street wardens, classroom assistants, meat handlers and police community support officers over the same period.

According to official statistics, 38% of doctors in English hospitals qualified outside Britain, 40% of new dentists were born abroad and 16% of nurses are from ethnic minorities.

Calling on the government to be more supportive of migrant workers, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “The fact is that many local services would crumble without such staff.”