Polish Labour Migrants and Undeclared Work in Norway

Abstract

This article identifies how labour migrants' participation in undeclared work is triggered by a combination of voluntary exit from the formal labour market in the host country as well as structures that makes it more likely for this type of worker to be forced to accept unregistered work. The argument is built by examining how East-West European Union migration can foster or reinforce reasons for participating in undeclared work. At the EU level, the issue of undeclared work is seen as a mounting challenge, and public discussion now associates a supposed increase in undeclared work with the EU's open borders. For this study, 74 semistructured interviews were conducted with Polish labour migrants in Norway -both temporary migrants and more settled ones. A substantial part of these interviews focused on undeclared work. The results indicate that immigration enhances as well as creates new reasons for participating in undeclared work. In particular, they highlight how decisions to participate in undeclared work are not just an effect of labour market dynamics, but also a question of social integration.

The Effects of Immigration on Labour Tax Avoidance: An Empirical Spatial Analysis

“…Our findings are robust to several additional analyses, including instrumental variable estimations to account for any endogeneity that may arise from reverse causality or correlated omitted variable bias. Hence, our results may provide empirical support to previous structuralist or marginalization theories (Cappelen & Muriaas, 2018;Taiwo, 2013;Williams & Horodnic, 2015a), holding that spatially and socio-economically marginalized groups, such as non-EU immigrants, are more likely to be involved in UDW and/or other labour exploitation practices, which could underlie our LTAV outcomes. Furthermore, our findings may suggest that labour market competition, caused by increased immigration, may negatively affect working conditions and enhance LTAV also for low skilled/paid national workers, mostly employed in agriculture and construction industries.…”

“…In addition to some obvious conclusions that can be drawn from the analysis of the specific Italian context, other theories, suggested in prior research, may support our hypothesis on the role of non-EU immigration in fostering LTAV practices. In this regard, based on 74 semistructured interviews conducted with Polish labour migrants in Norway, Cappelen and Muriaas (2018) show that the involvement of immigrants in insecure, precarious and undeclared work is mainly triggered by a combination of voluntary exit from the formal labour market, to achieve higher net income, as well as structures, such as the immigrants' social life (e.g., lack of social networks and integration within the native community) or their work life (e.g., difficulties in getting legally declared work), that make it more likely for this type of workers to be forced to accept these working conditions. Nonetheless, the authors consider the influence of external societal structure more determinant and then call for more research on how to best integrate labour migrants into the civil society of the host country.…”

“…Previous studies examine the effects of immigration on various aspects of the labour market of the host countries such as unemployment, wages, employment opportunities, working conditions, and labour productivity (Docquier, Ozden, & Peri, 2014;Dustmann, Glitz, & Frattini, 2008;Longhi et al, 2010a;Okkerse, 2008;Smith, 2012). In particular, other studies, more closely related to our paper, document the tendency of the immigrants to be underemployed in the informal economy of the host countries, using case studies, interviews, surveys, and macroeconomic statistics (Bohn & Owens, 2012;Cappelen & Muriaas, 2018;Pajnik, 2016;Theodore et al, 2018;Yea, 2017). In this research context, our study is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to provide empirical evidence of the impact of immigration on LTAV, the logical effect of UDW and other labour exploitative practice, by starting from firmlevel accounting information to carry out a spatial econometric analysis.…”

“…In this respect, prior research documents that, in several price-competitive sectors with highly wavering demand, employers, willing to violate immigration and labour regulations, resort to undeclared immigrant workers and their exploitation to minimize labour costs (Maroukis, Iglicka, & Gmaj, 2011;Mayer, 2015;Theodore et al, 2018;Yea, 2017). Indeed, the scarce employment options due to their restricted or absent labour rights, the lack of information about their rights, the limited language skills, the non-recognition of qualifications and work experiences achieved in other countries, as well as other forms of discrimination may lead immigrants to accept substandard employment within the informal economy or more precarious, insecure and illegal working conditions, especially in sectors characterized by lowskilled jobs, mostly unattractive to nationals (Alho & Helander, 2016;Cappelen & Muriaas, 2018;Lewis, Dwyer, Hodkinson, & Waite, 2015;Strauss & McGrath, 2017). Therefore, for some immigrants a period of highly exploitative employment in the formal or informal economy may be the only viable option for meeting basic needs while establishing themselves within a host society (Lewis et al, 2015;Pajnik, 2016).…”

The phenomenon of tax evasion and undeclared work in Greece. Causes and the role of control mechanisms

“…An important task for future research is to analyse distributional impacts of different tax instruments in a model of heterogeneous households, including an imposed balanced-budget requirement on the policy-maker. On the other hand, Cappelen and Muriaas (2018) argue that immigration enhances and creates new reasons for participating in undeclared work. In particular, they highlight how undeclared work is not just an effect of labour market dynamics, but also of social integration.…”