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Managed Migration

I do not know the exact details of that case, but if my hon. Friend wants to share them with me I will certainly look into it. Migration is not about bringing people in to work in substandard conditions, and migrant workers must be afforded the same sort of welfare protection as anybody else. We are rightly taking cognisance of the impact of migration inflows on local labour markets. Although it is beyond the remit of many aspects of the work of the National Asylum Support Service and other agencies, it is important that the Home Office, with other Government Departments, starts to consider the impact—sudden impact in some cases, it is fair to say—of concentrations of east European workers in certain areas. There was a case up in Crewe where all of a sudden, as a result of the successful work of a local employment agency, some 3,000 Polish workers descended on the area almost overnight. They were taking on perfectly proper jobs, so there was nothing wrong in that sense, but it might have been helpful if the employment agency had told the council that those people were coming. Seemingly minor changes can have a significant impact on the local infrastructure. In the case of Crewe, 3,000 Polish people turned up in a population of 60,000. Given that the Poles are Catholic, it might be useful if the schools or the local education authority had had some notion that they were coming in case 25 children pop up in the local Catholic school saying, ““We’d like to come in, please””, as they have a perfect right to do. We need to consider such factors. We are working with the Department of Trade and Industry and others in respect of the exploitation of migrant workers and the impact on labour markets. About a year ago, I was pleased to launch a joint statement with the TUC and the CBI about the benefits of migrant workers, part of which dealt with the impact on local labour markets and the rights, benefits and welfare conditions of migrant workers. That is a very important point.