Anti-Polish Migrant Moral Panics and Trade Unions in the UK

Over the last decade, the growth of cross-border migration has stimulated considerable research into its effects on culture and society. In Europe, the enlargement of the Union has not only resulted in growth of an economic and geographic area known for its most extensive free movement of workers, but also renewed interests in researching the conditions and consequences of this new wave of migration. In times of economic boom, migration was essentially emphasised by politicians as a positive development,aimed at plugging skills shortages and promoting growth (Dench et al. 2006); yet in current times of austerity, anxieties surrounding migration are mounting leading to increasing precarity for migrants and the retreat of the political rhetoric of the ‘good migrant’ (see e.g. Anderson 2010).