Reaching out to migrant workers in Lancashire

In Soviet times, especially after the Second World War, many Russians went to settle in the Baltic region of Europe, with the result that by the 1980s, only about half of the population of Latvia was ethnically indigenous Latvian, the rest being predominantly Russian. In Estonia the population became one-third Russian, while in Lithuania a smaller proportion (around 10%) of the population were Russian. While these proportions declined to some degree after the Baltic States achieved independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, significant Russian populations survive to this day, especially in Latvia and Estonia, where many Russians have been denied citizenship and face other forms of discrimination.

Russian and Slavic minority populations of the Baltic States

It is not surprising therefore that, following accession to the EU in 2004, many Baltic Russians have chosen to come to Western Europe, including the North West of England, to start a new life. Thus a significant proportion of the UK’s Russian-speaking community are migrant workers from the Baltic countries.

By “migrant workers” I mean those who have come here primarily for the purposes of finding work, rather than those Russian-speakers who have come here because they have married UK citizens or for educational or other reasons.

Alas, Russian-speaking migrant workers in the UK are a doubly-hidden minority – in the sense that they are often thought of simply as “East European” or “Latvian” migrant workers. As is well known, the majority of such migrant workers from the East are Polish – so the needs of the much smaller Russian-speaking minority are often overlooked.

Even where Russian-speakers within the migrant worker communities are acknowledged they are usually classified according to their nationality – which is usually Latvian or Estonian (occasionally Lithuanian or Ukrainian) – rather than their language or ethnicity

One of the ironies of this situation is that even where such people allegedly do something wrong whilst here in the UK, the prosecution against them can be delayed, as in a recent alleged case of drink driving in Lancashire involving a Russian-speaker from Latvia, which was held up for lack of a Russian interpreter.

That such migrant workers are here in Lancashire is beyond doubt. As well as facing low pay and often terrible working conditions, all too often they find themselves falling prey to people traffickers, unscrupulous landlords or even racially motivated hate crime.

It is heartening therefore to realise that the authorities here in Lancashire are keen to try to meet the needs of migrant workers from Eastern Europe, whatever their language, nationality or ethnicity.

Julie Brons, Migrant Community Development Officer, Burnley and Rossendale ELVSRC

Thus, in East Lancashire, a new project has been launched called Improving Reach. Julie Brons, heads this initiative in Burnley and Rossendale, in conjunction with a colleague in Hyndburn (Accrington and Oswaldtwistle) and Pendle (Nelson, Colne and Barnoldswick) and her goal is to develop Eastern European migrant communities by giving them a collective voice to speak out about the issues they face and help them set up their own community interest groups.

It is hoped that this will help influence the delivery of services, affect policy-making and help integration within the wider community.

Julie hopes to deliver training and to establish contacts with East Europeans by organizing informal events to try to build positive relationships which will encourage trust to develop.

A funding bid has been made to begin drop-in centres where community members can be trained to give out information in their own language to help new migrant workers to get advice about their rights and how to access services. This will begin as a volunteering role but with a view to paid work as funding allows. Training towards a bi-lingual skills qualification will be encouraged for more fluent members.

Conversational English classes will also be facilitated for beginners who want to learn English in a relaxed setting.

Russian Lancashire wishes Julie and her team every success and we encourage Russian-speaking migrant workers in East Lancashire to make contact with her:

Julie  Brons, Migrant Community Development Officer, Burnley and Rossendale ELVSRC, Tel:01282 433740

(Русская версия данного блога здесь)

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