Polish Labour Migration to the UK: Data Discrepancies, Migrant Distributions, and Indicators of Entrepreneurial Activity

This paper contributes to a growing body of work on labour market migration to the UK from the New Member States of the EU, particularly the migration of Polish nationals to the UK, drawing attention to the weaknesses of existing datasets which attempt to quantify these migration flows and in particular to map the geographical distribution of migrants. The analysis of Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) and National Insurance Number Allocation (NINo) data, demonstrates that NMS migration has focused on urban and rural locales rather than having a predominantly rural or ‘peripheral’ area bias. The paper also argues that the discrepancies between WRS and NINo data potentially reveal a ‘hidden’ geography of self-employment and entrepreneurial activity amongst NMS migrants which merits further investigation.