Migrant and Minority Learning Needs in the Communications Industry : Final report

Abstract

This research was commissioned to examine the trade union learning needs of migrant workers in the communications industry. The key research questions focus on how far this learning meets the needs of migrant workers, whether there are structural or discriminatory disincentives to taking up union learning and how far inclusion and cohesion in the workplace and wider community can be promoted by union learning activities. There were two key findings: firstly, although some barriers to accessing union learning existed primarily associated with migrant workers disproportionately working unsociable shifts, the type of union learning activities demanded by workers cut across diversities. Experiences related to union learning were common to all workers who were unified by lack of access to, or utilisation of, formal educational resources. The second key finding was that a culture of learning for learning’s sake is valuable in fostering the social integration of workers generally and of migrant workers more specifically.