1 Introduction

The ethnic makeup of the United Kingdom (UK) has significantly changed in the past five decades. Particularly in the last 20 years, the country has experienced a net immigration of over 270,000 people annually until 2019 [1]. The migrant populations have grown from about 4 million to over 9 million from 1993 to 2018 [2]. The government in the UK introduced some policies geared at managing immigration flows with different periods of encouragement and restrictions. The workforce in the UK has thus been in constant evolution owing to various migration waves. For instance: the Caribbean arrived in late 1940s; those from the Indian subcontinent in 1950s to 1960s; the Ugandan Asian refugees came during 1970s; the Somalis in1990s; and the recent Eastern European mass immigration to the UK since 2000s when more countries joined the EU and policies allowed them to immigrate to the UK labour market soon after.

Consequently, immigration has become a contentious recurring topic in UK debate concerning integration, discrimination, and economic impact [3]. It is argued [4] that by expanding the worker supply and addressing recruitment difficulties in lower employment levels, migrants increase output and GDP levels. However, others [5] contend that a 10% rise in the population engendered just 2.2% of per capita increase. It was reported [6] a slight reduction in wages for those in the lowest10% in the wage structure was linked to migration. However, the same research also found an increase in wages for middle earners, as a consequence of increased migration. Other authors [7, 8] see migration as a means to keep wages low and maximise profit for the capitalists. Furthermore, upskilling migrants causes improved productivity overall [9, 10]. This also contributes to building knowledge, accessing market in foreign countries and bringing novel perspectives to organisations [7, 11, 12]. Thus, despite the ongoing debate about the advantages and limitations of the use of migrant labour, significant research found that migrants’ contribution to the UK economy is substantial.

Although the understanding of super-diversity is increasing, tensions remain and these involve painful incidents including discrimination, clash of beliefs, value systems and cultures within workplace and the wider community. These require addressing in the context of work equity [13,14,15]. That is to say the virtues of diversity and multiculturalism in the workplace can still possibly be tainted with vices of migration including prejudice, inequality, segregation or racism [16,17,18], attitudes which can all be anti-integrative despite the aspirations among migrants [19]. To deal with this, a strong legal and policy framework has been developed [20]. Nevertheless, not much of this covers conflict and race discrimination between the indigenous communities and the migrants. As a result of historical events, media, and culture, it is common to assume immigrants are often obstructed only by host-country nationals which leads to limited acknowledgement of differences and conflict inside migrant communities. Consequently, such a framework overlooks issues that occur within migrant groups in the UK workforce [21], highlighting a gap in the literature. This may, subsequently, cause reduced prospects for migrants [22, 23].

An important contribution that our research makes is to bring to light the neglected issue of the complexity of relationships among migrants from different cultural backgrounds, and even from the same culture, which may explain the disadvantage experienced by migrants in the host country. A further novelty of the research is its scrutiny of the role of long-term immigrants in the workplace integration of newcomers. This study is important in a continuously and rapidly evolving global environment which is intensifying the growth of global labour markets. This study creates a foundation for future research which focuses on intra-migrant group issues. The core research question is as follows: To what extent can management and policies in organisations effectively address issues of intra-migrant group integration for their greater integration in the workforce?

This paper addresses these concerns about existing attitude differences and the link between ethnic identity and their integration in the workplace through a comprehensive literature review. This lays the basis to determine this research’s methodology, which focuses on a migrant-reliant organisation’s qualitative case study. The methodology also provides the background of the organisation. The findings section brings to light the life experiences of migrant workers, their working relationships with their co-workers, and shedding light on the differences in their attitudes. Finally, the discussion attempts to link the outcomes with the existing literature, filling the gap in this field.

2 Literature review

There is much literature evidence that migrants play a key role in ensuring a flexible and productive labour force [24,25,26,27]. In addition, migrant groups play an important role, particularly in the retail and hospitality fields [28]. Without their presence, there would be significant labour shortages [6, 10, 14, 29]. Creating opportunities for them to develop entrepreneurial skills [27] engenders opportunities to maximise capital and profit [8, 27, 30] and reduce skills shortages, especially in hard-to-fill roles [24, 25, 31, 32].

Many migrants find work using labour agencies and are in low-status occupations which are mostly not related to their previous experience or education [30, 33, 34]. However, often, the migrants do not receive relevant workplace training in equality and diversity issues, which complicates their effective incorporation into the host labour market and collaboration with various other migrant groups.

Debate surrounding the factors that hinder migrant integration suggests that although there may be a broad consensus that integration is a necessary endeavour, the question of how it might be done is not agreed upon. The migrants’ experience with diversity as well attachment to their home cultures can be considered a part of this debate. There is therefore a certain propensity among migrants to cluster in ethnic enclaves owing to cultural proximity [35]. A workplace community does not concern only the work environment; it is also a community that influences others and social action in which they are involved. An existing community’s attitude can significantly affect the way in which the new migrant integrates into a collective or work context [25, 36,37,38,39,40,41]. The attitude of locals and long-term migrants to newcomers is sometimes not very positive [38, 41,42,43]. Since groups of migrants can perceive each other as in competition for the same opportunities, there could develop some hostilities between groups [31, 44, 45].

Long-term migrants, in some cases, can have the view that newcomers are competitive threats and rivals [46, 47]. This is potentially owing to new migrants possessing higher levels of qualification and often a better command of English language in the context of the UK. Long-term migrants and newcomers alike may develop antagonism towards each other owing to a common anxiety about employment prospects, legal status, and financial security [3, 48,49,50]. Long-term migrants may reject newcomers as a way of protecting the relationships and privileges they have secured with their organisation. This also compensates for their potential lesser education and language competence [14, 51].

The issue of ethnocentrism is also prominent [38] because subjectivities affect one’s attitude vis-à-vis migration and that may shape decision-making for instance concerning recruitment and selection, [52,53,54] irrespective of gender or generational differences. Ethnically oriented recruitment is the subject of debate within occupational literature and across management literature [24, 55]. Ethnically oriented recruitment can be seen as inherent to social structures [56] as long-term employees attempt to safeguard their social and economic status in their host community. Xenophobia should therefore be understood as a wider human and organisational issue, not necessarily only fitting the host-immigrant paradigm; but it could be within newcomer groups too [57]. Nonetheless, dramatic increases in migrant numbers helped exacerbate the issue of immigration as a politically charged debate that often fuels anti-immigrant sentiments [38, 57,58,59].

This is a testament to the fact that politics has the potency to affect attitudes within the work environment. An anti-immigrant dialogue has led to the rise of nationalist parties across the UK and has grown in importance nationally [60]. If there is a positive opinion about immigration in political debates, workforce integration may increase [36, 38], and skills shortages may be reduced [31, 58, 61,62,63].

This research recognises the complexity of the ethnic and inclusionary debate. We view ethnicity as an important foundation of discrimination. It is evidenced through different problems that new migrants face, e.g. lack of facilitation within the workplace, lack of knowledge of available services, language barriers, and inability of services to address the complex needs of diverse ethnic groups [36, 51, 64, 65]. Additional barriers to migrant integration within the workforce include restrictions of employment rights, and antagonistic attitudes linked to their status as migrants [22, 38, 44, 45], a lack of understanding of British labour markets and work environments [7, 8, 26, 36, 66,67,68], employment processes, and worries about prejudice [48, 67, 69].

It cannot be denied that it is critical to be aware that the attitudes of long-term migrants concerning the inclusion of newcomers can persist in organisational environments, thus contributing to marginalising new migrant groups. This then causes adverse perceptions of some communities [8, 70]. Psychological barriers (for example anxiety, pressure, and the fragmentation within migrant communities) can be linked to ongoing derogatory opinions which can further impede the appropriation of opportunities by migrants in organisations [41, 71,72,73]. Effective migrant inclusion is inhibited through a feeling of inferiority [35] and lower self-esteem, particularly for the long-term unemployed or underemployed migrants, [48] but, equally when they worry about being ostracized from their communities [41].

In this case, migrant and ethnic networks provide some reassurance to the new migrants in the early stage of their encounter in workplace communities. However, such networks are able to bring about social exclusion and alienation [35]. Entry into the workforce through migrant networks may be criticised because of its capacity to offer largely unskilled work to new migrants. Migrant groups, namely newcomer migrants, can be racialised owing to the absence of inter-ethnic rapport, thus impeding effective migrant host society participation. Assistance from long-term migrants is an important factor to integrate newcomers, but exploiting social networks effectively is a foundation of migrant workforce integration [8]. The perspective taken here is that integration needs to be a collaborative and ongoing process that involves hosts’ migrants adjusting to a continuously evolving socio-cultural and economic landscape [74]. Such an adaptation concept can be critical for the Wholesale, Retail, Hotels & Restaurants (WRHR) sector owing to its constant interface with cultural diversity.

3 Methodology

3.1 Methods

This research is a qualitative case study using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to help answer the research questions. It is argued [75], the approach involving case studies is heterogeneous because of the nature of the data collected. The case study approach is effective in qualitative research because of its flexibility. Due to its ability to qualitatively capture depth, thus the data collection techniques of semi-structured interviews were selected. This combination was vital for the understanding of behaviours prevalent within FoodPro.Co, alongside observations and awareness of current trends in the organisation. Due to its immersive nature, the case study explored the complexities of attitudes within the context of one particular organisation.

The semi-structured interview offered flexibility due to its loosely predetermined questions that allowed participants room to creatively articulate their stories [76, 77]. It allowed participants to highlight their individual journeys and perspectives without diverting too far from subjects of concern. Semi-structured interviews enabled the researchers to examine obvious patterns [78] and gain a good knowledge of the phenomena through the analysis of connections between the patterns identified [14, 56].

The participants were randomly selected. This attempted to reduce bias in the selection of participants [78], though we were cautious that it may be impacted by the participants’ availability as well as their willingness to participate in the study. All the employees invited to take part in the interviews agreed and twenty-three interviews were conducted. The interview questions were decided on the basis of aspects such as motivations, opportunities, skills and socio-economic needs, working relationships, language barriers, and employment. These were given equal consideration to help understand the overall organisational setting and culture. Due to time constraints, to improve the utility of data in gaining an understanding of trends and patterns, the interview questions (see Appendix A) were rephrased for clarity to the interviewee.

To ethically conduct the research, upon the random selection, all participants were sent a confidential email inviting them to the research. It explicitly stated that participation would be voluntary, non-incentivised, confidential, and their refusal at any stage was acceptable. This was done by the HR department at FoodPro.Co to help coordinate shifts and breaks to ensure smooth running of the factory during the interviews. The interviewer enlightened the participants about the research topic and the use of the data [79, 80], allowing for informed consent. This included an understanding that they would be cited anonymously in future publications. The participants were required to sign a consent form prior to the interviews. Continuous confirmation of verbal consent [80] was also carried out during the interviews. Participants’ personal data was anonymised so that they could not be identified. Rigour was achieved through thoughtful and deliberate planning, diligent and ongoing application of researcher’s reflexivity, and honest communication between the researcher and the interviewees regarding the issues asked and responses obtained. This was done by using participant responses as the final word in the thesis and by identifying patterns before finalising on codes and themes for the research, all of which helped to reassure that the data was rich, cohesive, and trustworthy.

The study involved 23 participants (6 natives, 7 new migrants and 10 long-term migrants. This study defines long-term migrants as people who came from abroad and have been living in the UK for 5 years and over; new migrants are defined as people who came from abroad and have been living in the UK for 6 months to 5 years; and ‘natives’ are defined as people who have lived in the UK from birth. This paper included both migrants and natives to help understand viewpoints from both within and outside the system of migrant groups to help achieve a more balanced perspective. Interviews were conducted with a broad range of employees, including managers, supervisors, technical and shop floor staff to increase the robustness of the sample [78], representing the diverse perspectives at different vertical and horizontal levels. The participants’ details are provided in Table 1.

Table 1 Participant Information
Full size table

The interviews were conducted in August 2019. They took place in the workplace. For privacy reasons, designated rooms for the interviews. These interviews took about 30–90 min each to complete.

The data was transcribed manually. It was coded, using descriptive and analytical codes, notes, and themes which aided the later analysis of the data and its interpretation. The descriptive codes summarised the apparent description in the text into a few words to be representative of the stated information, whereas analytical codes were phrases or words selected to highlight a deeper meaning beyond the text. Developing the themes consisted of grouping the answers that reflected behaviours, beliefs, actions, ideas, interactions, and conditions. This process later enabled ease in the search for themes and meaning [81]. Some similarities became visible, which enabled the researchers to group the similar themes into analytical categories. This grouping of the themes enabled us to understand observed patterns [82].

The three main themes arrived at were as follows: (1) The challenges that organisations face: this covers issues faced by the organisation and policies and practices that it developed; (2) The work Relationships and Attitudes: this describes attitudes as well as support within long-term immigrants groups and newcomers of varying ethnic backgrounds; (3) The motivations, opportunities and costs: this covered migrants’ motivation to remain in the company in spite of barriers to career growth and exclusion.

3.2 Background of the organisation

FoodPro.Co, a food processing company, (name changed to preserve anonymity), was established in the early 1940’s. Its main activity centres on meat products. The company has six factories based in the UK, with 3 in England alone. The Midlands site was chosen for the study due to its accessibility by the principal investigator. The company is well-known for its locally sourced and fresh produce. It operates with a broad-based supply chain and several connected farms. This makes FoodPro.Co, one of the significant producers of meat products in Europe. The company is also a leader in the manufacturing and supply of organic meat. Its partners include key brands and distributors which complement its own products. The organisation has about 1060 employees at the site covered by the study. Employees come from nearly 40 nationalities, the main of which are: Romanians (27%), Slovakians (15%), Polish (9%), Latvians. At the time of the research in 2019, 85% of FoodPro.Co’s employees were from migrant backgrounds (56% were new migrants, 29% long-term immigrants). The factory operated on a three-shift schedule 24/7- morning, afternoon, and night. Though automation was present in parts of it, many operatives worked long hours in bitter cold, malodorous environments due to the nature of the job. They were constantly on their feet, performing monotonous repetitive tasks, dexterous movements, and heavy lifting in silence. There was strict vigilance of workers through CCTV and on-site supervisors. The working conditions are perceived as being organised as they are considered appropriate for the supply chain following industry standards, e.g. the standards of the International Food Safety (IFS) and those of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) [83].

4 Findings

4.1 Issues faced by migrants in the workforce

A key barrier to career enhancement faced by migrants at FoodPro.Co is the misappropriation of opportunities because of the disregard of their skills. Interviews revealed that generally the migrants were overqualified compared to their host counterparts. However, they remain in the work roles they have out of necessity to meet their basic needs. This aligns with literature evidence [84, 85]. P-16, (new migrant from Romania and Production Operative) explained:

“Many people have a degree and are seen as over-qualified. Working in this factory, they feel stranded in a job that’s manual labour. It’s their skills benefit from less recognition for their prior work. As they have no UK work experience, they take any employment.”

The participants felt apprehensive about the supervisors’ perception about them for electing to remain in jobs that do not match their credentials. It stemmed from their experience of being unable to acquire equal opportunities to develop in the company as echoed by many interviewees. P-12, (native, Asian- British and Planner) argued:

“When I started with the company, I came with skills and qualifications. However, I wasn’t given a chance to make use of my skills. It’s like no one cared about the skills I had.”

The concerns of exclusion from development and promotions were voiced across ethnicities. As P-5,(long-term immigrant from Latviaand Process Controller), expressed the views of many through his own encounter:

“I am never made a team leader. I think the company doesn’t have a person with my skills to fill the process controller role effectively. so, they use me. I’ve for team leader roles several times but they always turned me down.”

P-16, (new migrant, from Romania, and Production Operative) expressed that:

“It is a waste of my time trying to apply for promotion. My superiors do not offer me training; I think this to keep me in the same position with progression. Despite speaking to them, they do not take any action”.

Although FoodPro.Co has a policy of equal opportunities that serves as a reference for decision-making to ensure positive results when it comes to recruitment, training, performance, and retention of capable workers regardless of their racial, national, gender, disability, age, and religious backgrounds. This policy aimed to reduce discrimination of job candidates and employees, driving the company by inclusion. As P-1, native, British, Administrative assistant, explained:

“The organisation does not discriminate against anyone because of their ethnicity, or nationality; you are hired because of your skill.”

However, regardless of the availability of a policy framework, the employees did not benefit; the policy was not implemented consistently within the organisation. Some suggested it largely occurred in hiring where the recruiting managers are from the same ethnicities. As P-16 (new migrant from Romania and Production Operative) explained:

“As I joined the company, a Polish team leader with almost a decade service here, became very antagonistic toward me. He shows a preference for Polish workers in the team, and encourages the manager to reject Romanian applicants.”

Others presented predisposition to certain ethnicities irrespective of their own nationality. As P4, native, British, Site Service Manager for 30 years with FoodPro.Co, suggested that: “Workers from Polish backgrounds were the best for the work that Romanians are now taking. I don’t like working with Romanian workers”. This is partially supported by the literature which had suggested ethnically ordered hiring queues [24, 55] questioning the underpinning biases of these actions. The company did not have a comprehensive discrimination framework, and equality and diversity were not vigorously promoted.

Additionally, the interviews showed that often migrant workers felt that they were subjected to direct or indirect discrimination and bullying. However, most did not take their cases to HR. P-2(long-term migrant from Portugal and a Quality Auditor) explained:

“I was bullied. I knew then that I was quite over-qualified for this work, but it wasn’t my key worry at the time I joined. I said nothing to anybody Because I was desperate for a job.”

There were varying opinions about the work environments and expectations amongst long-term immigrants, and newcomers. Most middle managers argued that a key issue that exists within migrant groups at FoodPro.Co is a lack of communication. This often led to the migrants’ inability to use the skills they bring and to effectively use the available resources. The lack of communication enables the emergence and persistence of stereotypes expressed through the use of offensive language. P-21 (new migrant from Romania and Production Operative), for 18 months with FoodPro.Co explained:

“The car I drive is Romanian made and an Eastern European colleague joked about, saying that it’s a gypsy car. This offended me a lot.”

This negative experience was shared by several other interviewees. For example, P-15 (new migrant from Slovakia and Assistant Planner), said:

“My co-workers use racial jokes often. I told them to stop; however, they only said that I was too prickly. A number of fellow migrants do not like me because of my Slovak origin.”

Similarly, P-9 (long-term migrant from Pakistan and Senior Technician), requested to be transferred to a different section due to bullying as he explained:

“I couldn’t bear these taunts anymore from co-workers, my fellow migrants. It had been going on for over 3 years, but the manager didn’t do anything about my complaints.”

Such a comment re-emphasizes the idea of differences in worker attitudes inside migrant groups themselves. It also exemplifies the inaction of the organisation about the negative treatment of migrants from different cultural backgrounds. The racist slurs used reinforce and perpetuate stereotypical views held sour the migrant workforce experience, contributing to hamper new migrants’ integration. But some such labels can evolve because people’s preferences change, as the case of P-19 (long-term migrant from Poland and Machine-Minder) showed. His supervisor had a negative perception of him but worked hard to prove they were wrong; he eventually secured a promotion, which helped him to rid the negative labels.

The persistence of exclusionary practices due to the lack of strong informal networks reconciles the differences between the two groups of migrants. The differences in work relationships between migrant groups can result from the actions of the groups themselves. If the organisation does not take vigorous actions to help improve these relationships, morale among migrant employees (particularly newcomers) can decrease.

4.2 Migrants and intra-group conflict

We can deduce that the ethnic affiliation influences the support that new migrant workers can expect from their long-term counterparts; this affects the degree of confidence with which they can express opinions and integrate the workplace successfully. P-3, native British, HR Administrator, stated: “Somehow they feel lonely and would love somebody from the country of origin to help”. Interviewee P-19 (long-term migrant from Poland and Machine Minder) added:

“I think it’d be nice to see clusters of people from your country because you can make friends and have support. If not, it is not easy to have close relationships with migrants from other countries’ people as they do not speak the same language as you.”

In this perspective, an important problem can be isolation which is manifested in damaging attitudes towards migrants from minority backgrounds [35]. As P-22 (new migrant from Nigeria and Dispatch Operative) claimed:

“I’ve never complained, but when I try to join my all-Romanian team to chat, they walk away. I have no one to converse with. I feel excluded and lonely.”

New migrants felt better supported when they operated in a group that comprised more people from the same backgrounds as them, clustering similar to as suggested in the literature [8, 35]. But it also comes in as an added issue that hinders the opportunities for new migrants to demonstrate their capabilities. P-7 (native British and Purchase Manager), contended:

“When I first joined, I could see that people had their affinities and groups which were hard to penetrate.”

Groupism and integration difficulties become apparent. As P-10 (native British and HR Business Partner) argues:

“The Romanians are in their circle and so are Albanians and the Polish. They may feel more at ease in that way, inside a cozy ethnic group.”

On reflection, the difficulties in integrating in a workplace community as often experienced by new migrant workers, can stem from a lack of effective communication such as lack of English language proficiency; a process already negatively affected by weak policies to effect greater English language proficiency and linked to various levels of segregation. This also affects the availability of limited support networks. As the barrier of language within the groups is highlighted by P-6 (long-term migrant from Pakistan and Operations Team Leader) explained:

“Me and few Pakistani friends stay together most of the time because other nationalities only speak in their native languages which we don’t understand. I can understand a few words in Polish. But they don’t mingle with most of us.”

P-11 (long-term migrant from Iraq and Line Controller), explained:

“Often when we have new employees, they don’t feel like other migrant groups (from different nationalities) accept them.”

Clusters contribute to further segregate people based on ethnicity, causing a decrease in support and segregated communities in the workplace owing to many long-term migrants having established affinities”. On the other hand, it does not signify that long-term immigrants cannot face those challenges but being more established, they have acquired organisational knowledge that help them to navigate the environment easier than new migrants. Consequently, it gives rise to intra-migrant group segregation. This cis surprising as little in the literature points to gaps in workplace communities [25, 86, 87]. Thus, conflict is more prevalent between new migrants and long-term migrants, but only if they belong to diverse nationalities or ethnicities. As P-23 (long-term migrant from Slovakia and Despatch Operative) added:

“Really, my boss has never be keen on me; he yells at me when others are present and sometimes he threatens to fire me. The feeling of quitting is always on my mind; I would have left if it wasn’t because I so badly need the money for the family’s needs. Here nobody helps you as you are not from their culture. More work is given to people from the same country.”

Many new migrants have a negative perception of power in organization because they see the use of power as a tool to coerce them to do things that they do not want to be involved in.. Some would like to socialise with different ethnic groups, however they are not able to owing to pressure that their ethnic groups exert on them. Power plays a significant role as it can help navigate attitudes among long-term and new migrants. P-17 (new migrant from Nigeria and Despatch Operative) argued:

“We have various nationalities here, but this causes changes in worker’s attitudes, including among migrant groups Larger migrant groups tend to be dominant and long-term migrant workers dominate newcomers particularly those from competing ethnic groups or nationalities.”

P-7(Long-term migrant from Latvia and Process Controller), talked about conflict between different migrant groups:

“Many newcomers are quiet. In this company, different cultures are represented, but these clash often. New migrants lack an understanding of the reasons why some workers have worked here for so long. The ones working here long will do anything to make life in the company hard for newcomers. They would shout at someone sitting just a couple of tables from them to frighten them.”

Some new migrant workers are reluctant to respond to oppression because they are anxious about the security of their positions. P-21 (new migrant from Romania and Production Operative) reported:

“When the company recruited me, a migrant supervisor who had worked in the company for almost a decade didn’t like me. He pulls all Polish employees who are newly recruited to his team, and he asks the manager not to bring in Romanians, because he thinks that Romanians cannot work for him. I reluctantly stayed in his team because I badly need a job and money.”

P-2, (long-term migrant from Portugal and Quality Auditor), explained:

“New migrant workers feel a sense of insecurity for being in a foreign land; this is compounded by discriminatory practices and attitudes against them.”

As explained by P-18 (long-term migrant from India and Store Operative) argued that:

“When new migrant workers arrive, their feeling is that are not welcome by the other groups. The long-term migrant workers would be happier if the new employees are from their own countries… Even migrants groups are very segregated.”

Supporting this perspective P-12 (native, Asian- British and Planner), continued:

“The supervisor spoiled my reputation simply because I am Asian. He also frequently harasses me. I feel devalued. He laughs at the Asian food I bring to eat at work. He criticises me and my friends for talking and laughing aloud. For him, we have many faults.”

Migrant workers develop stereotypes about other migrant groups and those form the basis for discrimination and exclusion of distinct cultures. Most stereotypes are associated with nationality, ethnicity, language and sometimes length of service. These stereotypes function as barriers to workforce integration of the migrants. P-8 (long-term Polish migrant and Food safety and quality manager) argued:

“Different nationalities often clash. There are also clashes between new migrant employees and those with long service at the factory. So, we try to find our own people.”

Additionally, these stereotypes become more potent when they are reinforced by some negative media coverage of migrants from some cultures, or even political sentiments as stated in the literature [38, 57,58,59]. P-13 (long-term migrant from Poland and Engineering administrator) explained:

“The key issue we face is people that have little understanding about why migrants come here often believe that migrant workers take jobs away from local people. Despite awareness training provided by the company, such people are set in their ways.”

P-6 (long-term migrant from Pakistan and Operations Team Leader) added:

“My country welcomes people from different cultures because of tourists coming. I don’t understand why people here in the UK think that we come to take their jobs. Trust me most locals say this.”

This perspective can make recruitment or growth difficult. At FoodPro.Co, some identities are ascribed to some groups of migrants while other migrants must work harder to achieve a desired social identity. Through ascribed identities, individuals from some migrant groups are perceived as fitting; or sometimes they are ascribed negative stereotypes. Both types of identity have the potential to influence the recruitment and selection process and cause favouritism or exclusion.

5 Discussion and conclusion

5.1 A case for a greater strategic deployment of migrants in organisations

The necessity for migrants in the workforce is not arguable [88, 89]. If this is recognised a more positive environment can emerge, where most employees can be valued, and make significant contributions. In our study, the managers agreed that migrant workers bring distinct and valuable skill sets. Despite the widespread acknowledgement of their worth, migrants remain under-deployed in managerial and supervisory positions at FoodPro.Co [90]. In contrast with previous research that addressed the concentration of migrants in the lower echelons of organisations, our investigation also suggests that migrant workers may overcome stiff obstacles to progress to high levels of the organisational ladder. The migrants’ individual aspirations drive their determination to overcome all sorts of institutional and structural barriers through hard work [51, 91, 92]. The organisation, thus, should develop strong policies to steer inclusion. Nonetheless, while attempting to answer the research question, the institutional and organisational frameworks at present do not sufficiently address diversity issues that do not implicate the host workers. Equality and diversity are seen as a binary issue involving host and foreign workers. A policy specifically dealing with intra-migrant discrimination is not in place. Oftentimes, it is argued that such issues are between migrant groups and are situated outside of the management’s authority. The research was concerned with intra-migrant group dynamic and not their relationships with management. So, these vertical relationships were not focused on. There was no indication of hierarchy. Our analysis shows that the position of the migrants in the structure and their relationships with other migrants largely depended on date of arrival.

5.2 The nature of intra-migrant workplace conflict

Established migrants of similar ethnic background are more likely to offer each other support and cluster together. The intentions of the migrants to remain attached to their own ethnic groups can be a significant issue for effective integration in the workforce. [36, 93]. New migrant workers at FoodPro.Co, bring creativity and vision, personalities, work ethics, and commitment. However, cultural differences and attitudinal mindsets amongst migrant groups can lead to discrimination which new migrants are more likely to experience more strongly [64].

Hence, in order to answer the research question, It is clear that intra-migrant group conflict is a reality, which was discovered as a surprise during analysis. Conflict exists among groups especially when the migrants are from different ethnicities and communities. This in contrast to current literature evidence that suggests there is harmony amongst migrants when they share the experience of facing unstable conditions [32, 42, 73, 84, 94]. Such conflicts are marked with the flavours of language, culture, and ethnicity. Language and ethnic characteristics are critical to shape human behaviour, being fundamental aspects of what constructs identity and individuals [95]. This is more perceptible concerning the relationships between established migrants and newcomers who are ethnically different. Each group attempts to assert a certain domination and power for their group. This struggle leads to what we term intra-migrant group prejudice. This causes difficulties for new migrant workers to integrate into a workplace community and achieve effective socialisation. Inclusion of senior managers and host employees in the debate on migrant worker relations enabled our research to locate subjective experiences lived by both long-term migrant and new migrant.

In order to answer the research question, the novel finding of intra-migrant group conflict fuelled by ethnic differences is evident. But it is also recognised that policy of equality is not consistently implemented to help resolve the issue. Furthermore, despite being aware of these issues, the management argued that they were not in remit to address the issues as the majority of workers were not escalating the said issues due to the intra-group dynamics. It is a type of discrimination and structural disadvantage that can fuel group conflicts.

5.3 Role of migrant groups in own workforce integration

Integration is a two-way process, but the lack of support from some long-term immigrants creates a gap in the process. Existing organisational diversity frameworks are too broad to be able to specifically tackle the generational and cultural differences amongst migrant groups that cause conflict and integration difficulties. Diversity has a reverse side of overemphasised individual differences and fails to recognise potentially more adverse sides of dealing with a significantly heterogeneous workforce that presents a complex reality of discrimination and prejudice [20, 96, 97]. Possibly, it can be argued that the growing number of migrants coincides with the rise in migrant enclaves in the workplace. New migrants and long-term immigrants develop distinct ethnic clusters based on social, cultural, generational, socio-economic variations and migration periods. This brings distinctiveness to the migrants’ experiences. The groupism that we observed in the study engenders segregation whose main casualties are minority groups and new migrants particularly. These inequalities are perpetuated in spite of attempts to establish equality standards, and relevant training provision within workplace. When newcomers enter the workforce, there comes fresh energy in the company. The lack of a more supportive environment is explained by segregation which hampers the integration process.

5.4 Implications

Thus, there is a need for mandatory diversity and inclusion training, one which is more focused on addressing unconscious biases, misrepresentations of various ethnic backgrounds, and recognising the positives of difference. It should be delivered using a combination of tools, e.g. discussions, interactive workshops, presentations by credible providers of diversity training. After each employee group receives training, it will be a good idea to assess actual behavioural changes using tools like feedback forms and self-assessments. It is not, however, an isolated remedy for reducing bias and inequality; rather, it is a crucial and practical means of averting inadvertent negative attitudes and increasing public awareness of how ubiquitous stereotypes are. As a result, integration permeates daily operations in the workplace. This should be done in tandem with initiatives to improve employee wellness that centre on building trust between migrants through inclusive work practices. While to benefit from a varied staff through one-on-one meetings, casual get-togethers, and fun team-building exercises like on-site fitness facilities, indoor games, and outdoor tours. However, as the business has become more standardised and demanding, with labour crunch and pressing production needs, this level of engagement has disappeared. These kinds of activities are vital in organisational life offering methods of relief from work pressures.

5.5 Limitations and further research

The investigation could benefit from a longitudinal approach which would establish a cycle of shifting attitudes stemming from different lived experiences over a longer time span. But Covid-19 restrictions did not enable this. The research was also limited because the data was gathered from only one site of the company. Had the conditions permitted, the research would have investigated a number of different companies in the sector of activity, and in industries that fall under WRHR umbrella.

The examination of attitudes and conflicts between long-term migrant groups and new migrant groups is scarcely covered in the literature. The study opens opportunities for further investigation with the emphasis on the exploration of intra-migrant workplace conflict, changing attitudes. Future investigations could take a comparative approach covering multiple companies to provide broader data and depth. Such future investigations can bring fresh perspectives, which can help formulate specific strategies for workplace integration given the changing dynamics of the labour market.