Workplace Discrimination and Impact on Motivation of EU Migrants

Topic:
"Workplace discrimination and impact on
motivation of EU migrants"
Executive Summary
After Brexit, UK is facing an economic downturn situation, which directly or indirectly
affects motivational level of migrants. The people who belongs from EU nations, face a number
of discrimination issues, due to unfair treatment. Due to such causes, they preferred to leave
companies of UK and migrate in other countries. This would highly impact negatively on
economy of this nation. Through investigation in this research on B&M, it has been identified
that discrimination in workplace considered as one of basic challenges, which need to be
resolved as earlier as possible, otherwise it will create shortage of staff and increases labour cost.
However, a number of laws like Equality Act 2010, EU laws, ILO standards has been
established to introduce appropriate workplace ethics and organisational policies. But still
European workers are exposed towards discrimination in workplace, which put negatively on
their motivation depending on how they tackle with the challenge. Therefore, it is essential for
companies like B&M of UK to take actions for improving working conditions for employees,
especially for migrants

Topic:...............................................................................................................................................1
"Workplace discrimination and impact on motivation of EU migrants".........................................1
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Rationale of the research.............................................................................................................1
Aims and Objectives....................................................................................................................1
Research Questions......................................................................................................................2
Significance of the research.........................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Types of discrimination in workplace......................................................................................4
Impact of discrimination on motivation of migrant workers.......................................................6
Ways to reduce discriminations for EU migrant workers...........................................................7
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................9
Research Philosophy....................................................................................................................9
Research Approaches...................................................................................................................9
Data collection methods............................................................................................................10
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION...........................................................................14
Thematic analysis......................................................................................................................14
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION....................................................................................................26
REFLECTION...............................................................................................................................26
Alternative research methods.........................................................................................................27
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................27
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................29
APPENDIX:...................................................................................................................................30

INTRODUCTION
Migrant workers are amongst those groups, who are subjected to face highly discriminative
issues, during economic downturns on the grounds of ethnic or racial origin. They get difficulties
not only to get employment as per their skills, but also in terms of equality at workplace (Peters,
Vink and Schmeets, 2018). The present research is mainly done to explore how workplace
discriminations impact on migrants and their level of motivation, by targeting the EU labours.
For this purpose, Billington & Mayman (B&M) which is a large retailer of UK, is chosen to
make a proper investigation.
Rationale of the research
B&M is one of the listed companies on London Stock Exchange which is incorporated in
1978 in UK. It has more than 600 stores with more than 28k employees who belong from
different-different background. But this company has found guilty to discriminate its workers at
large basis, therefore, conducting research on it, help in addressing impact of discrimination on
EU migrants more effectively (Heath and Di Stasio, 2019). While another reason behind chosen
the present topic of discrimination because growing impact after Brexit, considers as one of the
basic challenges, which need to be resolved for welfare of society or labors regardless of their
nationality. For addressing main issues facing by EU migrants, investigation will be done by
collecting data from both secondary and primary sources. Afterwards, gathered information will
analyze and interpret properly in data analysis and further in discussion part, to reach on
conclusion. At the end, reflection will be done to evaluate the pathways used for conducting this
research and what circumstances as well as benefits gained by researchers, so that planning for
future research could be made in recommendation part of this report.
Aims and Objectives
Research aim: “To identify the impact of workplace discrimination on EU migrants and way
their motivation is affected.’ A case analysis on B&M
Research objectives:
To identify the types of discrimination faced by migrant workers at workplace.
Migrants are considered to be all foreign-born citizens, no matter if they owe UK
passport or not. Racial discrimination is prohibited in the UK with Equality Act
2010.This means that people cannot be treated differently because of the fact that
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they are migrants. This document discusses particularly migrants from EU countries
(which are 27), such as Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Es-
tonia and others.
To determine extent of motivational level of migrant workers affected by dis-
crimination at workplace. Motivations could be affected differently, knowing that ev-
eryone is unique and has different values and aims in life. It is expected for workers
from EU countries or born in the UK with EU background to be affected negatively
if they experience discrimination in workplace. This can affect the person mentally
and physically, by causing stress, depression, anxiety, also could be a reason for un-
healthy habits like smoking, drinking alcohol, even drugs. It could affect people’s
perception of their environment and could affect the way they act in society, being
aggressive, conducting crime, bullying etc.
Discrimination could affect motivation in a positive way as well. People from differ-
ent backgrounds have different mindset and they realize that they must show more
effort than average to be acknowledged and to achieve their personal aims. This mo-
tivates them to be more active at workplace, apply the “I can do” attitude and work
harder to protect their position.EU workers are much appreciated now with ongoing
Covid-19 pandemic and migrant workers are playing a key roles that help British
economy, working as NHS-workers, retail assistants, delivery drivers.
To recommend the solution for reducing discrimination against EU migrants in
B&M.
Research Questions
Main Research Question – “ What is the impact of workplace discrimination on EU migrants
and how is their motivation affected?”
Sub-questions –
 What types of discrimination in workplace are migrant workers facing in workplace?
 How does discrimination affect migrant motivation in workplace?
 What solution can be used to reduce discrimination against EU migrants?
Significance of the research
As discrimination at workplace is considered as one of the biggest issues at worldwide level,
therefore, making research on this topic will help in determining the extent at which EU migrants
face issues after Brexit in UK companies (Joseph, 2019). This report will also help researchers in
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evaluating ways, through which discriminations can be reduced and healthy working
environment can be created for migrants and other people having different characteristics.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Types of discrimination in workplace
According to Joseph (2019), the term discrimination can be defined as way employees on
the basis of certain prejudices and different characteristics like race, religion and more, are
treated un-favorably. As per EU law, discriminations can be categorized into five main aspects –
Direct, Indirect, Harassment, Instruction and Victimization. In context with migrants, Direct
discrimination at workplace happens when employer treats them more worse than others, in a
comparable situation, due to different nationality (Combating Discrimination in the workplace,
2020). For example, in times of economic downturn, migrants seem to be blamed first and
terminate them immediately by finding small mistakes. Indirect discrimination occurs when
organisational policies or business practices impact negatively on workers’ performance, by
giving promotion to people on the basis of gender and nationality (Rzepnikowska, 2019).
Harassment at workplace is another form of discrimination, where unwanted activities like
bullying or other undesirable behaviour happened with migrants or people from certain
characteristics. Instruction is another form of discriminate when a person provokes by others,
for discriminating someone else (Ford and Mellon, 2020). While Victimization is happened
when a people face negative consequences at workplace for making complaint of others about
discrimination. For example, if someone has been dismissed or refused promotion because they
filed a discrimination complaint against their boss. In UK, after Brexit, EU migrants face this
issue highly in UK-based companies like B&M, which is considered as one of the growing
retailer who discriminate its employees on the basis of race, religion, sex and other
characteristics (Are B&M Stores in England the Fastest Growing Retailer of Employee
Discrimination?, 2015).
Different motivation theories will be analysed in the research project with the aim to
understand what triggers EU workers to be motivated to work in B&M. How does discrimination
in work environment affects their motivation to work and be productive.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. According to this Theory there is a set of five needs that
are ordered depending on the needs of the individual (Haindorfer, 2020). Motivation is explained
as a continuous process of self-actualization, where the person grows by achieving next level in
the pyramid of needs.
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In the workplace environment this theory is relevant, because the needs of EU workers are
seen as high factor for their motivation. Mostly people migrate in the belief that they could
achieve more in a place with more opportunities. Discriminative behaviour from management or
colleagues could cause low motivation levels on EU workers (Veit and Thijsen, 2019). This
could reduce employee eager for higher position, and they will stop following next levels up in
the pyramid. This will keep them in the middle, where the motivation will be limited with
satisfying the basic needs, like paying bills, food, rent. The person will be unable to self-
actualisation, low confidence will occur and feeling of not being respected in workplace.
Source: symplypsychology.org,2020
Disadvantage with this theory will be that every individual is differ from others and
Maslow’s pyramid might not be used for some individuals. Everyone has different needs.
McClelland s learned needs Theory states that life experiences and cultural aspects are
shaping people’s needs. Therefore, every employee has specific needs and aims. People with
high ambitions will be motivated to learn, train, accept challenges and more competitive work
environment (Benedi Lahuerta and Iusmen, 2020). Discrimination in this case will be accepted
as a challenge and that could motivate the employee to achieve higher goals and be better than
average workers. This explains why some migrant workers are more successful and eager than
others.
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