Seasonal migrant workers in Scottish agriculture: research report

2. Methodology

This chapter outlines the research methodology which was developed in line with the four research aims.

2.1 Introduction

This research included five method stages. Table 2.1 shows these mapped to the research aims.

This chapter summarises all five stages including secondary and primary research approaches. For more detail, including qualitative and quantitative data collection, sampling and analysis please see Appendix F.

Please see Appendix G for detail of the macroanalysis technique employed by the Fraser of Allander Institute to estimate the number of agricultural seasonal migrant workers. Research on this topic raises a number of ethical considerations. All research conducted by the Diffley Partnership is compliant with the Market Research Society (MRS) Ethical Guidelines and Social Research Association (SRA) Research Guidance on Ethics. Please see Appendix F for more information on ethical considerations, including in relation to each method.

2.2 Evidence Review

The first stage was a rapid review of relevant prior research, publications and outputs relating to agricultural seasonal migrant workers within and beyond Scotland and the UK. Sources consisted of 26 academic journal articles; three articles and blogs and 11 reports; 40 in total. See Appendix I for the full bibliography. The rapid evidence review informed the primary research tools. These included discussion guides and surveys.

Within this final report, chapter 3 presents findings from this evidence review related towards:

• Number and demographic qualities of agricultural seasonal migrant workers in Scotland
• Experiences of agricultural seasonal migrant workers
• Experiences of employers in the sector
• Long-term prospects and viability of the industry

Appendix J includes a comparison between this research and findings from the 2018 'Farm Workers in Scottish Agriculture' report.

2.3 Stakeholder Interviews

This stage of the research aimed to gather the views of a range of stakeholders such as employers, recruiters and intermediaries, trades unions and regulators, third sector organisations, and subject specialists.

The list of stakeholder organisations to interview was agreed with the Research Advisory Board. Stakeholder interviews took place between January and June 2022. In all cases, these were held over an online platform (MS Teams or Zoom) and took up to one hour.

The final sample consisted of eight wider stakeholders from:

• Recruitment agencies
• Trade unions
• Regulators
• Third sector with experience and expertise working with seasonal migrant workers.

Six farm business owners, referred to as employers also took part. Employers expressed interest in taking part in an interview in the employer survey (see section 2.4). So as not to identify these research participants, this report does not provide further details of the fourteen individuals.

Chapter 3 includes findings from these interviews. After quotes, brackets indicate if the research participant was an employer or stakeholder.

2.4 Employer Survey

The employer survey had two purposes. Firstly, it was designed to gather the necessary data to construct an estimate of the size, scale and demographics of the seasonal migrant worker population. Secondly, the survey was designed to gather views from the agricultural sector regarding recruitment, long-term viability, and labour needs.

The survey included largely closed questions such as multiple-choice, single-choice and scaled questions (see Appendix B). In total the survey achieved 1089 responses (958 completed in full).

2.5 Worker Survey

This survey was key to the research as it provided an opportunity to hear and elevate the voices of seasonal migrant workers themselves. As highlighted in the research aims, and corroborated by the evidence review, there is concern that this group can face marginalisation. Hearing from workers first-hand also provided an opportunity to compare their views with those of employers and stakeholders in terms of the experience of seasonal migrant workers in Scottish agriculture.

The survey included largely closed questions such as multiple-choice, single-choice and scaled questions (see Appendix C). A large sample of responses was received, across an extended fieldwork period from June to October 2022. The distribution methods resulted in 439 returns, of which 74 were online responses and 365 were paper returns. By language, these returns included:

• 69 Bulgarian language
• 54 English language
• 16 Polish language
• 83 Romanian language
• 157 Russian language
• 60 Ukrainian language

Paper returns were received from workers on 10 farms in Fife, Perthshire and Angus. The farms had different produce and different sizes of operation/workforce.

2.6 Worker Interviews

Interviews were chosen as the most suitable method to accommodate availability of workers and language requirements. Interviewees were recruited through the workers survey (see above). A semi-structured interview guide was drafted with input from the Research Advisory Group prior to its translation and use in fieldwork.

A total of three interviews were conducted with workers between 24 November 2022 and 21 December 2022. Pen portraits were written to summarise the interviews with the three participants. These focus on the lived experience of these workers. They do not represent the views or experiences of all seasonal migrant agricultural workers in Scotland.