ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the more recent employment status and experiences of women from the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region working in the United Kingdom (UK). Specifically, the contribution focuses on migrants from those CEE states that have acceded to the European Union (EU) in recent years. As labour markets under socialist regimes were frequently characterized by full employment, in many CEE countries the transition towards a market economy. The inevitable restructuring of employment markets that runs simultaneously with it, fostered conditions that encouraged nationals to seek work elsewhere, often in EU Member States. In 2004 the EU expanded for fifth time its history to take in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia along with Malta and Cyprus. The UK government's decision to enable EU8 nationals to access jobs in 2004 was, in part, motivated by a desire to eradicate the 'black' labour market and to promote greater engagement in legitimate employment by migrant workers.
