Is migrant essential worker housing the key to systemic resilience during ongoing polycrisis? Learning from the variegated housing experiences and precarities of UK-based EU migrants during Covid-19 and Brexit

Health and socio-political crises combined during the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit (the UK’s exit from the European Union) impacting the housing experiences of migrant essential workers. Major new research funded by the UK Economic and Social Council generated three datasets: an online survey (n = 1,105) and interviews with 40 UK-based Polish essential workers and 10 stakeholders. The sequential exploratory mixed-methods analysis reveals housing precarity as the missing link in understanding systemic resilience during times of ongoing polycrisis. We find housing precarity is not only intersectionally differentiated and compounded for individual migrants but also creates society-wide vulnerabilities that undermine the labour market, economy and society. Essential workers whose financial situation worsened, job changed and/or employment was part-time were disproportionately affected. Youth, especially men with lower education, limited access to social security and insecure immigration status were particularly associated with moving home. Overcrowding was problematic because of housemates and landlords, with shared private rental accommodation exposing essential workers to health risks. Lack of access to green space was the element of housing precarity most clearly connected with worsening mental health. Better housing outcomes in Scotland imply that localised approaches in other countries might support essential work even within broader hostile immigration policy contexts.