People in Places: A Qualitative Exploration of Recruitment Agencies' Perspectives on the Employment of International Social Workers in the UK

Social work and social care vacancies in England have partly been filled by international labour migration. Some staff are recruited from their home countries; others are recruited post arrival in the UK. The business of recruitment is often undertaken by commercial employment agencies; however, there is little literature on the workings of this sector. This article reports the first phase of a study of international recruitment in social care in England. It outlines the findings of a scoping review of the literature and of semi-structured interviews with a convenience sample of twenty recruitment agencies undertaken in 2007-08. The interviews revealed new information on employers' reported needs and preferences, on changing profiles of people seeking work in England, and staff motivations and ambitions. This article concludes that social care migration is a multifaceted phenomenon and that the position of intermediaries in the employment relationship, such as recruitment agencies, is largely but mistakenly ignored.