A CONFERENCE aiming to set the national agenda for bringing migrant workers into the mainstream workforce is to be held in Suffolk next month. Migrant Gateway, a guidance network on migration funded by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), will voice the UK's need to compete with other European states to attract skilled workers from abroad at the “Migrants into the Mainstream” event at Newmarket Racecourse on Wednesday, June 25.

A CONFERENCE aiming to set the national agenda for bringing migrant workers into the mainstream workforce is to be held in Suffolk next month.

Migrant Gateway, a guidance network on migration funded by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), will voice the UK's need to compete with other European states to attract skilled workers from abroad at the “Migrants into the Mainstream” event at Newmarket Racecourse on Wednesday, June 25.

The conference will be chaired by EEDA board member Sheila Childerhouse, who also chairs the Migrant Worker Steering Group for the Eastern Region - a region where growth in the employment of migrant workers has been among the greatest.

She believes that the conference is vital in the context of the current climate on immigration. “We are at a point where migration could go either way,” she said.

“We could risk mobile workers remaining in a sub-section of inequality, or we could embark on a programme that brings them into the workforce mainstream, valuing their existing skills and indeed up-skilling them further. You can be certain that other European states will upskill; we must steal a lead and compete effectively.”

The event will include contributions from employers and migrant workers on issues they have encountered, together with public sector practitioners working with migrants.

Delegates will also hear from Ghazal Asif, a competitor on BBC1's The Apprentice, who will tell her story of how she found business success in the UK as the second generation of a migrant family.

n To register as a delegate for the event, visit www.migrantgateway.eu