Post-Brexit efforts to manage the movement of people crossing borders has given rise to a two-pronged crisis with regard to labour migration. The ending of free movement of labour for EU citizens coming to the UK has meant the adoption of immensely complex immigration control procedures which have had the paradoxical effect of trebling net migration in recent years.

The loss of credibility in the claims made by points-based managed migration schemes is the first element in this two-pronged crisis. The second arises from evidence of a marked increase in exploitative practices in the labour market and workplaces in sectors where migrant labour is concentrated. As the forms of control demanded by managed migration have been strengthened at the expense of workers’ rights there has been a predictable increase in precarity in sectors like agricultural and domestic work. Visa conditions bind these workers to their employers, leading to accounts of starvation wages – or worse -and terrible working conditions. Last year, The Guardian reported that migrant workers are paying thousands of pounds to employment agencies to secure a job in the care work, only to find limited or no employment once they arrive in the UK.

People without the legal right to work in the UK may be subject to exploitation as unscrupulous employers take advantage of their ‘deportability’, and report any workers organising against these conditions to the UKVI. Even where their employers are found to be engaging in extreme exploitation, or modern slavery, migrant workers may still be subject to deportation when they come to the attention of the authorities. In this webinar, our speakers will discuss different aspects of how the hostile environment enables the exploitation of migrant workers.

Speakers

Dr Panos Theodoropoulos, Industrial Workers of the World

Kate Roberts, Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX)

Dr Hannah Lewis, University of Sheffield

Respondent: Roxana Barbulescu, University of Leeds

Chairs/organisers: Peter Burgess, Don Flynn, Eleonore Kofman, Gwyneth Lonergan