Migrant workers’ exploitation between private practice and state policies

Abstract

Migrant workers often face severe labour exploitation: low wages, long hours, poor accommodation, disregard of their health and safety, and threats or abuse. While exploitative practices are often used by private employers, state policies, especially migration and employment policies, play a significant role in facilitating exploitation, or effectively addressing it. The panel looks at the labour exploitation of migrant workers at the intersection of public policies and private practices. It includes papers looking at specific migration policies, and how they shape and facilitate private exploitation by employers and others, such as recruiters and employment agencies. Migration policies resulting in exploitation include tied visa regimes and other restrictions on labour market mobility, exclusion of certain migrants from the labour market, exclusion from the protection of labour laws, privatisation and deregulation of recruitment, reliance on temporary labour migration and seasonal visas, restrictions on family rights, and ineffective enforcement of labour laws.

Title	Details
Refugees, right to work and employment services	View Paper Details
The ‘Agency Arena’ and precarious subjectivities: Exploring the impact of structural and subjective factors in reproducing migrant worker exploitation in Glasgow	View Paper Details
Who cares about migrant carers and farm workers? Restrictive visa regimes in the UK and their effects on migrant workers’ access to protections, enforcement & redress in cases of labour exploitation	View Paper Details
Labour exploitation and agency among low-wage migrants in the UK	View Paper Details
Being a Migrant Worker in a Frozen Conflict Setting: The Case of Pakistani Workers in Northern Cyprus	View Paper Details