Between 2002 and 2009 the author worked in a contemporary slavery research centre at the University of Hull on four separate but linked studies into the working and living conditions of migrant workers in the UK. This paper is based on those four studies. The findings draw upon the experiences of a broad range of service providers - national and local, statutory and voluntary, and upon the testimonies of several hundred migrant workers who had themselves either experienced or witnessed employment (and related accommodation) exploitation by Gangmasters and Employment Agencies. In this paper it is argued that social and employment protections for migrant workers in the UK are wholly inadequate and that as a consequence, hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants are living an underground existence, in the most appalling of working and living conditions. Further, that an irresponsible campaign of vilification has been waged against East European migrants in particular by both the tabloid media and opportunist politicians and that this, taken in context of broader concerns around immigration and asylum, has reconfigured their public persona from that of industrious workers and entrepreneurs, an essential prerequisite to economic growth, to that of an illegal horde, intent on milking national welfare services and undermining wages and traditional working practices. Whilst this combination of adverse circumstances had a profoundly negative effect on many migrants’ sense of purpose and self worth, rendering them passive and vulnerable, other migrants had reaffirmed their own agency and vigour by forming support networks and seeking corrective measures.
