Access to protection, enforcement & redress? Effects of visas for agriculture & care on migrant workers' vulnerabilities in the UK workforce

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• 批准号: AH/X001202/1
• 负责人: Inga Thiemann
• 金额: $ 27.02万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX001202%2F1
• 关键词: Access; protection; enforcement; redress; Effects

Using the agricultural and care sectors as paradigmatic case studies, this research project will examine how immigration rules and labour policies, and specifically their interaction, create the preconditions for modern day slavery. By immigration rules, we mean the conditions imposed on those entering the United Kingdom for work purposes, and include policies about length of stay, the right to be accompanied by family members, and the ability to change employers. Labour policies is a broader term in our conception and includes the norms regulating working conditions by public and private actors, as well as the mechanisms for their enforcement. Determining how these two dimensions interact is key to understanding how modern slavery continues to exist in Britain despite significant government and private efforts to eradicate it. In this project we invoke and develop the concept of 'preconditions' as a way to understand the political economic conditions that produce the environment for gross exploitation to occur. Hence, our project is interested in seeing trafficking, slavery, servitude, and forced or compulsory labour as the result of structural causes beyond the actions of wicked individuals. We have selected the agricultural and care sectors for important reasons. Both are sectors in which labour exploitation has been widely documented. In addition, the government has introduced, or is in the process of introducing, unique immigration pathways for the entry of labour migrants to service shortages of workers in these sectors. Both are also sectors in which current labour laws provide weak protections, which are further undermined by lackadaisical and disjointed enforcement by government agencies. Studying closely the operation of these sectors in relation to the function of immigration rules and labour policies will allow us to carefully test the hypotheses contained in the immigration and asylum, as well as labour market regulation and governance, literatures. The three precise questions that animate this research is: (1) how visa conditions heighten the risk of modern-day slavery for migrant workers; (2) how particular industry features, such as working from private homes in the case of the care sector and seasonality in the case of the agricultural sector, aggravate this risk; and (3) how government enforcement can be improved to alleviate worker vulnerability?This research also hopes to feed into two important contemporary policy discussions. The first discussion concerns the shape of the post-Brexit immigration system. It is clear that the 'points-based' immigration system that came into effect on 1 January 2021 will need to be refined to serve the needs of the British economy. This research hopes to intervene in this discussion and foreground the consequences for those who enter the country for work purposes. The second discussion concerns how the 'single enforcement body' announced by the government operates to ensure that labour market actors comply with current laws and policies. By examining how enforcement operates in relation to migrant workers, this research will not only benefit this population but also non-migrant workers in the labour market. This project will draw on both desk-based research and qualitative research methodology. Working with community partners such as FLEX, Fife Migrant Forum, Kanlungan, Voice of Domestic Workers, and Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, we will conduct in-depth interviews with migrant workers and their representatives in the agricultural and care sectors. This qualitative data will provide fine-grained information on how those who migrate for work in these sectors experience the migration system and Britain's labour market policies. Our findings will be disseminated through a variety of avenues, including the PEC report, academic articles, and public blogs.

该研究项目将利用农业和护理部门作为典型案例研究，研究移民规则和劳工政策，特别是它们的相互作用，如何为现代奴隶制创造先决条件。所谓移民规则，是指对出于工作目的进入英国的人施加的条件，包括有关居留期限、家庭成员陪同的权利以及更换雇主的能力的政策。在我们的概念中，劳工政策是一个更广泛的术语，包括规范公共和私人行为者工作条件的规范及其执行机制。尽管政府和私人为根除奴隶制付出了巨大努力，但确定这两个维度如何相互作用是理解现代奴隶制如何在英国继续存在的关键。在这个项目中，我们援引并发展了“先决条件”的概念，作为理解产生粗暴剥削发生环境的政治经济条件的一种方式。因此，我们的项目有兴趣将贩运、奴役、奴役和强迫或强制劳动视为邪恶个人行为之外的结构性原因的结果。我们选择农业和护理行业有重要原因。这两个部门的劳动剥削现象都已被广泛记录。此外，政府已经引入或正在引入独特的移民途径，供劳务移民进入，以解决这些部门的工人短缺问题。现行劳动法在这两个领域提供的保护很薄弱，而政府机构执法不力和脱节又进一步削弱了这些保护。仔细研究这些部门的运作与移民规则和劳工政策的功能相关，将使我们能够仔细检验移民和庇护以及劳动力市场监管和治理文献中包含的假设。推动这项研究的三个具体问题是：（1）签证条件如何增加现代移民工人遭受奴役的风险； (2) 特定行业特征（例如护理行业的私人住宅工作和农业行业的季节性）如何加剧这种风险； （3）如何改善政府执法以减轻工人的脆弱性？这项研究还希望为当代两个重要的政策讨论提供参考。第一个讨论涉及英国脱欧后移民体系的形态。显然，2021 年 1 月 1 日生效的“基于积分”的移民制度需要完善，以满足英国经济的需求。这项研究希望介入这一讨论，并强调对那些以工作为目的进入该国的人的影响。第二个讨论涉及政府宣布的“单一执法机构”如何运作，以确保劳动力市场参与者遵守现行法律和政策。通过研究执法如何与移民工人相关，这项研究不仅有利于这一群体，而且也有利于劳动力市场上的非移民工人。该项目将利用案头研究和定性研究方法。我们将与 FLEX、法伊夫移民论坛、Kanlungan、家庭工人之声和移民福利联合委员会等社区合作伙伴合作，对农业和护理行业的移民工人及其代表进行深入访谈。这些定性数据将提供有关那些为在这些部门工作而移民的人如何体验移民制度和英国劳动力市场政策的详细信息。我们的研究结果将通过多种途径传播，包括 PEC 报告、学术文章和公共博客。