The production and policing of new categories of migrants: Zimbabwean migrant families and the UK Health and Care Worker Visa Scheme

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In light of the shortage of care staff in the UK's privatised caresector and the challenge in meeting the needs of older people,the care sector - enabled by the state - regularly recruitsmigrant workforce through restrictive visa arrangements. Thisproject will address the question of how the British state -through the private care sector - produces and regulatesthese specific categories of migrants through the Health andCare Worker visa via a qualitative study of Zimbabwean careworkers and their families in the UK. Melding labour migrationstudies and studies of postcolonial governmentality, thisproject extends the focus on governmentality to theregulation of physical movements and access to the labourmarket of the formerly colonised within the territory of theformer coloniser. Through its focus on the UK Health and Care Worker visa, the study will explore how the visa system shapesthe manner in which Zimbabwean families interact withprivate care sector employers who play an integral part in theimmigration policing regime and act as border-guards whenchecking on the legality of employees. The focus on familiesrather than individuals in this study aims to explore the role ofwork visa regulations in terms of their creation andmanagement of migrant populations with distinct rights andrestrictions. By focusing on the family unit as a site ofregulation, the study brings a unique relational perspective inthe production of governed populations in postcolonialsocieties to the context of the Health and Care Worker visa.