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

利用农业和护理部门作为典型案例研究，这个研究项目将研究如何移民规则和劳动政策，特别是他们的相互作用，创造现代奴隶制的先决条件。所谓移民规则，我们指的是对那些以工作为目的进入英国的人施加的条件，包括关于逗留时间的政策，由家庭成员陪同的权利，以及更换雇主的能力。在我们的概念中，劳动政策是一个更广泛的术语，包括公共和私人行为者规范工作条件的准则，以及执行这些准则的机制。确定这两个方面如何相互作用的关键是理解现代奴隶制如何继续存在于英国，尽管政府和私人的重大努力，以消除it. In这个项目中，我们调用和发展的概念的“先决条件”作为一种方式来理解的政治经济条件，产生的环境严重剥削发生。因此，我们的项目有兴趣看到贩卖，奴役，奴役和强迫或强制劳动作为结构性原因的结果，而不仅仅是邪恶的个人的行为。我们选择农业和护理部门是有重要原因的。在这两个部门，劳动力剥削的情况已被广泛记录。此外，政府已经引入或正在引入独特的移民途径，以使劳动力移民进入这些部门，为这些部门的工人短缺提供服务。这两个行业也是现行劳动法保护不力的行业，政府机构执法不力和脱节进一步削弱了这一保护。密切研究这些部门的运作与移民规则和劳工政策的功能，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所载的假设。这三个确切的问题，使这项研究是：（1）签证条件如何提高现代奴役的风险，为移民工人;（2）如何特定的行业特点，如工作在私人家中的情况下，护理部门和季节性的情况下，农业部门，加剧了这种风险;（3）如何政府执法可以改善，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信息。第一个讨论涉及英国脱欧后移民制度的形式。很明显，2021年1月1日生效的“积分制”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，并展望那些以工作为目的进入该国的人的后果。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。通过研究如何对移徙工人实施执法，这项研究不仅将使这一群体受益，也将使劳动力市场上的非移徙工人受益。该项目将利用案头研究和定性研究方法。我们将与FLEX、法夫移民论坛、Kanlungan、家政工人之声和移民福利联合理事会等社区合作伙伴合作，对移民工人及其在农业和护理部门的代表进行深入采访。这些定性数据将提供有关这些部门工作移民如何体验移民制度和英国劳动力市场政策的精细信息。我们的研究结果将通过各种途径传播，包括PEC报告，学术文章和公共博客。

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.