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

本研究项目将以农业和护理部门为典型案例研究，探讨移民规则和劳工政策，特别是它们之间的相互作用，如何为现代奴隶制创造先决条件。我们所说的移民规则，是指那些出于工作目的进入英国的人所受到的条件，包括关于居留期限、由家人陪同的权利以及能否更换雇主的政策。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，以及执行这些规范的机制。确定这两个方面是如何相互作用的，是理解现代奴隶制如何在英国继续存在的关键，尽管政府和私人部门做出了巨大的努力来根除它。在这个项目中，我们引用并发展了“先决条件”的概念，作为一种理解产生大规模开采环境的政治经济条件的一种方式。因此，我们的项目感兴趣的是，将贩运、奴役、奴役和强迫或强制劳动视为邪恶个人行为以外的结构性原因的结果。我们之所以选择农业部门和护理部门，是因为重要的原因。这两个部门的劳工剥削都得到了广泛的记录。此外，政府已经或正在采用独特的移民途径，供劳工移民入境，以解决这些部门的工人短缺问题。这两个行业也都是现行劳动法提供的保护薄弱的行业，而政府机构的松懈和脱节的执法进一步削弱了这一保护。仔细研究这些部门在移民规则和劳工政策职能方面的运作，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。激发这项研究的三个确切问题是：(1)签证条件如何增加了外来务工人员在现代被奴役的风险；(2)特定的行业特征--如在私人家中工作的护理部门和季节性的农业部门--如何加剧这种风险；以及(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退欧后移民制度的形态。很明显，2021年1月1日生效的“积分制”移民制度将需要改进，以满足英国经济的需求。这项研究希望介入这一讨论，并预测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“单一执行机构”如何运作，以确保劳动力市场参与者遵守现行法律和政策。通过审查与移徙工人有关的执法工作，这项研究不仅将使这些人口受益，而且将使劳动力市场上的非移徙工人受益。该项目将采用案头研究和定性研究方法。我们将与FLEX、FIFE移民论坛、KANLUNGAN、家政工人之声、移民福利联合理事会等社区合作伙伴一起，深入采访农民工及其在农业和护理领域的代表。这些定性数据将提供有关移民到这些行业工作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。我们的发现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.