Policies of the federal government try to enable the mobility of certain people while others are immobilized. Migrants that are food who possess access that is relatively easy into the labour market and for visas usually get employed in jobs that are highly skilled and well paying. On the other hand, any individual that is looking for employment in sectors that are less formalized, low paying, and low skilled are normally made to feel they are not so welcome. Even though for the capitalist economy this is understood to be necessary, this latter group are deterred by stated from coming or they are encouraged to depart by reducing their access to social and legal protections.
Therefore occasionally these migrants discover that they are dwelling in situations that are precarious; a lot of them are employed unlawfully, a lot are very susceptible to being exploited. These type of migrants are usually framed as ‘modern slaves’ or victims, however, based on the situation, they can equally be referred to as drains on society and criminals. The United Kingdom’s 2015 Bill on Immigration, which is presently being routed through the parliament of Britain, selects the second approach by having migrant labour framed as a danger to the economic security of the nation. If it gets promulgated as law, this new legislation will worsen migrant workers’ vulnerability and further weaken their ability to have their rights exerted. The pieces of writing in this sequence reveal the faults of the legislation and shows the methods by which the problems being encountered by migrant labour in the UK will be compounded.
The vulnerable are targeted
The United Kingdom’s 2015 Bill on Immigration is coming just after the Modern Slavery Act which was earlier this year promulgated as law. The alleged goal of this legislation which is coming later is to reduce the occurrence in the United Kingdom of forced labour by raising the punishment to be given to perpetrators once they get convicted. Only a little progress in terms of the protection of victims is going to be achieved by this approach as has been made clear by critiques on Beyond Trafficking and Slavery. Presently this Bill on Immigration has the capacity to additionally weaken the same association of employees which are supposed to be protected by the Modern Slavery Act. Migrant workers are almost certainly going to be pushed by its provisions, especially those of them who are employed without papers, into hiding. The possibility that migrants are now going to be coerced, exploited, and forced into labour is bound to increase as a result of this. Actually, those very workers who just a couple of months earlier were the victims who were being urged to look for assistance from the police and state are now going to be under threat.
Alice Bloch and Sonia McKay start us out with a an analysis of plans to raise sanctions on employers for engaging workers who are not authorized. By emphasizing on workers who are undocumented generally, instead of those who are particularly in forced labour conditions, they make a presentation of a picture which is more complex of the relationship between employer and worker than is frequently being discussed. For example, some employers provide jobs to workers who have no documentation because of connections which are personal or because supporting the vulnerable is what they feel duty bound to do.
An analysis is then made by Katie Bales of the bill’s implications for children and families, especially the provision which is going to take away assistance for families denied asylum in the United Kingdom. One probable result of this is to create a lot of homeless families, still the argument Bales makes is that the particular families who are at risk of becoming destitute is going to be discovered most likely by a lottery using postcodes. This type of hardship definitely has consequences that have to do with vulnerability, which suggests again that the bill is going to get people without the permission to work driven deeper underground just so that they can survive.
A discussion is made by Lucy Mayblin with regards to how trials faced by those seeking asylum in the United Kingdom have been caused as a result of consequences of prior controls on immigration. She questions is the movement on #refugeeswelcomeUK that has gathered momentum this past summer has the ability to get public attention to be better focused on the uninteresting but very crucial procedure of having migrant rights legislated.
Finally, the series is wrapped up by a scathing review of the bill and how it stand today by Paul Blomfield. An MP for labour who for a long time was in engagement with modern slavery issues, Blomfield was sitting in the House of Common’s parliamentary committee which examined the bill on immigration. His argument is that the alleged goals of the bill were in direct contradiction to the ones in the Modern Slavery Act, and that slavery victims would be required to pay for the mistreatment they have undergone.
In its entirety, this compilation of essential reactions to the 2015 Bill on Immigration clarifies the methods by which the policy of government can and actually does bring into existence the situations that are required for the exploitation of migrant workers, comprising of conditions of forced labour. Whereas democracies which are liberal like that of the United Kingdom which purport to have human rights and the rule of law protected and respected, they however deliberately create marginalization and vulnerability in the midst of groups which have been excluded effectively from the permission to possess rights due to their crossing borders that are international. Our expectation is that this compilation will generate interest in this specific law and encourage more discussions with regards to its likely impact on not only an underclass that is excluded, but on the entire society as a society.