ABSTRACT
The relationship between immigration status and exploitation is most acute for irregular immigrants, who fear that their employers – and indeed, anyone aware of their legal situation – may denounce them to the authorities. This chapter explores the contradictory response of the state: on the one hand, criminalizing those perpetrating abuses; and on the other, fostering immigrant workers’ particular susceptibility to exploitation. To this end, it analyses the conditions attached to four different types of immigration status currently available in the United Kingdom: Tier 2 visas; domestic workers in private households; A2 nationals working under the ‘freedom of establishment’; and finally, irregularly resident workers. Importantly, understanding the effect of immigration status on workplace requires an analysis of immigration law’s interaction with other bodies of law, most notably, labour and social welfare law. The chapter concludes that the government has employed a dual tactic of criminalizing the immediate perpetrators of exploitation and restricting avenues for legal immigration.
