ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the legal frameworks regulating the employment of refugees and recent migrants in the UK. Immigration and asylum laws primarily determine the extent of rights to enter and participate in the labour market, and these have become increasingly restrictive for some groups of migrants while encouraging others, as this chapter will show. The position of refugees and recent migrants in relation to antidiscrimination and employment laws and their understanding of their legal rights is also explored, drawing on recent research on refugees and the labour market as well as ongoing research on documented and undocumented migrants.1 The chapter explores the short-and long-term implications of excluding asylum seekers and undocumented migrants from the labour market and the impact of successive and increasingly restrictive changes in immigration and asylum laws on the employment prospects of these groups.
