ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, labour market flexibility in the United Kingdom has increased, becoming synonymous with the international migration of low- and high-skilled workers. At the bottom end of the labour market, this has raised important socio-economic questions around the protection of vulnerable migrant workers and political-legal questions around the status, rights and entitlements of these workers. Two key questions stand out in this respect. First, how do states protect the most vulnerable workers, especially if those workers are migrants, employed on temporary contracts, with very limited union participation? Second, what balance should be struck between the state’s protection of exploited workers and its need to ‘go after’ irregular migrants? Further, if governments have a role to play, to what extent should they intervene and what impact will such intervention have on global competitiveness?
