This report examines the legal and policy infrastructures of irregular migration in the United Kingdom (UK). It investigates the intersection between immigration, labour and welfare regimes and how they contribute to the irregularisation of migrants and determine their living and working conditions. This report identifies the co-option of private and public actors into the role of immigration control as a key feature of the hostile environment. This form of everyday bordering further confines and restricts the lives of irregular migrants, pushing them further under the radar and making them vulnerable to exploitation and abuses, particularly in the absence of safe reporting pathways. The precarisation of status and the intensification of the bureaucratic checks and requirements associated with visas contribute to a further irregularisation of migration and migrants, making the transition from regular to irregular status easier. Finally, we argue that immigration controls also impact on the labour market and working conditions available to individuals with no or precarious legal status. Moreover, the increased role of the platform economy is creating new opportunities and vulnerabilities for irregular migrants.
The report is part of the Horizon Europe and UKRI-funded Improving the Living and Labour Conditions of Irregularised Migrant Households in Europe (I-CLAIM) project. The main objective of I-CLAIM is to understand the various forms of irregularity experienced by migrant workers and their families and the factors that determine and amplify them. The research is carried out in six European countries (Finland, Poland, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK) and at the EU level.
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- Netherlands
