The Modern Slavery Agenda

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Domestic Servitude ◽  
Industrialised Countries ◽  
Sexual Trafficking

Modern slavery, in the form of labour exploitation, domestic servitude, sexual trafficking, child labour and cannabis farming, is still growing in the UK and industrialised countries, despite the introduction of laws to try to stem it. This hugely topical book is the first to assess the legislation critically, using evidence from across the field, and to offer strategies for improvement in policy and practice. The book argues that, contrary to its claims to be ‘world-leading’, the Modern Slavery Act is inconsistent, inadequate and punitive, and that the UK government, through its labour market and immigration policies, is actually creating the conditions for slavery to be promoted.

Migrant illegality, slavery and exploitative work

2019 ◽  
pp. 219-242
Author(s):  
Hannah Lewis ◽  
Louise Waite
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Family Status ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Uk

This chapter considers the position of migrants in the UK who experience severe labour exploitation. It addresses how — or whether — the emerging ‘modern slavery complex’ can adequately respond to the production and continuation of unfree labour relationships that produce conditions now grouped under the umbrella of ‘modern slavery’. It starts from the point of understanding severe labour exploitation as emerging within a set of multidimensional processes embedded in the operation of labour markets and economies. This includes employer relationships with employees, migrants' work and migration trajectories, and socio-economic and family status. For migrant workers, the backdrop of hostile immigration policies and politics is an important framer.

scholarly journals Asylum Seekers and the Labour Market: Spaces of Discomfort and Hostility

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 669-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Waite
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Hostile Environments ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Policy Shifts ◽  
Recent Policy

This article examines the relationship in the UK between asylum-seeking and the labour market. Since 2002, asylum-seekers have not been allowed to work unless they have waited over twelve months for an initial decision on their asylum claim. This policy change occurred as employment was considered a ‘pull factor’ encouraging unfounded asylum claims. Despite not having the right to work, asylum-seekers – and especially those whose applications for refugee status have been refused by the UK government – interact with the labour market in manifold ways. Drawing on an ESRC-funded study in the UK's Yorkshire and Humber region and related studies, this article argues that both asylum-seekers and refused asylum-seekers form a hyper-exploitable pool of ‘illegalised’ and unprotected workers. As a vital part of their survival terrain, work is largely experienced as for-cash labouring in low-paid labour market sectors where the spectre of exploitation and even ‘modern slavery’ are perpetual threats. Recent policy shifts are deepening such threats through creating increasingly ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘hostile’ environments for certain categories of migrants.

scholarly journals Australia’s Modern Slavery Act: Challenges for a post-COVID world?

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-214
Author(s):  
Jamie Fellows ◽  
Mark David Chong
Keyword(s):  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Forced Marriage ◽  
Current Form ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Commonwealth Government ◽  
Domestic Servitude

When the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) struck in early 2020, the Commonwealth government eased reporting deadlines and extended the date for firms required to submit modern slavery statements under Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). The economic recession caused by COVID-19 has produced the necessary conditions for further exploitation and enslavement of vulnerable individuals. This article asserts that, even without COVID-19, the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) in its current form will do little to address forms of modern slavery such as sexual exploitation, forced marriage, trafficking and domestic servitude. This is because the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) primarily targets labour exploitation and requires suppliers to voluntarily disclose their involvement with modern slavery.

Defeating ‘modern slavery’, reducing exploitation? The organisational and regulatory challenge

2019 ◽  
pp. 75-96
Author(s):  
Alex Balch
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Short History ◽  
Labour Government ◽  
The Third ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Market Enforcement ◽  
Regulatory Challenge

This chapter first charts the short history from the early anti-trafficking strategy put in place by the Labour government in 2007 through the changes and reorganisations of the subsequent 10 years, including the launch of the modern slavery strategy in 2015 under then Home Secretary May. While focusing on the impacts felt by workers in the UK, it also takes into account the position adopted by the UK in relation to international frameworks. The second section then focuses on the importance and potential impact of the creation of the most recent governance and enforcement structures — for example, the Director of Labour Market Enforcement and the evolution of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA). As of May 2017, the GLA was rebranded as the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and has new powers to investigate serious exploitation across the whole UK labour market. The third section asks how we can best assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the modern slavery agenda.

The Visibility of an Invisible Community’s Labour Exploitation in an Ethnic Economy: A Comparative Study on Kurdish Movers in the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-470
Author(s):  
Mehmet Rauf Kesici
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Ethnic Economy ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Turkish Cypriot

Kurdish movers from Turkey are usually considered as Turkish by researchers. Therefore, very little is known about the experiences of Kurdish movers in the labour market in the United Kingdom. Drawing on field research I conducted in 2014 and 2015 about the ethnic economy and labour market conditions of Kurdish, Turkish, and Turkish-Cypriot movers in London, this study contributes to the literature on migration through analyses of the labour exploitation of Kurds who moved to the UK from Turkey. It demonstrates that the reasons underlying the difference between Kurds and Turks and Turkish-Cypriots in terms of status and working conditions are complex. First of all, Kurdish movers in the UK are relative newcomers, have a limited grasp of English and share a strong sense of solidarity, and also a significant percentage of those Kurds left Turkey in order to escape discrimination and political violence, which makes the possibility of return “impossible”.

'He who is silent is taken to agree': University careers services and the problem of unpaid graduate internships

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Helen Buzdugan
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Moral Duty ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Uk

Unpaid graduate internships (UGIs) are a controversial feature of the UK graduate labour market. Drawing on Watts's socio-political ideologies, this article examines how university careers services and practitioners engage with this issue in policy and practice, using data from interviews with careers managers and practitioners. It reveals that practitioners are sometimes reluctant to engage directly with the ethical issues surrounding UGIs, and that some careers interventions which support individuals may arguably help to perpetuate this unfair practice. I contend that careers professionals nonetheless have a moral duty to take action on UGIs, putting ethics at the heart of their work.

scholarly journals Fighting or fuelling forced labour? The Modern Slavery Act 2015, irregular migrants and the vulnerabilising role of the UK’s hostile environment

2020 ◽  
pp. 026101832090431
Author(s):  
Stuart N. Hodkinson ◽  
Hannah Lewis ◽  
Louise Waite ◽  
Peter Dwyer
Keyword(s):  
Hostile Environment ◽  
International Policy ◽  
State Action ◽  
Irregular Migrants ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
The Uk

Abolishing ‘modern slavery’ has now achieved international policy consensus. The most recent UK initiative – the 2015 Modern Slavery Act (MSA) – includes amongst other aspects tougher prison sentencing for perpetrators and the creation of an independent anti-slavery commissioner to oversee its implementation. However, drawing on research into forced labour among people seeking asylum in England, this article argues that when considered alongside the UK government’s deliberate creation of a ‘hostile environment’ towards migrants, not least in the Immigration Acts of 2014 and 2016, state action to outlaw modern slavery is flawed, counter-productive and disingenuous. We show how the MSA focuses only on the immediate act of coercion between ‘victim’ and ‘criminal’, ignoring how the hostile state vulnerabilises migrants in ways that compel their entry into and continued entrapment within severe labour exploitation.

The UK’s response to modern slavery: law, policy and politics

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-74
Author(s):  
Ruth Van Dyke
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Implementation Gap ◽  
Organisational Capacity ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Criminal Justice Response

The UK government has not been a world leader in terms of policy development in relation to modern slavery. This chapter explores the approaches underpinning policy and the agencies tasked with implementing the policy. It first examines the three different policy responses to human trafficking and forced labour: the criminalisation of modern slavery; the human rights approach to modern slavery; and regulatory mechanisms to protect workers' welfare and rights, from 2000 to now. It is suggested that there is an implementation gap between policy and practice caused by low levels of awareness, the priority attached to tackling modern slavery, inadequate organisational capacity, or a lack of resources. The chapter then focuses on the factors that influenced the development of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, describing some strengths and weaknesses. It concludes by looking to the future and exploring current policy concerns relative to the criminal justice response.

Editorial introduction: the modern slavery agenda: policy, politics and practice

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Gary Craig ◽  
Alex Balch ◽  
Hannah Lewis ◽  
Louise Waite
Keyword(s):  
Editorial Introduction ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
The Uk

This introductory chapter notes the recent heightened profile of the term ‘modern slavery’ in the UK. Various phenomena, practices, and policies have been bundled together under this term, which requires careful analytical and critical attention. It is argued that it is vitally important to understand how the discourse of modern slavery has recently emerged — and the histories that continue to shape present-day discourses — as the terms of engagement shape what are considered appropriate and adequate policy responses. The main goal of the rest of the book is to develop a robust critique of the development of law, policy and practice relating to modern slavery in the UK, in particular, for the benefit of those engaged in some way in anti-slavery work.

scholarly journals Practitioner Insights Regarding Modern Slavery in Gloucestershire, UK.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jordan Brealy
Keyword(s):  
Research Policy ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Local Responses ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Local Awareness ◽  
The Uk

Slavery remains present in society and has been found to occur under various manifestations throughout the United Kingdom. Knowledge derived from academic enquiry regarding modern slavery has increased over recent years although sparse attention has been given to localised communities. It is important to develop the evidence-base locally to effectively increase the understanding of this diverse issue and aid local responses. This study aimed to produce evidence on local practitioners’ perspectives on modern slavery, focusing on the case study of Gloucestershire. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of local practitioners in modern slavery related fields in Gloucestershire, including the police, healthcare and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes from the data. These themes related to differing perceptions of the problem locally and numerous types of exploitation e.g. sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, criminal exploitation. One example of this is the alleged increase in sexual exploitation during a localised sporting event. The data also highlighted several barriers hindering local responses, progress and awareness e.g. victims not perceiving themselves as victims, victim co-operation with services and public service funding issues. This study contributes to the evidence indicating that localities such as Gloucestershire are not exempt from a variety of slavery practices. The enquiry highlights evidence of various types of slavery offences manifesting in Gloucestershire. However, a key finding of this study is the fragmented perceptions of localised modern slavery, which highlights the need to support a collaborative approach to this diverse problem. Barriers and complexities with the local response are acknowledged such as; concerns regarding local awareness, pressures associated with resourcing and the struggles associated with identifying victims of hidden criminality and exploitation. Although these findings relate to Gloucestershire they carry wider implications relevant to other localities across the UK. Due to the wider implications of this enquiry, a number of research, policy and practice recommendations are made based on the data from this study.

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