University of Birmingham's Nando Sigona and Stefano Piemontese consider how immigration, labour and welfare regimes contribute to irregularisation of migrants
An interesting new report by the Improving the Living and Labour Conditions of Irregularised Migrant Households in Europe (I-CLAIM) project looks at government policy and legislation around irregular migration in the UK. I-CLAIM is a Europe-wide project that investigates the living and working conditions of migrant households with precarious legal status.
The 41-page report can be downloaded here.
It was authored by Stefano Piemontese and Nando Sigona of the University of Birmingham's Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity.
The report 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 in the UK.
As the authors note, the policy measures introduced by the UK Government since the early 2010s to create a hostile environment for irregular migrants define the contours within which irregular migrants enter and settle in the UK.
The report draws on an extensive desk-based review of academic literature, as well as expert interviews with seven academics, advocates and practitioners.
Three main sections make up the report. The first provides an overview of the general trends and features of the specific national context related to irregularity. In the second section, the authors consider the relevant policies, legislation and practices contributing to the production of conditions of irregularity. The final section draws on the concept of 'irregularity assemblage' to explore how irregularity is produced and shaped in practice across migration, employment and welfare regimes. It focuses on the participation of migrants with no or precarious legal status working in the delivery of food and goods and the provision of cleaning services and domestic work.
A succinct conclusion provides the following helpful summary of the report's overall findings:
"The measures introduced by the UK government since the early 2010s to create a 'hostile environment for irregular migrants', define the contours of the regulatory framework within which irregular migrants enter and settle in the UK. Brexit and the end of freedom of movement for EU citizens has dramatically transformed the socio-demographic profile of the new migrant population in the UK and producing new forms of migrant irregularisation. The New Plan for Immigration launched in the early 2020s captures the changing politics of migration and connects it to the new ideological project of 'Global Britain'. Growing anti-migrant hostility and the fight against irregular migration in the UK, particularly around so-called 'small boat crossings' has come to shape the overall narrative on migration. The criminalisation of asylum has gained traction and is a pillar of the 2023 Illegal Migration Act. The emerging post-Brexit immigration regime has restructured the governance of immigration in a way that privileges the interests of employers, granting them significant authority over their migrant workforce.
"This rapidly changing policy and legal framework defines the opportunity structure within which irregular migrants build their everyday lives and livelihoods. A key feature of the 'hostile environment' policy is the cooption of private and public actors into the role of immigration control. 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 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. Immigration controls also impact on the labour market and the condition of labour available to people with no or precarious legal status. The platformisation of labour sectors, particularly in the delivery, domestic and care sectors, creates new opportunities and vulnerabilities for irregular migrants."