Law Migration And Precarious Labour

Providing a radical new approach to labour migration, this book challenges the prevailing legal and political construction of the figure of the irregular migrant labourer, whilst at the same time reimagining this irregularity as the basis of an alternative, post-capitalist, sociality. The text draws on the work of contemporary philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, and more specifically his term ‘ecotechnics’, in order to examine how economic, political, and juridical norms deny the full legal status of certain people who are deemed to be irregular. This ostensible irregularity is revealed as a regular feature of labour market practice, and a necessary support for the conceptual foundations of capitalist legality. As this book shows, however, this legality – and with it, the technological subordination of life to the circulation of capital as if this were the only possibility for our being in the world – is not insurmountable. The book’s consideration of the figure of the irregular migrant labourer comes to provide an alternative basis for reimagining our relationship not only with migration and with labour itself, but ultimately with each other. This powerful analysis of contemporary labour migration is of considerable interest to legal and political theorists, philosophers, labour lawyers, migration experts, and others with theoretical, political, or policy interests in this area.

Migrant workers, though long welcomed in Canada for their labour, are often excluded from both workplace protections and basic social benefits such as health care, income assistance, and education. Through interviews with migrants and their advocates, Marsden shows that people with precarious migration status face barriers in law, policy, and practice, affecting their ability to address adverse working conditions and their access to institutions such as hospitals, schools, and employment standards boards. Enforcing Exclusion recasts what migration status means to both the state and to non-citizens, questioning the adequacy of human-rights-based responses in addressing its exclusionary effects.

This groundbreaking volume presents the first detailed look at forced labor among displaced migrants who are seeking refuge in the United Kingdom. Through a critical engagement with contemporary debates about sociolegal statuses, endangerment, and degrees of freedom and its lack, the book carefully details the link between asylum and forced labor and shows how they are both part of the larger picture of modern slavery brought about by globalization.

There is a highly significant and under-considered intersection and interaction between migration law and labour law. Labour lawyers have tended to regard migration law as generally speaking outside their purview, and migration lawyers have somewhat similarly tended to neglect labour law. The culmination of a collaborative project on 'Migrants at Work' funded by the John Fell Fund, the Society of Legal Scholars, and the Research Centre at St John's College, Oxford, this volume brings together distinguished legal and migration scholars to examine the impact of migration law on labour rights and how the regulation of migration increasingly impacts upon employment and labour relations. Examining and clarifying the interactions between migration, migration law, and labour law, contributors to the volume identify the many ways that migration law, as currently designed, divides the objectives of labour law, privileging concerns about the labour supply and demand over worker-protective concerns. In addition, migration law creates particular forms of status, which affect employment relations, thereby dividing the subjects of labour law. Chapters cover the labour laws of the UK, Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and the US. References are also made to discrete practices in Brazil, France, Greece, New Zealand, Mexico, Poland, and South Africa. These countries all host migrants and have developed systems of migration law reflecting very different trajectories. Some are traditional countries of immigration and settlement migration, while others have traditionally been countries of emigration but now import many workers. There are, nonetheless, common features in their immigration law which have a profound impact on labour law, for instance in their shared contemporary shift to using temporary labour migration programmes. Further chapters examine EU and international law on migration, labour rights, human rights, and human trafficking and smuggling, developing cross-jurisdictional and multi-level perspectives. Written by leading scholars of labour law, migration law, and migration studies, this book provides a diverse and multidisciplinary approach to this field of legal interaction, of interest to academics, policymakers, legal practitioners, trade unions, and migrants' groups alike.

Public debates about the terms of membership and inclusion have intensified as developed economies increasingly rely on temporary migrant labour. While most agree that temporary migrant workers are entitled to the general protection of employment laws, temporary migrants have, by definition, restricted rights to residence, full social protections and often to occupational and geographic mobility. This book raises important ethical questions about the differential treatment of temporary and unauthorised migrant workers, and permanent residents, and where the line should be drawn between exploitation and legitimate employment. Taking the regulatory reforms of Australia as a key case study, Laurie Berg explores how the influence of immigration law extends beyond its functions in regulating admission to and exclusion from a country. Berg examines the ways in which immigration law and enforcement reconfigure the relationships between migrant workers and employers, producing uncertain and coercive working conditions. In presenting an analytical approach to issues of temporary labour migration, the book develops a unique theoretical framework, contending that the concept of precariousness is a more fruitful way than equality or vulnerability to evaluate and address issues of temporary migrant labour. The book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of immigration law and employment law and policy.

Most examinations of non-citizens in Canada focus on immigrants, people who are citizens-in-waiting, or specific categories of temporary, vulnerable workers. In contrast,Producing and Negotiating Non-Citizenship considers a range of people whose pathway to citizenship is uncertain or non-existent. This includes migrant workers, students, refugee claimants, and people with expired permits, all of whom have limited formal rights to employment, housing, education, and health services. The contributors to this volume present theoretically informed empirical studies of the regulatory, institutional, discursive, and practical terms under which precarious-status non-citizens – those without permanent residence – enter and remain in Canada. They consider the historical and contemporary production of non-citizen precarious status and migrant illegality in Canada, as well as everyday experiences of precarious status among various social groups including youth, denied refugee claimants, and agricultural workers. This timely volume contributes to conceptualizing multiple forms of precarious status non-citizenship as connected through policy and the practices of migrants and the institutional actors they encounter.

"This book examines the role of law in regulating and influencing the lived experiences of posted workers in Europe. The 'posting' of workers is an unusual type of labour mobility, where workers are hired out to provide a specific service in another country. Although it involves a specialised area of law, it is one that serves as a magnifying glass for the long-standing tension between the economic and social dimensions of law's regulatory role. As an atypical form of labour migration, posting also touches upon broader themes concerning the role and purpose of labour law in a changing world of work. Taking up these themes through interviews with posted workers, lawyers and employers, the book adopts a sociolegal approach to consider how the law shapes the precarious lived experiences of posted workers in Europe. Giving voice to those with first-hand experience, the book goes on to propose solutions that might address the precarity of posted work. This book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and practitioners working in the areas of labour law, sociolegal studies, EU law, and migration"--

The continuum of exploitation that has historically defined the everyday of domestic work - exclusion from employment and social security standards and precarious migration status – has frequently been neglected. It is primarily the moments of crisis, incidents of human trafficking, slavery or forced labour, that have captured the attention of human rights law. Only recently has human rights law has begun to address the structured inequalities and exclusions that define the domain of domestic work. This book addresses the specific position of domestic workers in the context of evolving human rights norms. Drawing upon a broad range of case studies, this book presents a thorough examination of key issues such as the commodification of care, the impact of the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights on ‘primary care providers’, as well as the effect that trends in migration law have on migrant domestic workers. This volume will be of interest to lawyers, academics and policy makers in the fields of human rights, migration, and gender studies.