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Precarious Lives: Forced labour, exploitation and asylum

Online ISBN:
9781447311676
Print ISBN:
9781447306900
Publisher:
Policy Press
Book

Precarious Lives: Forced labour, exploitation and asylum

Hannah Lewis,
Hannah Lewis
University of Leeds, UK
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Stuart Hodkinson,
Stuart Hodkinson
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Published:
19 November 2014
Online ISBN:
9781447311676
Print ISBN:
9781447306900
Publisher:
Policy Press

Abstract

This ground-breaking book presents the first evidence of forced labour among displaced migrants who seek refuge in the UK. Through a critical engagement with contemporary debates about precarity, unfreedom and socio-legal status, the book explores how asylum and forced labour are linked, and enmeshed in a broader picture of modern slavery produced through globalised working conditions. Drawing on original evidence generated in fieldwork with refugees and asylum seekers, the book will contribute to ongoing academic and policy debates on the causes of, and solutions to, forced and exploitative labour in the UK. A central claim of this book is that severe labour exploitation – including forced labour – among certain international migrant groups residing in the UK is structured and sustained by overlapping immigration and employment precarity. This claim is made through an analysis of the wider structures and processes of neoliberal labour markets, immigration and welfare policies, and migrant trajectories. We argue that asylum policy and forced labour are linked, and that such a relationship is enmeshed in a broader picture of modern slavery being produced through neoliberal globalised working conditions in the UK economy. This is important reading for students and academics in social policy, social geography, sociology, politics and refugee, labour and migration studies, and for policy makers and practitioners working to support migrants and tackle forced labour.

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