RT Article
T1 The criminalisation and exploitation of irregular Chinese migrant workers in the United Kingdom
JF European journal of criminology
VO 20
IS 3
SP 1016
OP 1036
A1 Luo, Siyu
A2 Gadd, David 1975-
A2 Broad, Rose
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1894803507
AB This article draws on narrative interviews with irregular Chinese migrant workers (ICMWs) in the United Kingdom (UK) to show how the UK's immigration policies foster forms of illegal working and labour exploitation that they are supposed to combat. It argues that the binary conceptualisation of ?forced labour? as the polar opposite of ?free labour? leaves those migrants working without a right to do so at the risk of both criminalisation and exploitation. The article shows how the fear of criminalisation, together with the pressure to become economically successful in the West, among ICMWs diminishes their capacity to leave exploitative work, reinforcing the unequal power relations between them and their employers, landlords, advisers, and translators. Many ICMWs who are officially cast as ?illegal immigrants? need protection, not from ?snakeheads? and ?traffickers?, but the exploitative and precarious work UK government policies render them economically reliant upon.
K1 Chinese migration
K1 illegal working
K1 immigration control
K1 irregular/illegal migration
K1 labour exploitation
DO 10.1177/14773708221132889