UK migrant workers: Racism, bullying and exploitation

It’s easy to knock migrant workers, particularly the low-paid workforce: they are derided by some politicians for ‘stealing our jobs’, despised by xenophobes just for being here, or simply shunned and ignored by the vast majority of the population.

The reality, however, for literally thousands of migrant workers, many working below minimum wage is worse than we could imagine. Much worse.

A snap shot of working conditions for many migrant workers has been laid bare by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in one of the largest studies undertaken in the UK.

Researchers found that migrant workers were subject to racist and sexist bullying, threats and intimidation that have led a few on the brink of suicide. One Romanian woman stated:

I was hating the alarm clock. When it was ringing ... and knew I had to go back there, I felt like the sky was falling on me, but I had … no other choice. I needed money I needed work … I didn’t care anymore, I was at the point when you’d rather kill me than go back there … I lost weight, I was ... sad all the time, tense and day-by-day you are being treated like the least nothing on earth.

A Chinese worker conveyed similar views.

It's about survival. Feeling bullied or suppressed is normal and unavoidable. There are no alternatives.

The majority of those interviewed were legally working but were completely unaware of their legal rights.

In 2009, forced labour became a criminal offence under the Coroners and Justice Act, yet one of the report's authors Sam Scott said:

It is difficult to say whether the exploitation reported was severe enough to constitute forced labour, but the evidence indicated that employers were infringing many rights. Most migrants we spoke to are in the UK legally, but their employment conditions are far from legal. Withholding payment, illegal deductions from wages and no proper breaks are regular occurrences.

The same politicians who readily knock migrant workers are acutely aware that without this workforce and the small army of normally African and Latin American men and women who keep our offices, hospitals, factories and hotels clean, our economic infrastructure would simply collapse.

Perhaps instead of abusing migrant workers we could ensure that the basic working rights we would expect for ourselves are to be afforded to them too.

http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/forced-labour-uk-food-industry

Simon Woolley