Migration, Vulnerable Communities and Exploitation

There is wide exploitation of migrant workers across the UK in several industries and such exploitation is possible because migrants often come from vulnerable communities without adequate support and advocacy. This meeting looks at how migrant workers can be exploited in a wide range of industries from care to food processing and from building to the clothes industry. Speaking at this meeting will be

Jack Dromey is a trade unionist and Deputy General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union. Jack is head of the T&G Organising Department and believes unions have to reach out to the most exploited in our society, helping them to organise to win respect and decent pay and living standards. A champion of migrant workers, he leads the campaign in London to organise Building Cleaners. He has argued that “Unless the UK acts to address the 'status mess' that has accumulated over the decades, then exploitation among migrant workers will become entrenched – and it will drag down the conditions of workers across the country.”

Jill Rutter who joined the Institute For Public Policy Research in February 2007. Previously she lectured in education at London Metropolitan University and from 1988-2001 was a policy advisor at the Refugee Council, working with central and local government. She has also taught in London secondary schools and worked for a development project in India. She was educated at the University of Oxford and the University of London, where her doctoral research examined refugee children’s differential educational progress. In 2009 Jill moved to be Head of Policy, Research and Communications at Refugee and Migrant Justice, but maintains close links with ippr.

Mohammed Aziz is the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism and the British Muslim Research Centre. His appointment as a CRE commissioner was made in January 2004. He completed his LLB (Hons) and LLM at UCL, University of London and was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn in 1996. He has worked as a youth and community worker, research assistant and health advocacy officer, education social worker, schoolteacher and FE college lecturer, local government lawyer and policy/project development officer. Presently a director of FaithWise Ltd, Mohammed is an advisor to the Muslim Council of Britain. He is also a member of the government's steering group on the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, a board member of the European Network against Racism (ENAR), and trustee of several voluntary sector organisations including the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre.

UnLtd has helped many from the migrant community move from feeling vulnerable and exploited to being able to set up their own social enterprise and develop a business of their own. UnLtd will provide us with an example of someone who has been through this process and has experienced both the feeling of vulnerability and the then found hope for the future.

Some of our speakers are members of The Commission on Vulnerable Employment, which was established by the TUC because of its belief that the well being of any single worker and their family is too important to be left unprotected. The TUC recognises that the economic and social cohesion of the UK is in large part based on the receipt of a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, the continuing health and safety of people at work, and the expectation of a decent level of security in employment and income. We know well from historical and current experience that when communities can no longer expect these characteristics in their working life, social and economic breakdown can follow.