‘Still Waiting’ for Justice: Migrant Workers’ Perspectives on Labour Exploitation in Ireland

Abstract

Although there is a growing recognition that a labour law approach is well-placed to tackle migrant workers’ vulnerability to labour exploitation, empirical studies in this field are few and far between. This article explores how migrant workers subjected to severe and routine exploitation experience the Irish labour law framework in practice. Drawing on interviews with 23 workers, as well as legal and policy analysis, the research shows that those who have endured the ‘continuum’ between routine and severe labour exploitation have many commonalities in their lived experiences of labour conditions and law. It is argued that the key problems identified by this research—the intertwinement of employment and immigration enforcement; workers’ lack of awareness of employment rights; the ineffectiveness of labour inspections; the uncertain impact of undocumented status on employment rights and difficulties with enforcing employment awards—all point to the failure of institutional labour protections for migrant workers in Ireland. By enabling a more nuanced understanding of exploited migrant workers’ needs and perspectives, this study contributes to the ongoing debate on how to develop better regulatory and institutional conditions in Ireland and beyond.

Current and Future Research on Labor Trafficking in the United States

“…This often forces workers to stay in exploitative and abusive jobs because the alternatives might be even worse. Previous research indicates that victims of labor trafficking do not know where to go for help (Murphy, Doyle, and Murphy, 2020). One recommendation was to focus on increasing the availability and access to information about worker's rights.…”

Work, Space, and Law. The Emergence of a Legal Geography of Labour. Overview 2020-2022

“…Contributing to the debate on enforcement of rights, Murphy, Doyle, and Murphy victims of labour severe and routine exploitation -experienced Irish labour law in practice 121 .…”

Detection, identification and protection of third-country national victims of human trafficking in Ireland

“…In a similar way, the distinction between trafficking, the definition of which centres on exploitation (Kempadoo, 2020), and situations of labour and sexual exploitation that are not human trafficking can also be difficult, if not problematic, to discern (Skrivankova, 2010;Chuang, 2014). More broadly, as described by O'Connell Davidson and Anderson (2006), experiences of migration, exploitation and trafficking are complex, and it can be difficult to create 'neat divisions between the trafficked, the smuggled, the legal and the "illegal"' (Coghlan and Wylie, 2011, p. 1,516; see also: Murphy et al, 2020).…”