18 month British Academy funded project lde by Professor Alex Balch at University of Liverpool, c... more 18 month British Academy funded project lde by Professor Alex Balch at University of Liverpool, considering the impact of the Modern Slavery Act requirements on transparency on the lived experiences of workers in the cocoa and garment sectors of Bangladesh, Ghana, Dominican Republic and Myanmar. <br>The research reveals supply chains characterized bypoverty, poor working conditions and business models whichnegatively impact workers' experiences.
Forced labour1 is recognised as a worldwide problem, directly affecting millions of people, gener... more Forced labour1 is recognised as a worldwide problem, directly affecting millions of people, generating some US$150 billion annual profits (ILO, 2014a). Since 2000, the issue has been entangled in the developing international regime to tackle human trafficking2 and is often subsumed within broader definitions of ‘modern slavery’.3 This chapter evaluates the UK’s response to forced labour, locating this within the international context. It argues that the main problems can be traced to policy framing and implementation, in turn relating to national preferences over economic governance and the regulation of workplace rights. It draws on a study of the problems of regulation and enforcement to tackle forced labour in the UK (Balch, 2012), forming part of a four-year research programme into forced labour funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).
Public debates on immigration have become the subject of much concern, particularly in the UK. Th... more Public debates on immigration have become the subject of much concern, particularly in the UK. This article applies an ethical lens to assess changes in public debates over intra-EU migration in six UK national newspapers during 2006 and 2013. It finds an almost complete dominance of communitarian justifications, mainly based on welfare chauvinism, but a notable increase in security-related arguments and a decrease in economic nationalist ideas. Alternative cosmopolitan arguments about immigration go from rare to virtually absent. The discussion links these shifts to a failure of the UK centre-left to overcome historic difficulties in presenting a coherent narrative on immigration policy.
This article shows how press selection and presentation of knowledge and expertise relate to proc... more This article shows how press selection and presentation of knowledge and expertise relate to processes of sense-making over contemporary political dilemmas. It develops an approach that combines framing analysis with theoretical insights from the literature on narrative and complexity. It demonstrates the value of this approach through quantitative and qualitative analysis of media coverage of the UK government’s decision-making over access to the labour market for new European Union (EU) citizens in 2006. The findings illuminate the relationship between expertise and complexity, the partisan way in which the media utilize expertise, and how official and non-official sources relate to certainty and uncertainty over policy. The article also contributes to our understanding of how intense media scrutiny can shape public debates on immigration, where ‘moral panics’ are often accompanied by calls for government intervention, and the supposedly rational world of facts and figures is dist...
Información del artículo ¿Cerrando el grifo?: la experiencia de los principales órganos de gestió... more Información del artículo ¿Cerrando el grifo?: la experiencia de los principales órganos de gestión migratoria en Reino Unido y España durante la recesión.
Executive summary Over the last five years Spain has turned into one of the most important receiv... more Executive summary Over the last five years Spain has turned into one of the most important receiving countries for immigrants in the European Union (EU). The recent nature of these flows combined with the fact that a significant proportion of immigrants have an irregular status presents difficulties in terms of accurate and up to date statistical information and assessment of flows. New immigration is mainly from Latin American, North African and Eastern European countries, with proportionately less now coming from other EU countries. Immigrants continue to be concentrated in certain economic sectors – agriculture, construction, domestic service and the hotel trade – and certain geographical areas. While they have a higher participation rate than Spaniards, age and gender profiles vary according to country of origin. These profiles can be related to economic sector / occupational trajectories. Immigration has occurred during a period of steady economic growth in Spain, and the secto...
This chapter conducts a comparative analysis of immigration politics in Britain and the USA from ... more This chapter conducts a comparative analysis of immigration politics in Britain and the USA from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. At the beginning of this period, there is a significant gap between the two countries in terms of the development of immigration systems, although both are quick to use systems of detention and deportation. The end of the twentieth century is when there is some measure of convergence with both countries turning to a greater focus on internal forms of enforcement.
This chapter first charts the short history from the early anti-trafficking strategy put in place... more This chapter first charts the short history from the early anti-trafficking strategy put in place by the Labour government in 2007 through the changes and reorganisations of the subsequent 10 years, including the launch of the modern slavery strategy in 2015 under then Home Secretary May. While focusing on the impacts felt by workers in the UK, it also takes into account the position adopted by the UK in relation to international frameworks. The second section then focuses on the importance and potential impact of the creation of the most recent governance and enforcement structures — for example, the Director of Labour Market Enforcement and the evolution of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA). As of May 2017, the GLA was rebranded as the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and has new powers to investigate serious exploitation across the whole UK labour market. The third section asks how we can best assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the modern slavery agenda.
18 month British Academy funded project lde by Professor Alex Balch at University of Liverpool, c... more 18 month British Academy funded project lde by Professor Alex Balch at University of Liverpool, considering the impact of the Modern Slavery Act requirements on transparency on the lived experiences of workers in the cocoa and garment sectors of Bangladesh, Ghana, Dominican Republic and Myanmar. <br>The research reveals supply chains characterized bypoverty, poor working conditions and business models whichnegatively impact workers' experiences.
Forced labour1 is recognised as a worldwide problem, directly affecting millions of people, gener... more Forced labour1 is recognised as a worldwide problem, directly affecting millions of people, generating some US$150 billion annual profits (ILO, 2014a). Since 2000, the issue has been entangled in the developing international regime to tackle human trafficking2 and is often subsumed within broader definitions of ‘modern slavery’.3 This chapter evaluates the UK’s response to forced labour, locating this within the international context. It argues that the main problems can be traced to policy framing and implementation, in turn relating to national preferences over economic governance and the regulation of workplace rights. It draws on a study of the problems of regulation and enforcement to tackle forced labour in the UK (Balch, 2012), forming part of a four-year research programme into forced labour funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).
Public debates on immigration have become the subject of much concern, particularly in the UK. Th... more Public debates on immigration have become the subject of much concern, particularly in the UK. This article applies an ethical lens to assess changes in public debates over intra-EU migration in six UK national newspapers during 2006 and 2013. It finds an almost complete dominance of communitarian justifications, mainly based on welfare chauvinism, but a notable increase in security-related arguments and a decrease in economic nationalist ideas. Alternative cosmopolitan arguments about immigration go from rare to virtually absent. The discussion links these shifts to a failure of the UK centre-left to overcome historic difficulties in presenting a coherent narrative on immigration policy.
This article shows how press selection and presentation of knowledge and expertise relate to proc... more This article shows how press selection and presentation of knowledge and expertise relate to processes of sense-making over contemporary political dilemmas. It develops an approach that combines framing analysis with theoretical insights from the literature on narrative and complexity. It demonstrates the value of this approach through quantitative and qualitative analysis of media coverage of the UK government’s decision-making over access to the labour market for new European Union (EU) citizens in 2006. The findings illuminate the relationship between expertise and complexity, the partisan way in which the media utilize expertise, and how official and non-official sources relate to certainty and uncertainty over policy. The article also contributes to our understanding of how intense media scrutiny can shape public debates on immigration, where ‘moral panics’ are often accompanied by calls for government intervention, and the supposedly rational world of facts and figures is dist...
Información del artículo ¿Cerrando el grifo?: la experiencia de los principales órganos de gestió... more Información del artículo ¿Cerrando el grifo?: la experiencia de los principales órganos de gestión migratoria en Reino Unido y España durante la recesión.
Executive summary Over the last five years Spain has turned into one of the most important receiv... more Executive summary Over the last five years Spain has turned into one of the most important receiving countries for immigrants in the European Union (EU). The recent nature of these flows combined with the fact that a significant proportion of immigrants have an irregular status presents difficulties in terms of accurate and up to date statistical information and assessment of flows. New immigration is mainly from Latin American, North African and Eastern European countries, with proportionately less now coming from other EU countries. Immigrants continue to be concentrated in certain economic sectors – agriculture, construction, domestic service and the hotel trade – and certain geographical areas. While they have a higher participation rate than Spaniards, age and gender profiles vary according to country of origin. These profiles can be related to economic sector / occupational trajectories. Immigration has occurred during a period of steady economic growth in Spain, and the secto...
This chapter conducts a comparative analysis of immigration politics in Britain and the USA from ... more This chapter conducts a comparative analysis of immigration politics in Britain and the USA from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. At the beginning of this period, there is a significant gap between the two countries in terms of the development of immigration systems, although both are quick to use systems of detention and deportation. The end of the twentieth century is when there is some measure of convergence with both countries turning to a greater focus on internal forms of enforcement.
This chapter first charts the short history from the early anti-trafficking strategy put in place... more This chapter first charts the short history from the early anti-trafficking strategy put in place by the Labour government in 2007 through the changes and reorganisations of the subsequent 10 years, including the launch of the modern slavery strategy in 2015 under then Home Secretary May. While focusing on the impacts felt by workers in the UK, it also takes into account the position adopted by the UK in relation to international frameworks. The second section then focuses on the importance and potential impact of the creation of the most recent governance and enforcement structures — for example, the Director of Labour Market Enforcement and the evolution of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA). As of May 2017, the GLA was rebranded as the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and has new powers to investigate serious exploitation across the whole UK labour market. The third section asks how we can best assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the modern slavery agenda.
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