By invisible hands: Work, exploitation, and the migrant division of labour

Across Europe, tens of millions of migrants work in key sectors of the economy, from agriculture to construction, logistics, and domestic care. Today, they play an essential role in filling growing shortages at the bottom of the labour market, where they do mostly standardised, low-skilled work, under wages and conditions increasingly refused by native workers. Yet, despite the essential economic role they play, many migrant workers are subject to exploitative and harmful labour practices, as well as broader conditions of economic insecurity, inequality, and social exclusion.

This book provides a criminological investigation of the conditions of migrant workers and the nature of contemporary labour exploitation. Focusing on the Netherlands as a case study, the research involved twelve months of fieldwork in various low-wage jobs, including construction, agrifood, and logistics warehousing. Drawing on direct observations on the work floor itself, combined with labour market data and interviews with experts and practitioners, it sheds light not only on the working conditions of low-wage migrants, but also how exploitation and harmful labour practices emerge. Moreover, it explains how these conditions are rooted in broader political economic transformations in the sphere of work, including increasing labour mobility, flexibilisation, and inequality.