Temporary migration and the trauma of workplace exploitation

A new paper from Professor Francis Collins and Associate Professor Christina Stringer demonstrates how the workplace exploitation of temporary migrants in Aotearoa occurs through emotional manipulation that is generated in migration policy and workplace practices. Collins and Stringer argue that “a palpable sense of deportability conditions the relationships migrants have with employers, and in turn the capacity employers have to create a sense of unfreedom in the workplace, manipulate emotions of workers more generally and thus create and maintain the power relations that make exploitation possible.” The authors call for policy responses that recognise the emotional experiences of migration and employment and “identify mechanisms for enhancing the freedom and empowerment of migrants to respond to situations of forced labour”.