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Research exposes structural exploitation of migrant workers in UK domestic and food delivery sectors

Reports document the lived experiences of migrant workers experiencing legal vulnerability in the UK’s food delivery and domestic work sectors

16 July 2025
A food delivery worker walking up stairs carrying a cooler bag

A team of researchers at the University of Birmingham, led by Professor Nando Sigona, has released two new reports exposing how migrant workers experience exploitation and legal vulnerability in the UK’s food delivery and domestic work sectors.

The research is part of the Horizon Europe and UKRI-funded I-CLAIM project, which investigates the impact of legal precarity on migrant households across Europe.

The reports document the lived experiences of migrant workers—predominantly racialised and minoritised individuals—who, despite being integral to the UK’s domestic care and logistics infrastructure, are targeted by immigration enforcement while remaining largely invisible in labour policy debates and frequently excluded from rights protections.

Domestic and Care Sector: “a compliant workforce at the state’s margins”

In the domestic work sector, migrant workers—mostly women—work in private homes, where oversight is minimal and abuse is common. Many are bound to their employers through sponsorship schemes that severely limit labour mobility and bargaining power.

Others accumulate significant debt—sometimes exceeding £10,000—to secure a Certificate of Sponsorship, a requirement for their visa, only to find themselves unpaid, overworked, or dismissed with little recourse. Some domestic workers also reported being trapped in exploitative arrangements, with some cases amounting to modern slavery.

I was left with nothing, no job, no house, no papers. All because the sponsor broke the law, not me.

Jibran, domiciliary care worker from Pakistan

The report shows that legal precarity is not incidental but structurally produced—through sponsor licence suspensions, bureaucratic delays, and visa conditions. Housing insecurity and recruitment debt further entrench exploitation. Despite this, many workers resist—relying on mutual support, faith groups, and acts of legal self-advocacy.

Stakeholders, including legal experts and civil society organisations, confirm that the current system incentivises dependency and creates a ‘compliant workforce’ that sustains underpaid care and domestic labour. Visa rules, sponsor dependency, high recruitment fees, and limited access to legal aid are key drivers of this dynamic.

Food Delivery Sector: when algorithmic labour meets immigration enforcement

The companion report reveals how the UK food delivery sector has become a “testing ground” for a new model of migration governance—one that fuses work automatization, digital surveillance with immigration enforcement. Food delivery work is in the first place physically exhausting and mentally taxing.

As Rayan, a delivery rider originally from Pakistan, explains, despite having been victim several times of traffic accidents and attempts of robbery, the main source of exhaustion is the constant physical pain he and his fellow workers go through as a result of spending hours exposed to the elements on e-bikes and scooters:

“Your hands are not working at -5°C, you know? Believe me, I wear four pair of socks, when I come out, four pair of socks, three trousers and up to the trousers I wear two waterproof trouser, right? And then a jacket, then another jacket […] And after that, well, when I’m working like constantly for 8 or 9 or 10 or 12 hours, you know, sometimes I can’t feel in my hands, sometimes I can’t feel my fingers. […] And then when I go home at night […] my legs are like, you know, they are so cold that it will take, like, up to two to three hours in the heated room to regain their strength.”

Beyond the physical fatigue, the food delivery sector reveals many of the contradictions of the broader gig economy: while advertised as flexible and empowering, it is, in practice, defined by insecurity, surveillance, and structural coercion, particularly for migrant workers.

The study found that, since March 2025, when the Labour government’s crackdown on “illegal working” has forced platforms to implement biometric ID verification, daily identity checks, and restrictions on device sharing, the working conditions have become harsher. These changes have effectively embedded the “hostile environment” into the architecture of platform work. As a result, many migrants—particularly those with insecure legal status—have been excluded from the sector, or pushed into more exploitative arrangements.

The report argues that platform apps now function as both employers and border agents, using algorithmic systems to control access to work while insulating companies from legal responsibility. Riders report fear, isolation, and exploitation, with little access to legal aid or trade union protection.

Professor Nando Sigona from the University of Birmingham, lead author and scientific coordinator of I-CLAIM, said:

“These reports reveal how two very different sectors—domestic work and food delivery—are now governed by the same logic: a system where migrant workers are tolerated only as long as they remain silent, flexible, and invisible. Immigration status is used as a tool of control, not protection. It’s time for a policy reset that puts workers’ dignity and rights at the centre.”

Griff Ferris from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said:

“This research exposes what migrant communities have long known: that the British immigration system doesn’t just enable exploitation, it is built to enforce it. Whether it’s a delivery rider trapped and excluded by totalitarian and racist algorithms, or a care worker trapped and excluded by extortionate visa fees, migrant workers are being systematically and deliberately pushed into precarity, hounded and punished for trying to survive.”

Notes for editors

  • For media enquiries please contact Tim Mayo, Press Office, University of Birmingham, tel: +44 (0)7815 607 157.
  • The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, educators and more than 40,000 students from over 150 countries.
  • England’s first civic university, the University of Birmingham is proud to be rooted in of one of the most dynamic and diverse cities in the country. A member of the Russell Group and a founding member of the Universitas 21 global network of research universities, the University of Birmingham has been changing the way the world works for more than a century.
  • Improving the Living and Working Conditions of Irregularised Migrant Households in Europe (www.i-claim.eu) is a three-year six-country research project, funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe and UKRI, investigating how immigration status interacts with labour, housing, and family life. The I-CLAIM project is led by the University of Birmingham and Utrecht University. Professor Nando Sigona, director of the Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity at the University of Birmingham, is the Scientific Coordinator of I-CLAIM. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) is a partner in the I-CLAIM project.

Featured staff

  • Professor Nando Sigona

    Chair of International Migration and Forced Displacement

    Professor Nando Sigona is a sociologist with research and teaching experience in migration, refugee and ethnic studies. He is also the Director of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS).

    Phone: +44(0)121 415 8030
    Email:

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