Historicising the Employment of Migrant Domestic Workers and ‘Modern Slavery’ in Britain

Bibliographic Data

ID10757446
AuthorsMatt Reynolds (0009-0000-0259-332X, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-03-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00380385261428369
OpenAlexW7130852741
LanguageEN
References cited23

‘Modern slavery’ not only fails to conceptualise the exploitation of migrant domestic workers from post-colonial nations, but also their affluent employers in post-imperial London. Existing evidence focuses on ‘victims’ or ‘survivors’, with sparse data on whom they work for. This study analyses 200 responses to a survey asking migrant domestic workers about the employers they accompanied to the UK, their post-‘rescue’ employers and the (lack of) support provided by the British state. Comparing the survey findings with visa schemes in place during the British Empire, and using contemporaneous social theory (Du Bois and Martineau), this study applies a historical lens to show how Britain was, and is, more concerned with protecting wealthy employers than migrant domestic workers. Since the 18th century, this has been justified using the moral binary of ‘British’ freedom and ‘foreign’ slavery

Domestic work · Government (linguistics · Immigration · Migrant workers · Work (physics · Australian History and Society · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Migration and Labor Dynamics

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access