The Big Smoke

The cleaner | The nanny | The asylum seeker | The trafficked victim

We eat the food they have picked and wear the clothes they’ve sewn; they clean our homes and offices and even wipe our children’s noses. Many things Londoners take for granted – fresh fruit and veg in the supermarket, cheap designer fashions and affordable childcare – rely on the work of foreign migrants who are employed here , legally and illegally, often in poorly paid and dangerous jobs. Feature continues

For workers employed legally there is such high competition for jobs, especially in areas such as construction and catering, that they are often paid well under the minimum wage (£5.35 for those aged 22 and over; £4.45 for 18 to 21-year-olds), with no training and in unsafe conditions.

Illegal workers, usually motivated by the chance for better opportunities in the UK than in their own country, arrive on tourist or student visas, get work or enrol in colleges and then overstay their visas. Some are smuggled in on forged papers and exist here on false documentation.
Others arrive here seeking asylum but are unable to exist on Government benefit (£31.85 a week for 18 to 24-year-olds; £40.22 for those over 25) and end up working illegally.

The question of what to do with those who work here illegally remains unclear. The Home Office admits that at the current rate of deportations, it would take 25 years to remove them and cost billions of pounds. In addition, illegal migrants provide labour for Britain’s booming economy, fill the growing personal service job sectors of domestic work, cleaning, catering, food processing and hospitality. So what is the solution?

One answer might be to regulate the illegal workforce and allow such workers access to citizenship and legal status once they’ve worked here for a set period of time. After all, many have been here for years working and paying taxes under assumed identities. While it seems we’re more than happy to enjoy the fruits of migrant labour, be it legal or illegal, we are less willing to enter into a debate about its future. Until we do, 200 years after the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire, sweatshop hours and slave-like conditions will continue to be a fact of life for many in the capital.

The cleaner
'I’ve seen the lowest things of human nature'. Time Out meets a hotel cleaner from Brazil

The nanny
We meet Rosa, 36, from the Phillipines who suffered terrifying abuse from her employers in Holland Park

The asylum seeker
'I’d like to put my head on my pillow one day and finally have some peace of mind.’ We meet the Israeli asylum seeker living in a constant state of limbo in London.

The trafficked victim
We speak to a Columbian sex worker who was forced into prostitution by London's people traffickers.