The Limits of the Outsourced “Migration State”: Policy Change, Unintended Consequences and Enduring Labour Shortages in Post Brexit-UK

Following its departure from the European Union (Brexit) the UK introduced new immigration policies designed to limit ‘low-skilled’ migration for work. In dialogue with the literature on the British migration state and the redrawing of regulatory spaces in the field of labour migration, this article shows how the post-Brexit migration policy is marked by inherent tensions and contradictory outcomes when confronted with the realities of the labour market and employer activity. Drawing on a large multi-sector project and qualitative interviews with employer and third sector representatives this paper focuses on the perceived effects and lived experiences of the new migration regulations. We focus on four key low paying sectors historically dependent on migrant workers and look at how new policies and visa schemes worked in practice. The neoliberal approach to labour migration by successive UK governments, part of a long trend in the privatisation and outsourcing of migration management, proclaims to simultaneously reduce immigration and make immigration more functional for businesses and employers by creating sector or job-specific routes and giving both government and employers more control over recruitment from abroad. However, interviews with sector representatives and migrant advocates show that the increased burden of regulatory control placed on employers has destabilising effects for businesses and growing uncertainty for migrant workers, while de facto failing the primary objective of reducing immigration post Brexit. The main argument points to the limitations of “outsourcing migration controls” from the state onto the employers, at a time when the UK similarly to other countries in the developed world face significant labour shortages.