Unfreedom in labour relations: from a politics of rescue to a politics of solidarity?

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Contemporary abolitionism, which we critique here, should not be confused with ‘abolition geography’ that continues to inspire us and which has emerged out of decades of critical analysis of racial capitalism alongside grassroots solidarity and resistance (see Gilmore, 2022).

2 There are extensive debates about each of these terms and how they relate to each other which cannot be fully covered here (see: Chuang, 2015). The concept of forced labour has a slightly different genealogy, and therefore a somewhat different political history, but it has increasingly been subsumed within the category (and politics) of ‘modern slavery” in recent years (e.g., ILO, 2017).

3 See also Hatton, 2020 who advances a more expansive understanding of what falls within the category of “coerced” labour.

4 This is also developed in work exploring discourses of migrant “hospitality” and “welcome” that often tend to assume a “guest” should be grateful for any support and solidarity provided by a host (Derrida, 2000, Waite & Lewis, 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Siobhán McGrath

Siobhán McGrath is Assistant Professor of Human Geography at Durham University in the UK. She works within labour geography as well as development geography. She has published widely on: work, labour, and employment; forced labour and labour unfreedoms; anti-trafficking and anti-slavery; violations of labour and employment law; and labour within Global Production Networks.

Ben Rogaly

Ben Rogaly is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sussex, UK. His most recent book Stories from a migrant city: living and working together in the shadow of Brexit was published by Manchester University Press in 2020.

Louise Waite

Louise Waite is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Leeds, UK. Her research interests span migration and contemporary slavery; with a particular focus on discourses of ‘modern slavery’, unfree/forced labour and exploitative work among asylum seekers and refugees. Through her interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, she has published on these themes in a range of peer reviewed journals and in recent books: The modern slavery agenda: Politics, policy and practice in the UK (with G. Craig, A. Balch, H. Lewis, Policy Press, 2019) and Vulnerability, exploitation and migrants: Insecure work in a globalised economy (with H. Lewis, G. Craig & K. Skrivankova, Palgrave, 2015).