Improving Irregular Migrants: Labour Conditions Agriculture, Food Delivery, and Domestic Work in Europe

Ilse van Liempt, Aleksandra Grzymala-Kazlowska, Kamil Matuszczyk and Letizia Palumbo

Migrants’ irregular status in Europe is not a fixed legal category but a product of the interactions between migration, labour and welfare policy regimes. Drawing on research from the Horizon Europe I-CLAIM project, this Policy Brief shows that irregularised migrants occupy positions that are essential. In domestic work, migrants – predominantly women – for example provide indispensable household and personal care across Europe’s ageing societies. In agriculture and food delivery, irregularised migrant workers play a crucial role in feeding society.

Apart from being essential, these labour positions are however concentrated in sectors characterised by undeclared work or subcontracting, and as a result suffer from high levels of dependency and labour exploitation. Irregularised workers have limited access to information and support and their access to workers’ rights need to be better guaranteed.

Building on research conducted in the Horizon Europe I-CLAIM project, this Policy Brief puts forward the following four policy recommendations for national and EU policymakers:

• Expand and improve labour migration and regularisation pathways
• Regulate subcontracting and labour intermediation
• Ensure access to justice and effective complaint mechanisms to all workers, regardless of status
• Ensure access to information and support to irregularised workers