(C) OpenDemocracy
This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Delivery riders caught between algorithms and immigration raids [1]
[]
Date: 2025-08
“The Home Office is everyone,” Ibrahim said, during a fleeting conversation outside a gathering point for delivery riders in Birmingham. Ibrahim is from Sudan. He originally entered the UK on a sponsored care worker visa, but lost his job shortly after when the Home Office revoked his sponsor’s authorisation.
A recent arrival with few contacts, and given just 60 days to find a new employer, Ibrahim was unable to maintain his visa. As a last resort, he applied for asylum and started working as a delivery rider, using the account of a registered rider.
Ibrahim’s story is not uncommon – we have heard several such stories while researching migrant drivers in the UK. But in recent weeks we’ve noticed that migrant workers have become less willing to talk about themselves. They are now more guarded when speaking to strangers, more reluctant to share their views, and increasingly concerned about who we are, what we’re researching, and for whom.
Recent policy changes under the Labour government are the source of this newfound hesitancy. From now on immigration enforcement will focus less on irregular crossings and more on illegal work. This change is partly due to the realisation that policing borders is politically and diplomatically complex. It is also due to the government’s emerging understanding that, despite public and media narratives around migration in the UK, the majority of migrants with some element of irregularity in their papers did not arrive via the Channel.
Ibrahim exemplifies this. He entered on a valid visa. Now that he has an open asylum application, he still has the legal right to be in this country. But he has no legal right to work.
The government appears to have understood that the conflation of groups has led to policy failures, most notably the prolonged concentration of enforcement resources at the UK’s geographical borders. This new policy is a course correction to restrengthen the hostile environment. As always, migrants will pay the price.
What makes a migrant irregular?
There are entrenched misconceptions in media and political discourse about what constitutes irregular migration and who irregular migrants are. The line between regular and irregular migration is far more fluid and context-dependent than often assumed.
Entering a country without authorisation, like those crossing the English Channel or the Mediterranean Sea on unseaworthy vessels, does not automatically make a person an irregular migrant. If the person applies for asylum in the country of arrival, he or she will be legally resident while the asylum application is considered. Their right to stay will only be reviewed once a final decision on the asylum case is taken. Appealing a negative decision can further extend the process, and the right to stay of the applicant.
However, in the UK there is no automatic right to work for asylum seekers. Asylum seekers can request work authorisation only after their case has been in the adjudication process for over six months. A positive answer is not guaranteed. Asylum seekers without work authorisation are expected to survive on a weekly allowance of £49.18 to cover for food, clothes, toiletries and public transport.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/delivery-riders-caught-between-algorithms-and-immigration-raids/
Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/
