Sometimes working in migration can feel like an uphill struggle; David Cameron’s speech on immigration recently did nothing to reassure me that this Government were moving away from polemics and policy based on populist anxieties. I was grateful therefore that yesterday was also a good news day. Two domestic workers who I first met about a year ago received a settlement from their former employer. Not a settlement that was in anyway commensurate with the hours of work they did or the money they should have been paid under the national minimum wage but it was something. And for the domestic workers themselves it was the principle rather than the money.
Over a cup of coffee and some cake they’d brought in to say thanks, one told me that “there were so many times I wanted to give up; even though my english is not strong, after a full day’s work with my new employers, I had to read my forty page statement until late at night checking it. But I wanted to make sure that they won’t treat anyone else like they treated me so we didn’t give up.”
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