Historicising the Employment of Migrant Domestic Workers and ‘Modern Slavery’ in Britain

‘Modern slavery’ not only fails to conceptualise the exploitation of migrant domestic workers from post-colonial nations, but also their affluent employers in post-imperial London. Existing evidence focuses on ‘victims’ or ‘survivors’, with sparse data on whom they work for. This study analyses 200 responses to a survey asking migrant domestic workers about the employers they accompanied to the UK, their post-‘rescue’ employers and the (lack of) support provided by the British state. Comparing the survey findings with visa schemes in place during the British Empire, and using contemporaneous social theory (Du Bois and Martineau), this study applies a historical lens to show how Britain was, and is, more concerned with protecting wealthy employers than migrant domestic workers. Since the 18th century, this has been justified using the moral binary of ‘British’ freedom and ‘foreign’ slavery.