There is a thriving shadow economy in Britain – but migrants are not to blame | Emily Kenway

5 hours ago7 min read1 comments

The political theatre surrounding Britain's so-called 'hidden economy' reveals far more about our leaders' desperation than it does about the reality of undeclared work. As Labour scrambles to adopt Reform's hardline rhetoric, they're constructing a convenient narrative that blames migrants for systemic economic pressures while ignoring the genuine struggles of ordinary citizens.This manufactured crisis, complete with parliamentary debates about pizza delivery and Yvette Cooper's melodramatic promise of 'surging enforcement,' deliberately obscures a fundamental truth: the shadow economy thrives not because of illegal workers, but because millions of British households are being crushed by a cost-of-living catastrophe that makes cash-in-hand work a necessary survival strategy rather than a criminal choice. The proposed solutions—digital ID cards, intensified 'right to work' checks, and the ethically questionable data-sharing between the Home Office and private companies—represent a disturbing expansion of surveillance infrastructure that targets the most vulnerable while doing nothing to address the root causes.Having advised on policy myself, I recognize this pattern: when governments lack the courage or capacity to tackle complex economic inequality, they default to scapegoating marginalized groups, a tactic as old as politics itself. The real menace isn't the asylum seeker delivering your takeaway; it's a system where wages have stagnated for over a decade, where the social safety net has been systematically dismantled, and where people working multiple jobs still can't afford basic necessities.We've seen this playbook before throughout history—from Victorian-era moral panics about 'vagrants' to the demonization of Jewish merchants in pre-war Europe—where economic anxiety gets weaponized against minority groups. Contemporary research from the London School of Economics consistently shows that undocumented migrants represent a tiny fraction of informal work, while studies by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation demonstrate that the cash economy expands precisely during periods of austerity and wage suppression.The political focus on delivery riders and asylum seekers functions as a calculated distraction from the government's failure to address corporate tax evasion, which costs the UK treasury exponentially more than all informal work combined. This isn't about protecting British workers; it's about performing toughness for electoral gain while ignoring the structural violence of poverty.The personal impact is devastating—families choosing between heating and eating, graduates drowning in debt, pensioners returning to work—yet our political discourse remains fixated on the specter of migrant labor undercutting wages. Until we confront the uncomfortable reality that capitalism's failures are pushing British citizens into informal work, these theatrical crackdowns will continue to punish symptoms while the disease of inequality spreads unchecked through our communities.

#editorial picks news

#shadow economy

#immigration policy

#labor market

#right to work checks

#enforcement

#political debate