Discussing South Asian Migrant Labour in the UK through the Capability Approach

“If the UK's vote to leave the European Union was a vote for, or more specifically against, anything, it was a vote against free movement of workers within the EU” (Portes, 2016). Brexit may even lead to ‘Brexodus’, where migrants may possibly leave their jobs and the country. Considering that 17% of the UK labour force comprises of migrants, the implications of Brexit on the UK economy resulting from changes in its migrant labour force are significant. If Brexit was triggered by a discourse centering on migrants, seen as straining resources, worsened by austerity measures, the conceptual framework on migration invites reflection. While political arguments often bring up migrant integration, theoretical and empirical analyses on integration have ignored concepts such as well-being, which migrants include in their interpretations. Indeed, most economic representations of migrants continue to fit into the neoclassical theoretical paradigm. Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach proposes new variables, including well-being, which reflect the intrinsic and instrumental value of individual freedom and human rights. It is also particularly relevant to examine vulnerability, accentuated by migration processes and immigration restrictions that compound precarity, and in Sen’s words, produce various “unfreedoms”. By focusing on the large-scale immigration of South Asian migrant workers to the UK, a phenomenon which has precipitated significant transformations in the character of Anglo-Indian relationships, we intend to apply the Capability Approach to discuss migrant well-being and vulnerability, in a context of Brexit-aggravated uncertainty