A statement from the Migrant Workers’ Rights Coalition (MWRC) for May Day 2026 and an invitation to join the Migrant Workers’ Rights Bloc on May 4th in London.
On International Workers’ Day, we, migrants and diaspora from around the world, march as part of the working class, in joint struggle for dignity, justice, and freedom.
Migrants are social workers, care workers, cleaners, delivery riders, construction workers, NHS staff, hospitality workers, teachers, domestic workers, artists, transport workers, organisers, and more — across every part of society. Our labour sustains this country. We keep its hospitals running, its cities moving, its homes cared for, its food served, and its children taught.
In the UK today, migrant workers are increasingly marginalised and systematically pushed into insecure and exploitative conditions — from tied visas and unsafe workplaces to restricted job mobility and the constant fear of losing our right to stay. Immigration status, documentation, country of origin, categorisations of “skilled” or “unskilled”, and other bureaucracies are used to divide us — to make us easier to silence and easier to exploit. Our labour is essential, but we are denied the security, freedom, and rights essential to live with dignity.
The hostile environment — from “No Recourse to Public Funds” to the Immigration Health Surcharge, from detention to forced removal, from Right to Rent checks to immigration raids, from extortionate immigration fees to the denial of the right to work — pushes migrant workers into precarity and then blames us for the consequences. We are othered, scapegoated, and forced to live in fear. And this government is moving to deepen and expand this hostile environment.
By design, migrants are used as a source of cheap, insecure, easily subdued labour power. And by marking one sector of the working class as easily exploitable, all sectors of the working class suffer. Dividing workers by immigration status weakens our collective power, while strengthening the position of those who profit from our exploitation. We refuse to be divided. There are no workers’ rights without migrants’ rights.
The same system that exploits migrant workers exploits all workers. Low pay, insecure contracts, unsafe conditions, and attacks on trade union rights affect us all. Even where workers’ rights are strengthened, migrant workers are often excluded in practice — trapped in visa systems and immigration controls that make those rights impossible to exercise. Rights that migrant workers cannot safely use are not real rights.
This year marks 100 years since the 1926 General Strike — when over a million workers across Britain took collective action in solidarity with miners. It showed the scale of solidarity workers can build when we stand together.
Today, we call on all workers to stand in solidarity with migrant workers — no exceptions — as our rights come under sustained attack and our lives and livelihoods are put at risk by government policies, dehumanisation, and scapegoating.
We are not outsiders.
We are not temporary.
We are not disposable.
We are here. We are part of the working class. We belong.
We stand together — migrants and non-migrants, unionised and non-unionised workers — to demand:
- Settlement is a right, not a privilege — 5 years is long enough
- End tied and restrictive visa systems
- Regularisation now for all undocumented migrants
- Abolish No Recourse to Public Funds and uphold social protections for all
- End the hostile environment in all its forms
- Equal rights and protections for all workers, no exceptions
- Abolish the Immigration Health Surcharge and uphold universal healthcare for all
- Safe workplaces, decent pay, and full access to justice
- Uphold the right to organise, unionise, strike, and speak out without fear
- End all scapegoating, dehumanisation, racism, and xenophobia against migrants
We strongly reject the racism and scapegoating being used to turn workers and communities against each other. Migrants are not the cause of the economic, housing, and NHS crises — exploitation, inequality, and political choices are.
Our struggle does not stand alone. It is connected to struggles across the world — against war, displacement, climate injustice, and economic systems that push people to move and then punish them for it. Migration is not the problem — people have always moved in search of safety, dignity, and a better life.
Migrants, refugees, working and non-working people, paid and unpaid — on this May Day, we do not just call for change, we organise for it. This is not the end of our action, but part of building the power we need to win. Let’s support one another and stand in solidarity across all of our struggles.
We call on trade unions, workers, people out of work, those whose work is not recognised, community organisations, and everyone who stands for justice:
Stand with migrant workers. Join the Migrant Workers’ Rights Bloc this May Day — and support our struggle for full rights, however long it takes! Join the MWRC’s May Day Demonstration WhatsApp Group for updates: https://chat.whatsapp.com/BooGmv4EcPjCGRknDsyC5F
Because when migrants organise and are supported unconditionally, the whole working class is stronger.
Migrants’ rights are workers’ rights.
SWU is proud to stand with the Migrant Workers’ Rights Coalition. Migrant workers are a vital part of our communities, including the social work community, and hostile policies continue to put them at increased risk of abuse and exploitation.
You may be interested in reading this SWU and Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) blog highlighting the devastating consequences that hostile rhetoric from the political class has had on migrants in the UK.