A striking finding in the research is the convergence of experiences in accessing and maintaining work (regardless of migration status) particularly in relation to scams migrant workers encounter in their everyday lives. Authors will point to the persistence and normalisation of scams as both a systemic feature and a survival strategy. Migrants often find themselves trapped in exploitative work arrangements or in bureaucratic limbos, sometimes aware that this is their only option, and other times deceived.

These scams are perpetrated not only by employers but also by intermediaries, legal professionals, state agents, and members of ethnic communities who control access to information and opportunities. This seminar will highlight how these actors operate within, and sometimes constitute, the grey zones between regularity and irregularity, where migrant labour is made indispensable.

The speakers will further reveal that intermediaries are not merely exploiters but are frequently integral to the functioning of the system, stepping in to fill the voids left by the state. In this context, irregularity emerges not just as a legal status but as a condition actively produced and sustained through bureaucratic opacity, market demands, and institutional neglect. The seminar will argue for a fundamental rethinking of migration governance—one that addresses not only legal status but also the infrastructures of intermediation that underpin migrant precarity across Europe.