Forced labor or doing "housework". Some remarks on the (non)employment status of immigrants in US detention center

The paper deals with the work of immigrants in detention centers in the US and the possibility of qualifying this work as forced labor. The main issues addressed in the paper are the amount of wages received by detainees in the centers, the question of whether this labor is voluntary, the conditions under which it is performed and, finally, whether detainees in detention centers are entitled to labor-related collective rights, that is, the right to organize and effectively negotiate working conditions and wages. The idea is to present the ongoing discussion in the US on whether detainees in immigration detention centers fall under two fundamental federal regulations: The Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA), which includes a federal minimum wage guarantee, and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which includes a guarantee of the right to organize and a prohibition on discrimination based on workers' organizing or union activity.

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