Unfinished business?Migrant lives in British workplaces
• Eddy Donnelly• Paul Freedman• Barbara Wilczek
1
Context and assumptions 1
• Developing view that contemporary migration differs in significant ways from preceding modes Changed global context - transnationalism
Changed sending context Changed receiving context
Changed migrant characteristics Changed migrant dispositions (Eade et al 2007) Contingent migration
• Perceived inadequacy of extant theorising and methodology – notably around static conceptions of destination and choice.
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Context and assumptions 2
• Recourse to developments in human geography and sociology to complement other contemporary work Exploration of the quotidian Exploration of the individual in context
• Importance of language use/discourse in revealing ambiguities/dilemmas/choices
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Study approach
• Participant observation o Insider’s viewo Dynamics of the workplaceo 3 months in a local food processing plant
• Factory contexto 950 contracted employees (incl. 450 Polish)o Fordist mode of production
• Biographical interviews o 20 interviews with Polish migrant workerso Subjects point of viewo Meanings given to experiences
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contextual factors that explain
Three contextual factors:
• status & background
• sense of identityo nationalityo workplace
• exposure to factory lifeo work regimeo work relationship
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emerging preoccupations/ dilemmas?
• Five emerging themes:
o ‘lifestyle’ -living ‘normally’?o ‘passivity’ - getting by/rubbing along?o ‘fairness’ - managed fairly?o ‘prospects’ - moving up or moving on?o ‘settlement’ - moving back or staying
put?
6
Unfinished business – conceptual issues over settlement
• contradiction and complexity in migrant worker attitudes to host country- economic gain v career devaluation?
• indecision/ ambivalence/ deferment- home v host-country (compatibles?)- rational choice v habituation/ inertia?
• settlement/return as a protracted process (gradualism)
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Unfinished business – methodological issues
General confirmation of approach - uncovering of complex, cross-cutting and contradictory reality.
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