58 research outputs found
Refugees and asylum seekers in informal and precarious jobs: early labour market insertion from the perspectives of professionals and volunteers
No full textPurpose: This article aims to explore the engagement of refugees and asylum seekers (RAS) in informal and precarious jobs from a civil society actors' perspective. Despite a burgeoning literature on refugee integration and a focus on institutional integration programmes, little is known about the early insertion of RAS into informal and precarious employment as an alternative to subsidised integration programmes, when these are available. Design - methodology - approach: This article draws on rich qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews with social workers, volunteers and other professionals supporting migrants. Findings: Data analysis shows that migrants' insertion in informal jobs and their rejection of integration programmes may be the result of people's need to access financial capital to cover actual and future needs. Although such an engagement may be criticised for hampering RAS’ integration, it can be seen as an important source of agency against insecurity surrounding one's legal status. Originality - value: This article highlights the importance of legal status precarity in shaping informal workers' agency and perceptions of them, opening up a debate on the relevance of informal work in terms of long-term integration and future migration trajectories
Onward Migration Aspirations and Transnational Practices of Migrant Construction Workers Amidst Economic Crisis: Exploring New Opportunities and Facing Barriers
No full textConsidering onward migration aspirations of Albanian migrants in Italy and Greece, this article investigates the reproduction of transnational practices in relation to preferred destinations before new settlements take place. Drawing on qualitative data, it introduces the concept of explorative transnational practices and sheds light on the interplay between aspirations and transnationalism, showing how the desire to leave the first country may be shaped by transnational ties, and how this may trigger occasional transnational physical activity to explore new destinations. On one hand, this version of transnational mobility may engender remigration, but, on the other, this may be transformed into income-oriented work trips due to structural constraints (legal status, immigrant networks) and a lack of linguistic and economic capital, as well as other factors such as integration processes, intergenerational relationships and experiences in new destinations. This questions the very presumptions of the transnationalist approach that underscore agentic dimensions of transnational migrants
Migrants and Undeclared Employment within the European Construction Sector: Challenging Dichotomous Approaches to Workers’ Agency
No full textDrawing upon qualitative data on Albanians residing in Italy and Greece, this article furnishes new insights into the topic of undeclared migrant construction workers’ agency. It analyses different types of undeclared work through Katz’s theoretical framework that suggests a disaggregated conceptualisation of agency. In so doing, it adds to thinking on the factors shaping fluidity between types of agency and challenges dichotomous views on passive or voluntary participation. The article also highlights that mutual interests between workers and employers enable migrant builders to defy and resist state regulations, despite the impacts of undeclared work on workers and the fact that power dynamics are unequal. Thus, the main contribution the article makes is to suggest a more nuanced understanding of labour agency that may go beyond the conflict between employers and workers. Overall, the article highlights the relevance of this study for different economic sectors, geographical areas and migrant groups
Sarah Pink, Dylan Tutt, Andrew Dainty (Eds.), Ethnographic Research in the Construction Industry
No full text“Asking Around”: Immigrants' Counterstrategies to Renew Their Residence Permit in Times of Economic Crisis in Italy
No full textIn contrast to the main body of literature focusing on irregular migrants' counterstrategies, this article explores regular migrant workers' practices to renew their residence permit in an attempt to circumvent structural hurdles due to the restrictive Italian legislative framework. Studying migrants' agency in a socioeconomic context, characterized by high unemployment rates and extensive informal working patterns, I thus distinguish three main counterstrategies: (1) the use of their informal networks to falsify their working relations; (2) the possibility of starting up an individual firm; and (3) taking advantage of structural “loopholes.”
[Recensione a] Irregular Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Who Cares?, A. Triandafyllidou (ed.), Farnham, Ashgate, 2013
No full textMigrant construction workers in times of crisis : worker agency, (im)mobility practices and masculine identities among Albanians in Southern Europe
No full textThis book explores how migrant construction workers in Southern Europe faced unemployment and precarious work conditions during and after the Great Recession. By drawing on rich qualitative data, it investigates the experiences of Albanian men within and beyond the workplace, and sheds light on the capacity of migrant builders to deal with economic hardships and the role of their families and masculine identities in shaping their coping practices. This book suggests a new framework for the study of coping practices among migrant (construction) workers, and adds to the study of integration processes in Southern European countries by comparing the narratives of settled migrants in Italy and Greece. This book also looks at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant builders’ lives in Southern Europe. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this book is of interest both to students and researchers in the field of migration studies and those working in the fields of sociology, geography, anthropology, political science and economics
Mercato del lavoro : buone pratiche per l’integrazione cittadina
No full textBuone pratiche per l’inserimento di migranti nel mercato di lavoro. Esempi città europe
Homeless or refugee? Civil Society Actors and the (un)making of internal borders in an Italian frontier town
No full textMigrants’ access to the national territory is filtered through categorisation
processes that entangle the legal–administrative statuses produced by
immigration controls with stratified access to social and political rights,
representing a form of internal bordering. Drawing upon qualitative data on
Civil Society Actors (CSAs) who provide services to homeless migrants in an
Italian frontier town, this article identifies two main types of practices that
can be used by CSAs to reshape internal borders: either de-institutionalising
internal borders through the circulation of non-state resources or engaging
with institutionalised internal borders by expanding or ensuring migrants’
access to state resources through a mix of cooperation and conflict with
governmental actors. The article contributes to the broader debate on the
role of CSAs in drawing internal borders in frontier towns and discusses the
policy implications of CSAs’ actions at the local level and beyond
Here, there, in between, beyond...: Identity negotiation and sense of belonging among Southern Europeans in the UK and Germany
No full textWhilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant
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