Abstract
There is considerable academic and policy interest in how immigrants fare in the labour markets of their host economy. This research is situated within these debates and explores the nexus between migrant labour and segmented labour markets. Specifically the analysis focuses on East-Central Europeans in Britain: a sizeable cohort of largely economic and recent migrants. A large quantity of interviews with low-wage employers and recruiters is used to examine the role served by East-Central European migrant labour in the UK labour market, question whether this function is distinct from conventional understandings of the function of migrant labour and explore how employer practices and other processes ‘produce’ these employment relations. Based on the findings from this approach, an argument is developed which contends that the ready availability of a well perceived cohort of migrant labour has sustained and extended flexible labour market structures towards the bottom end of the labour market.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 427-443 |
| Journal | Work, Employment and Society |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 17 Apr 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2015 |
Keywords
- A8 migration
- Flexible labour markets
- Labour migration
Access to Document
- Manuscript9
© 2015 the Authors. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0950017014568137
