Labour Migration, Employer Preferences and Symbolic Boundary Work
A critical stream of scholarship from North America and Europe, on employer preferences for low-wage labour migrants, suggest that the discourse of ‘the migrant work ethic’ works as a euphemism for the exploitability of this mobile, flexible and deferent workforce. In this article, we combine the li...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Helsinki University Press
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Nordic Journal of Migration Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://account.journal-njmr.org/index.php/uh-j-njmr/article/view/485 |
| _version_ | 1827898843333656576 |
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| author | Thomas Sæther Jakobsen Inga Sæther |
| author_facet | Thomas Sæther Jakobsen Inga Sæther |
| author_sort | Thomas Sæther Jakobsen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A critical stream of scholarship from North America and Europe, on employer preferences for low-wage labour migrants, suggest that the discourse of ‘the migrant work ethic’ works as a euphemism for the exploitability of this mobile, flexible and deferent workforce. In this article, we combine the literature on employer preference and the symbolic boundary approach, to tackle the question of how employer preference for the ‘migrant work ethic’ gains legitimacy. Drawing upon in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork within the fruit and vegetable industry in Norway, we detail how employers narrate the declining employability of the domestic working class, and how migrant workers ascend into the ‘good worker’ category. The recruitment and hiring decisions of the employers form part of a broader moral economy of establishing boundaries to the categories of desirable and undesirable workers. We document how employers establish legitimacy for their recruitment preferences through this boundary work. We argue that this boundary work gains its legitimacy as part of a wider moral economy of ‘employability.’ |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:09:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-463e21bbfaaf4d6fb8c4dc9e4753c6d5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1799-649X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:09:29Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Helsinki University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordic Journal of Migration Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-463e21bbfaaf4d6fb8c4dc9e4753c6d52023-07-18T08:25:45ZengHelsinki University PressNordic Journal of Migration Research1799-649X2023-06-011322210.33134/njmr.485397Labour Migration, Employer Preferences and Symbolic Boundary WorkThomas Sæther Jakobsen0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7531-7059Inga Sæther1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3388-9251Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), TrondheimUniversity of Oslo, OsloA critical stream of scholarship from North America and Europe, on employer preferences for low-wage labour migrants, suggest that the discourse of ‘the migrant work ethic’ works as a euphemism for the exploitability of this mobile, flexible and deferent workforce. In this article, we combine the literature on employer preference and the symbolic boundary approach, to tackle the question of how employer preference for the ‘migrant work ethic’ gains legitimacy. Drawing upon in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork within the fruit and vegetable industry in Norway, we detail how employers narrate the declining employability of the domestic working class, and how migrant workers ascend into the ‘good worker’ category. The recruitment and hiring decisions of the employers form part of a broader moral economy of establishing boundaries to the categories of desirable and undesirable workers. We document how employers establish legitimacy for their recruitment preferences through this boundary work. We argue that this boundary work gains its legitimacy as part of a wider moral economy of ‘employability.’https://account.journal-njmr.org/index.php/uh-j-njmr/article/view/485low-wage migrationemployabilityhorticulturesymbolic boundariesmoral economynorway |
| spellingShingle | Thomas Sæther Jakobsen Inga Sæther Labour Migration, Employer Preferences and Symbolic Boundary Work Nordic Journal of Migration Research low-wage migration employability horticulture symbolic boundaries moral economy norway |
| title | Labour Migration, Employer Preferences and Symbolic Boundary Work |
| title_full | Labour Migration, Employer Preferences and Symbolic Boundary Work |
| title_fullStr | Labour Migration, Employer Preferences and Symbolic Boundary Work |
| title_full_unstemmed | Labour Migration, Employer Preferences and Symbolic Boundary Work |
| title_short | Labour Migration, Employer Preferences and Symbolic Boundary Work |
| title_sort | labour migration employer preferences and symbolic boundary work |
| topic | low-wage migration employability horticulture symbolic boundaries moral economy norway |
| url | https://account.journal-njmr.org/index.php/uh-j-njmr/article/view/485 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT thomassætherjakobsen labourmigrationemployerpreferencesandsymbolicboundarywork AT ingasæther labourmigrationemployerpreferencesandsymbolicboundarywork |