Constrained Labour as Instituted Process

Sarkar, Mahua

doi:10.1017/s0003975617000054

Cited by 22 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…In order to derive from the narratives of ex-immigrants a broader range of social forces that interact and reinforce each other, I collected oral life history interview and social media post data from 121 middle-income to high-income ex-immigrants from 16 different countries 3 . The method of analysis was similar to the way in which previous researchers studied the narratives of low-income migrants [El Miri 2011;Sarkar 2017]. Their narratives document how their identity as an aspiring immigrant gradually first formed from the perceptions of foreign countries during the pre-migration period of their youth and later evolved into the identity of an ex-immigrant from their migratory experiences.…”

Section: Conceptualizing the Specific Social Forces Behind The Format...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Disenchanted With the Immigrant Dream: The Sociological Formation of Ex-Immigrant Subjectivity

Richard Thomas

2024

Arch. eur. sociol.

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Although many return migrants had planned to go back to their country of origin, other return migrants who had originally planned to pursue the immigrant dream––the idea that one can have a better life by migrating—eventually change their mind and return to their society of origin. Just as the identity of individuals must adjust to the loss of a relationship, job, or membership of a group, many formerly aspiring immigrants give up on immigrating. I analyze data from oral history interviews and social media narratives of 121 Chinese ex-immigrants from 16 different countries. I show how disappointments, the language barrier, cultural alienation, racial-ethnic discrimination, intersectional-gender issues, barriers to upward socioeconomic mobility, and/or restrictive immigration policies interact with each other to constitute ex-immigrant subjectivity. This article highlights why immigration is a far less certain process than many perceive it to be, contributing to the broader sociological literature on how in different and similar ways processes of abandoning important social endeavors, like a romantic partnership, political party, or religious faith, transform subjectivities and social identities in other domains of social life.

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Section: Conceptualizing the Specific Social Forces Behind The Format...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Disenchanted With the Immigrant Dream: The Sociological Formation of Ex-Immigrant Subjectivity

Richard Thomas

2024

Arch. eur. sociol.

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“…Temporary labour migrants are defined by their mobility for employment and are either unable or unwilling to settle permanently in the country where they work. Temporary labour migration takes a variety of spatial and temporal forms; some are associated with specific labels such as 'circular migration' or 'contract worker migration', whereas other variants defy conventional classifications (Dauvergne & Marsden, 2014;Sarkar, 2017). The common element is the temporal rhythm or punctuation, often associated with a spatial separation of different spheres of life (Lulle, 2020).…”

Section: Conceptualising Cross-border Forms Of Livingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Living in two countries: Transnational living as an alternative to migration

Carling

Erdal

Talleraas

2021

Population Space and Place

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After three decades of scholarship, transnationalism remains understood as connections between people who have migrated and people who remain in the country of origin. Such ties are important and prevalent. But perhaps a radical extension of transnationalism is also warranted: There are people who are neither ‘migrants’ nor ‘non‐migrants’ but lead transnational lives that evade these categories. In such cases, transnationalism is not a consequence of migration, but rather a fundamental challenge to it. This article connects the established literature on transnationalism with this potentially significant perspective. We draw on the phrase ‘living in two countries’, which incorporates the tensions and contradictions that transnational living entails. Drawing upon diverse empirical data, we ask how we might identify lives that span two countries and, how such lives are differentiated, and why they are significant even if they are rare.

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“…In addition, they have shifted the attention from the force at the point of entry to the force in the labor process as a whole. Concepts such as unfree labor as a 'multi-dimensional concept' (McGrath, 2013), 'free-unfree continuum' (Sarkar, 2017) and 'continuum of exploitation' (Strauss & McGrath, 2017) all suggest that deception, coercion, and vulnerability occur along the chain from recruitment through until the exit stage.…”

Section: Broadening the Field: From Human Trafficking To Forced And Umentioning

confidence: 99%

Supply Chains and Unfree Labor: Regulatory Failure in the Case of Samsung Electronics in Slovakia

Andrijasevic¹,

Novitz

2020

Journal of Human Trafficking

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The protection of labor rights of temporary migrant workers in global supply chains requires further theoretical and policy research. Through the case of Serbian workers in Slovak electronics supply chains, we look at how the transnational recruitment of labor via temporary work agencies (TWAs) for globally organized production generates heightened forms of exploitation and unfree labor relations. We show that such exploitation occurs in a regulatory framework consisting of various instruments ranging from the Palermo Protocol specific to trafficking, to EU law addressing the mobility of workers, and corporate codes of conduct aimed at guaranteeing worker rights within supply chains. Paradoxically, despite an overregulated field, existing instruments fail to offer a straightforward avenue for redress. We suggest that this failure is an outcome of the current legal and corporate regulatory matrix that allows market competition through work practices that violate basic labor standards and produce the conditions that enable and sustain unfree labor relations, while normalizing exploitation in supply chains.

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Constrained Labour as Instituted Process

Cited by 22 publications

References 53 publications

Disenchanted With the Immigrant Dream: The Sociological Formation of Ex-Immigrant Subjectivity

Disenchanted With the Immigrant Dream: The Sociological Formation of Ex-Immigrant Subjectivity

Living in two countries: Transnational living as an alternative to migration

Supply Chains and Unfree Labor: Regulatory Failure in the Case of Samsung Electronics in Slovakia

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