Keeping London working: global cities, the British state and London's new migrant division of labour

Abstract

This paper explores the emergence of a new ‘migrant division of labour’ in London. In contrast to a vision of ‘professionalization’, it shows that London's labour market has been characterized by processes of occupational polarization and that a disproportionate number of London's low‐paid jobs are now filled by foreign‐born workers. Drawing on original survey data, the paper explores the pay and conditions of London's low‐paid migrant workers and develops a framework for understanding the emergence of a new migrant division of labour in London. In particular, the paper stresses the role of the British state in shaping this divide. The paper concludes that the emergence of such a divide in London necessitates a re‐conceptualization of the place of migrant workers in the ‘global city’ and of the processes shaping global city labour markets, and outlines what this new division of labour might mean for politics and policy in London.

Getting by in Europe's Urban Labour Markets : Senegambian Migrants' Strategies for Survival, Documentation and Mobility

“…The migrant labour market does not only follow economic laws and evolutions; since the beginning of the welfare state, these processes are mediated by state intervention (May et al 2007;Schierup 2006). The degree of protection in the labour market, and the rules for redistributing welfare benefits by public or semi-public institutions, are crucial to immigrants' lives, influencing everything from their chances to earn an income, through their geographical mobility decisions to their family lives.…”

Eurocity London: a qualitative comparison of graduate migration from Germany, Italy and Latvia

“…308-314, 321-323), with immigrants playing a crucial role in driving this polarisation, contributing both to the highly remunerated elites and, more massively, to the low-wage subproletariat. If this model of hour-glass social recomposition was laboratory-tested by studies of New York and Los Angeles, May, Wills, Datta, Evans, Herbert, and McIlwane (2007) and Wills, Datta, Evans, Herbert, May, and McIlwane (2010) show how the polarisation model also applies to London's 'new migrant divisions of labour'.…”

Stepping up to strike: a union mobilization case study of Polish migrant workers in the Netherlands

“…Migrants are as a group disproportionately concentrated in precarious and low-wage work and tend to cluster in certain low-skilled sectors and occupations (Wills et al 2010;Piore 1979). This has led to the emergence of new migrant divisions of labour at the bottom end of the labour market, depending on migrants' legal status and racial distinctions (Wills et al 2010;May et al 2007;McDowell et al 2009). It has been argued that the very availability of migrant workers, who can and are willing to work for lower rates, constructs labour markets that are increasingly dependent on migrants (McDowell et al 2009: 7;Favell 2008;Castells 1975;Bauder 2006).…”