Onward Precarity, Mobility, and Migration among Latin Americans in London

Abstract

Contributing to debates around the relationships between precarity, mobilities and migration, this paper examines the nature of precarity among onward Latin American (OLA) migrants as they have moved transnationally to multiple destinations from their homelands to southern Europe and onwards to London across different time periods. Drawing on primary research with over 400 OLAs, the discussion highlights how precarity maps onto onward migration trajectories in fractal rather than linear ways. In moving beyond a continuum approach to labour exploitation, the paper develops the concept of "onward precarity" to capture how migrants negotiate intersecting vulnerabilities in holistic spatio-temporal ways as they move through different structural contexts across the world from origin, through transition to their final destination country over time. These negotiations are underpinned by multiple agentic tactics that revolve around resilience and reworking strategies as onward migrants traverse wider structures of disadvantage in situ and through mobility in different places.Resumen: El presente art ıculo contribuye a entender la relaci on entre la precariedad, las movilidades y la migraci on, en la medida que examina la naturaleza de la precariedad de los reemigrantes latinoamericanos (OLAs, por sus siglas en ingl es) que se trasladaron transnacionalmente desde sus pa ıses de origen, hacia m ultiples destinos el sur de Europa y m as adelante a Londres. Con base en datos primarios recabados a partir de una encuesta con 400 OLAs, se observa c omo la precariedad se ve reflejada en las trayectorias de reemigraci on en forma fractal en lugar de lineal. M as que entender la explotaci on laboral desde la continuidad, el documento desarrolla el concepto de "precariedad progresiva" para explicar c omo los migrantes negocian sus diversas vulnerabilidades desde una perspectiva hol ıstica espaciotemporal, a medida que se mueven a trav es de diferentes contextos estructurales desde su origen, pasando por el pa ıs de tr ansito hasta el destino final. Estas negociaciones se sostienen con base a m ultiples t acticas que giran en torno a la resiliencia y otras estrategias de cambio, al tiempo que los reemigrantes atraviesan condiciones de desventaja in situ cada vez m as severas, fruto de su movilidad en diferentes lugares.

Super-diversity, austerity, and the production of precarity: Latin Americans in London

“…In light of the paucity of data on the Latin American population in London in general and Southwark in particular (but see McIlwaine and Bunge 2016), I commissioned a series of detailed tables based on micro-data on country of birth and passports held for Latin Americans in Southwark including educational attainment and household characteristics. The Census analysis was conducted by Anna Krausova (2016) and provided a baseline even if the real number of Latin Americans in the borough are likely to be higher than the Census suggests.…”

“…Latin Americans have settled in London since the 1970s, but the majority living in the city today have arrived since 2000 (McIlwaine and Bunge 2016, 22). As a new migrant group in the UK context, they have gone largely unnoticed by policymakers and the general public (McIlwaine et al 2011); they are also invisible in the census, thus constituting one of the ‘hidden communities’ in the capital (Pharoah and Hopwood 2013).…”

“…Yet the Latin American-born and children of Latin American-born mothers make up a significant and growing group. They were estimated to number about 145,000 in 2013, of whom the vast majority were of working age, making them ‘the eighth largest non-UK born population in London and larger in size than Somalian, Chinese and Romanian migrants’ (McIlwaine and Bunge 2016, 8), all of whom have a higher degree of visibility.…”

Chagas disease among pregnant Latin American women in the United Kingdom: time for action

“… 4 In London alone there may be more than 130 000 LAs if irregular migrants, second-generation LA migrants and LA migrants with citizenship in other European countries are included. 5 …”

“…Latin Americans are the second fastest growing non-European migrant population in London. 5 In 2015, there were officially more than 54 000 LA women of childbearing age living in London and more than 2350 live births from women born in Latin America. 12 However, estimating the actual size of the pregnant LA population in London is not easy; the country of birth is not routinely documented in maternity notes and electronic records, and LA ethnicity is not recognised in the current UK ethnicity classification or in the antenatal family origin questionnaire used for haemoglobinopathy screening.…”