Precarious Posted Migration: The Case of Romanian Construction and Meat-Industry Workers in Germany

• Autorzy: Alexandra Voivozeanu
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

Drawing on in-depth interviews with Romanian workers posted in the German construction and meat-processing industries, with representatives of German unions and with migrant advisers, and on ethnographic work, this study examines precarity in posted employment. Firstly, the paper describes the precarious circumstances of Romanians posted in the construction and meat-industry sectors in Germany. Secondly, analysing the Romanians' own perspectives, it shows that low wages in the country of origin, often associated with insecurity and poor working conditions, drive these workers to engage in posted work. Their lack of knowledge of the German language prevents them from finding and carrying out standard jobs in Germany and, thus, determines that they remain in posted employment. Finally, the paper argues that posted workers experience different layers of precarity in the country of destination. It shows that those under contract with various companies for short periods of time are more precarious than de facto posted workers and workers with long-term informal agreements with one single employer. (original abstract)

Słowa kluczowe

PL

Prekariat; Samozatrudnienie; Przyczyny migracji; Migracja zarobkowa; Pracownicy delegowani; Delegowanie pracowników

EN

Precarity; Self-employment; Reasons for migration; Economic migration; Posted workers; Posting workers

• Czasopismo: Central and Eastern European Migration Review
• Rocznik: 2019
• Tom: 8
• Numer: nr 2
• Strony: 85-99

Twórcy

autor

Alexandra Voivozeanu

• New Europe College, Romania

Bibliografia

• Anderson B. (2007). Battles in Time: The Relation between Global and Labour Mobilities. Working Paper 55. Oxford: Centre on Migration, Policy and Security.
• Anderson B. (2010). Migration, Immigration Controls and the Fashioning of Precarious Workers. Work, Employment and Society 24(2): 300-317.
• Berntsen L. (2015). Precarious Posted Worlds: Posted Migrant Workers in the Dutch Construction and Meat Processing Industries. International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 31(4): 371-389.
• Berntsen L. (2016). Reworking Labour Practices. Work, Employment & Society 30(3): 472-488.
• Berntsen L., Lillie N. (2014). Hyper-Mobile Migrant Workers and Dutch Trade Union Representation Strategies at the Eemshaven Construction Sites. Economic and Industrial Democracy 37(1): 171-187.
• Berntsen L., Lillie N. (2015). Breaking the Law? Varieties of Social Dumping in a Pan-European Labour Market, in: M. Bernaciak (ed.), Market Expansion and Social Dumping in Europe, pp. 33-60. New York: Routledge.
• Caro E., Berntsen L., Lillie N., Wagner I. (2015). Posted Migration and Segregation in the European Construction Sector. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 41(10): 1600-1620.
• Cremers J. (2011). In Search of Cheap Labour: Working and Living Conditions of Posted Workers. Online: http://dare.uva.nl/record/454302 (accessed: 27 August 2019).
• Greer I., Ciupijus Z., Lillie N. (2013). The European Migrant Workers Union and the Barriers to Transnational Industrial Citizenship. European Journal of Industrial Relations 19(1): 5-20.
• Kalleberg A. L. (2009). Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition. American Sociological Review 74(1): 1-22.
• Kalleberg A. L. (2011). Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s-2000s. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
• King D., Rueda D. (2008). Cheap Labor: The New Politics of 'Bread and Roses' in Industrial Democracies. Perspectives on Politics 6(2): 279-297.
• Leschke J., Schmid G., Griga D. (2006). On the Marriage of Flexibility and Security: Lessons from the Hartz-Reforms in Germany. WZB Discussion Paper. Online: https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/zbwwzblpe/spi2006108.htm (accessed: 27 August 2019).
• Lever J., Milbourne P. (2017). The Structural Invisibility of Outsiders: The Role of Migrant Labour in the Meat-Processing Industry. Sociology 51(2): 306-322.
• Lillie N. (2016). The Right Not to Have Rights: Posted Worker Acquiescence and the European Union Labor Rights Framework. Theoretical Inquiries in Law 17(1): 39-62.
• Lillie N., Greer I. (2007). Industrial Relations, Migration, and Neoliberal Politics: The Case of the European Construction Sector. Politics and Society 35(4): 551-581.
• Lillie N., Sippola M. (2011). National Unions and Transnational Workers: The Case of Olkiluoto 3, Finland. Work, Employment and Society 25(2): 292-308.
• Lillie N., Wagner I. (2015). Subcontracting, Insecurity and Posted Work: Evidence from Construction, Meat Processing and Ship Building, in: J. Drahoukoupil (ed.), The Outsourcing Challenge: Organizing Workers across Fragmented Production Networks, pp. 157-174. Brussels: European Trade Union Institute.
• Mense-Petermann U. (2018). Eastern European Service Contract Workers in the German Meat Industry: A Case Study in Market Making of a Transnational Labour Market. Online: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/ZiF/Publikationen/Mitteilungen/Aufsaetze/2018-2-Mense-Petermann.pdf (accessed: 27 August 2019).
• Pacolet J., De Wispelaere F. (2015). Posting of Workers - Report on A1 Portable Documents Issued in 2014. Online: https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/383985 (accessed: 27 August 2019).
• Pacolet J., De Wispelaere F. (2017). Posting of Workers - Report on A1 portable documents issued in 2015. Online: https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/440457 (accessed: 27 August 2019).
• Piore M. J. (1979). Birds of Passage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Rodgers G., Rodgers J. (eds) (1989). Precarious Jobs in Labour Market Regulation: The Growth of Atypical Employment in Western Europe. Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies.
• Standing G. (2011). The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
• SOKA-BAU (2016). Entsendearbeitnehmer 2001-2015. Online: http://tiny.cc/5yxvcz (accessed: 27 August 2019).
• Thörnqvist C., Bernhardsson S. (2015). Their Own Stories: How Polish Construction Workers Posted to Sweden Experience Their Job Situation, or Resistance Versus Life Projects. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 21(1): 23-36.
• Tsianos V., Papadopoulos, D. (2006). Precarity: A Savage Journey to the Heart of Embodied Capitalism. Transversal Journal 11(1): 1-12. Online: https://transversal.at/pdf/journal-text/468/ (accessed: 27 August 2019).
• Wagner B., Hassel A. (2016). Posting, Subcontracting and Low Wage Employment in the German Meat Industry. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 22 (2): 163-178.
• Wagner I. (2015). Rule Enactment in a Pan-European Labour Market: Transnational Posted Work in the German Construction Sector. British Journal of Industrial Relations 53(4): 692-710.
• Wagner I., Lillie N. (2014). European Integration and the Disembedding of Labour Market Regulation. Journal of Common Market Studies 52(2): 403-419.
• Waite L. (2009). A Place and Space for a Critical Geography of Precarity? Geography Compass 3(1): 412-433.
• Wilpert C. (1998). Migration and Informal Work in the New Berlin: New Forms of Work or New Sources of Labour? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 24(2): 269-294.

Identyfikatory

DOI

10.17467/ceemr.2019.07