Locating Migrants Within Informal Workers’ Organizing in India: Has COVID-19 Changed Anything?

Abstract

There is a rich narrative on the new dynamics of organizing among informal workers wherein citizenship claims rather labour rights become the basis for negotiation. However, putting citizenship claims at the centre puts migrants at a relative disadvantage. Migrants share their vulnerabilities with other informal workers, but they have additional disadvantages rooted in them being ‘non-citizens’. Ironically, migrants are often treated in existing literature as an undifferentiated part of informal labour. Situated in the aftermath of COVID-19, this article locates migrant workers’ vulnerability within their inability to organize as a unique group rather than just as trade-based associations of informal workers. Specifically, the paper asks; what explains the lack of organization among migrant workers? What is the role of trade unions in this regard? And, how has an NGO-led initiative during the outbreak of Covid-19, unfolded opportunities for migrant street vendors to organize? Based on a qualitative study using, primary data from two districts in India, it is found that migrants are occupationally designed to remain de-organized, whereas trade unions represent a case of moral hazard. In fact, part of this disadvantage persists because migrants’ mobilization is yet to figure as a direct agenda of the trade unions. Alongside, a civil society organization, through iterative negotiations initiates a process that, though unintended, can address the citizenship question for migrants. This process mirrors the dynamics of alternative organizing. However, it also signifies that any claims to organize migrant workers must accommodate their distinct positioning within informal workers.