The Emergence of a Low-Skill Migrant Labour Market: Structural Constraints, Discourses of Difference and Blocked Mobility

Abstract

In this paper, I illustrate how a migrant labour market formed and solidified in the South-West of England immediately after the accession of eight countries (the A8) to the European Union. Furthermore, this was accompanied by a rapid process of differentiation and distinction, labelling particular groups as suited to certain types of work. The research is based on a series of interviews with (often well-educated) A8 migrants working in low-skill roles in the region. Findings indicate that the trajectories that initial migrants follow into work have the effect of producing routes into certain sorts of work for future migrants. However, when such routes lead to low-skill employment (as with the case of the majority of young A8 migrants), this has the effect of halting labour market progression for these workers, whilst simultaneously giving rise to commonly held assumptions that A8 migrants were particularly suited to certain kinds of work in the low-skill sector. I conclude that the co-existence of structural constraints and processes of distinction give rise to a situation in which workers entering the bottom of a migrant labour market can become trapped, regardless of their relative skills or qualifications. Furthermore, such processes rapidly become normalised and established and, without ever becoming formalised or officially grounded, begin to effect and limit the actions of individuals. Whilst such normalised behaviour may be open to contestation and change, it is remarkably resilient.