Precarious Conditions Research Articles

Chagas disease is a low health priority among high-risk Latin American migrants in Geneva, a qualitative study

This qualitative study of the situation of Latin American migrants with Chagas Disease in Geneva analyses how precarious migration-related socioeconomic conditions determine health priorities and disease perception. The study was conducted between 2016 and 2019 and is based on survey data collected in three Chagas-related community events, as well as on open-ended interviews with Bolivian migrants. This research contributes to more appropriate development of public health policies for migrants, as well as to a more nuanced and culturally sensitive understanding of how precarity affects the delivery of, and access to, healthcare in Western Europe. The significance of this research is to highlight how perceptions of Chagas Disease provide a lens to better understand the links between precarity and health among Bolivian migrants.

Health status and self-perception of health among homeless people in Spain: a mixed-methods study.

Homelessness is a phenomenon of social exclusion and poverty that has increased alarmingly during recent years. Homeless people (HP) experience violations of several basic human rights or needs that impact their well-being. Therefore, the aim of this research was to assess the health status and self-perceived health of HP and examining the impact of homelessness on their health. We used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach that integrated a quantitative cross-sectional study within critical social and ethno-sociological qualitative frameworks. Data were collected in Palma, Spain, from December 1, 2020, to January 1, 2023. A total of 198 HP were recruited from the streets and public areas. Basic human needs (Virginia Henderson model), medical diagnoses, substance abuse (DAST-10), diet quality (IASE), depression (PHQ-9), and social support (SSQ-6) were assessed. Then, 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted and were analyzed using thematic content and discourse analysis. Quantitative and qualitative data were integrated and jointly analyzed. The 79.3% of the participants were men, mean age of 47.8 ± 12.2 years. The 76.4% were Spanish. The participants reported severe difficulties in accessing the labor market, and that this greatly affected their self-esteem and mental health. The 48.9% of the participants suffered from one or more chronic diseases, and 50.3% were diagnosed with a mental health disorder. The participants generally did not consider health problems as a central concern. The health needs that most affected the participants were related to food, safety, and social support. HP frequently felt unsafe, fearfully, and anxious. Homelessness, unemployment, and social exclusion have significant negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of HP. Precarious work conditions and deficiencies in the welfare system contribute significantly to homelessness. These results highlight the need for systemic solutions that extend beyond short-term housing initiatives.

The deterioration of anthropological work in Mexico during the 21st century

This article analyzes how the working conditions for Mexican anthropologists have deteriorated throughout the last few decades. Until half a century ago, only a few dozen professional anthropologists practiced in Mexico, and most of them had access to stable, well-paid jobs in academia or government agencies. Today there are over 7000 of them working in a wide range of fields, mostly in temporary jobs with low salaries. Drawing from the data gathered in the Historical Catalogue of Theses on Social Anthropology in Mexico (RedMIFA 2018) and the Survey on Professional Practice and Working Conditions of Anthropologists in Mexico (CIEPA-CEAS 2016), this paper begins by outlining the decline of working conditions for Mexican anthropologists, focusing primarily on the younger generations. An analysis follows of the main factors that have contributed to the current situation, and the article closes with a brief commentary on the effects of precarious working conditions for the production of anthropological knowledge. The implications here are paradoxical: on the one hand, most professionals currently work in fields other than academia, thereby diversifying anthropological practice, and on the other there is a marked tendency towards the academization of professional anthropological education.

Quality of life of women from a quilombola community in northeastern Brazil.

Quilombola communities are present in many Brazilian states living in precarious health conditions. This is due to geographic isolation, limitations to the access of the area in which they live in, and the lack of quality in the service when it is needed to be provided. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the quality of life of women from a quilombola community in northeastern Brazil. It is an observational, cross-sectional and descriptive study. 160 adult women were first interviewed through a form to collect a profile and then it was applied the WHOQOL Quality of Life questionnaire - bref. It was observed that the women were on average 40.7 years old (±17.25), married, self-declared black, who did not finish elementary school, housewife, had no income, with their own masonry house, with up to 6 rooms, supplied by a box of community treated water. Quality of Life had median scores in the domains: physical (3.18), psychological (3.4), social relationships (3.45) and environment (2.59). With this research, it was possible to characterize the quilombola community of Santa Luzia do Norte-AL regarding the difficulties of access to health and income generation, issues that affect their health condition. The problems described in this study can contribute to health actions being planned and carried out in order to improve socioeconomic and health conditions in this community, considering the social, political and environmental context, valuing their traditional knowledge and practices.

“Care Drain” from East to West: The Narrative of Romanian Women Migrant Working in the Italian Domestic Care Sector

This study employs a qualitative methodology to investigate the implications of Romanian women’s migration to Italy for employment in the domestic care sector. The research is based on in‐depth interviews conducted face to face with 20 Romanian women who have resided in Italy for over a decade, with the aim of capturing the details of their long‐term integration processes. These interviews, conducted in 2022, specifically focus on the participants’ lived experiences of migration and adaptation within the Italian context. Findings reveal that economic motivations are a primary driver intertwined with aspirations for personal and familial advancement. However, the research also highlights the challenges faced by these women, including precarious employment conditions, emotional strain due to family separation, and complexities of integration within the host society. Social networks and transnational ties emerge as crucial factors influencing both the decision to migrate and the subsequent adaptation process. The analysis underscores the duality inherent in care work migration: While it bolsters the Italian care economy and offers economic opportunities for the migrants, it simultaneously exposes them to vulnerabilities such as job insecurity and potential exploitation. By investigating this migration of care workers, the research contributes to the field of welfare economics by clarifying the economic ramifications of gendered occupational segregation and migration status. Furthermore, it advocates for implementing inclusive labour market practices and policies that prioritize the well‐being of migrant care workers and facilitate their successful integration into host societies.

Difficulties and advances in access to and use of health services by transgender women and travestis in Brazil.

To understand the narratives of transgender women and travestis (TGW) from four Brazilian cities regarding access to and use of health services. Qualitative study carried out within the scope of the TransOdara project, cross-sectional multicenter mixed methods research conducted between 2019-2021. Fifty-two in-depth interviews with TGW in Manaus, Campo Grande, Porto Alegre and São Paulo were analyzed. The analysis was guided by philosophical hermeneutics. Reports of discrimination, stigmatization and pathologization reiterate the difficulties faced by TGW in seeking healthcare. The recurrence of disrespect for the social/corrected name reveals obstacles to the recognition of transgender identities and, in some cases, the intention of inhibiting transsexuality-travestilidade. Other difficulties arise from actions that disregard the health specificities of TGW or the precarious social conditions that affect some of them. On the other hand, based on experiences of respect and adequate care, participants identify an ongoing change, which is expressed in greater availability of services and improved assistance. There is an expectation of continued expansion of services, technologies and training of health professionals. The identified change has been undertaken at the interface of public health policies with LGBT+ activism and the production of knowledge about TGW health needs. Although the identified advances are insufficient to change the scenario of the historical exclusion experienced by TGW in health services, they point to promising ways to improve their health conditions.

VISIONS OF THE NEW MIGRATION POLICY IN CHILE: A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF LEADERS’ NARRATIVES

In recent decades migration within Latin America has increased significantly. To take one example, 1,625,074 South American migrants were living in Chile as of 2023, many enduring precarious conditions such as being on the streets or in assigned basic camping sites without water or sewage facilities. In the past 50 years the Chilean government has enacted just two official migration policies: the first in 1975, designed by the military dictatorship and with some amendments added by subsequent democratic governments, and the second in 2021. This article aims at a qualitative analysis of the present and controversial migration policy that is based upon the narratives of key migration policy actors in contemporary Chile. Three main framings for understanding the policy are presented. The first can be defined as technocratic, attentive to format and data processing; the second is socially conscious of the subjectivity and vulnerability of migrants; and the last focuses on ensuring migrants’ human rights. These visions are not necessarily in opposition, as they sometimes interconnect or complement each other. However, the interviewees expressed a certain degree of gratitude that a new law had been designed and ratified, although they had expected more from it.

Precarity in Burhan Qurbani's Berlin Alexanderplatz (2020)

AbstractWhen Burhan Qurbani's adaptation of Döblin's modernist classic Berlin Alexanderplatz premiered in 2020, criticism included the allegation that Qurbani's protagonist Francis—a Black refugee from Guinea‐Bissau stranded at the outskirts of present‐day Berlin—does not resemble the novel's released prisoner and street vendor Franz Biberkopf. This article presents a comparative investigation of Qurbani's Francis and Döblin's Biberkopf. Drawing on Judith Butler's writing on precarity, grievability, and the quest for a “good life,” I consider how both Francis and Biberkopf face increased risk of injury, occupy a liminal space in society, and cannot fulfill their intention to be morally good while also achieving upward social mobility. Their failure is a direct consequence of their politically and socioeconomically precarious condition: Biberkopf belongs to the underclass of the lumpenproletariat, whereas Francis, as an undocumented immigrant, is exposed to neoliberal hyper‐precarity.

DIGITAL LABOR UNDER THE STATE/CAPITALIST DUOPOLY: STATE LABOR AND PLAYFUL WORKAHOLICS IN CHINESE DIGITAL SPACE

With the rise of Multi-Channel Networks (MCNs), Chinese digital creative industries are no longer a realm of self-entrepreneurship but are dominated by professional service agencies and platforms. At the same time, the Chinese-style market economy and state-led platformization have spawned a unique platform ecology, shaping Chinese digital creative industries and labor subjectivity in its own unique way. This study contributes to digital entrepreneurship in a non-Western context by exploring the characteristics and risks of Chinese digital laborers amid state-led platformization. Through a qualitative analysis of 203 recruitment advertisements of major MCNs in China, the finding reveals that Chinese digital laborers are trapped in a state/capitalist duopoly. On the surface, recruitment advertisements posted by MCNs create a low-threshold, flexible working environment. But in essence, they reflect the precarious working conditions of contemporary digital laborers under MCNs’ systematic business model. In a crude way, MCNs transformed digital entrepreneurs who previously relied on self-promotion into aesthetic laborers in front of the camera. At the same time, laborers behind the camera are a group of playful workaholics at great risk of being exploited for free. They are compelled to involuntarily internalize the pressures of hyper-productivity and undertake trivial emotional labor. Beyond the risks of the platformed digital economy, I argue that digital laborers of MCNs have become a form of state labor that is expected to contribute to national development agendas while embodying the national character that the state promotes.

Coping Resources among Forced Migrants in South Africa: Exploring the Role of Character Strengths in Coping, Adjustment, and Flourishing.

This phenomenological qualitative study explored how forced migrants in South Africa cope with violent, traumatic experiences and precarious resettlement conditions. Data came from a larger empirical project examining migration, psychological distress, and coping. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 refugees and asylum seekers (Mage = 30.27, SDage = 9.27; male = 71.43%) who migrated from five African countries to Durban, South Africa. Despite overwhelming stressors, participants described pathways to transcend victimhood and hardship through engaging character strengths in ways that promote post-traumatic growth. Qualitative analysis revealed five overarching domains: spirituality and religiousness, love and kindness, hope and optimism, persistence and fortitude, and gratitude and thankfulness. Findings are framed within positive existential psychology and dual-factor understandings of mental health, which attend to both human suffering and flourishing. Limitations, future research directions, and clinical and community implications are discussed, with attention to the role of character strengths in adaptive coping and psychological well-being. The intergenerational transmission of strengths is explored as one potential means of buffering intergenerational trauma impacts and promoting family post-traumatic growth.

Work sucks, I know: Instagram as a platform for young people's labour grievances

In Summer 2020, young workers from prominent Vancouver, British Columbia-based cafes, restaurants and breweries took to Instagram to air grievances about their workplaces. Precarious and violent working conditions in the food industry are business as usual in BC, which is reflected in the stories these workers shared of wage theft, unsafe workplaces, erratic scheduling, harassment and sexual violence. Held within the context of widespread layoffs in the industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these workers built communities of complaint and, in some cases, fundamentally changed the ownership and operations of their workplaces. To do this, these young workers navigated a complex web of digital/physical spaces and relationships to challenge abuses in their workplaces. By centering their complaints in the interrelationship between complaint, digital political protest, economic grievance and known forms of worker organizing, this paper explores how young people leveraged their grievances through their digital networks to influence their economic relationships and create safer workplaces for themselves and other workers.

Sex Work Policy in Poland and Its Impact on the Lived Experience of Sex Workers

This article discusses the model of sex work regulation in Poland. Officially ‎being an abolitionist one, it criminalises directly third parties, while in practice the whole working environment is criminalised, pushing sex workers into ‎shadow economy and precarious working conditions, and exposing them to ‎heightened risks of violence. At the same time, the Polish state does not provide any support programmes for sex workers. As such, it misrecognises sex ‎workers, who are not seen as workers or victims. This article looks at the prostitution policy from the perspective of sex workers’ rights. It also shows how ‎complicated sex work policy is, since the law includes contradictory rules and ‎values, which all have a negative impact on sex workers’ lives, and how these ‎contradictory rules contribute to misrecognition of sex workers, as workers, ‎subjects of rights and citizens, and to their stigmatisation.

Artisanal and small-scale mining through a “labour regime” lens: Consolidating a research agenda on labour exploitation

This article examines the way the notion of labour regime in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) research can contribute to new ways of conceptualising this sector's challenges. It starts by reviewing how the phenomenal expansion of ASM over the last decades has been problematised, and highlights the need to better understand what drives artisanal miners to operate under extremely precarious work conditions, and the role they play in shaping the conditions of the sector they evolve in. ASM labour has generally been approached in research from two main lines of debates, namely livelihoods and agrarian change, and as embedded in global commodity frontiers and networks. The former perspective played an important role in highlighting the diversity of forms of production, and the heterogeneity of labour comprising ASM. This body of work showed that these emerge from strategies adopted mainly by smallholders facing subsistence challenges who diversify their source of income by either branching out into mining or combining it with agricultural activities. The second line of enquiry approaches ASM as emerging from the complex interactions of actors and factors across scales in global commodity frontiers and competing territorialisation projects. Both perspectives highlight the importance of better conceptualising value extraction and ASM labour exploitation dynamics, and the article draws on recent work on “labour regimes” to suggest ways to move in this direction. At this juncture, we emphasise three areas of work that we suggest are worth pushing forth, namely the role of social reproduction dynamics underlying ASM work, the intersecting production of social difference and ASM labour control across supply chains, and the role of ASM resistance, collective mobilisation and agency. Through these, we hope to advance future research on exploitation dynamics in ASM labour regimes, in ways that may also have policy relevance, as labour has rarely been the latter's focus.

Causes, Methods, and Manifestations of the Destruction of Hebrew Manuscripts

This study explores the diverse causes behind the destruction and scarcity of medieval Hebrew manuscripts. Factors include their extensive use for study and prayer, the absence of scriptoria in the Jewish world, precarious preservation conditions, systematic destruction by the Church and Inquisition, market circuits of reused parchment codices, and the influence of Genizah legislation. The reuse of medieval Hebrew manuscripts is situated within the epochal printing press phenomenon. The Jewish experience is unique in featuring the persecution and burning of Hebrew books, exemplified by the Talmud’s burning ordered by Pope Julius III in 1553 and the Church’s policy shift under Pope Paul IV, leading to the deliberate destruction of sacred texts. This context resulted in a severe scarcity of Talmud copies, prompting rabbis to halt teachings. The study delves into the intricate interplay of historical events shaping the fate of Hebrew manuscripts.

The Role of Occupational Therapy in People with Mental Health

Unfortunately, in our country, in some situations, the level of occupational therapy activities is limited to the precarious material conditions in different types of institutions. Despite the current improvements, there is still an acute need for adequate spaces and materials to carry out quality occupational therapy activities. The presence of these negative aspects, which is added to the lack of qualified personnel in the field, diminishes the quality of the recovery process in the institutions. The scientific challenge that is the subject of this paper is to highlight the role of occupational therapy in the exploration of specific resources for institutionalized persons, necessary for the development of autonomy. The objective of the research is to implement an intervention program, through remedial activities, that will contribute to direct involvement in daily life for people with mental health problems. The main conclusion of the research is that by applying remedial activities adapted to the specific needs of the client, the components of occupational performance can be improved, by increasing the degree of involvement in daily activities for institutionalized people.

Precarity and Resilience in Kavery Nambisan’s <i>The Story That Must Not be Told </i>

In the wake of rising precarity, the pressing question that confronts thinkers is how to formulate a new form of a social contract that recognises, legitmises, and promotes systems of social infrastructures. By focussing on Kavery Nambisan’s The Story That Must Note Be Told (2010), this article highlights the precarious class of people living in a slum area. The crux of Nambisan’s account is that few lives matter more than other lives, and few spaces need more supply of resources than others, and the task of government and corporate agencies is to render agential measures to the elite class. It is a precarious tale of a place where the vulnerability and death of the marginalised feed off the privileged class. In the light of the precarious conditions rendered by the neoliberal regime, this article analyses Martha Albertson Fineman’s theory of human vulnerability, underlining the urgency to recognise human dependency on social institutions inherently linked to their resilience and survival.

Precarious Migrancy, Community, and Resilience in Debendranath Acharya’s <i>Jangam </i>

Literary narrative provides a new perspective of looking at the historical past, often questioning the credibility of representation. Interrogating what Hayden White calls history’s tropic prefiguration, the prominence given to key historical figures, the erasure of subaltern individuals or communities, literature foregrounds the role of narrative in constructing the way one understands the world, meaning, and truth. A postcolonial writer, in their critical re-interpretation of the historical archive, creates a hybrid text that combines historical evidences and imaginative reconstructions, and historical as well as invented characters. With this interplay, history is stripped of its objective quality. This article seeks to explore how Debendranath Acharya’s Jangam presents the precarious condition of the migrant Burmese Indian peasants during World War II and the manner in which they establish a community during their historically forgotten long march to Assam. What Acharya attempts to reconcile in Jangam are the “analytical” histories through utilising the rational categories of modern historical thought and the “affective” histories which account for the plural ways of being-in-the-world.

Creative and cultural work post-Covid-19: Interruptions as space of political re-futuring

What sparks collective acts of resistance to workplace inequality? This article considers the Covid-19 (C-19) pandemic as an interruption to established practices of creative work, one that creates the opportunity for politicised subjectivities to develop. It is based on a qualitative investigation of cultural and creative workers located in the Italian city Milan conducted in the aftermath of the first C-19 lockdown. Observations of an emerging sense of consciousness, a recognition of precarious working conditions associated with creative labour by those who operate within the sector, combined with the necessary resource of time created the conditions for collective action. Building on previous literature that considers the disruptive effects of interruptions, from either large-scale physical disaster or significant change to an individual's personal identity, the article explores the generative outcomes that can emerge from an interruption, one which creates opportunities for re-imagination and political re-futuring.

Employability narratives in digital storytelling: do overqualified Brazilian and Venezuelan immigrants in Portugal tell the same story?

ABSTRACT Migration has been steadily increasing worldwide, bringing with it precarious work conditions and the issue of overqualification, having repercussions on job satisfaction and the mental health of migrants. This study explores digital storytelling (DST) as a tool to promote debate on those issues among immigrant workers and potentiate soft skills valued in the job market. A three-day DST workshop and focus group with 7 semi and skilled Brazilian and Venezuelan immigrants working in Portugal showed barriers familiar to all employability trajectories and the importance of social capital and social support, especially the latter group, leaning towards collectivist values, and facing additional language barriers in the adaptation process. The advantages and disadvantages of DST and immigrants' perceptions of Portuguese employers are also listed. Results point to DST being a relevant tool in the context of employability in migration, promoting debate, sharing information about decent work, and developing valued soft skills in immigrants.

Uberizing Agriculture in Drylands: A Few Enriched, Everyone Endangered

The future of water resources relies heavily on food production. Large-scale agriculture, driven by irrigation technology and cost reduction, has transformed traditional dryland croplands into a very profitable but environmentally and socially impactful agribusiness. The study of groundwater-dependent food systems is fragmented. Hydrology, on one hand, concentrates on water resources while overlooking surface agricultural processes. Meanwhile, the agro-economic sector is fixated on optimizing resource utilization for short-term profit maximization. Consequently, numerous adverse environmental and social consequences are overlooked by these conventional approaches. To steer resource usage and our food systems in a new direction, prioritizing the integration of this collective knowledge is imperative. Here, we analyze the impacts of greenhouse agriculture in SE Spain, one of the global hotspots of fruit and vegetable production. Through the lens of the treadmill of production theory we uncover the model’s significant profitability and its environmental and social effects, which include unequal wealth distribution, precarious working conditions, and the depletion and pollution of belowground water reserves. Reducing water use and limiting the development of new irrigated areas, using crop species adapted to available water resources, and empowering farmers against large distributors are key measures to avoid the social and economic collapse of this region, and of other dryland areas that have followed a similar unsustainable development model. The need for these changes becomes more pressing as the impacts of climate change continue to escalate. Within this context, groundwater reserves represent vital strategic resources that must not be wasted.