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State categories and labour protest: migrant workers and the fight for legal status in France

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre Barron

    (University of Paris VIII, France)

  • Anne Bory

    (University of Lille 1, France)

  • Sébastien Chauvin

    (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

  • Nicolas Jounin

    (University of Paris VIII, France)

  • Lucie Tourette

    (Freelance Journalist, France)

Abstract

Through a historic wave of strikes, France’s sans-papiers (immigrants without papers) became known as ‘ sans-papier workers’ and renewed their fight for legal status. The state instituted employment-based regularization and unions embraced migrant workers’ access to legal status as a labour issue. Following Bourdieu and Boltanski, this article traces the institutional genesis and political trajectory of the ‘sans-papier worker’ as symbolic category and objective group, highlighting its agonistic coproduction by state policy and union strategy. The study relies on a three-year collective ethnography including participant observation, archive collection and over a hundred interviews with migrant workers, union activists, employers and civil servants. Whereas the new framing initially uncovered the reality of undocumented migrants at work, it gradually became an exclusive category that sorted ‘workers’ from the others. Ultimately, the fight for ‘ sans-papier workers’ confronted labour organizations and the state with the question of when one starts and stops being a worker.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre Barron & Anne Bory & Sébastien Chauvin & Nicolas Jounin & Lucie Tourette, 2016. "State categories and labour protest: migrant workers and the fight for legal status in France," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(4), pages 631-648, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:30:y:2016:i:4:p:631-648
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017016631451
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Peter Gahan & Andreas Pekarek, 2013. "Social Movement Theory, Collective Action Frames and Union Theory: A Critique and Extension," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 754-776, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lovanirina Ramboarison-Lalao & Chris Brewster, 2018. "Theorizing Career Success for Low Status Migrants," John H Dunning Centre for International Business Discussion Papers jhd-dp2018-02, Henley Business School, University of Reading.

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