IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v34y2020i5p883-899.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conceptualising the Agency of Migrant Women Workers: Resilience, Reworking and Resistance

Author

Listed:
  • Agnieszka Rydzik

    (University of Lincoln, UK)

  • Sundari Anitha

    (University of Lincoln, UK)

Abstract

This article examines migrant women tourism workers’ understandings of, and diverse responses to, exploitative working conditions by taking account of the constraints posed by oppressive contexts and ideologies. It analyses how their location at the intersection of multiple axes of disadvantage and discrimination on account of gender, ethno-nationality, immigration status and migration history as well as their low-status employment and educational level, shapes both their understandings of particular experiences of exploitation and possible responses to these, and examines the effects of their practices upon the power structures at work. Based on the experiences of eleven women from Central and Eastern European countries working in the UK tourism industry, this article theorises workers’ responses to hyperexploitative employment relations by utilising a differentiated conceptualisation of agency as practices of resilience, reworking and resistance. In doing so, it rejects binary categories of victimhood and agency, as well as romanticised accounts of unmitigated resistance.

Suggested Citation

  • Agnieszka Rydzik & Sundari Anitha, 2020. "Conceptualising the Agency of Migrant Women Workers: Resilience, Reworking and Resistance," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(5), pages 883-899, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:34:y:2020:i:5:p:883-899
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017019881939
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017019881939
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017019881939?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chris Smith, 2006. "The double indeterminacy of labour power," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(2), pages 389-402, June.
    2. Kavita Datta & Cathy McIlwaine & Yara Evans & Joanna Herbert & Jon May & Jane Wills, 2007. "From Coping Strategies to Tactics: London's Low‐Pay Economy and Migrant Labour," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 45(2), pages 404-432, June.
    3. Janta, Hania & Ladkin, Adele & Brown, Lorraine & Lugosi, Peter, 2011. "Employment experiences of Polish migrant workers in the UK hospitality sector," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 1006-1019.
    4. Hoel, Helge. & Einarsen, Ståle., 2003. "Violence at work in hotels, catering and tourism," ILO Working Papers 993655413402676, International Labour Organization.
    5. repec:ilo:ilowps:365541 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Linda McDowell & Adina Batnitzky & Sarah Dyer, 2007. "Division, Segmentation, and Interpellation: The Embodied Labors of Migrant Workers in a Greater London Hotel," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 83(1), pages 1-25, January.
    7. Linda Mcdowell & Adina Batnitzky & Sarah Dyer, 2009. "Precarious Work and Economic Migration: Emerging Immigrant Divisions of Labour in Greater London's Service Sector," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 3-25, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lucie Trlifajová & Lenka Formánková, 2023. "‘Finally, We Are Well, Stable’: Perception of Agency in the Biographies of Precarious Migrant Workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(6), pages 1583-1604, December.
    2. Haller Alina-Petronela & Hârşan Georgia-Daniela Tacu, 2021. "Causes of Sustainable Tourism Resilience in Central and Eastern Europe. The Case of Three Countries: Romania, Bulgaria and Poland," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 15(1), pages 1251-1268, December.
    3. Rydzik, Agnieszka & Kissoon, Chavan Sharma, 2022. "The shaping of the neoliberal worker: Socialisation of young adults through flexible hospitality work," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    4. Lugosi, Peter & Ndiuini, Ann, 2022. "Migrant mobility and value creation in hospitality labour," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    5. Charles Gyan & Batholomew Chireh & Noelle Chuks-Eboka & Ata Senior Yeboah, 2023. "Reconsidering the Conceptualization of Resilience: The Experiences of Refugee and Immigrant Youth in Montreal," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1591-1615, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chloe Tarrabain & Robyn Thomas, 2024. "The Dynamics of Control of Migrant Agency Workers: Over-Recruitment, ‘The Bitchlist’ and the Enterprising-Self," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(1), pages 27-43, February.
    2. Benjamin Hopkins & Chris Dawson, 2016. "Migrant workers and involuntary non-permanent jobs: agencies as new IR actors?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 163-180, March.
    3. Huw Vasey, 2017. "The Emergence of a Low-Skill Migrant Labour Market: Structural Constraints, Discourses of Difference and Blocked Mobility," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 863-879, August.
    4. Lisa Berntsen, 2016. "Reworking labour practices: on the agency of unorganized mobile migrant construction workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(3), pages 472-488, June.
    5. Baum, Tom & Kralj, Anna & Robinson, Richard N.S. & Solnet, David J., 2016. "Tourism workforce research: A review, taxonomy and agenda," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-22.
    6. María Villares-Varela & Monder Ram & Trevor Jones, 2018. "Bricolage as Survival, Growth and Transformation: The Role of Patch-Working in the Social Agency of Migrant Entrepreneurs," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(5), pages 942-962, October.
    7. Janta, Hania & Lugosi, Peter & Brown, Lorraine & Ladkin, Adele, 2012. "Migrant networks, language learning and tourism employment," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 431-439.
    8. Dawson Chris & Veliziotis Michail & Hopkins Benjamin, 2014. "Assimilation of the migrant work ethic," Working Papers 20141407, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    9. Sharon C. Bolton, 2009. "Getting to the heart of the emotional labour process: a reply to Brook," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(3), pages 549-560, September.
    10. Alex Veen & Tom Barratt & Caleb Goods, 2020. "Platform-Capital’s ‘App-etite’ for Control: A Labour Process Analysis of Food-Delivery Work in Australia," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(3), pages 388-406, June.
    11. Cohen, Nicola & Richardson, James, 2015. "‘I didn't feel like I was alone anymore’: evaluating self-organised employee coping practices conducted via Facebook," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65024, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Gabriella Alberti & Davide Però, 2018. "Migrating Industrial Relations: Migrant Workers’ Initiative Within and Outside Trade Unions," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 693-715, December.
    13. Tom Barratt & Caleb Goods & Alex Veen, 2020. "‘I’m my own boss…’: Active intermediation and ‘entrepreneurial’ worker agency in the Australian gig-economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1643-1661, November.
    14. Gordon L Clark, 2012. "Pensions or Property?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(5), pages 1185-1199, May.
    15. Laurence Romani & Patrizia Zanoni & Lotte Holck, 2021. "Radicalizing diversity (research): Time to resume talking about class," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 8-23, January.
    16. Gul Shah Sabary & Lukáš Durda & Arif Ibne Asad & Aleksandr Kljuènikov, 2023. "Key motivational factors behind Asian immigrant entrepreneurship: A causal relationship analysis employing the DEMATEL approach for Germany," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 18(1), pages 287-318, March.
    17. Ian Fitzgerald & Jane Hardy, 2010. "‘Thinking Outside the Box’? Trade Union Organizing Strategies and Polish Migrant Workers in the United Kingdom," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 131-150, March.
    18. Croucher, Richard & Ramakrishnan, Sumeetra & Rizov, Marian & Benzinger, Diana, 2015. "Perceptions of employability among London’s low-paid: ‘Self-determination’ or ethnicity?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 39(1), pages 109-130.
    19. Linda McDowell & Adina Batnitzky & Sarah Dyer, 2008. "Internationalization and the Spaces of Temporary Labour: The Global Assembly of a Local Workforce," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 46(4), pages 750-770, December.
    20. García-Suaza, Andrés & Mondragón-Mayo, Angie & Sarango-Iturralde, Alexander, 2024. "Occupational downgrading of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia: Do work permits Improve occupational mobility?," Documentos de Trabajo 21028, Universidad del Rosario.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:34:y:2020:i:5:p:883-899. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.