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From Coping Strategies to Tactics: London's Low‐Pay Economy and Migrant Labour

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  • Kavita Datta
  • Cathy McIlwaine
  • Yara Evans
  • Joanna Herbert
  • Jon May
  • Jane Wills

Abstract

This article examines the means by which low‐paid migrant workers survive in a rapidly changing and increasingly unequal labour market. In a departure from the coping strategies literature, it is argued that the difficulties migrant workers face in the London labour market reduces their ability to ‘strategize’. Instead, workers adopt a range of ‘tactics’ that enable them to ‘get by’, if only just, on a day‐to‐day basis. The article explores these tactics with reference to the connections between different workers’ experiences of the workplace, home and community, and demonstrates the role of national, ethnic and gender relations in shaping migrant workers’ experiences of the London labour market and of the city more widely.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:45:y:2007:i:2:p:404-432
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2007.00620.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ioannis Kaplanis, 2006. "The Geography of Employment Polarisation in Britain," ERSA conference papers ersa06p597, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Simon Clarke, 2002. "Making Ends Meet in Contemporary Russia," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1951.
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    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. 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.
    3. Robert Huggins & Piers Thompson, 2019. "The behavioural foundations of urban and regional development: culture, psychology and agency," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 121-146.
    4. Philippa Williams & Al James & Fiona McConnell & Bhaskar Vira, 2017. "Working at the margins? Muslim middle class professionals in India and the limits of ‘labour agency’," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(6), pages 1266-1285, June.
    5. Lilian Miles & Tim Freeman & Amanda Polzin & Rishab Reitz & Richard Croucher, 2024. "Migrant workers navigating the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK: Resilience, reworking and resistance," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(3), pages 653-673, August.
    6. Chris Forde & Robert MacKenzie, 2010. "The Ethical Agendas of Employment Agencies Towards Migrant Workers in the UK: Deciphering the Codes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 31-41, December.
    7. Heather Dickey & Stephen Drinkwater & Sergei Shubin, 2018. "Labour market and social integration of Eastern European migrants in Scotland and Portugal," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(6), pages 1250-1268, September.
    8. 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.
    9. Devi Sacchetto & Francesca Alice Vianello, 2016. "Unemployed Migrants Coping with the Economic Crisis. Romanians and Moroccans in Italy," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 839-852, August.
    10. Trevor Jones & Monder Ram & Maria Villares-Varela, 2019. "Diversity, economic development and new migrant entrepreneurs," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(5), pages 960-976, April.
    11. Francesco E Iannuzzi & Devi Sacchetto, 2022. "Outsourcing and workers’ resistance practices in Venice’s hotel industry: The role of migrants employed by cooperatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(2), pages 877-897, May.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    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. Robert MacKenzie & Chris Forde, 2009. "The rhetoric of the `good worker' versus the realities of employers' use and the experiences of migrant workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(1), pages 142-159, March.
    20. Robert Perrett & Miguel Martínez Lucio & Jo McBride & Steve Craig, 2012. "Trade Union Learning Strategies and Migrant Workers," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(3), pages 649-667, February.
    21. 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.
    22. Cathy McIlwaine & Anastasia Bermúdez, 2011. "The Gendering of Political and Civic Participation among Colombian Migrants in London," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(7), pages 1499-1513, July.

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