IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v38y2024i5p1403-1422.html

Experiencing Deportation as Dirty Work? The Case of Dutch Escort Officers

Author

Listed:
  • Teun Eikenaar

Abstract

In addition to guarding national frontiers, some border patrol officers also escort illegal immigrants abroad. This article analyses this work from an interest in officers’ (moral) experiences and how these relate to the circumstances in which they work, such as occupational culture, policy and procedures. Therefore, the notions of dirty work and moral injury are used as conceptual frameworks, and 14 Dutch escort officers were interviewed about their experiences. This article adds to dirty work analyses by developing an understanding of how workers’ experiences relate to both formal and moral legitimacies and a possible tension between the two. In addition, it extends the literature on moral injury by describing context-dependent forms of impact that escape clinical diagnoses. Theoretically, this article shows that the occupational resources that are elsewhere seen as tools for navigating ‘necessary evils’ can in fact hide the impact of this kind of work.

Suggested Citation

  • Teun Eikenaar, 2024. "Experiencing Deportation as Dirty Work? The Case of Dutch Escort Officers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(5), pages 1403-1422, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:5:p:1403-1422
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170231203121
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170231203121
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500170231203121?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. Glen E. Kreiner & Blake E. Ashforth & David M. Sluss, 2006. "Identity Dynamics in Occupational Dirty Work: Integrating Social Identity and System Justification Perspectives," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(5), pages 619-636, October.
    2. Ashforth, Blake E. & Kreiner, Glen E., 2014. "Dirty Work and Dirtier Work: Differences in Countering Physical, Social, and Moral Stigma," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(1), pages 81-108, March.
    3. Lai, Jennifer Y.M. & Chan, K.W. & Lam, Long W., 2013. "Defining who you are not: The roles of moral dirtiness and occupational and organizational disidentification in affecting casino employee turnover intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1659-1666.
    4. Stephen Deery & Deanna Kolar & Janet Walsh, 2019. "Can Dirty Work be Satisfying? A Mixed Method Study of Workers Doing Dirty Jobs," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(4), pages 631-647, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Zhang, Guanglei & Wang, Huaying & Li, Mingze, 2023. "“A Little Thanks Changes My World”: When and why dirty work employees feel meaningfulness at work," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Zhang Guanglei & Wang Huaying & Li Mingze & Longzhu Dong, 2026. "Does technological tools make dirty-work engagement easier? When occupational stigma leads to increased emotional exhaustion and avoidant behaviors at work," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 359(1), pages 189-206, April.
    3. Matthew Bamber & John McCormack & Brent J Lyons, 2023. "Conceptualising ‘Within-Group Stigmatisation’ among High-Status Workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(3), pages 757-775, June.
    4. Jianling Zhang & Gukseong Lee, 2025. "Does Occupational Identity Weaken the Effect of Stigma? Empirical Evidence of the Impact of Occupational Stigma on China’s Gig Economy," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, September.
    5. Bamber, Matthew & Kurpierz, John & Popa, Alexandra, 2024. "Denunciation and resistance in post-crisis sensemaking," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    6. Onno Bouwmeester & Tessa Elisabeth Kok, 2018. "Moral or Dirty Leadership: A Qualitative Study on How Juniors Are Managed in Dutch Consultancies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, November.
    7. Kam Phung & Sean Buchanan & Madeline Toubiana & Trish Ruebottom & Luciana Turchick‐Hakak, 2021. "When Stigma Doesn’t Transfer: Stigma Deflection and Occupational Stratification in the Sharing Economy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 1107-1139, June.
    8. Jason Hughes & Ruth Simpson & Natasha Slutskaya & Alex Simpson & Kahryn Hughes, 2017. "Beyond the symbolic: a relational approach to dirty work through a study of refuse collectors and street cleaners," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(1), pages 106-122, February.
    9. Kristofer Nilsson & Marie Nordfeldt & Evelina Landstedt, 2025. "Social Workers’ Experiences of Public Perceptions of the Social Work Profession: An Exploratory Study," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(1), pages 21582440251, January.
    10. Nadine Arnold & Onno Bouwmeester, 2025. "Engaging with food waste while avoiding stigma: How a consultancy shields hospitality organizations from dirty work associations," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 42(3), pages 2077-2092, September.
    11. Alcalde-González, Verna & Gálvez Mozo, Ana & Valenzuela Bustos, Alan, 2021. "No clean rooms, no hotel business: Subversion tactics in Las Kellys’ struggle for dignity in hotel housekeeping," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    12. Peter Hamilton & Tom Redman & Robert McMurray, 2019. "‘Lower than a Snake’s Belly’: Discursive Constructions of Dignity and Heroism in Low-Status Garbage Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 889-901, June.
    13. Bryant Ashley Hudson & Gerardo A. Okhuysen, 2009. "Not with a Ten-Foot Pole: Core Stigma, Stigma Transfer, and Improbable Persistence of Men's Bathhouses," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 134-153, February.
    14. Andrew Soren & Carol D. Ryff, 2023. "Meaningful Work, Well-Being, and Health: Enacting a Eudaimonic Vision," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(16), pages 1-21, August.
    15. Sarah Jenkins & Wil Chivers, 2022. "Can cooperatives/employee‐owned businesses improve ‘bad’ jobs? Evaluating job quality in three low‐paid sectors," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 511-535, September.
    16. Nicole Carusone & Rebecca Pittman & Mindy Shoss, 2021. "Sometimes It’s Personal: Differential Outcomes of Person vs. Job at Risk Threats to Job Security," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-15, July.
    17. Natasha Slutskaya & Ruth Simpson & Jason Hughes & Alexander Simpson & Selçuk Uygur, 2016. "Masculinity and Class in the Context of Dirty Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 165-182, March.
    18. Claudia Gross, 2010. "Spiritual Cleansing: A Case Study on how Spirituality Can Be Mis/used by a Company," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 21(1), pages 60-81.
    19. Maya Christiane Flensborg Jensen, 2017. "Gender Stereotypes and the Reshaping of Stigma in Rehabilitative Eldercare," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 656-674, November.
    20. Matthew P. Crayne, 2026. "Unpacking and Extending Moral Injury: Comments on Nielsen et al. (2024)," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 203(1), pages 205-216, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:38:y:2024:i:5:p:1403-1422. 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.