12 Precarity and Migration: Thai Wild Berry Pickers in Sweden
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Charlotta Hedberg
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the precarity of migrant workers. International migrants tend to be precarious due to the unequal distribution of resources along lines of ethnicity, race and citizenship. The chapter analyzes the complex relationship between structure and agency in precarious migration processes of global food chains. The example of Thai wild berry pickers in Sweden shows how migrant work is sustained through an interplay of, on the one hand, structures of neoliberal and global divisions of labour and, on the other hand, migrant aspirations for a better life. Specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates how migrant workers, as actors in global neoliberal food systems, are taking both economic and health-related risks while working abroad. Indirectly, migrant agency is sustaining a system of precarious work.
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the precarity of migrant workers. International migrants tend to be precarious due to the unequal distribution of resources along lines of ethnicity, race and citizenship. The chapter analyzes the complex relationship between structure and agency in precarious migration processes of global food chains. The example of Thai wild berry pickers in Sweden shows how migrant work is sustained through an interplay of, on the one hand, structures of neoliberal and global divisions of labour and, on the other hand, migrant aspirations for a better life. Specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates how migrant workers, as actors in global neoliberal food systems, are taking both economic and health-related risks while working abroad. Indirectly, migrant agency is sustaining a system of precarious work.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of Figures and Tables v
- Notes on Contributors vi
- Introduction: Critical Perspectives on Precarity and Precariousness 1
-
Conceptualizations, Subjectivities and Etymologies
- Précarité and Precarity: The Amazing Transnational Journey of Two Notions Unable to Form a Proper Concept in English 13
- Conceptualizing Precariousness: A Subject-oriented Approach 29
- The Experience of Precariousness as Vulnerable Time 44
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Class, Work and Employment
- Above-Below, Inside-Outside: Precarity, Underclass and Social Exclusion in Demobilized Class Societies 61
- Class, Classification and Conjunctures: The Use of ‘Precarity’ in Social Research 78
- The Problem with Precarity: Precarious Employment and Labour Markets 94
- The Social Foundations of Precarious Work: The Role of Unpaid Labour in the Family 114
- Precariousness in the Platform Economy 130
- A Pandemic-related Turning Point: Precarious Work, Platforms and Utopian Energies 146
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Experiences, Concretizations and Struggles
- The Embodiment of Insecurity: How Precarious Labour Market Trajectories Affect Young Workers’ Health and Wellbeing in Catalonia (Spain) 161
- Precarity and Migration: Thai Wild Berry Pickers in Sweden 180
- Revisiting the Concept of Precarious Work in Times of COVID-19 195
- Precarious Workers and Precarity through the Lens of Social Movement Studies 211
- Organizing and Self-organized Precarious Workers: The Experience of Britain 225
- Afterword: A Pandemic of Precarity 239
- Index 249
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of Figures and Tables v
- Notes on Contributors vi
- Introduction: Critical Perspectives on Precarity and Precariousness 1
-
Conceptualizations, Subjectivities and Etymologies
- Précarité and Precarity: The Amazing Transnational Journey of Two Notions Unable to Form a Proper Concept in English 13
- Conceptualizing Precariousness: A Subject-oriented Approach 29
- The Experience of Precariousness as Vulnerable Time 44
-
Class, Work and Employment
- Above-Below, Inside-Outside: Precarity, Underclass and Social Exclusion in Demobilized Class Societies 61
- Class, Classification and Conjunctures: The Use of ‘Precarity’ in Social Research 78
- The Problem with Precarity: Precarious Employment and Labour Markets 94
- The Social Foundations of Precarious Work: The Role of Unpaid Labour in the Family 114
- Precariousness in the Platform Economy 130
- A Pandemic-related Turning Point: Precarious Work, Platforms and Utopian Energies 146
-
Experiences, Concretizations and Struggles
- The Embodiment of Insecurity: How Precarious Labour Market Trajectories Affect Young Workers’ Health and Wellbeing in Catalonia (Spain) 161
- Precarity and Migration: Thai Wild Berry Pickers in Sweden 180
- Revisiting the Concept of Precarious Work in Times of COVID-19 195
- Precarious Workers and Precarity through the Lens of Social Movement Studies 211
- Organizing and Self-organized Precarious Workers: The Experience of Britain 225
- Afterword: A Pandemic of Precarity 239
- Index 249
