Abstract
Migration industries are usually researched in terms of the facilitation and control of migration and less attention is paid to how migrants as equally central agents perceive, experience and use the different intermediaries during their migration process. In this article, we examine what the migrant trajectories and lived experiences of Polish workers in the Netherlands tell us about the migration industry as part of the European labour market. In order to understand the Polish workers’ position in the migration industry and their mobility power, we take into account the dimensions of work, accommodation and social life. Our study confirms that employment agencies play a crucial role in channelling migrant workers from recruitment to work to accommodation in the Netherlands. This has led both directly and indirectly to spatial clustering and social bubbles where migrant workers work and live together and social contacts mostly take place with fellow nationals. Our analysis of the migrant trajectories also shows multiple mobility processes initiated and owned by the migrant workers through mobility power, revealing how agency evolves in space and over time and changes the positionality of migrant workers within the migration industry.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4694-4711 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue number | 19 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would like to thank the IILME Standing Committee of the IMISCOE network for the possibility to present our study at their 2020 conference and receiving their comments. We are grateful for the valuable feedback which we received from the two anonymous reviewers of JEMS. The research was funded and commissioned by several municipalities of Noord-Brabant and Brabantkennis. The writing of the article was partly made possible by the Province Noord-Brabant.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Funding
We would like to thank the IILME Standing Committee of the IMISCOE network for the possibility to present our study at their 2020 conference and receiving their comments. We are grateful for the valuable feedback which we received from the two anonymous reviewers of JEMS. The research was funded and commissioned by several municipalities of Noord-Brabant and Brabantkennis. The writing of the article was partly made possible by the Province Noord-Brabant.
Keywords
- European labour mobility
- migrant trajectories
- Migration industry
- mobility power
- Polish workers