TY - JOUR
T1 - Migrant Workers Trapped between Individualism and Collectivism. The Formation of Union-Based Workplace Collectivism
AU - Refslund, Bjarke
AU - Sippola, Markku
PY - 2022/8/18
Y1 - 2022/8/18
N2 - Transnational labour migration challenges collectivism as well as migrant workers’ labour market rights, due to employers’ strategies such as segregating workers, and the migrant workers’ individualistic strategies. This article, arguing that there are no intrinsic impediments to creating (instrumental) collectivist solutions encompassing both migrants and host-country workers, develops a dynamic, conceptual framework of four preconditions – workers’ closeness, feeling of unity, shared problem perception and reference groups – which are necessary for migrant workers to develop collective labour market strategies. The article then utilises the framework in three empirical cases to illustrate how the framework, combined with union strategies, helps explain the different degrees of migrant workers’ labour market inclusion and to help understand why gaps between migrant workers and host-country workers may form.
AB - Transnational labour migration challenges collectivism as well as migrant workers’ labour market rights, due to employers’ strategies such as segregating workers, and the migrant workers’ individualistic strategies. This article, arguing that there are no intrinsic impediments to creating (instrumental) collectivist solutions encompassing both migrants and host-country workers, develops a dynamic, conceptual framework of four preconditions – workers’ closeness, feeling of unity, shared problem perception and reference groups – which are necessary for migrant workers to develop collective labour market strategies. The article then utilises the framework in three empirical cases to illustrate how the framework, combined with union strategies, helps explain the different degrees of migrant workers’ labour market inclusion and to help understand why gaps between migrant workers and host-country workers may form.
KW - Collective interests
KW - collectivism
KW - instrumentalism
KW - migrant workers
KW - unions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85094635712&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0143831X20967412
DO - 10.1177/0143831X20967412
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0143-831X
VL - 43
SP - 1004
EP - 1027
JO - Economic and Industrial Democracy
JF - Economic and Industrial Democracy
IS - 3
ER -