IP49 Evolving (Im)mobility Regimes. Migrant Workers’ Entitlement and Precarization in Times of Crisis

Our project deals with three types of crises: (geo)political, economic, and public health. It consists of two Sub-Projects (SP) sharing a longitudinal, multidisciplinary, and multi-level perspective but having different methodological and temporal foci. We look at different topical levels: narratives, but also governance and practices. For instance, after the EU enlargement, some political parties instrumentalized growing anti-EU attitudes. These tensions were reinforced by the economic crises of the late noughties accompanied by various measures, such as austerity programs and bailouts characteristic of the Great Recession. In terms of scales, we carry out analyses at the international (mainly SP1) but also at the national (SP1 and 2), and regional scales (SP2). Our strategy is two-pronged: we resort to a constructivist approach – i.e. we consider a crisis as a social construct, when a series of events are labeled as 'crisis' by social actors, notably politicians – as well as to a 'realist' approach. The latter seeks to spot in the political arena the use of emergency powers and/or a downward trend in economic outcomes (unemployment, poverty, etc.), and/or a degradation in the sociosanitary situation.

Our IP explores the relationship between crises and enhanced precarity in migrant populations. It focuses on migrant workers – following the ILO definition: any “person who migrates or who has migrated from one country to another with a view to being employed otherwise than on his own account.” This definition covers many working situations and forms of mobility, allowing us to deploy the MMN as an analytical tool. Our main research question is: How do crises trigger restrictive changes in law and policy, and affect (im)mobile migrant workers?