‘Finally, We Are Well, Stable’: Perception of Agency in the Biographies of Precarious Migrant Workers

Lucie Trlifajová and Lenka Formánková
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Lucie Trlifajová: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Lenka Formánková: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic

Work, Employment & Society, 2023, vol. 37, issue 6, 1583-1604

Abstract: This article examines how experience with precarious work influences the notions of control and empowerment among female migrant workers. Instead of focusing on migrant workers as victims of a continuous chain of precarious employment, the article aims to enrich the current knowledge by focusing on the complexity of elements involved in subjective assessments of agency. Based on research of Ukrainian female migrants, we show how precarious jobs can be perceived as enabling, allowing women more control over their lives. To understand these perceptions of agency, we show how important it is to focus on the embeddedness of migrants’ reflective choices in their life trajectories. In the context of migration, this implies a shift in understanding from one in which migrants compare their experience (of labour or gender structures) between country of origin and country of destination towards a more nuanced approach.

Keywords: agency; biographic-narrative method; Central and Eastern Europe; gender; migration; precarity; temporality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:6:p:1583-1604

DOI: 10.1177/09500170221092351

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