The Dynamics of Control of Migrant Agency Workers: Over-Recruitment, ‘The Bitchlist’ and the Enterprising-Self

Chloe Tarrabain and Robyn Thomas
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Chloe Tarrabain: University of the West of England, UK
Robyn Thomas: Cardiff University, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2024, vol. 38, issue 1, 27-43

Abstract: This article explores migrant workers’ experiences of organisational control while undertaking temporary agency work. This study is based on a ‘covert’ ethnographic study set at a temporary employment agency that short-term contracts workers to the catering and hospitality industry. The findings show how control is perceived by workers to emerge from the over-recruitment, coupled with the allocation of work through an informal ranking system. Migrant workers’ specific socio-economic circumstances and their race and gender identities informed their responses to these systems, resulting in the buy-in to discourses of enterprise. The result was actors who are complicit, if not active, participants in self and peer regulation. As such, this article contributes to the literature on enterprising-selves, control of temporary agency workers and the wider manufacturing consent literature.

Keywords: control; enterprising-selves; migrant workers; temporary agency work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:1:p:27-43

DOI: 10.1177/09500170221100934

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