Yara Evans

From Coping Strategies to Tactics: London's Low‐Pay Economy and Migrant Labour

This article examines the means by which low-paid migrant workers survive in a rapidly changing and increasingly unequal labour market. In a departure from the coping strategies literature, it is argued that the difficulties migrant workers face in the London labour market reduces their ability to ‘strategize’. Instead, workers adopt a range of ‘tactics’ that enable them to ‘get by’, if only just, on a day-to-day basis. The article explores these tactics with reference to the connections between different workers’ experiences of the workplace, home and community, and demonstrates the role of national, ethnic and gender relations in shaping migrant workers’ experiences of the London labour market and of the city more widely.

London's Migrant Division of Labour

This article is located in the maelstrom of debate about immigration and employment in the contemporary economy. The article presents original analysis of data from the Labour Force Survey and a workplace case-study in the cleaning sector to highlight growing employer dependence on a very diverse pool of foreign-born labour. The article explains such dependency by drawing on interview material collected from employers, employers associations, community organizations and policymakers. In sum, we argue that Londons Migrant Division of Labour (MDL) is a product of the semi-autonomous actions taken by employers, workers and government in the particular context of London. Understanding the MDL thus needs to encompass employer demand, migrants `dual frame of reference and limited access to benefits, as well as employers preference for foreign-born workers over `native labour supply.The state is also argued to play a critical role in this employment, determining the nature and terms of immigration, the accessibility and levels of benefits, and employment regulation. Londons MDL is shown to intersect with, and in some cases overturn, existing patterns of labour market segmentation on the basis of human capital (class), ethnicity and gender.

Men on the move: narratives of migration and work among low-paid migrant men in London

The impact of migration on gender identities, norms and conventions has been predominantly understood from the perspective of female migrants. Far less attention has been paid to the potential that migration entails for the negotiation and reconstruction of male identities. Drawing on sixty-seven in-depth interviews with male migrants employed in low-paid work in London, this paper explores the reworking of male identities at different stages of ‘the migration project’, focusing particularly upon the reasons extended for migration and how these are shaped by gender ideologies in home countries and negotiation of life and work in London. The paper also draws attention to ways in which these re-negotiations are themselves cross-cut by ethnic, racial and class differences, so constructing a more nuanced picture of mobile men and male identities.

Multicultural Living?: Experiences of Everyday Racism Among Ghanaian Migrants in London

Since the 1990s migrants from smaller, legally differentiated and non-citizen immigrant groups have formed the main flows of migration to the UK and yet they have been overlooked in academic and public debates and agendas. While much academic research has been devoted to racism, the new forms of racism which accompany the `new migration have also received little attention. This article, therefore, demonstrates the continuing importance and changing nature of contemporary racisms as experienced by Ghanaians; a less-established migrant group. The article traces the particular forms of racisms experienced within their working lives as well as their diverse responses to racism: a relatively unexplored dimension of discrimination. The various coping strategies which the workers developed to overcome difficulties are highlighted, at the individual and collective levels, and this reveals the importance of diaspora groups and transnational links. It is argued that focusing on responses to racism is a crucial facet in helping to understand the actual impact of racial discrimination and also avoids portraying minority ethnic groups as the passive recipients of racisms. The article is also an intervention into the current debates about multicultural Britain. It is argued that the current discourse on the failures of multiculturalism should focus less on minority ethnic groups as the principal problem for integration and engage with the issues of racism, exclusion and material inequalities which penetrate the lives of low-paid migrant workers.

Surviving at the Margins? Deindustrialisation, the Creative Industries, and Upgrading in London's Garment Sector

In this paper we examine trajectories of change in Londons garment industry set within the contexts of deindustrialisation, increasing competitive pressures, and discursive shifts in public policy towards the ‘creative industries’. We emphasise the diversity of firm-level strategies that have been implemented to cope with increasing competitive pressures, liberalisation, and outsourcing in the industry. We identify a dominant trajectory of factory closure, job loss, and deindustrialisation as firms are unable to compete on the basis of the kinds of contracting requirements of buyers and retailers in a high-cost location such as London. We also identify a range of strategies that firms continuing to operate in London have adopted, including the development of new functions in the supply chain, repositioning in relation to specific market niches, coordinating the relocation of production offshore, upgrading towards more design-intensive, small-batch production, and spreading risk across a range of activities. While some of these strategies connect to wider public policy discourses concerning the creative industries in London, they also suggest the need for a broader framing of firm-level trajectories set within the context of the power of major buyers and retailers. Consequently, in the paper we raise concerns over the extent to which creative industries can contribute to enhancing social inclusion and economic development.

Daniel P. O’Donoghue, Urban transformations: centres, peripheries, and systems

gentrification process, critical towards the arguments developed by Maloutas (2012). He underscored the need for more attention to be paid to the context in gentrification studies, and formulated three key reference points being necessary conditions for gentrification: gentrification aesthetics, the presence of the middle class and post-industrialisation (Maloutas 2012). Maloutas’s approach was criticized in this book for contributing rather to fossilization than to contextualization of the concepts of gentrification. In addition, the editors of this book underscored other key elements that constitute conditions for gentrifications across the globe; these are the class polarization, the noticeable increase in investment related to urban regeneration and different forms of displacement. This could be regarded as an endeavour to generalize the conditions for gentrification in more dynamic perspective than Maloutas did. Hence, it is argued that more emphasis should be put on the regularities that are central for the process of gentrification than to contextual dependencies. The postulated approach theoretically enables the comparison of a wide range of examples from different parts of the globe; however, during the reading, it turns out that particular context (e.g. political, historical and cultural) affects strongly specific conditions for gentrification explored by the authors. Thus, even if context-based approach is not foreground, it still cannot be neglected, even though it ‘disempowers global debate and weaken the comparative and explanatory possibilities that gentrification theory offers’ (448–449). Considering the wide spectrum of case study areas beyond the traditionally located in the Global North, this book succeeded in filling a cognitive gap in studies on gentrification. Theoretical approaches discussed in certain chapters and more empirical and contextual information collected in others could undoubtedly address the needs of different academic audience, from experienced researchers to students in different disciplines tackling the issues of current social and spatial transformations in urban areas.