Migrant workers’ irregularity, precarity, dignity, and relevant actors

DignityFIRM Working Paper WP4/5 (2023)

The aim of this state-of-the-art report is to provide a (common) conceptual starting point and basis for the empirical research to be carried out within work packages four and five (WP4 & WP5) of the DignityFIRM project, on the conditions of “irregular migrant workers” (IMWs) employed in Farm to Fork Sectors and along the Food Production Chain. It is based on a selective review of existing literature related to four key elements that are defined in the project proposal: First of all, it discusses (1) IRREGULARITY in relation to (a) migration/status – especially the complexities of the concept and emerging analytical frameworks for studying the phenomenon as such – as well as (b) employment. It then reviews some of the literature that links irregularity to (2) LABOR PRECARITY on one hand, and to (3) DIGNITY on the other. Regarding the latter, the focus will be on IMWs’ access to human as well as employment rights, and on debates around their agency. The last part focuses on (4) The most relevant ACTORS involved in the governance of irregular migrant work, highlighting the multilevel and multiactorness of the corresponding regulatory infrastructure/s or framework/s that cut across various fields of public policy (migration, labor market, welfare, etc.) and significantly rely on third sector and private actor engagement. These frameworks and related governance relations are partly sector-specific, and in any case go beyond formal/national policies and their local-level implementation.