START Monthly Talk: Bjarke Refslund, AAU
The speaker for this talk is Associate Professor Bjarke Refslund from the Department of Sociology and Social Work, The Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Aalborg University who will present his research on seasonal agrifood migrant workers and their wages and conditions in Denmark, Germany and UK.
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“Migrant workers often face poor wage and working conditions in agriculture to an extent where they can be described as a contemporary agrarian proletariat. In line with much of the literature on dual labour market structures the migrant workers often accept and accommodate with the poor working conditions. Nevertheless, they still exert agency that allows them to develop strategies for coping, resenting and ultimately in some instances openly opposing the precarity often embedded in the agrarian migrant jobs. While open industrial conflicts seem less frequent, and even less studied, this article illustrates how precarious migrant workers challenge and resist the working conditions and, do ultimately, also go on strikes or otherwise seek to disrupt production. While these actions often end with little success due to the rapid replacement of the workers, there are examples of resistance that appear to be more fruitful.” The presentation is based on a paper addressing the same themes. The paper can be forwarded should you wish to read it before the presentation. During this online event, Bjarke will give a 30-45 presentation followed by plenum questions and discussions. |
