Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This article inquires the individual and collective agency of female migrant domestic workers in Spain. I use fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2023 to examine the interplay between the migrant workers' individual coping strategies, the claims-making strategies of the domestic workers' trade union Sindihogar, and the structures they operate within and attempt to challenge. Drawing on contemporary research about precarious workers' movements, I aim to explore to what extent this social movement union has the potential to reduce the power of structural constraints and increase the power of agency. Implicit is a broader, more provocative question: To what extent is substantial change possible within the current political-economic order, here defined as late neoliberalism? I found that while the movement's community-building approach may empower activists at an individual level, there are significant structural barriers to its potential to accomplish change in terms of better job conditions for this highly precarious workforce. In addition, I suggest that an increasing focus on precarious workers' "resilience" risks undermining narratives of structural transformation.

The concept of social membership is the mainframe for this dissertation, which encompasses four independent articles that approach the boundaries of social membership from different perspectives. Empirically, the focus lies on mobilizing groups that demand an extension of rights and/or inclusion for documented and undocumented immigrants in two European immigration countries: Sweden and Spain. I have defined the processes through which mobilizing actors (immigrants themselves and diverse supporters of their cause) interact with boundary-making actors (institutional actors, policy makers), whom through their positions participate in drawing the boundaries between inclusion and exclusion, as negotiating social membership. To study these processes, I have performed 68 interviews with actors as mobilizing immigrants, activists mobilizing on behalf of immigrants, representatives of NGOs and trade unions, policy-makers and politicians. Two main types of claims appeared: undocumented migrants' rights groups mobilizing for residence permits and social rights, and documented immigrants' (and their supporters') advocacy against ethnic discrimination. Furthermore, I have included a study that reflects the tensions over social membership within immigrant communities. The gendered dimension is its main focus, as it illustrates the value conflicts over gender equality and ethnic diversity brought to the surface through the debates following so-called honour killings in Sweden, and the difficulties faced by young immigrant women mobilizing simultaneously against racism and patriarchal oppression. The thesis consists of four independent articles within the overall framework of mobilizing groups demanding extended rights for and/or inclusion of immigrants. By using immigrants' rights mobilizations, negotiations, debates and agendas, my general aim has been to explore the processes through which social membership is being contested and negotiated by a wide range of actors. In doing so, it has been possible to reveal how legal and ...

This paper takes the case of Catalonia to inquire into how ethnic diversity is represented in the public institutions, considering both pro-diversity agendas and the actual presence of people from diverse origins in different positions. Based on data from the REPCAT project, it applies a normative approach and suggests that an increased representation of immigrants and members of ethnic minority groups is necessary in order to fulfil intercultural policy aims, and, at a broader level, that the representation of ethnic diversity in public institutions such as the education system and the police force is a democratic necessity in the superdiverse European societies of today. Focus is then shifted towards how to address the persisting underrepresentation, considering targeting or transformative measures, and to what extent there is receptiveness for a transformation towards more ethnically plural public institutions that are more representative of the whole citizenry.

In this article, we address a gap in the scholarship on (super)diversity, discrimination and racism by placing the experiences of non-western migrants and Roma people in the same conceptual framework of stigmatization based on racialization and aporophobia. Including a (formally non-recognized) national minority, the Spanish Roma, in such an analysis implies moving from a framework of superdiversity applied to immigrants to a broader one, which also applies the notion of superdiversity to the racialized citizens of a country, shifting the focus from inner-group features to exogenous othering processes by the mainstream society. We aim to also contribute to the literature on the race–class binary with our empirically grounded analysis of how racialization and aporophobia intersect in the negative stereotyping of people who are cast as outsiders based on both their race/ethnicity and (assumed) socio-economic status. Data from several different research projects on migrant and Roma inclusion/exclusion in Spain were used for the analysis, which focuses on the intersections between race and class in the narratives on exclusion and discrimination by 185 migrant and Roma men and women that were interviewed between 2004 and 2021. The analysis shows that our Roma and migrant respondents perceive forms of discrimination based on racialization and aporophobia that are similar in several ways. In turn, the "double stigmatization" experienced by many of our respondents reinforces their actual precariousness, which may be understood both as a cause and consequence of this stigmatization. We found that these experiences were salient in the narratives of both non-western migrant and Roma respondents who find themselves part of a "racialized underclass" and struggle with finding ways to exit the vicious circle of devalued identities and material deprivation.

This article explores the impact of the Great Recession on migrant domestic workers in Spain. We argue that the domestic service sector's relative resistance to job destruction has transformed it to some extent into a refuge activity for unemployed women from other sectors, both migrants and native Spanish workers. This leads to intensified competition over jobs and increasing stratification among domestic workers, with serious consequences both for migrant women's opportunities to make a living in Spain and for their migration projects at an international level. Based on 90 in-depth interviews with female migrant domestic workers and stakeholders, we find that this group of workers has been seriously affected by unemployment, underemployment, and worsened job conditions. As a consequence, new and already settled migrants find the chances to gain their livelihood in Spain substantially reduced, and many of those who migrated in order to support the family back home through remittances, or to save some money and eventually return, are at present unable to do so.

The importance of transnational migration projects for international development has been increasingly recognized over the past decades. Migrants who move from the Global South or East to work in low-wage sectors such as construction, agriculture or domestic services in wealthier countries may contribute both to growth in the receiving countries and socio-economic development in their countries of origin. Parallel to scholarship on migration and development, research on the transnationalization of domestic work generally assumes that growing care needs and increasing demand for private household services in Western societies imply a continuing demand for migrant labour. However, since the global financial crisis broke out in 2008, unemployment among migrant workers has increased dramatically in many immigrant-receiving countries, Spain being among the most severely affected. Job destruction has so far been lower in the domestic sector than in other sectors occupying large numbers of migrant workers. Yet, we find that migrant domestic workers in Spain are affected by the recession both in terms of unemployment or underemployment and deteriorating job conditions, with transnational consequences such as loss of remittances. Many migrants find themselves in a situation of "standby," trying to subsist while waiting for the recession to end.

International audience ; Value conflicts involving gender equality are interwoven into current multicultural tensions in many European societies. They are at the core of these tensions in Sweden, in which gender equality and principles of individual human rights constitute the state profile and political identity. In this article, we focus on three cases of honor killings that became flash points for public debates on `culture and cultures' among political parties, immigrant groups and feminists in Sweden. The media fervor surrounding honour-related violence has provided xenophobic groups with political opportunities, but at the same time, the public debate has given visibility and opened up public space for immigrant women's groups. We conclude that the notion of the `good society' has kept at bay the recognition of overtly xenophobic parties, but it has also inhibited open dialogue across and within majority and minority cultures, which would allow for reflections upon the diversity within cultures, marked by religion, gender, class differences and generational conflicts.

Value conflicts involving gender equality are interwoven into current multicultural tensions in many European societies. They are at the core of these tensions in Sweden, in which gender equality and principles of individual human rights constitute the state profile and political identity. In this article, we focus on three cases of honor killings that became flash points for public debates on `culture and cultures' among political parties, immigrant groups and feminists in Sweden. The media fervor surrounding honour-related violence has provided xenophobic groups with political opportunities, but at the same time, the public debate has given visibility and opened up public space for immigrant women's groups. We conclude that the notion of the `good society' has kept at bay the recognition of overtly xenophobic parties, but it has also inhibited open dialogue across and within majority and minority cultures, which would allow for reflections upon the diversity within cultures, marked by religion, gender, class differences and generational conflicts.

AbstractDiscrimination of immigrants and racialized minorities as the Roma is increasing in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Different policy approaches to diversity management tackle this issue differently, both in terms of recognizing ethnic discrimination as a key obstacle to integration and in terms of defining the ideal forms of conviviality in superdiverse societies. In this special issue, we focus on interculturalism as a policy approach to diversity management that is applied mainly at the city level in numerous countries. It is expected to foster social cohesion and counteract racism and discrimination of immigrants and ethnic minorities, which makes anti‐discrimination a central part of its DNA. However, policies and measures to efficiently address ethnic/racial discrimination and the inequalities it produces have not been salient within the intercultural framework. This article, which defines the conceptual framework of the special issue, focuses on the ways in which discrimination and interculturalism are closely linked. We argue that discrimination is a central factor hindering the egalitarian forms of contact between people of diverse origins that are fundamental for the intercultural ideals of positive interethnic conviviality.

European history is to a significant extent also a history about racialization and racism. Since the colonizers of past centuries defined boundaries between "civilized" and "savages" by applying value standards in which the notions of race, ethnicity, culture, and religion were interwoven and imposed on human beings perceived as fundamentally different from themselves, racialization became deeply inherent in how (white) Europeans viewed the world, themselves, and others. In this Special Issue, we assume that colonialist racialization constitutes the base of a persistent and often unreflective and indirect racism. Implicit value systems according to which white people are automatically considered as more competent, more desirable, preferable in general terms, and more "European" translate into patterns of everyday racism affecting the self-image and life chances of white and non-white Europeans. In this introductory article, which defines the conceptual framework for the special issue, we contest the idea of a "post-racial" condition and discuss the consequences of ethno-racial differentiation and stigmatization for racialized groups such as Black Europeans, European Roma, and non-white migrants in general. Finally, we argue for the need to further problematize and critically examine whiteness.

This article compares Spain and Sweden, dissimilar in their welfare/care, migration and employment regimes; however, both have experienced expansions of private markets for personal household services where migrants are over-represented. Using Sen's capabilities framework as a point of departure, we explore the extent to which regime differences shaping the dynamics of personal household service markets are reflected in the capabilities and well-being of migrants employed in them. Despite variations in employment regimes and market structures, we found more similarities than differences in capabilities and well-being. Institutional contexts mattered for the access to entitlements and capabilities for alternative choices in employment, discernible in the more positive perceptions of future possibilities and potential agency to leave the sector among migrants in Sweden than in Spain. The analysis is based on 90 semi-structured interviews, as well as findings from two national migrant surveys and interviews with stakeholders.

The anthology "Ethnicity and Social Divisions: Contemporary Research in Sociology" is a collection of studies presented at the annual Aage Sørensen Memorial Conferences in 2006 and 2007. The volume reflects a number of important tendencies in contemporary social research: the increasing interest in questions that concern ethnicity and immigration on the one hand, the remaining centrality of social stratification and class analysis on the other hand, and the intersection between these fields