JEMS 24(2)

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS)
ISSN 1369-183X

Volume 24 Number 2 April 1998

Special issue: Migration and the informal economy in Europe

We may not live in an age of migration as conventionally understood but we certainly live in a world where knowledge of opportunities and measures needed to respond to them is more widespread. The physical mobility which results may be difficult to classify in conventional theory; it may be short-term, spasmodic, seasonal and a response to a more complex calculus than is commonly understood.

The relationship between migration and the growth of informal economies is paradoxical. Too much regulation promotes undocumented migration because of significant cost advantages. Too little means that illegal movement is straightforward. Existing migrant networks may contribute to the inflow of certain undocumented migrants, but they may also ensure that once there new arrivals are ‘integrated’ into stable community life. Not all illegal migrants work in the informal economy and it is far from true that workers in informal economies are necessarily migrants. Also many people work in both and migrants can drift between formal and non-formal work. Far from irregular migration creating an underground economy, it is the other way round. The fact that in Italy, for example, nearly two out of three migrant workers is unregistered says more about the Italian labour market than it does about migrant employment. Regular workers simply cost more; they are more likely to be unionised and less likely to tolerate casual employment relations than are new migrants. On the other hand, new become identified in the public mind with criminality and deviance. This is perhaps the most telling lesson of these four case studies. Those who are destined to undertake the jobs that others do not wish to do become the raw material for the creation of ethnic minorities. In this at least Europe is becoming more closely united.

Most of the papers in this special issue were first presented at a conference organised by the 'Migrants in European Cities' thematic network funded by Targeted Social and Economic Research (TSER) programme of the European Commission.

Articles

Editorial

Robert Kloosterman, Joanne van der Leun and Jan Rath
Across the border: immigrants’ economic opportunities, social capital and informal businesses activities [Abstract]

Czarina Wilpert
Migration and informal work in the new Berlin: new forms of work or new sources of labour? [Abstract]

Jack Burgers
Formal determinants of informal arrangements: the housing of undocumented immigrants in Rotterdam [Abstract]

Emilio Reyneri
The role of the underground economy in irregular migration to Italy: cause or effect? [Abstract]

Carlota Solé, Natalia Ribas, Valeria Bergalli and Sonia Parella
Irregular employment amongst migrants in Spanish cities [Abstract]

Eugenia Droukas
Southern European immigration: Albanians in Greece [Abstract]

Maria I. Baganha
Immigrant involvement in the informal economy: the Portuguese case [Abstract]

Reviews

Ceri Peach
Vaughan Robinson (Ed.), Geography and Migration

John Edwards
Ian Shapiro and Will Kymlicka (Eds), Ethnicity and Group Rights

John Edwards
Paul D. Moreno, From Direct Action to Affirmative Action: Fair Employment Law and Policy in America, 1933-1972

Simon Holdaway
Ineke Haen Marshall (Ed.), Minorities, Migrants, and Crime: Diversity and Similarity Across Europe and the United States

Maykel Verkuyten
Gerd Baumann, Contesting Culture: Discourses of Identity in Multi-Ethnic London

Peter Foster
Pat Sikes and Fazal Rizvi (Eds), Researching Race and Social Justice in Education: Essays in Honour of Barry Troyna
Ian Grosvenor, Assimilating Identities: Racism and Educational Policy in post-1945 Britain

Adrian Favell
Tariq Modood and Pnina Werbner (Eds), The Politics of Multiculturalism in the New Europe: Racism, Identity and Community

Khalid Koser
Russell King, John Connell and Paul White (Eds), Writing Across Worlds: Literature and Migration

Yu Zhou
Maria P.P. Root (Ed.), Filipino Americans: Transformation and Identity

Louk Hagendoorn
Marco Martiniello (Ed.), Migration, Citizenship and Ethno-National Identities in the European Union

Narinder Brar
Michelle Fine, Lois Weis, Linda C. Powell, and L. Mun Wong (Eds), Off White: Readings on Race, Power, and Society

Adrian Favell
Avtar Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities

Jack Burgers
John Eade (Ed.), Living the Global City: Globalization as local process

Talip Küçükcan
Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia

Neena Samota
Nira Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation

Books received, to March 1998

Abstracts

Across the border: immigrants’ economic opportunities, social capital and informal businesses activities
Robert Kloosterman, Joanne van der Leun and Jan Rath

Abstract In this article, we have explored the relationship between informal economic activities and recent immigrants in the Netherlands. First, we argue that opportunities for a significant participation of immigrants in informal economic activities have increased after 1980. On the demand side, the scope for informal economic activities has increased because of trends of disintegration of activities in manufacturing and especially in service industries, the fragmentation of consumer markets, a gradual emergence of a demand for 'ethnic' products, and also due to the dynamics of so-called 'vacancy chains' whereby indigenous entrepreneurs vacate certain slots and thus create opportunities for immigrant entrepreneurs. On the supply side, processes of social exclusion and marginalisation appear to contribute to an increased participation of immigrants in informal economic activities. More or less permanent high levels of unemployment are pushing an increasing number of immigrants towards entrepreneurship. They usually set up their businesses in those sectors where informal production could give them a competetive edge. Through their networks of relatives, co-nationals or co-ethnics they have privileged and flexible access to information, capital and – with relatively low monetary costs – labour.

The second part of the article presents recent empirical evidence on informal economic activities on the part of immigrants. The findings confirm that immigrants are indeed heavily involved in informal ways of production in specific sectors.

Migration and informal work in the new Berlin: new forms of work or new sources of labour?
Czarina Wilpert

Abstract One of the central questions with respect to migration and the informal labour market is which comes first: the de-regulation of working relations or the availability of new sources of cheap and docile labour. Today the notion is spreading that the growth of unemployment and low waged precarious jobs in an informal of shadow economy is a direct function of the ‘influx’ of new ‘illegal’ migrants. This article illustrates how policies to control foreign entry are ambivalent. Despite the avowed principle of not being a country of immigration, continuous exceptions have been made to permit the restricted access of temporary workers. The major patterns for the ‘new’ migration were set by foreign and guestworker policies adopted during postwar reconstruction. New programmes were initiated in connection with the asylum compromise and the transformations in Germany and Eastern Europe.

This article demonstrates that the main forces bringing about restructuring and deregulation were put into place in the mid-1980s independently of a new source of undocumented foreigners. Transformations in the economy comprised a number of factors including technological change, growth of the service sector, increase of part-time labour, an increase in temporary and precarious jobs and growing unemployment. These changes were already in process in 1991 when borders of Eastern Europe were beginning to open.

Formal determinants of informal arrangements: the housing of undocumented immigrants in Rotterdam
Jack Burgers

Abstract Using data on undocumented immigrants in the city of Rotterdam, it is argued that peculiarities of the Dutch housing market, especially the large degree of decommodification of the housing stock, lead to a specific housing situation and housing career of illegal immigrants. As is the case for the formal housing market, the informal housing market undocumented immigrants have to rely on is not by any means always a purely commercial market. The more the formal housing market is decommodified, the more this is the case on the informal housing market. The housing situation of undocumented immigrants in Rotterdam clearly shows how formal arrangements create conditions for informal practices. Whether mutual support is more altruistically underpinned or more instrumental – 'bounded solidarity' or 'reciprocity' – proves to depend considerably on formal arrangements and the wider social context in which migrant groups are embedded. And expressed more generally still: the extent to which the informal social order of undocumented immigrants is based on pure opportunism, or on social norms, is highly dependent on the formal institutional structure of the society of which they are a part. A generous welfare state offers room for ethnic solidarity, provided that significant parts of a migrant community have official access to it.

The role of the underground economy in irregular migration to Italy: cause or effect?
Emilio Reyneri

Abstract As three mass legalisations have revealed, migrants in Italy were predominantly staying on without a permit and without being entitled to pursue regular work. It was further uncovered that many legal migrants carried out un-registered work in agriculture, building, housekeeping, street trading, small manufacturing firms and within urban services. The huge involvement of migrant workers in the underground economy is often seen as an indicator of an oversupply of migrants. The underground economy, however, has been well established in Italy for a considerable period and migrants cannot be said to have brought it about, although they have doubtless contributed towards its continuation. Most migrants are employed in occupations which are at risk of being priced out of the market because of their high labour intensity and low growth in productivity. The only means of reducing the labour costs is to employ workers on an irregular basis. Northern regions are close to full employment and in the Southern areas most job seekers are educated youths living with parents who can support his or her wait for a suitable opportunity. The national supply of labour power amenable to giving up the guarantees of regular jobs thus exhausted, the demand was for immigration. Migratory chains transmit an image of Italy being a country where it is easy to stay and to earn an income, even in the absence of a permit to stay and the presence of a significant underground economy means that Italy exerts a particular pull effect on those migrants more prone to accepting irregular conditions.

Irregular employment amongst migrants in Spanish cities
Carlota Solé, Natalia Ribas, Valeria Bergalli and Sonia Parella

Abstract This article presents data on the employment situation of non-European Union immigrants in Spain. This type of economic migration is heteregeneous by country of origin and level of education. Once in Spain, the majority of immigrants (most of them Morrocan) find work in domestic service (mainly women), hotel and resturant services, the building industry and retail trade. Migrants in agriculture work in irregular situations and under worse labour conditions than all other migrants. All migrants experience difficulty in obtaining residence and labour permits.The net effect of legislation has been the construction of a category of illegal immigrants.

Southern European immigration: Albanians in Greece
Eugenia Droukas

Abstract For the last two decades Greece, which constitutes Europe's most southerly external border, has experienced major changes in its migration patterns and from a country of emigration it has become a country of immigration. This article addresses the issue of Albanian immigration to Greece, underlines its special character and discusses the problems arising from the Greek immigration policy which, so far, has focused on short-term, inefficient and sometimes conflicting solutions. This article also delineates the current situation of Albanian immigrants, who constitute the largest group amongst all immigrants in Greece and who are largely undocumented. It examines the controversial issue of Albanian criminality, and the social construction of negative stereotypes through prejudicial representations of Albanians by the Greek media. In contrast to the commonly held belief that Greek society is neither xenophobic nor racist, this article argues that in the case of Albanian immigrants both of these phenomena are present and manifested in multiple ways. Such tendencies become particularly clear when considering the exploitation of Albanians by native employers in the Greek informal economy. Finally, this article draws attention to the need for further research at a collective and more systematic level. Future research, as well as future policies, have to take into account the possibility of a more permanent Albanian presence in Greece.

Immigrant involvement in the informal economy: the Portuguese case
Maria I. Baganha

Abstract This article demonstrates how Portugal, despite appearing to be a country which would be unattractive to migrants, is rapidly becoming a country of immigration. The existence and extent of opportunities for immigrants in Portugal are assessed with this development in mind. On the basis of an analysis of the country’s labour market, the immigrants’ economic profiles and the Portuguese informal economy – and the interaction of these factors – it is concluded that the Portuguese economy is currently generating labour demands which the immigrants are satisfying. In some cases they complement and in others they substitute for the domestic labour force. While the mismatch in the highest segments of the labour force between the skills which are in demand and those which are on offer is creating numerous opportunities for highly qualified immigrants – who come mainly from Europe and Brazil – the spread of economic informality in the lowest segments on the labour market is also generating plenty of opportunities for unqualified or poorly qualified immigrants. This latter group primarily comes from Portuguese Speaking African Countries.