‘Good relations’ among neighbours and workmates? The everyday encounters of Accession 8 migrants and established communities in urban England

Drawing on data generated in a recently completed qualitative study in a northern, English city, this paper explores the everyday social encounters of Accession 8 (A8) migrants who entered the UK following the expansion of the European Union in 2004. A number of options from permanent residence in another Member State on the one hand, to more fleeting circulatory and multiple short-term moves on the other, now exist for these new European citizens. The relatively short-term and temporary residence of some A8 migrants calls into question the focus of much UK government policy, which emphasises the need for migrants to integrate into diverse yet cohesive communities. Against this backdrop, the aim of this paper is two-fold. First, it considers the somewhat different character of A8 migration (encompassing a spectrum from permanency to temporariness) and what this means for routine experiences of mixing between new migrants and established host communities. Second, the paper explores such interactions in terms of ‘everyday encounters’ in both neighbourhood and work spaces and asks whether such spatio-temporal practices and experiences enhance or inhibit the building of ‘good relations’ in a multicultural city

The experiences of accession 8 migrants in England : motivations, work and agency

Drawing on a recently completed qualitative study in a northern English city, this paper explores motivations and experiences of Accession 8 (A8) migrants who have entered the United Kingdom following the expansion of the European Union in 2004. The paper considers commonalities and differences among the group of migrants routinely referred to as A8 migrant workers/labourers. Diversity is apparent in three particular respects: first, the motivations and forms of movement undertaken; second, their experiences of work within the UK paid labour market; and third, the extent to which the act and experience of migration offers new individual and collective opportunities and potentially opens up spaces for people to negotiate structural constraints and reconfigure aspects of their identity

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe host, the parasite, and the vector each shape disease dynamics. Vector-borne parasites spread by (1) getting into the next vertebrate host from an infected vector, and (2) getting into the next vector from an infected vertebrate host. I use an experimental approach to investigate pairwise interactions between organisms in a system composed of a vertebrate host, the Rock Pigeon (Columba livia), a hippoboscid fly vector (Pseudolynchia canariensis), and a malaria parasite of the pigeon (Haemoproteus columbae). Ultimately, such studies may reveal how ecological interactions shape evolutionary processes. Transmission requires an infected vector bite a vertebrate host. Fewer parasites would be transmitted if hosts could defend themselves against vectors. I tested the effectiveness of anti-vector defense by manipulating two pigeon defenses against flies: preening and antibody responses. Each independently decreased fly longevity and the defenses work additively. However, they were ineffective in decreasing malaria parasite transmission. This ineffectiveness may have little immediate consequence for the pigeon. In a field experiment H. columbae had no effect on nestling pigeon growth, survival, or fledging success. This was surprising since H. columbae is correlated with lower survival in older pigeons; however, nestling pigeons are provided a particularly rich diet by both parents and may be tolerant to infection. To complete transmission, the vector must bite an infected vertebrate host, but the effect of the infected blood on the arthropod host is unknown. I found malaria parasites decrease fly survival and fecundity, but only for female flies. Both sexes feed on blood and transmit parasites, but the comparatively high female reproductive costs may decrease infection tolerance through energetic constraints. Females also take larger meals to fuel reproduction, which may increase their exposure to parasites. In my work I found malaria harms arthropod hosts more than vertebrate hosts, counter to the conventional wisdom that a parasite should not harm its vector. However, if a "vector" is defined by host mobility, pigeons may be the actual vectors in this system compared to the more sedentary flies. Disease dynamics here may also differ because both fly sexes transmit the parasite. These two points warrant further investigation

Asylum, immigration restrictions and exploitation: hyper-precarity as a lens for understanding and tackling forced labour

The topic of forced labour is receiving a growing amount of political and policy attention across the globe. This paper makes two clear contributions to emerging debates. First, we focus on a group who are seldom explicitly considered in forced labour debates; forced migrants who interact with the asylum system. We build an argument of the production of susceptibility to forced labour through the UK’s asylum system, discussing the roles of compromised socio-legal status resulting from restrictive immigration policy, neoliberal labour market characteristics and migrants’ own trajectories. Second, we argue that forced labour needs to be understood as part of, and an outcome of, widespread normalised precarious work. Precarity is a concept used to describe the rise of insecure, casualised and sub-contracted work and is useful in explaining labour market processes that are conducive to the production of forced labour. Using precarity as a lens to examine forced labour encourages the recognition of extreme forms of exploitation as part of a wider picture of systematic exploitation of migrants in the labour market. To understand the reasons why forced migrants might be drawn into severe labour exploitation in the UK, we introduce the concept of hyper-precarity to explain how multidimensional insecurities contribute to forced labour experiences, particularly among forced migrants in the Global North. Viewing forced labour as connected to precarity also suggests that avenues and tools for tackling severe labour exploitation need to form part of the wider struggle for migrant labour rights