Recent studies of migrants provide us with an understanding of their social relations beyond work; however, workplace networking practices among migrants, particularly as they are mediated by their jobs and their working environment has not been addressed as a substantive subject. Drawing on two studies of Poles, working in hospitality and food production, which utilised interviews, participant observation, netnography and a survey, this paper examines how occupational and organisational factors, including the nature of work and the characteristics of the workplace, impact upon migrants’ intra and inter-group relations. Furthermore, the data are used to consider how migrants ‘work’ (ie. utilise and exploit) the dynamics of the work(place) to facilitate their networking. We distinguish between task, spatial and related temporal dimensions affecting their interactions, arguing that such a conceptual lens is necessary for understanding migrants’ networking strategies
