Whiteness, ethnic privilege and migration: a Bourdieuian framework

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is two-fold. Firstly it offers an innovative conceptual framework for exploring how whiteness shapes ethnic privilege and disadvantage at work.Secondly it offers empirical evidence of the complexity of ethnic privilege and disadvantage explored through experiences of migrant workers from post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) on the UK labour market.Design/methodology/approach: Using a Bourdieuian conceptual framework the paper begins from the historical and macro socio-economic context of EU enlargement eastwards in order to explore whiteness and the complexity of ethnic privilege at work through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 35 Polish and Slovenian migrant workers in the UK. Findings:The findings highlight racial segmentation of the UK labour market, expose various shades of whiteness that affect CEE workers' position and their agency and point to relational and transnational workings of whiteness and their effects on diverse workforce. Research limitations/implications:Research has implications for diversity policies within organisations and wider social implications for building solidarity amongst diverse labour.Future research could increase generalization of findings and further illuminate the complexity of ethnic privilege.Originality/value: The paper contributes to management and organisational literature by offering a Bourdieuian conceptual framework for analysing whiteness and the complexity of ethnic privilege at work. It uncovers intersectional, transnational and relational workings of whiteness that shape ethnic privilege and disadvantage at work and speak of ongoing colonising and racialising processes that are part of contemporary capitalism.

‘I’m a migrant, but I’m the right sort of migrant’: Hegemonic masculinity, whiteness, and intersectional privilege and (dis)advantage in migratory academic careers

“…Drawing on further literature around whiteness and migration it becomes apparent that considerable privilege may be felt by white migrants migrating to predominately white host countries. Whiteness confers degrees of ethnic privilege on migrants according to complex transnational, intersectional and relational experiences still being explored by emerging research (Samaluk, ). It can be defined as ‘both a resource and a contingent social hierarchy granting differential access to economic, cultural and social capital and intersecting with different social categories that go beyond hegemonic white/non‐white paradigms’ (Garner, , cited in Samaluk, , p. 371).…”

“…Whiteness confers degrees of ethnic privilege on migrants according to complex transnational, intersectional and relational experiences still being explored by emerging research (Samaluk, ). It can be defined as ‘both a resource and a contingent social hierarchy granting differential access to economic, cultural and social capital and intersecting with different social categories that go beyond hegemonic white/non‐white paradigms’ (Garner, , cited in Samaluk, , p. 371). In the case of skilled migration, whiteness is constituted by potential transnational, intersectional and postcolonial influences.…”

Migrant workers’ engagement with labour market intermediaries in Europe: symbolic power guiding transnational exchange

“…In the case of CEE countries, the move to-8 wards the global economic field has been characterised by post-socialist transition and the Europeanisation process, in which global actors, such as the EU, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have evaluated CEE countries, advocated for rapid neoliberal transition and imposed conditions for EU accession (Bohle, 2006;Böröcz, 2001;Bourdieu, 2005;Stenning et al, 2010). Many authors view this process through a postcolonial lens that can expose, on the one hand, decolonisation after the end of the Soviet (and also earlier European) empires and, on the other, neo-colonialism that has, under the guise of modernisation, enabled unequal exchange, the export of governmentality and particular geopolitics that have recreated Western capitalist economies as ideal types, as the standardised norm that CEE countries should strive towards (Samaluk, 2014a(Samaluk, , 2014bBöröcz, 2001;Buchowski, 2006;Sher, 2001;Stenning and Hörschelmann, 2008). …”

“…CEE workers' subordinate class position in the UK is marked by their accents and names that signify cultural inferiority, a lack of recognised embodied cultural capital, which legitimises devaluation and deskilling in the labour market (Samaluk, 2014a).…”

Spatially embedded inequality

“…Alternatively, research in this vein centers on generalized societal discourses on immigration with a focus on deconstructing the different elements of those discourses (e.g. Bendick et al, 2010;Boogaard and Roggeband, 2009;Holvino and Kamp, 2009;Muhr and Salem, 2013;Samaluk, 2014;Siim, 2013;Tomlinson and Schwabenland, 2010). Second, diversity research predominantly investigates the barriers that minority ethnic workers experience rather than the agency that they deploy (for exceptions see, e.g., Ariss et al, 2012;Boogaard and Roggeband, 2009;Ghorashi and Ponzoni, 2014;Tatli and Özbilgin, 2012;Tomlison et al, 2013;Zanoni and Janssens, 2007).…”