Deshingkar et al Bangladesh Global SRO.pdf (270.88 kB)
Producing ideal Bangladeshi migrants for precarious construction work in Qatar
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 15:55 authored by Priya DeshingkarPriya Deshingkar, C R Abrar, Mirza Taslima Sultana, Kazi Nurmohammad Hossainul Haque, Md Selim RezaThe paper analyses the mediation of Bangladeshi construction worker migration to the Gulf and how multiple and unpredictable risks and opportunities are co-created by brokers, employers and the state. It examines how migrants navigate these to achieve imagined futures and their own role in co-creating precarity. The authors employ a relational lens to examine why aspiring migrants choose informal brokers over formal migration managers. The everyday practices of brokers in producing ideal Bangladeshi workers for the Qatari labour market and how this precarises migrant labour are unpacked. Migrant and broker interviews provide insights into the degrees of precarity experienced at different stages of the migration process. Entangled with these processes of precarisation are the strategies employed by migrant workers to resist precarity and transform their social and economic positions in the long term. The rich accounts presented in the paper provide evidence on the dialectical relationship between migrants and migration intermediaries which contrasts with popular discourses about brokers as exploiters and migrants as victims without agency.
Funding
Migrating out of Poverty Research Programme Consortium; G2194; DFID-DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT; PO 4913
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Journal of Ethnic and Migration StudiesISSN
1369-183XPublisher
Taylor & FrancisExternal DOI
Department affiliated with
- Geography Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Centre for Migration Research Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-11-16First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-05-07First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-11-14Usage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC