Migrant Occupational Downgrading
The issue of migrant occupational downgrading is an interesting one. I wonder whether we need a bigger framework for this discussion. Hasn't economic migration always been associated with
a relative loss of status. Economic migrants often fill the gaps at the bottom end of the labour market, the 3-D Dirty, Dangerous and Demeaning jobs. But there are often benefits in terms of relative wages, remittances, future prospects for children etc. In this process, the next generation then aspire to the status their parents had before migration (although racism is demonstrably a factor in thwarting that aspiration). I sometimes wonder whether we get into a kind of special pleading for the well-educated (people like ourselves?) in which taxi-drivers, bus drivers, cleaners and care workers are seen as being of less social value. I wonder whether we lose sight of the many thousands of often undocumented migrants who disappear into the unregulated and super-exploited 'black' economy, without whose labour major cities - particularly London - would grind to a halt. I wonder whether in our focus on the qualified we almost
collude with the state's discriminatory classification of migrants as highly qualified etc. which is essentially about cherry picking the best and keeping out the 'poor'. Dunno, just wondering ... Rob Peutrell
