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Contextualizing Voice and Stakeholders: Researching Employment Relations, Immigration and Trade Unions

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Abstract

This article aims to outline some of the ways in which issues of migration and employment relations have been studied in the European context, cross referencing recent interventions in the USA. The argument is a discussion of some of the different dimensions of migration and the way debates within Industrial Relations have been shaped. More specifically, the article will look at the way trade unions have made the ethical turn towards questions of migration and equality. The article will observe the way these issues have been academically framed and the manner in which the ‘problem’ of migration is conceptualized. It will attempt to provide a framework for discussing the way we have been analysing these issues and the ethical dimensions of these discussions. The relevance of the article is that institutionally responding to migration is not solely a question of adjusting employment relations or Industrial Relations institutions to various ‘new’ constituencies. The article will show that the topic raises issues as to how we actually understand what the study of employment and especially Industrial Relations are. The article also argues that there is a growing need for researchers to be aware of ethical issues when studying in the area of migration, and to be sensitive to competing voices and methodologies in this area. In particular we need approaches that are multidimensional and that emphasize the history and context of change in social constituencies, the new mechanisms of representation within communities, the role of the political in terms of discourses and resources, and the broad play and spaces of regulation and social policy.

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Notes

  1. Hyman (2001) has developed an Industrial Relations oriented version of this in terms of social-, class- and market-related identities within trade unions which would help us understand the way unions see, respond to and configure immigrant-related issues. Yet Penninx and Roosblad advise us not to read too much into any forms of categories as there may not be any clear link between any one factor and the character of union activity.

  2. Wrench (1996, 1999) draws attention to the question of employers and their roles in relation to immigration. These are part of the dilemmas facing trade unions as employers in many cases resist the equality agenda—and this frames the trade union response as it provides extra obstacles to overcome. Part of the problem appears to be that many studies on trade union responses fail to locate debates in terms of employer responses and their impact, although there are exemptions (Mackenzie and Forde 2008/2009).

  3. A brief citation exercise with the help of various dedicated search engines suggests that although highly respected this study is not actually quoted systematically within relevant Industrial Relations debates.

  4. Once more the gender debate has tackled these issues—albeit less so within the Industrial Relations arena. Tomlinson (2007) points to how different institutions mediate the question of work, and part time work especially, within the European Union in relation to women. She draws on Walby’s study (2004) which points to the different initiatives that exist and the varied institutions that intervene. The way these link together and address issues of exclusion coherently is itself a challenge. The purpose of various welfare and social services, and how are they constructed, links to the question of intersectionality and the way regulation appears to mirror social diversity and overlaps—consequently creating problems such as complexity and complimentarity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, UK

    Miguel Martínez Lucio

  2. Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Heather Connolly

Authors
  1. Miguel Martínez Lucio
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  2. Heather Connolly
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Correspondence to Miguel Martínez Lucio.

Additional information

The research for this paper was funded by the Leverhulme Trust in the form of a three year project: Social Inclusion, Unions and Migration.

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Martínez Lucio, M., Connolly, H. Contextualizing Voice and Stakeholders: Researching Employment Relations, Immigration and Trade Unions. J Bus Ethics 97 (Suppl 1), 19–29 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1076-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1076-6

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