Sam Scott
Biographic Data
| ID | 3797350 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sam Scott |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sam |
| FAMILY NAME | Scott |
| SIGNATURE | SCOTT S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Gloucestershire |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5951-4749 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 261 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 26 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Temporary labour migration and restricted rights
Over the 21 st century, there has been a resurgence of low-wage temporary labour migration across higher-income countries, particularly in Europe. The restriction of migrants’ rights has often accompanied such migration. This has led many academics to question the idea that temporary migration represents a ‘triple win’. Specifically, migrants are seen to suffer due to the rights restrictions placed on them by host countries. This article compares…
The Alienation-Insulation Dynamic and the Low-Wage Migrant Work Ethic
Low-wage labour migrants moving from lower- to higher-income countries have been celebrated for their strong work ethic over recent decades. The paper draws on qualitative insights from European horticulture to explore why low-wage migrants work as hard as they do. We centre our analysis on an 'alienation-insulation' dynamic. Specifically, we show how migrants are particularly alienated in ways that are different to that of the immobile working c…
The Mobility-Immobility Dynamic and the 'Fixing' of Migrants' Labour Power
Low-wage labour migration from lower- to higher-income economies has become a precondition for capital accumulation. As a part of this, neoliberal actors (businesses and states) strive to actively produce migrants with a strong work ethic. They do this in numerous ways. In this paper, we draw upon labour process theory to argue that a 'mobility-immobility dynamic' is a major way capital now controls precarious workers. The mobility-immobility dyn…
Virtual Reality in Cancer Care
Virtual reality (VR) technology has evolved from entertainment to significant applications in healthcare and education. Despite its potential, there is limited research on the role of VR in cancer care. This study investigates VR’s ability to simulate the chemotherapy process, aiming to enhance patients’ knowledge and mitigate anxiety associated with chemotherapy. Utilizing a two-arm, mixed-methods pre/post-survey design, the study measured chang…
Class, Migration And Bordering at Work
This paper draws on symbolic bordering perspectives as a conceptual frame to highlight practices that shape the reproduction, justification, masking and distancing of precarious work. Via a case-study of the UK harvest labour market in 2020–2021, at a time of Brexit and COVID-19, we use media, employer and locally-based worker insights to show how us–them bordering practices are embedded within low-wage horticultural work. Three interrelated ever…
Harvest work, migration, and the structured phenomenology of time
The paper draws on Rosa’s three dimensions of the structured phenomenology of time - daily time, longer time, and historical time - as a conceptual lens to analyse the lived experiences and structural framing of temporary farm work in the UK and to address the question: how is it that short-term precarious work remains the accepted solution for agricultural work even under conditions that challenge the status quo. We draw on qualitative research …
Labour migration, precarious work and liminality
Liminality, as originally conceived by anthropologists, is a temporary ‘in-between’ state that acts as a bridge, connecting old roles to new roles, and resulting in a desired new state. The article applies this concept to precarious migrant work. We argue, specifically, that migrants in low-wage and insecure work occupy four main liminal realms following their cross-border mobility: the temporal, the financial, the social and the legal. We explor…
The entanglement of employers and political elites in migration policymaking
Background: Following Brexit, and the ending of freedom of movement, labour supply crises have emerged in the UK. The paper focuses on the horticultural sector, where these crises have been particularly pronounced, with fears of crops being left to rot in the fields now commonplace. Aims and objectives: To examine the scale and nature of employer pressure on government with respect to UK low-wage migration policymaking in the period (2016–2020) f…
Constraining labour
This article argues that many low-wage migrants moving to work in rural areas of the developed world end up in very specific and precarious employment and housing contexts: working in temporary/seasonal jobs within horticultural labour markets and often living in employer-provided tied accommodation. This context-which we profile by drawing on qualitative case study evidence from Norway, the UK and the US-makes integration virtually impossible. I…
Praised, prized, yet penalised
The psychology of bio-banding
CONTEXT: Bio-banding is the process of grouping players by their maturational status rather than chronological age. It is designed to limit the impact of maturational timing on talent identification and development and expose early and late maturing players to new learning experiences and challenges. A common criticism of bio-banding is that it does not consider age related differences in psychosocial and behaviour development. OBJECTIVE: The pur…
International Labour Migration and Food Production in Rural Europe
Since Hoggart and Mendoza's article on ‘African immigrant workers in Spanish agriculture’ in Sociologia Ruralis in 1999 there has been a proliferation of interest in labour migration to/in rural Europe. It is now clear that the rural realm has been, and is being, transformed by immigration, and that low‐wage migrant workers in the food production industry are playing a particularly prominent role in this transformation. This article takes stock o…
Labour Exploitation and Work-Based Harm
This book provides a critical understanding of contemporary forced labour as a global social problem and argues that it should be located within the broader study of work-based harm
Informalisation in Low‐wage Labour Markets
Informalisation is a process that involves the lowering of the floor for pay and working conditions, sometimes legally and sometimes illegally, and it may occur in both formal and informal labour market settings. This paper examines what informalisation looks like in practice in the UK context. Drawing on the experiences of 62 low‐wage migrant workers, employed in the UK food industry, the paper identifies five facets of ‘informalisation’, namely…
When the snowball fails to roll and the use of ‘horizontal’ networking in qualitative social research
Snowball sampling is frequently advocated and employed by qualitative social researchers. Under certain circumstances, however, it is prone to faltering and even failure. Drawing on two research projects where the snowball failed to roll, the paper identifies reasons for this stasis. It goes on to argue that there are alternative forms of networking that can be developed by the qualitative social researcher in lieu of snowballing. Specifically, w…
Venues and Filters in Managed Migration Policy
The United Kingdom, like many developed world economies, has witnessed unprecedented immigration since the early 1990s. Also in line with other developed world economies, the United Kingdom has adopted a “managed migration” policy paradigm. The paper argues that the operation of this paradigm is best understood with reference to two key concepts: migration policy “venues” and migration policy “filters.” In terms of the former, the paper argues th…
Making the case for Temporary Migrant Worker Programmes
Migration and the Employer Perspective
There is a pervasive economic rationale behind all forms of labour migration. The paper identifies an emergent but still quite limited body of research that engages with and explores this rationale. More specifically, it is interested in research looking at contemporary patterns and processes of migration from the perspective of employers and employment agencies. There has to date been no attempt to review employer‐based research on migration or …
Labour, Migration and the Spatial Fix
The paper argues that David Harvey's (1981) concept of the “spatial fix” ( Antipode 13(3):1–12) can help us to understand contemporary labour migration. According to Harvey, the spatial fix is a response by capital to periodic crises that may involve both ex situ (finding new markets and production sites) and in situ solutions (importing and/ or improving labour). Drawing on experiences in the UK food industry, via 37 employer interviews, I show …
Migrant–Local Hiring Queues in the UK Food Industry
The paper argues that a clear migrant–local hiring queue has emerged at the bottom of the UK labour market since EU enlargement (in 2004 and 2007). The hiring queue reflects a preference amongst low‐wage employers in the UK food industry for newly arrived A8 and A2 migrants and related prejudice towards would‐be domestic workers. Using interview and survey evidence – from 37 horticultural growers/processors and 268 farmers, respectively – we desc…
Migrant Assimilation in Europe
The paper advances our empirical and theoretical understanding of migrant assimilation. It does so by focusing on a very particular group of individuals who appear more likely than other migrant types to “go native.” We call these individuals “mixed nationality relationship migrants” (i.e., migrants who have committed to a life outside their home country because of the presence of a foreign partner). The paper argues that the transnational family…
The community morphology of skilled migration
Splitting Concepts
A common presupposition in the concepts literature is that concepts constitute a singular natural kind. If, on the contrary, concepts split into more than one kind, this literature needs to be recast in terms of other kinds of mental representation. We offer two new arguments that concepts, in fact, divide into different kinds: ( a ) concepts split because different kinds of mental representation, processed independently, must be posited to expla…
The Social Morphology of Skilled Migration
Since the late 1980s, international skill mobility has become a topic of academic enquiry, examined from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Economic theorisation has centred on the elite professional migrant moving within corporate spheres of influence concentrated on ‘world cities’ such as London, New York and Paris. Whilst accepting the value of this work—particularly in terms of its contribution to the broader re-theorisation of migration…
Transnational exchanges amongst skilled British migrants in Paris
The transnational literature encompasses a bewildering array of immigrant groups and covers a diverse range of issues. Having said this, migration researchers have tended to ignore skilled immigrants and the everyday transnational communities and networks that they form. The paper addresses this research gap through an in‐depth, qualitative analysis of British expatriates in Ile‐de‐France – based upon 36 semi‐structured interviews and ten months …
The Social Morphology of Skilled Migration
Since the late 1980s, international skill mobility has become a topic of academic enquiry, examined from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Economic theorisation has centred on the elite professional migrant moving within corporate spheres of influence concentrated on ‘world cities’ such as London, New York and Paris. Whilst accepting the value of this work—particularly in terms of its contribution to the broader re-theorisation of migration…
Labour, Migration and the Spatial Fix
The paper argues that David Harvey's (1981) concept of the “spatial fix” ( Antipode 13(3):1–12) can help us to understand contemporary labour migration. According to Harvey, the spatial fix is a response by capital to periodic crises that may involve both ex situ (finding new markets and production sites) and in situ solutions (importing and/ or improving labour). Drawing on experiences in the UK food industry, via 37 employer interviews, I show …
The community morphology of skilled migration
Migrant–Local Hiring Queues in the UK Food Industry
The paper argues that a clear migrant–local hiring queue has emerged at the bottom of the UK labour market since EU enlargement (in 2004 and 2007). The hiring queue reflects a preference amongst low‐wage employers in the UK food industry for newly arrived A8 and A2 migrants and related prejudice towards would‐be domestic workers. Using interview and survey evidence – from 37 horticultural growers/processors and 268 farmers, respectively – we desc…
Praised, prized, yet penalised
When the snowball fails to roll and the use of ‘horizontal’ networking in qualitative social research
Snowball sampling is frequently advocated and employed by qualitative social researchers. Under certain circumstances, however, it is prone to faltering and even failure. Drawing on two research projects where the snowball failed to roll, the paper identifies reasons for this stasis. It goes on to argue that there are alternative forms of networking that can be developed by the qualitative social researcher in lieu of snowballing. Specifically, w…
Transnational exchanges amongst skilled British migrants in Paris
The transnational literature encompasses a bewildering array of immigrant groups and covers a diverse range of issues. Having said this, migration researchers have tended to ignore skilled immigrants and the everyday transnational communities and networks that they form. The paper addresses this research gap through an in‐depth, qualitative analysis of British expatriates in Ile‐de‐France – based upon 36 semi‐structured interviews and ten months …
Migration and the Employer Perspective
There is a pervasive economic rationale behind all forms of labour migration. The paper identifies an emergent but still quite limited body of research that engages with and explores this rationale. More specifically, it is interested in research looking at contemporary patterns and processes of migration from the perspective of employers and employment agencies. There has to date been no attempt to review employer‐based research on migration or …
Splitting Concepts
A common presupposition in the concepts literature is that concepts constitute a singular natural kind. If, on the contrary, concepts split into more than one kind, this literature needs to be recast in terms of other kinds of mental representation. We offer two new arguments that concepts, in fact, divide into different kinds: ( a ) concepts split because different kinds of mental representation, processed independently, must be posited to expla…
Making the case for Temporary Migrant Worker Programmes
Migrant Assimilation in Europe
The paper advances our empirical and theoretical understanding of migrant assimilation. It does so by focusing on a very particular group of individuals who appear more likely than other migrant types to “go native.” We call these individuals “mixed nationality relationship migrants” (i.e., migrants who have committed to a life outside their home country because of the presence of a foreign partner). The paper argues that the transnational family…
Constraining labour
This article argues that many low-wage migrants moving to work in rural areas of the developed world end up in very specific and precarious employment and housing contexts: working in temporary/seasonal jobs within horticultural labour markets and often living in employer-provided tied accommodation. This context-which we profile by drawing on qualitative case study evidence from Norway, the UK and the US-makes integration virtually impossible. I…
Informalisation in Low‐wage Labour Markets
Informalisation is a process that involves the lowering of the floor for pay and working conditions, sometimes legally and sometimes illegally, and it may occur in both formal and informal labour market settings. This paper examines what informalisation looks like in practice in the UK context. Drawing on the experiences of 62 low‐wage migrant workers, employed in the UK food industry, the paper identifies five facets of ‘informalisation’, namely…
The Mobility-Immobility Dynamic and the 'Fixing' of Migrants' Labour Power
Low-wage labour migration from lower- to higher-income economies has become a precondition for capital accumulation. As a part of this, neoliberal actors (businesses and states) strive to actively produce migrants with a strong work ethic. They do this in numerous ways. In this paper, we draw upon labour process theory to argue that a 'mobility-immobility dynamic' is a major way capital now controls precarious workers. The mobility-immobility dyn…
The entanglement of employers and political elites in migration policymaking
Background: Following Brexit, and the ending of freedom of movement, labour supply crises have emerged in the UK. The paper focuses on the horticultural sector, where these crises have been particularly pronounced, with fears of crops being left to rot in the fields now commonplace. Aims and objectives: To examine the scale and nature of employer pressure on government with respect to UK low-wage migration policymaking in the period (2016–2020) f…
Venues and Filters in Managed Migration Policy
The United Kingdom, like many developed world economies, has witnessed unprecedented immigration since the early 1990s. Also in line with other developed world economies, the United Kingdom has adopted a “managed migration” policy paradigm. The paper argues that the operation of this paradigm is best understood with reference to two key concepts: migration policy “venues” and migration policy “filters.” In terms of the former, the paper argues th…
Harvest work, migration, and the structured phenomenology of time
The paper draws on Rosa’s three dimensions of the structured phenomenology of time - daily time, longer time, and historical time - as a conceptual lens to analyse the lived experiences and structural framing of temporary farm work in the UK and to address the question: how is it that short-term precarious work remains the accepted solution for agricultural work even under conditions that challenge the status quo. We draw on qualitative research …
Engineering the Revolution
Transnational exchanges amongst skilled British migrants in Paris
The transnational literature encompasses a bewildering array of immigrant groups and covers a diverse range of issues. Having said this, migration researchers have tended to ignore skilled immigrants and the everyday transnational communities and networks that they form. The paper addresses this research gap through an in‐depth, qualitative analysis of British expatriates in Ile‐de‐France – based upon 36 semi‐structured interviews and ten months …
Splitting Concepts
A common presupposition in the concepts literature is that concepts constitute a singular natural kind. If, on the contrary, concepts split into more than one kind, this literature needs to be recast in terms of other kinds of mental representation. We offer two new arguments that concepts, in fact, divide into different kinds: ( a ) concepts split because different kinds of mental representation, processed independently, must be posited to expla…
The Social Morphology of Skilled Migration
Since the late 1980s, international skill mobility has become a topic of academic enquiry, examined from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Economic theorisation has centred on the elite professional migrant moving within corporate spheres of influence concentrated on ‘world cities’ such as London, New York and Paris. Whilst accepting the value of this work—particularly in terms of its contribution to the broader re-theorisation of migration…
The community morphology of skilled migration
Migrant Assimilation in Europe
The paper advances our empirical and theoretical understanding of migrant assimilation. It does so by focusing on a very particular group of individuals who appear more likely than other migrant types to “go native.” We call these individuals “mixed nationality relationship migrants” (i.e., migrants who have committed to a life outside their home country because of the presence of a foreign partner). The paper argues that the transnational family…
Migrant–Local Hiring Queues in the UK Food Industry
The paper argues that a clear migrant–local hiring queue has emerged at the bottom of the UK labour market since EU enlargement (in 2004 and 2007). The hiring queue reflects a preference amongst low‐wage employers in the UK food industry for newly arrived A8 and A2 migrants and related prejudice towards would‐be domestic workers. Using interview and survey evidence – from 37 horticultural growers/processors and 268 farmers, respectively – we desc…
Migration and the Employer Perspective
There is a pervasive economic rationale behind all forms of labour migration. The paper identifies an emergent but still quite limited body of research that engages with and explores this rationale. More specifically, it is interested in research looking at contemporary patterns and processes of migration from the perspective of employers and employment agencies. There has to date been no attempt to review employer‐based research on migration or …
Labour, Migration and the Spatial Fix
The paper argues that David Harvey's (1981) concept of the “spatial fix” ( Antipode 13(3):1–12) can help us to understand contemporary labour migration. According to Harvey, the spatial fix is a response by capital to periodic crises that may involve both ex situ (finding new markets and production sites) and in situ solutions (importing and/ or improving labour). Drawing on experiences in the UK food industry, via 37 employer interviews, I show …
Making the case for Temporary Migrant Worker Programmes
Labour Exploitation and Work-Based Harm
This book provides a critical understanding of contemporary forced labour as a global social problem and argues that it should be located within the broader study of work-based harm
Informalisation in Low‐wage Labour Markets
Informalisation is a process that involves the lowering of the floor for pay and working conditions, sometimes legally and sometimes illegally, and it may occur in both formal and informal labour market settings. This paper examines what informalisation looks like in practice in the UK context. Drawing on the experiences of 62 low‐wage migrant workers, employed in the UK food industry, the paper identifies five facets of ‘informalisation’, namely…
When the snowball fails to roll and the use of ‘horizontal’ networking in qualitative social research
Snowball sampling is frequently advocated and employed by qualitative social researchers. Under certain circumstances, however, it is prone to faltering and even failure. Drawing on two research projects where the snowball failed to roll, the paper identifies reasons for this stasis. It goes on to argue that there are alternative forms of networking that can be developed by the qualitative social researcher in lieu of snowballing. Specifically, w…
Venues and Filters in Managed Migration Policy
The United Kingdom, like many developed world economies, has witnessed unprecedented immigration since the early 1990s. Also in line with other developed world economies, the United Kingdom has adopted a “managed migration” policy paradigm. The paper argues that the operation of this paradigm is best understood with reference to two key concepts: migration policy “venues” and migration policy “filters.” In terms of the former, the paper argues th…
International Labour Migration and Food Production in Rural Europe
Since Hoggart and Mendoza's article on ‘African immigrant workers in Spanish agriculture’ in Sociologia Ruralis in 1999 there has been a proliferation of interest in labour migration to/in rural Europe. It is now clear that the rural realm has been, and is being, transformed by immigration, and that low‐wage migrant workers in the food production industry are playing a particularly prominent role in this transformation. This article takes stock o…
The psychology of bio-banding
CONTEXT: Bio-banding is the process of grouping players by their maturational status rather than chronological age. It is designed to limit the impact of maturational timing on talent identification and development and expose early and late maturing players to new learning experiences and challenges. A common criticism of bio-banding is that it does not consider age related differences in psychosocial and behaviour development. OBJECTIVE: The pur…
Praised, prized, yet penalised
Labour migration, precarious work and liminality
Liminality, as originally conceived by anthropologists, is a temporary ‘in-between’ state that acts as a bridge, connecting old roles to new roles, and resulting in a desired new state. The article applies this concept to precarious migrant work. We argue, specifically, that migrants in low-wage and insecure work occupy four main liminal realms following their cross-border mobility: the temporal, the financial, the social and the legal. We explor…
The entanglement of employers and political elites in migration policymaking
Background: Following Brexit, and the ending of freedom of movement, labour supply crises have emerged in the UK. The paper focuses on the horticultural sector, where these crises have been particularly pronounced, with fears of crops being left to rot in the fields now commonplace. Aims and objectives: To examine the scale and nature of employer pressure on government with respect to UK low-wage migration policymaking in the period (2016–2020) f…
Constraining labour
This article argues that many low-wage migrants moving to work in rural areas of the developed world end up in very specific and precarious employment and housing contexts: working in temporary/seasonal jobs within horticultural labour markets and often living in employer-provided tied accommodation. This context-which we profile by drawing on qualitative case study evidence from Norway, the UK and the US-makes integration virtually impossible. I…
Class, Migration And Bordering at Work
This paper draws on symbolic bordering perspectives as a conceptual frame to highlight practices that shape the reproduction, justification, masking and distancing of precarious work. Via a case-study of the UK harvest labour market in 2020–2021, at a time of Brexit and COVID-19, we use media, employer and locally-based worker insights to show how us–them bordering practices are embedded within low-wage horticultural work. Three interrelated ever…
Harvest work, migration, and the structured phenomenology of time
The paper draws on Rosa’s three dimensions of the structured phenomenology of time - daily time, longer time, and historical time - as a conceptual lens to analyse the lived experiences and structural framing of temporary farm work in the UK and to address the question: how is it that short-term precarious work remains the accepted solution for agricultural work even under conditions that challenge the status quo. We draw on qualitative research …
Virtual Reality in Cancer Care
Virtual reality (VR) technology has evolved from entertainment to significant applications in healthcare and education. Despite its potential, there is limited research on the role of VR in cancer care. This study investigates VR’s ability to simulate the chemotherapy process, aiming to enhance patients’ knowledge and mitigate anxiety associated with chemotherapy. Utilizing a two-arm, mixed-methods pre/post-survey design, the study measured chang…
The Alienation-Insulation Dynamic and the Low-Wage Migrant Work Ethic
Low-wage labour migrants moving from lower- to higher-income countries have been celebrated for their strong work ethic over recent decades. The paper draws on qualitative insights from European horticulture to explore why low-wage migrants work as hard as they do. We centre our analysis on an 'alienation-insulation' dynamic. Specifically, we show how migrants are particularly alienated in ways that are different to that of the immobile working c…
The Mobility-Immobility Dynamic and the 'Fixing' of Migrants' Labour Power
Low-wage labour migration from lower- to higher-income economies has become a precondition for capital accumulation. As a part of this, neoliberal actors (businesses and states) strive to actively produce migrants with a strong work ethic. They do this in numerous ways. In this paper, we draw upon labour process theory to argue that a 'mobility-immobility dynamic' is a major way capital now controls precarious workers. The mobility-immobility dyn…
Political science (20 works) · Law (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Economics (13 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (13 works) · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Labour economics (11 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (10 works) · Geography (9 works)