The role of recruitment agencies in imagining and producing the 'good' migrant

Bibliographic Data

ID3977259
AuthorsA Findlay (0000-0002-2517-6999, University of St Andrews), David Mccollum (0000-0001-8716-6852, University of St Andrews), Sergei Shubin (0000-0001-5554-816X, Swansea University), Elina Apsite-Berina (0000-0001-5537-5879, University of Latvia), Elina Apsite, Zaiga Krišjāne (0000-0002-3422-1958, University of Latvia)
Year2013
Volume14
Issue2
Pages145-167
Publication date2013-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649365.2012.737008
OpenAlexW2058592892
LanguageEN
Citations received93
References cited50

This paper focuses on representations of labour migrants and interrogates how such imaginaries shape migrant recruitment and employment regimes. The recruitment and employment of labour migrants inevitably involves a range of knowledge practices that affect who is recruited, from where and for what purposes. In particular, this paper seeks to advance understandings of how images of 'bodily goodness' are represented graphically and how perceptions of migrant workers influence the recruitment of workers to the UK from Latvia. The research described in this paper is based on interviews with recruitment agencies, employers and policy makers carried out in Latvia in 2011. The analysis results in a schema of the 'filtering' processes that are enacted to 'produce' the 'ideal' migrant worker. An important original contribution of this paper is that it details how recruitment agencies, in not only engaging in the spatially selective recruitment of labour from certain places but also drawing socially constructed boundaries around migrant bodies, play a key part in shaping migration geographies both in sending and destination countries

Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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