Undocumented Migrants, Ethnic Enclaves and Networks: Opportunities, traps or class-based constructs

UndocNet, a two-year project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, will be holding its end of research project conference in London on Friday 6 December 2013.

UndocNet has been exploring the labour market experiences and aspirations of 55 irregular migrants in London from three countries of origin - Bangladesh, China and Turkey (including Kurds) - and 24 minority ethnic entrepreneurs employing people from these three groups. The context of the research has been the economic downturn, increasingly restrictive immigration controls, raids on businesses suspected of employing people without correct documentation and the deportation of irregular migrants. Within this contemporary context the project has been concerned with understanding decisions to use or not to use social capital in the form of co-ethnic networks in the search for work and for workers, in or out of ethnic enclaves, from the perspectives of workers and their employers. The research has investigated the ways in which migrants and their employers use their social networks and other resources in relation to work and the ways in which working relationships operate within frameworks of ethnicity, class and gender.

The conference plenary sessions will be addressed by four leading academics in the field:

• Professor Bernard Ryan, School of Law, University of Leicester
• Professor Bridget Anderson, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford
• Professor Louise Ryan, Social Policy Research Centre, Middlesex University
• Dr Hannah Lewis, School of Geography, University of Leeds

From the UndocNet project, Alice Bloch, Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, together with Sonia McKay, Professor of European Socio-Legal Studies and Dr Leena Kumarappan, both at the Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University, will present the key findings arising from the project.

Details of the project, the conference and call for papers are available at: http://www.undocnet.org

Registration is free but places are limited, contact information: L.Kumarappan@londonmet.ac.uk.

Registration deadline: 15 November 2013

Conference flyer (Download)