International Employment Agencies and Migrant Flexiwork in an Enlarged European Union

In the literature on migrant networks, the constitutive role of employers and recruiting actors remains underexposed, despite a persistent economic demand for migrant labour which is cheap, readily available and easily dismissed. Aiming to further understand how the recruitment of migrant labour by employers is organised, this paper focuses on the example of international employment agencies (IEAs). It is argued that these agencies are currently the anchors of the circular labour migration between Poland and the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, temporary staffing is a fully legal and common phenomenon, allowing agencies to transfer part of the Polish employment from the underground to a more visible presence. When viewed through the lens of geographical and work-organisation literature on the issue of labour flexibility, these migrant workers could be named migrant flexiworkers. Apart from analysing the origins and current functioning of the IEAs, the paper discusses their development prospects and other more normative aspects of migrant flexiwork.

Keywords

• International Employment Agencies,
• Labour Mobility,
• Labour Flexibility,
• The Netherlands,
• Poland