Bringing class back in: class consciousness and solidarity among Chinese migrant workers in Italy and the UK

Wu, Bin; Liu, Hong

Abstract

The growing literature on international migration has a tendency to emphasize homogenous elements such as shared ethnic background, social network and cultural similarities in shaping immigrants' identity. We argue that this underestimates the differences (and sometimes conflicts) of interests between ethnic employers and migrant workers and that class needs to be brought back into the studies of ethnic relationship. Based upon findings from a series of fieldwork in Veneto, Italy and East Midlands, UK, this article contends that class consciousness has co-existed, sometimes uneasily, alongside co-ethnic and cultural relationships among Chinese migrant workers and has played an important part in the making of new Chinese communities. By analysing the perspectives of Chinese migrant workers and their relationship with co-ethnic entrepreneurs, this article illustrates complex factors behind the formation, diffusion and development of class consciousness among Chinese migrant workers.

Citation

Wu, B., & Liu, H. (2014). Bringing class back in: class consciousness and solidarity among Chinese migrant workers in Italy and the UK. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(8), https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.715660

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jun 11, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 11, 2015
• Journal: Ethnic and Racial Studies
• Print ISSN: 0141-9870
• Electronic ISSN: 1466-4356
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 37
• Issue: 8
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.715660
• Keywords: international migration, Chinese migrant workers, class consciousness, labour standards, class solidarity, transnationalism
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1000262
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2012.715660#.VXhaiflVhBc
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Ethnic and Racial Studies in 2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01419870.2012.715660