Unpacking the Category of Migrant Workers in Trade Union Research: A Multi-Level Approach to Migrant Intersectionalities

This article reflects on the theoretical and empirical challenges that arise when researching trade union strategies towards migrant workers. By bringing together the debates on migration and intersectionality in Employment Relations, the authors highlight the problems of conflating different experiences of migrants under a homogenous view of the ‘migrant worker’ and rather suggest to (1) take account of ‘migrant intersectionalities’ – including the category of migration status among other categorical differences in the workforce, and (2) to do so at different levels of the analysis (micro, meso and macro). This multi-level, intersectional approach we argue leads to a more nuanced understanding of the realities of migration at a time of major societal challenges for organized labour.