Exploitation, negotiated consent and moral economies: The everyday politics of boss-worker relations within Vietnamese-run nail salons

How do bosses and workers within ethnic niche businesses negotiate and contest working relations and exploitation amidst shifting political and economic conditions? This article explores the challenges facing recent migrants to the UK working in the rapidly expanding Vietnamese-run nail salon ethnic niche, based on a rich tapestry of ethnographic, interview and online data. The combination of legal precarity and lack of English language skills push marginalised migrants into reliance on co-ethnic bosses, making them liable to exploitation. An everyday political economy analysis, based on rich ethnographic data, reveals how different actors navigate overlapping and conflicting interests amidst a shifting politico-economic environment. The boss-worker balance of power is contingent on external factors including immigration policy changes, supply of migrant workers, economic downturns and geographical location. While nail salon owners and workers use different tactics to improve their bargaining position, they also engage in discursive struggles to justify or contest working norms. This article provides evidence of a neoliberal subjectivity which may challenge traditional Vietnamese patron-client workplace values and threatens to undermine community solidarity.