24-25 May, Duisburg: Workshop “Spaces of Migration and Labour”

“The number of foreign workers has more than doubled in the last 10 years (BA 2023) and the German labor
market is proving to be relatively stable and receptive – despite the polycrises that have been noted. The
Institute for Employment Research (IER) anticipates an annual demand of 400,000 workers. However, the
new German employment miracle is put into perspective when one takes a look at the structures of the labor
market.
Migrant workers are far overrepresented in precarious employment (BA 2023) and this does not even include
all the forms of employment via work contracts, solo or bogus self-employment, secondment and, of course,
the often fluid transitions from formal to informal employment relationships (SVR 2023). The care sector, the
cleaning industry, the meat industry and the construction industry are sectors in which precarious
employment of foreign workers accounts for a significant – albeit difficult to count share of the workforce, due
to fluid and often informal employment relationships.”

Quote from the program of the event.

There has been criticism that this event is academic and forgets (at least partly) to listen to the workers voices directly and to bring them together to bild up migrant workers networks. We attend this event to meet people, to link up and to talk about our Migranti-Network.

Update May 29th 2024

Another quote from the program:

“The aim of this workshop is to create space for exchange between intellectual practice-based and first-hand perspectives that can carve out a common frame for understanding the current constellations of labour and of labour and migration in Germany and beyond and outline the political tools to address these.“

The doubts were unfounded that it would be basicly an academic meeting. The participants were truely mixed and the practice based and first hand perspectives played a central role in the workshop. The contributions from the initiatives were inspiring and we made great contacts. The Bremen based neighbourhood initiative “Solidarisch in Gröpelingen” (which is part of the Migranti-Network) was one of the highlights of this event. They managed to build up grassroot solidarity structures in this quarter with a high level of poverty and this project is rooted in the migrant community. (https://solidarisch-in-groepelingen.de/)

Thanks to Stoliponovo in Europa, especially to Polina and to everyone who made this event possible!