Civic Stratification and Social Positioning: CEE Labour Migrants without a Work Permit

Civic stratification is a relatively new dimension of social inequality in contemporary Western societies. States grant, or deny, different legal statuses and related social and economic rights. European Union (EU) nationals, for instance, have full rights to settle and work in other EU countries. M...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population space and place 2015-08, Vol.21 (6), p.518-534
Main Authors: Snel, Erik, Faber, Marije, Engbersen, Godfried
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bulgaria
Categories
Central Europe
civic stratification
Eastern Europe
Economics
European Union
Housing
Inequalities
Labour migration
Legal
Member states
Migrant Workers
Netherlands
Occupational status
Poland
Position measurement
Rights
Romania
semi-compliance
social position
Social status
Social stratification
Stratification
Western Society
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Summary:Civic stratification is a relatively new dimension of social inequality in contemporary Western societies. States grant, or deny, different legal statuses and related social and economic rights. European Union (EU) nationals, for instance, have full rights to settle and work in other EU countries. Most EU countries have made an exception for nationals of new member states such as Romania and Bulgaria, who joined the EU in 2007. As in the past, Romanian and Bulgarian nationals need a work permit to work in other EU countries. However, many Romanians and Bulgarians came to countries such as the Netherlands without a work permit. This study examines what this ambivalent legal position of many Romanian and Bulgarian nationals means for their social position. Using data from a survey among 654 Central and Eastern European labour migrants, we distinguish four migrant categories: (1) Romanians and Bulgarians with a work permit; (2) Romanians and Bulgarians without a work permit; (3) Romanians and Bulgarians who do not need a work permit; and (4) Polish labour migrants who hold a different legal position. We use three measures of the social position of migrants: occupational status, earned monthly incomes, and housing conditions. We find that Romanians and Bulgarians with a work permit (‘compliant migrants’) score better on all three indicators than Romanians and Bulgarians without a work permit (‘semi‐compliant migrants’). Polish labour migrants have a comparable marginal position in the Netherlands with that of many Romanians and Bulgarians without a work permit. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:1544-8444
1544-8452
DOI:10.1002/psp.1846