Negotiating precarious labour relations: dynamics of vulnerability and reciprocity between Chinese employers and their migrant workers in Santiago, Chile

ABSTRACT

Precarious labour research has highlighted the multidimensional factors shaping migrants’ vulnerability to labour exploitation. This article takes a different approach by attending to the possible reciprocity in labour relations– despite unequal power dynamics– particularly when workplaces are small and involve daily interactions between migrant workers and migrant employers. Methodology is based on observations in Chinese-run retail shops and restaurants in Santiago, and interviews with Chinese employers and their Latin American migrant employees of diverse backgrounds. Proposing the concept of “precarious labour relations”, we examine the independent and shared uncertainties between migrant employers and workers who are differently marginalized through race/migrant status axes in Chile. Analyzing dynamics of hierarchy, (mis)trust, and reciprocity in how these actors negotiate precarity and security as workers and/or migrants, we complicate dichotomies of exploitation and resistance in migrant labour research, by foregrounding the multidimensional relationship between employers and workers when both are racialized migrants and minorities.

KEYWORDS:

• Precarity
• labour relations
• space
• reciprocity
• Chinese employers
• Latin American migrants

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank everyone who participated in this project for their time and patience, as well as thank Chou Wei Hsiu, Constanza Martínez, and Vivi Hsu for their research assistance and transcription work. This article has also benefited from thoughtful feedback from the anonymous reviewer and editors of the journal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT) Chile, Proyecto Posdoctorado number 3170051 and 3160327; and Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT) FONDAP number 15130009.