Labour representation and trade unionism of immigrant workers: the cases of five immigrant labour communities in Athens

Theodoros Fouskas, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens - Greece

The paper illustrates the influence of work and employment in casual labour markets upon the collective affiliation, organization and representation of migrant workers in Greece, through 104 life stories of members and non-members of communities that appear to emerge from work and employment. The analysis focuses on the case studies of the Albanian, Bangladeshi, Egyptian, Palestinian and Filipino workers in Athens and the role that work community plays for their integration into the Greek society and the labour market as well as for aspects of labour representation, social solidarity and identity formation. Moreover the research analyses how far work and employment affects, or not, the formal procedures of working conditions and distantiates them from the rise of forms of collective action and organization. According to the cases of Albanian, Bangladeshi, Egyptian, Palestinian and Filipino workers studied and analyzed through in-depth interviews, the problem identified is that the consequences of work and employment in casual labour markets influence the collective organization of migrants not only in the level of production, economy and labour representation but also in the one of work, culture and social identity.