(Im)Possible selves in the Swiss labour market: Temporalities, immigration regulations, and the production of precarious workers. Issue 125 (October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stingl, Isabella
• Is Part Of: Geoforum. Issue 125(2021)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 8
• Publication Date: 2021-10
• Subjects: Migration -- Precarious work -- Temporalities -- Possible selves -- Waiting -- Switzerland; Geography -- Periodicals; Human geography -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Periodicals; Sciences de la terre -- Périodiques; Géographie -- Périodiques; Géographie humaine -- Périodiques; Aménagement du territoire -- Périodiques; Earth sciences; Geography; Human geography; Regional planning; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 304.205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.06.016
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0016-7185

Abstract

Highlights: Migrants can lower their expectations of working life after settlement. State-imposed temporal regulations conflict with migrants' desire to progress. Experiences of waiting permeate multiple post-arrival episodes. Acceptance of precarious work is linked to temporal conflicts after migration. Abstract: This paper uses a temporal perspective to explore the relationship between immigration regulations and the production of precarious workers. More specifically, I draw on the concept of possible selves to analyse biographical interviews with regard to the changing imaginations of possible labour market outcomes among refugees in Switzerland. Building on a growing body of literature exploring the times and temporalities of migration and border control, I shed light on how these imaginaries are co-constituted by multiple temporal regulations that are mobilised by different arms of the immigration system and often conflict with refugees' visions of progress. In this context, I show how individuals tend to downgrade their expectations of working life and accept precarious working conditions in order to minimise these conflicts. By focusing on refugees' experiences of waiting for, obtaining, and changing status, I further illuminate how these conflicts are not automatically resolved by moving forward within the periodised immigration system. Consequently, I argue that the identified practices of downsizing, postponing, and redirecting possible selves not only serve as strategies to resolve the gap between desired self and immediate reality but also need to be understood as expressions of extended waiting.