Protesting theories about immigrant workers : economic change and Sans-Papiers activism in France

Abstract

A wave of protests by undocumented immigrants has swept through France over the past three years, and has pushed the issue of immigration and the changing role of migrant workers in the economy to the fore of the political stage. These protests have brought to light how shifts in the French industrial structure have impacted the way that undocumented immigrants navigate the labor market. In this paper, I use these protests as a window onto how the status of undocumented immigrants in the labor market has changed as French firms and state policy makers have adopted "flexibility" as their new mantra. However, I also draw on them to illustrate the role that undocumented immigrants, through conspicuous and politically poignant appeals for their rights, have played in shaping their labor market position. Finally, my theoretical project in describing this wave of activism is to suggest some of the places where immigration models and industrial relations theory have become brittle and outdated. The paper concludes with the implications that this study raises for policy design.