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  • Migrants working for migrants: dependence and discourse in Chinese-owned small commercial businesses in South Africa

    Author(s)
    Cooke, FL
    Wood, G
    Saunders, S
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Wood, Geoffery
    Cooke, Fang L.
    Year published
    2021
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    The nature of work and employment relations of small Chinese migrant businesses in South Africa remains largely under-researched, despite the significant growth of these businesses since the 2000s. Based on 90 interviews with Chinese business owners and their African workers, we found that, although employment relations were largely transactional and adversarial, they sometimes also incorporated symbiotic accommodations with third-country undocumented immigrant workers and pockets of de facto responsible autonomy. Material imbalances of power were notably alleviated through workers’ superior local language skills and cultural ...
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    The nature of work and employment relations of small Chinese migrant businesses in South Africa remains largely under-researched, despite the significant growth of these businesses since the 2000s. Based on 90 interviews with Chinese business owners and their African workers, we found that, although employment relations were largely transactional and adversarial, they sometimes also incorporated symbiotic accommodations with third-country undocumented immigrant workers and pockets of de facto responsible autonomy. Material imbalances of power were notably alleviated through workers’ superior local language skills and cultural familiarity, enabling them to carve out space as intermediaries with customers and other local stakeholders to counter the power of employers. However, this autonomy is relatively small in scope, in large part due to the precarious nature of the employment and the workers’ immigration status.
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    Journal Title
    International Journal of Human Resource Management
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1949625
    Note
    This publication has been entered as an advanced online version in Griffith Research Online.
    Subject
    Marketing
    Policy and administration
    Human resources and industrial relations
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/406674
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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