Introduction

Researchers have long documented the increased reliance of global cities on – and indeed some would argue addiction to – migrant labour (Sassen, 1991; Wills et al, 2010; Spencer, 2011). This is clearly evidenced in the global city of London where, over the past two decades, economic restructuring involving deregulation and sub-contraction, political reform associated with declining access to welfare and the imposition of an increasingly restrictive immigration regime have combined to produce a distinct ‘migrant division of labour’ at the bottom end of the city's economy. While scholars have documented the multiple vulnerabilities that low-paid migrant workers endure in global cities like London, emerging research suggests that these workers have been further marginalised since the onset of a protracted recession from 2008 onwards which has been associated with growing labour market insecurity as well as anti-migrant sentiments (Wills et al, 2010; Datta, 2011). This said, it is also clear that migrant workers’ experiences of the recession vary significantly. In the UK, this is partly attributable to British immigration policies that have progressively entrenched differences between migrant communities, creating distinct hierarchies of labour market and residency rights that particularly distinguish between migrants originating from an expanded European Union (EU) and those coming from poorer parts of the world in the Global South.

Based on extensive research with migrant men and women from EU and non-EU origins employed in London's low-wage economy, this chapter begins by documenting the emergence of a migrant division of labour in London during a period of economic prosperity before considering the implications of the subsequent economic downturn on migrant workers and on the migrant division of labour itself. Drawing on empirical research conducted with Bulgarian and Latin American migrants from a range of countries, it highlights the material spatialities that underpin migration flows to the city as well as the experiences of recession among migrants and how they cope once settled. We argue that while the migrant division of labour remains firmly intact in London during economic downturn, migrants are experiencing even more vulnerability than during the boom years. As a global city going through an economic downturn, London continues to need low-paid, flexible labour to sustain it, with migrants providing this in ever more deleterious circumstances.