Employer strategies for undermining migrants’ power resources: Evidence from the Danish construction sector

Abstract

In this article, the authors investigate how employer power is enacted and exercised in everyday processes at a time of non-conflict from the perspective of migrant workers. Relying on qualitative analysis of more than 120 migrants and professionals from the Danish construction sector, the authors demonstrate the various ways in which employers disrupt and deactivate worker power resources through gradual and consistent efforts to isolate migrant workers, create dependencies and wedges between them and hinder migrants’ opportunities to use their voice and gain knowledge, to the detriment of collectivism and unionism.