Understanding and Framing the Questions of Trade Union Responses to Immigration and Social Inclusion

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the challenges of studying and trying to understand the impact of new forms of immigration on labour and employment relations, considering questions of context and the diverse meanings and strategies of solidarity and inclusion. Having outlined the debates, we then turn our attention to the specific challenges that emerge when we begin to compare the way trade union-immigrant relations have evolved in different national contexts. We argue that this comparative dimension allows us to explain the way different sets of relationships and strategic links between the actors involved may emerge. We put forward an analytical framework for mapping the current and evolving responses of trade unions to immigrant workers, which identifies three trade union logics of action: class, race/ethnicity, and social rights.