Dr Hannah Schling

Geography, Queen Mary University London

Mentor: Prof Adrian Smith

Project title: Migrant Workers and Dormitory Labour Regimes: Social Reproduction, Social Difference and Temporalities of Labour

Worker dormitories are key sites in the Czech Republic’s export-oriented electronics manufacturing sector. Housing a multinational migrant workforce from Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Vietnam and Mongolia on differentiated employment statuses, worker dormitories highlight contemporary struggles over precarious employment and exploitation, articulations of labour regimes and migration regimes, and vital conceptual and empirical questions of social reproduction. Contributing new empirical material on an under-explored labour regime, my doctoral research centred ethnographic research in workers dormitories in two Czech industrial cities, in turn developing key insights in feminist economic and labour geography. The ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship will be used to publish and disseminate my PhD research in three journal articles and a manuscript project proposal; facilitate scholarly debate and exchange through two organised workshops; and undertake social impact activities with migrant and worker organisations in the Czech Republic.