New Migrants Organizing and Civil Society: Insights from Low-Paid Latin American Workers' Initiatives in London

Civil Society is a heterogeneous field comprising an array of diverse organisations, groups, networks, associations and initiatives. It is often attributed Salvationist functions whether from a neo-liberal or Gramscian perspective at the time when the state’s role and presence is changing and shrinking. Yet these debates have limited empirical grounding and research documenting the role, challenges and opportunities of specific civil society initiatives is fragmented. Furthermore, academic research tends to see the realm of civil society and ‘the community’ as analytically separate from other important arenas such as the workplace. Migrant workers are a valuable vantage point to explore current transformations in civil society at a time of crisis and its role in fostering social justice, social cohesion and a fairer society. They perform an important role in the economy yet they are constructed as one of the key social problems of our time in current public and political discourse. Crucially, there are sectors of British society that are working, often at the grassroots level, to build cohesion from the bottom-up in communities and workplaces. This paper will consider recent innovative campaigns for workers’ rights involving community and workplace organizations in which low-paid precarious migrant workers played a central role.