How the socio-cultural practices of fishing obscure micro-disciplinary, verbal and psychological abuse of migrant fishers in North East Scotland.

Djohari, Natalie and White, Carole ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7741-0444 (2022) How the socio-cultural practices of fishing obscure micro-disciplinary, verbal and psychological abuse of migrant fishers in North East Scotland. Maritime Studies, 21. 19–34. ISSN 2212-9790

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Abstract

In recent decades, part of the UK fishing industry has become increasingly reliant on migrant crew, to fill local crew shortages. With restricted immigration status and invisibility on vessels out at sea, crews are vulnerable to both extreme and mundane forms of control and exploitation. Although the UK is legally addressing the potential for trafficking and forced labour across the fishing industry, more needs to be done to address the potential for micro-disciplinary, psychological, and verbal abuse of non-European Economic Area (non-EEA) crew which remains difficult to evidence. This requires recognition of how non-EEA migrant fishers are made vulnerable by the intersection of socio-cultural practices of fishing with a visa system that anchors immigration status to named vessels, limits movements, and makes changing employers or raising complaints difficult. Taking the 2020 prosecution of a Scottish skipper for abusing Filipino crew as a discursive starting point, we explore how differences in local interpretation of fishing relationships, by skippers and non-EEA crew, reveal limited agreement over what constitutes acceptable behaviour. Drawing on fieldwork in North East Scotland, we argue that the white noise of coarse language, ‘alpha male’ behaviours, and narratives of risk and responsibility that dominate local fishing practice, when combined with scant appreciation of how non-EEA migrant experiences differ from other crew, can serve to obscure migrant crew’s experiences of maltreatment. Greater attention is consequently required to vernacularise migrant crew rights, by making them locally meaningful so that both skippers and crew adequately recognise their responsibility to safeguard non-EEA crew.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: migrant labour,abuse,fishing,labour rights,coastal transformations,abuse,coastal transformations,labour rights,fishing,migrant labour,water science and technology,geography, planning and development,development,aquatic science,management, monitoring, policy and law,sdg 8 - decent work and economic growth,sdg 10 - reduced inequalities ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2312
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Global Environmental Justice
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 11 Nov 2021 02:16
Last Modified: 08 Mar 2024 17:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/82049
DOI: 10.1007/s40152-021-00251-0

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