ABSTRACT
This chapter traces key trends in the theorisation of migrant work in Australia in the context of changing migration policies, and offers some critical reflections on the trajectory of Australian scholarship in an international context. It also traces the shift from neoclassical to historical-structural analyses, and discusses the influences of the cultural turn, feminism and transnationalism on studies of migrant work. The chapter concentrates on sociological analyses but makes reference throughout to contributions from other disciplines such as political economy and political science, labour law and employment studies. It argues that scholarship on migrant work in Australia has furthermore been shaped by the dominant migration-for-settlement paradigm that underpinned migration policies until the 1990s, and by the methodological nationalism that has characterised migration research overall for a long time. The chapter concludes with reflections on gaps and future directions in Australian scholarship on migrant work.
