Chinese Undocumented Migrants in The Hague: Precarity, Work and the Search for Autonomy

This study is about Chinese undocumented migrant workers living in The Hague. The study looks at their living conditions and working situation, and how their ‘illegal’ stay in the country influences their ‘precarity’ and sense of autonomy. Rooted in the belief that more research is needed on undocumented migrants in particular, the study is also aimed at trying to find out how the daily lives of undocumented Chinese migrants exhibit ‘precarity’, in relation to their own experiences of balancing risks with the search for autonomy. The study was based on informal conversations with undocumented migrant workers, most of whom were contacted through Wereldhuis in The Hague, a church-run advisory NGO operates for undocumented people in the city. Through the interviews, and secondary literature, the study was able to reconstruct the historical phases of migration from China to The Netherlands. In addition, informal conversations allowed participants to give feedback on the scope of the study and the study focus. This contextualised my own research on the present-day situation of the undocumented. The key findings were that although undocumented migrants do experience precarity at work, they can help themselves towards greater autonomy through acquiring language skills, and through creating wider social networks. One obstacle they face is that being concentrated in the catering industry, there were few contacts with trade unions for most of the research participants.