Romanian Migrant Workers in the German Construction Industry: A Study Based on Social Classifications Theory

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ferdinand Sutterlüty
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 466017966

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

Romanian construction workers regard their engagement in the German construction industry as ‘slave labor’ and their accommodation as ‘snake holes’. Why are these workers willing to do such labor despite these negative evaluations? Our ethnographic research project adopted a classification sociology perspective and focused on the classification patterns that form their willingness. Our research objective was to develop a theory to explain this willingness. It also explored the consequences for the workers’ labor contexts often characterized by illegal practices. To this end, we followed the work evaluations of Romanian construction workers from their accommodation in Germany to their Romanian home villages, to which they regularly return. In particular, we focused on a) the preconditions of this migrant work and its consequences for their employment context, b) the claims these migrant workers have on their labor, c) the role of classifications in their labor conflicts, and d) the classifications of their context of origin. In our 30-month field research, we first came across the condensed classifications ‘slave labor’ and ‘snake hole’, whose layers of meaning we analyzed. We then reconstructed six patterns of classification established in the social microcosm of these workers, each of which provides a rationale for the labels ‘slave labor’ or ‘snake hole’. These patterns are linked to the Romanian context, as are the discourses and practices that support these evaluations. The handshake agreements between employers and employees are one of these practices that structured the course of conflicts in the labor disputes we studied. By following classifications in Romanian workers’ labor and living contexts along the lines of their willingness to work under precarious conditions on German construction sites, our study unveils the classificatory preconditions of widely unlawful work in the transnational field.

Publications

• Im Schatten der Neubauten, in: OXI Wirtschaft anders denken, Nr. 3, 15. März
  Botorog, A.
  
• Der verdeckte Widerstand rumänischer Bauarbeiter in Echsberg, in: Sutterlüty, F. & Poppinga, A. (Hg.): Verdeckter Widerstand in der demokratischen Gesellschaft. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus: 239–261. ISBN 9783593515359
  Sperneac-Wolfer, C.
  
• ICT and Labor Resistance amongst Romanian Migrant Workers in Germany. Jahrestagung der Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) / ESCOCITE, Cholula, México, 10. Dezember
  Sperneac-Wolfer, C.
  
• Die multiple Prekarität rumänischer Bauarbeiter in Deutschland. in: Sozial.Geschichte Online 34: 189–217
  Sperneac-Wolfer, C.
  
• Editors’ Note. Sociologie Romaneasca, 21(1), 9-17.
  Buzoianu, Cătălin; Sperneac-Wolfer, Christian & Țoc, Sebastian
  
• Für manche überwiegt die Angst, arbeitslos zu sein, in: Jungle World
  Bor, L. & Sperneac-Wolfer, C.
  
• Romania’s societal transformation and labour struggles abroad – how missing income opportunities and the fear of dismissal inform practices of labour resistance. SEER, 26(1), 47-64.
  Sperneac-Wolfer, Christian
  
• Vom falschen Versprechen guter Arbeit, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23. August, S. 12
  Sperneac-Wolfer, C. & Sutterlüty, F.
  
• ‘Slaves’ without Coercion? Classifications of Work and Their Social Effects amongst Romanian Migrant Workers. 4th Conference of the Romanian Network of Migration Studies (RoMig), Bucharest, 8. September
  Sperneac-Wolfer, C.
  
• ‘Slaves’ without Coercion? Classifications of Work and Their Social Effects amongst Romanian Migrant Workers. IMISCOE, Warschau, Polen, digital, 6. Juli
  Sperneac-Wolfer, C.
  
• ‘Slaves’ without coercion? Work-related classification patterns among Romanian migrant workers. SEER, 26(2), 189-208.
  Sperneac-Wolfer, Christian; Botorog, Andrei & Sutterlüty, Ferdinand
  
• ‘Slaves’ Without Coercion? Work-Related Classification Patterns Among Romanian Migrant Workers. Sociologie Romaneasca, 21(1), 55-74.
  Sperneac-Wolfer, Christian; Botorog, Andrei & Sutterlüty, Ferdinand
  
• Aufzeichnungen mit Christian Sperneac-Wolfer. Beitrag in der Podcast-Reihe „Aufzeichnungen“ des Instituts für Sozialforschung Frankfurt am Main
  Poppinga, A. & Sperneac-Wolfer, C.
  
• Morality Under Construction. Reasons and Processes why Romanian Construction Workers in Germany Stay with their Employers and Rebel Against them. ILPC, Göttingen, 4. April
  Sperneac-Wolfer, C.
  
• Von „Arbeitssklaven“ und „Schlangennestern“. Folgen des Klassifikationsrepertoires rumänischer Bauarbeiter in Deutschland. DGS Sektionskonferenz, Osnabrück, 24. September
  Sperneac-Wolfer, C.