Risky Migrants?

Abstract

Research on financial exclusion among migrant workers is scarce. A growing presence in advanced economies, migrant workers’ experiences of financial exclusion are shaped by a broad range of ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ side factors. In particular, this article argues that migrants’ understandings and management of risk are critical in shaping their engagement with financial services and products. Drawing upon empirical research conducted with low-paid migrant workers in London, this article explores the everyday financial practices and lives of low-paid migrant workers; the strategies which they devise in order to cope with financial exclusion as well as focusing specifically on self-exclusion as a strategy which signifies a particular understanding and management of risk.