On 30 January 2024 the EBoP team came together to discuss “Workers without Borders – posted work and precarity in the EU” (2018) by Ines Wagner – a book touching on the very essence of what lies at the heart of the EBoP project, namely the unequal treatment of distinct categories of labour migrants in the EU.
A result of ethnographic research that took place between 2011-2015, Wagner’s book throws light on the precarious working conditions of posted workers in the meat and construction industries in Germany, Europe’s top destination country for this type of intra-EU mobility. Drawing on interviews with actors ranging from posted workers to European Commission officials, Wagner illustrates the gap between the European policy framework and the lived realities of temporary intra-EU migrants who lack tools and mechanisms to ensure upholding of the standards included in the European legislation.
In addition to providing insight into the nuts and bolts of the posting processes, the book offers a glimmer of hope by documenting ways in which the situation of posted workers can change for the better.