Cultivating the ‘ideal’ worker? Accommodation and control of migrant workers

Previous research has demonstrated that many managers have developed a preference for migrant workers as they perceive them to exhibit behaviours associated with an ‘ideal’ workforce. These include high levels of availability and a perceived strong ‘work ethic’. The provision of accommodation provides an additional opportunity for organisations to extend control into people’s personal lives to further develop the ideal always-available worker. This paper explores this concept of the ‘ideal worker’ within the context of dormitory labour regime (DLR) accommodation. Through analysis of two agricultural organisations, we report the findings of a thematic analysis of the lived experiences of farm business managers, workers residing in on-site accommodation, and workers who live in off-site accommodation. Results show that DLR accommodation reinforces control through temporal, familial, and financial mechanisms. This study contributes to the literature by offering a comprehensive understanding of organisational control mechanisms within the agricultural sector, using the case of the post-Brexit UK in which many workers now utilise a seasonal worker visa subject to new regulations. We investigate these firms that offer employee accommodation through the lens of the concept of the ‘ideal worker’, and explores the implications of this for Human Resource Management.