Embodied Precariousness

This chapter sheds unique light on to the embodied experiences of layered precarity, even if sometimes through agonisingly detailed depictions of the suffering, social dynamics and the unobservable night-by-night physical toil of nightwork. In this chapter, drawing upon my own experience of working at New Spitalfields night market, I flesh out the differences between structural precarity and an embodied knowledge of precarity that is deeply ingrained under the skin. More, in writing up this embodied experience of suffering the nightshift, I bring into play a theoretical lineage that starts with Mauss’ (1935/1973) work on the body and continues with Bourdieu’s (1970/2000) and Wacquant’s (2015) work on habitus. Thus, I take on a meta-level perspective on suffering and embodied anthropological writing in migration for suffering subjects, particularly those migrant bodies travelling for work in Europe. I thereby provide the scaffolding for an embodied anthropology in migration. This might influence not only debates in migration studies, but also public opinion and policies in regard to the integration of precarious migrants.