Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

The chapter begins with stories about Moldovan migrant workers to reveal not only their experiences of economic migration and informal and precarious work, but also the mix of social media responses to portrayals of their migration and circumstances—from sympathy and concern to anti-immigrant sentiment, even racism. This story captures some of the complexities of informal work, issues of exploitation and extraction and the limits as well as possibilities of a political economy of LLL in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The chapter reviews how the issues facing informal workers in CEE have been analysed by agencies like the ILO and OECD, and discusses policy pronouncements for developing “enabling environments” in which informal workers can engage in forms of LLL that promise to enhance their participation in more secure forms of work. Our provocation will suggest that the challenge in CEE is more than simply shifting people from informal to formal employment (the “formalisation agenda”). Rather, the challenge is to engage the full range of social partners in facilitating LLL arrangements that equip informal workers not only with accredited and certified skills, but also the capacities to participate in re-shaping new forms of decent work and social protection to escape “poverty trap” forms of informal labour.