Abstract
Why do contract workers seek employment in war zones and other high-risk environments? Does such work have implications for the significance of exploring risk in labour migration studies? These are but some of the questions Kevin Thomas, Professor of Sociology, Demography and African Studies at Penn State seeks to provide answers to in his book on Sierra Leonean contract workers on US military bases in Iraq. Thomas argues that the significance of risk needs reinterpretation to adequately consider the relationship between risk and structural conditions in Sierra Leone that results in contract workers seeking work in war zones. While this book is firmly grounded in labour migration studies it also provides first hand insights, utilising the voices of contract workers themselves, into the experience and navigation of contract work on military bases. These insights will be of interest to sociologists of work and employment. Thomas gathered these voices via qualitative interviews conducted in Freetown, Sierra Leone from May to June 2012. He interviewed 43 participants using the snowball sampling method and supplemented these migration histories with secondary sources from library research and newspaper clippings.
In Chapter 1 Thomas rejects the zero-sum approach to contract work migration and instead approaches the topic as neither a wholly positive nor negative social practice. Thomas starts by outlining the neoliberal and militarist theory that informs the book and situates these theories in relation to contract work. In Chapter 2 Thomas provides detailed coverage of the social and historical context of contract work in Sierra Leone, and in Chapter 3 he details the methods and strategies used by Private Military Contractors to recruit migrants to the jobs programme in Iraq. Throughout Chapter 4 Thomas uses migration histories to provide unique insight into the nature of work life on US military bases in Iraq, making this chapter a valuable resource for scholars interested in understanding how contract workers navigate high-risk and foreign workplaces. Chapter 5 details the downsides of contract work in Iraq, and Chapter 6 questions whether the well-being of Sierra Leonean contract workers was improved by their labour migration. Thomas ends the book with policy recommendations for how to improve contract migration, but not to necessarily advocate for more of it, and provides a view towards the future of contract work for African migrants in military environments – particularly in peacekeeping roles.
A central argument advanced by Thomas is that risk in labour migration needs to be considered beyond the role that it plays in migration decision making. Risk for contract workers in Iraq is not just experienced during the migratory journey or when conducting their work, but all the time they are in the unique setting of their high-risk work environment – the military base. The nature of war means that military bases are prime targets for attack, consequently there is a 24/7 threat to life on these bases. While the book is situated squarely within labour migration studies, it also offers informative contributions to the sociology of work and employment, with Chapters 4 and 5 covering work life on and the downsides of contract work on military bases. Thomas shows how the dynamics of risk in contract work are important to the occupational trajectories of the contract worker, for example the acceptance of a high degree of risk in their first job on a military base (camp guarding for example) does not necessarily mean that occupational mobility among these workers will eliminate their exposure to risk in future jobs. Furthermore, Thomas shows how the multitude of jobs on offer for non-security-related work lessened the risk to those workers but did not remedy the structural risk of working on a military base. Another interesting aspect of the book concerns the working relationship between the Sierra Leonean contractors and African American soldiers on the base. These relationships positively impacted the contract workers’ occupational trajectories and provide the reader with insight into the dynamics of relationship, race and work.
One slight deficiency in the book concerns Thomas’ definition of risk, which would have benefitted from being clearly distinguished from danger in Chapter 1. While this lack of distinction is not detrimental to Thomas’ overall argument it would have been useful when considering the experience of, and environment within which, contract work was being conducted on US military bases in Iraq. For example, while contract workers have decided to take up work on these bases, thus accepting a level of risk to themselves, it is not entirely clear whether risk is being mistaken for danger (or vice versa). Overall, Thomas’ account of contract workers in Iraq provides detailed and first-hand insights from contract workers on military bases that will help to inform wider sociological work investigating the nature of contract work in the 21st century in all its forms.