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Abstract

This study aims to examine how migration and labour governance in Cyprus produces and manages precarity among Third-Country Nationals (TCNs) employed in the hotel sector. For the purposes of the present study this category encompasses various groups of people, including Non-EU migrant workers, international students and asylum seekers. Drawing on critical scholarship on migration governance, differential inclusion, and institutional racism, the study analyses key policy instruments regulating the recruitment, employment and residence of migrant workers through qualitative content analysis. The findings demonstrate that precarity is not an unintended by-product of labour market regulation or administrative failure, but a structurally embedded and politically functional feature of the Cypriot migration regime. Through time-limited residence permits, employer-tied contracts, restricted occupational mobility and extensive wage deductions, migration governance constructs TCNs as a racialised reserve labour force: essential to the functioning of the tourism economy, yet systematically excluded from full labour rights, social protection and long-term settlement. By analysing Cyprus, both a peripheral EU state and a major tourism destination, the study contributes to debates in migration studies on temporary migration regimes, state-produced precarity and the role of legality in reproducing hierarchies of belonging within European labour markets. It further contributes to tourism and hospitality studies by demonstrating how migrant labour precarity intersects with broader concerns surrounding sustainable tourism development.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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