Workers and labour movements face new challenges in the twenty-first century. The organizations and practices that were effec- tive in securing labour rights and improving living and working conditions in the twenti- eth century do not always meet the needs of contemporary workers, many of whom are employed in informal or precarious jobs 1 and have restricted citizenship and mobility rights as labour migrants and as members of subordinated gender, racial and ethnic groups. This is not only the case in low- and middle-income countries that possess limited economic and institutional resources for alle- viating job-based poverty and inequality, but it is also the case in advanced capitalist coun- tries with a longer history of providing secure, formal-sector jobs. Job growth in the US, Canada and the UK, for example, is con- centrated in two-tiered urban service sectors, with a high proportion of women, immi- grants and people of colour employed in low- paid, insecure jobs with limited access to union membership and benefits (Alberti 2014; Sassen 1998; Vosko 2000). Similarly, in India and South Africa, where informal work has long been a feature of their post- colonial economies, job growth is still con- centrated in areas operating outside the scope of formal labour protections, despite signifi- cant levels of industrial transformation and economic diversification (Agarwala 2013; Mosoetsa 2011). Converging trends across the Global North and Global South can be attributed to the increased flow of capital and labour between countries. Firms that are under increased pressure to reduce costs in order to stay com- petitive in a global marketplace can relocate to other countries where labour and capital costs are lower, or they can recruit low-paid workers domestically by hiring immigrants, youth and the urban poor. Migrant labour flows, both sanctioned and unauthorized, have coincided with neoliberal business strategies to lower costs and undermine union power. The number of international migrants has not only increased in traditional immigrant- receiving countries such as the US, Canada, the UK, France and Australia, but also in new 34 Global Labour Politics in Informal and Precarious Jobs Jennifer Jihye Chun and Rina Agarwala