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Migrant Labour (migrant + labour)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	85%

Selected Abstracts

The operation and management of agency workers in conditions of vulnerability

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 5 2010
Sonia McKay
ABSTRACT This article focuses on the operation and management of agency labour by employers and observes that there are strong contradictions between the employers' stated reasons for using agency labour and the employment agencies' perceptions of why such labour is utilised. While discussing agency labour generally, the article also takes account of the position of migrant workers within the agency sector, since agencies have represented a significant route into employment for migrant labour. It draws primarily on 22 in-depth interviews with employers and employment agencies mainly in the food processing, cleaning and care sectors. The research revealed that while some employers were using agency staff to cover for specific peaks in production, others had used it as an alternative method of dealing with vacancies that otherwise might have resulted in permanent employment. [source]

The Global Financial Crisis and Migrant Workers in China: ,There is No Future as a Labourer; Returning to the Village has No Meaning'

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010
KAM WING CHAN
Abstract This essay examines the impact of the global financial crisis on rural migrant labour in China, with a focus on unemployment. It illustrates the interaction of global and China-specific processes in the context of the worldwide recession. The essay first summarizes China's unique socio-economic system and the mechanisms that have created a system of ,rural migrant labour' and ,super-cheapened' it to help make China the ,world's factory'. The main part of the essay examines the unemployment situation for migrants in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, and the dislocations and problems migrant labourers are facing. The China story is complex but interesting, not only for its rather complicated lexicon and statistics that often confuse outside observers, but also for its distinctive system of exploiting the rural population and internal migrant labour. This system makes the impact of the global crisis on migrant labourers, which are at the bottom of the global supply chain, all the more apparent. The last part of this essay analyses recent governmental fiscal-stimulus policies and measures as well as their impact on rural migrant labour, making some broader observations and linking the crisis to China's model of development. Résumé Ce texte examine l'impact de la crise financière mondiale sur la main-d',uvre migrante rurale chinoise en s'intéressant notamment au chômage. Il illustre l'interaction des processus planétaires et nationaux dans le cadre de la récession mondiale. Une synthèse présente d'abord le régime socio-économique unique du pays, ainsi que les mécanismes qui ont créé un système de ,main-d',uvre migrante rurale' tout en ,hyper-dépréciant' ces travailleurs afin de faire de la Chine ,l'usine du monde'. L'étude centrale porte sur le chômage des migrants entre la fin 2008 et le premier semestre 2009, ainsi que sur les bouleversements et problèmes que rencontrent les ouvriers migrants. L'histoire chinoise est complexe mais intéressante, non seulement à cause d'un vocabulaire et de statistiques compliqués qui déroutent souvent les observateurs extérieurs, mais aussi par son système spécifique d'exploitation de la population rurale et de la main-d',uvre migrante. Ce système renforce d'autant plus l'impact de la crise mondiale sur les ouvriers migrants, lesquels se trouvent tout en bas de la chaîne d'approvisionnement mondial. En revenant sur les récentes politiques et mesures d'incitation fiscale du gouvernement et sur leurs conséquences pour la main-d',uvre migrante rurale, la dernière partie élargit le champ des observations et relie la crise au modèle de développement chinois. [source]

Morocco's Migration Experience: A Transitional Perspective1

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 4 2007
Hein De Haas
ABSTRACT Using a ,transitional' perspective on migration, which combines three theoretical approaches on dynamic development-migration linkages, this paper interprets the evolution of migration within, from, and to Morocco over the twentieth century. Colonization and the incorporation of rural areas, along with a certain level of socio-economic development, have spurred internal and international wage labour migration both within Morocco and from Morocco to Europe. Migration seems to be the result of development rather than the lack of development. Populations from highly marginalized regions were less likely to participate in migration than populations from the three, moderately enclosed "migration belts" which had established traditions of pre-modern, largely circular migration. At the onset of large-scale emigration in the 1960s, the spatial patterns of labour migration were significantly infuenced by colonial bonds with Spain and France, selective labour recruitment, and Moroccan selective passport issuance policies. However, the influence of such policies rapidly decreased due to the effects of migration-facilitating networks. Increasingly restrictive policies coincided with a growing reliance on family migration, permanent settlement, undocumented migration, and the exploration of new migration itineraries, and had no success in reducing migration levels. Alongside patterns of decentralizing internal migration, a spatial diffusion of international out-migration has expanded beyond the historical migration belts in response to new labour opportunities in southern Europe. Persistent demand for migrant labour, along with demographic factors and increasing aspirations, suggest that migration over formally closed borders is likely to remain high in the near future. However, in the longer term, out-migration might decrease and Morocco could increasingly develop into a migration destination for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, a transition process which may already have een set in motion. [source]

International Migration Policies: 1950-2000

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 6 2001
Reginald Appleyard
Policies on international migration since the Second World War reflect the enormous changes in economic, social and political situations around the world. The implications of changes in the volume and composition of international migration have increasingly become an issue of major concern to governments in all countries. Following emigration from Europe to countries of the New World as a result of war-damaged economies, reconstruction witnessed high demand for migrant labour, mainly from parts of southern Europe. But by the early 1970s, decline in economic growth, unexpected impacts of the guest-worker scheme, and an increase in refugees from Third World countries led, in due course, to an era of restriction on entry of asylum-seekers and tighter controls over undocumented migration to developed countries. A "new era" evolved during the 1990s, characterized by growing interdependence of major economic powers. Globalization led not only to a significant demand for highly-skilled and professional workers, but also to decision-making on some aspects of the migration process being transferred from the national to the regional level, and an increase in the influence of multinational corporations. The globalization process, and the growing influence of international trade regimes, may well represent the first steps towards a new "international migration regime" that incorporates all types of migration. [source]

Survival and expansion: migrants in Greek rural regions

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 6 2008
Charalambos Kasimis
Abstract Migratory movements towards southern Europe have increased considerably in the past 20 years. An important aspect of this process is connected to the agricultural sector and rural regions , a development connected to agriculture's particular weight in the economies and societies of all southern European countries. However, their role is not restricted to agriculture. They are also related to non-agricultural economic activities and the overall support of aged populations, especially in marginal or mountainous rural areas. This paper draws on the qualitative and quantitative findings of two research projects carried out in three exemplar rural regions of Greece and over two different periods: 2000,2002 and 2004,2006. The aim of the research was the empirical investigation of the economic and social implications of the settlement and employment of migrant labour in rural Greece. The paper moves from the presentation of the theoretical and methodological framework to the presentation of the main findings for each period of the research. The socioeconomic implications of migrant employment and settlement in the regions studied are revealed in the light of the recent Common Agricultural Policy changes, and the changes following the implementation of ,regularisation programmes'. Additionally, the characteristics of migration trends in these regions are identified and the formation of new migrant social groups, with different prospects of social integration and mobility, is revealed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

States, markets, and other unexceptional communities: informal Romanian labour in a Spanish agricultural zone

THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 3 2008
Tod Hartman
The logic of transnational capital and the ongoing European imperative of ,competition' have created unofficial economies, seemingly exceptional situations in which the state is left to grapple with the problem of essential but ,illegal' labour in spaces in which it is no longer unambiguously sovereign. This article discusses Romanian labourers working informally, and often temporarily, in an agricultural area characterized by intensive plastic greenhouse production in Almería province, Spain. Informal employment is arranged through personal contacts and connections, advertisements, or anonymously in the plaza, the public square. Wages are often negotiated through the person of a Romanian intermediary, who organizes workers into teams, contracts with Spanish growers, and retains a significant proportion of the total pay. It is argued here that although technically outside of state jurisdiction, some of this ,illegal' economic activity embodies normalized, unexceptional features of the ,official' labour market. These include the general reliability of obtaining work with predictable wages and some opportunity for occupational and economic mobility within the sector for a limited number of people, as well as work-related hierarchies, a racialized division of the area's labour force, and the reproduction of capitalist relations of production in the interests of prolonging the provision of flexible and cheap migrant labour with the complicity of the state. Résumé La logique du capital transnational et l'impératif européen de « concurrence » ont donné naissance à des économies non officielles, situations apparemment exceptionnelles dans lesquelles l'État doit résoudre le problème d'une main-d',uvre indispensable mais « illégale » dans des espaces où il n'est plus entièrement souverain. L'auteur décrit ici le travail informel et souvent temporaire de Roumains dans une région agricole de la province d'Almería, en Espagne, caractérisée par une production intensive sous serres en plastique. Les embauches informelles s'organisent par contacts personnels et relations, par petites annonces, ou de façon anonyme sur les places de village. Les salaires sont souvent négociés par un intermédiaire roumain qui organise aussi les équipes d'ouvriers, sous-traite avec les cultivateurs espagnols et se réserve une part conséquente de la paie. Bien qu'elle échappe techniquement à la juridiction de l'État, une partie de cette activitééconomique « illégale » reprend des caractéristiques normalisées et ordinaires du marché du travail « officiel » : fiabilité d'un travail rémunéré de façon prévisible, possibilité de mobilité professionnelle et économique dans le secteur pour un nombre limité de personnes, hiérarchisation du travail, division racialisée de la main-d',uvre dans la région, reproduction des relations capitalistes de production en vue de prolonger la fourniture de main-d',uvre migrante flexible et bon marché, avec la complicité des pouvoirs publics. [source]