Burma Just Around the Corner: When US Corporations Employ Refugees

Abstract

The United States continues to receive refugees and other legal immigrants across its borders on a regular basis. These newcomers offer much to our economy. From a business perspective, these refugees and immigrants often represent a resource for corporations. Underlying this concept is the critical nuance that the refugees, and immigrants in general, represent a resource very vulnerable to exploitation. Consequently, refugees, other immigrants fill the jobs that many Americans will not consider, usually involving manual labor at low pay, and many times work in significantly sub-par conditions, such as in plants and other corporate facilities. In this context, this article sets forth the argument that the corporation is the seat of yet another example of growing informality, inequality and illegality that Professor Larson described in Informality, Illegality, and Inequality. This article’s analysis urges that, from the perspective of corporate social responsibility and business ethics, the law should be changed in the manner suggested by Professor Larson, through progressive regularization. With measures to require increased transparency into corporate use and treatment of the refugee and immigrant work force, the consumer market may help to mandate improved working conditions when current law does not. “Informality contradicts legality, and especially equality, as we conceive these values. From within this tradition, informality is an abuse of law, as well as tolerance of exploitation and inequality. Accordingly, informality creates the best argument for stepped-up regulation…[yet] support and neither punish nor prohibit those who shelter themselves informally.”