The role of unions in shaping work-based precarity on the Norwegian continental shelf

The systemized exploitation of temporary migrant agricultural workers in Canada: Exacerbation of health vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and recommendations for the future

Temporary migrant work is a central feature of labour markets in many host states, and an increasing cause of concern for its potential impacts on workers’ rights and protections. In Canada, as elsewhere, policymakers utilise it as a regulatory device to lower labour standards. In this context, workers labouring transnationally are turning to unions for assistance. Yet they are confronting obstacles to securing access to their labour rights through representation. This article analyses one example involving a group of temporary migrant agricultural workers engaged seasonally on a British Columbian (BC) farm under Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) seeking union representation. It considers the question, confronting courts and tribunals in host states across the OECD, of meaningful access to collective bargaining for temporary migrant workers. Focussing on how the BC Labour Relations Board determines an appropriate bargaining unit, the inquiry demonstrates that temporary migrant workers are ill-served by mechanisms aimed at promoting collective bargaining. Although the union involved in the case secured a certification, the outcome was tenuous unionisation. The resulting collective agreement contained provisions augmenting workers’ job security by facilitating their circular movement between the sending and host state. However, the structure of the SAWP, which reinforces workers’ deportability, together with the limits of the prevailing regime of collective bargaining in BC, modelled on the US Wagner Act, contributed to a certification that was weakly institutionalised and underscored labour law’s subsidiarity to legal frameworks governing work across borders.

This article deals with temporary migrant workers experiences of social security in Finland, and the question how temporality influences the motivations of migrant workers to find out about their rights in the welfare system. What kinds of experiences do temporary migrants have? Have they met specific problems related to temporariness? The article shows how motivations to find out about the welfare system are linked to the length of stay of the migrant, sector of work, gender of the temporary worker, country of origin of the worker. Finally motivations are in a high degree influenced by objective possibilities of accessing the welfare benefits of the country, for instance related to problems in receiving work permits, residence permits, and the national insurance institution (KELA) insurance cards. The article shows how many temporary workers, especially within seasonal agricultural work, are in Finland solely in order to work, and are not directed towards other aspects of life while in Finland. Temporary migrants learn about the Finnish Social Security System through their own experience, which makes their knowledge dependent on initiation processes at work places. In many cases a private insurance is required from the temporary worker in order to get the visa and many immigrants are not motivated to contribute to a system, which they don’t benefit of. Migrants incorporate possibilities provided by the social system. They thus adjust their subjective expectations to the objective conditions. Sometimes this adjustment is done in frustration as benefits are out of reach despite having to contribute to the system financially by paying taxes.

Increasing attention is being given to the exploitation of temporary migrant workers in Australia, in particular in relation to wage underpayments. But very little focus has been given to the ability of temporary migrant workers to access legal remedies under Australian employment law. This article examines whether temporary migrant workers are able to make and pursue a claim for unfair dismissal within the federal jurisdiction. As unfair dismissal law seeks to protect job security and provides an essential check on managerial prerogative, it is important that temporary migrant workers are able to access this legal avenue to protect them from arbitrary dismissal. We argue there are serious deficiencies in the application, coverage and content of federal unfair dismissal law in relation to temporary migrant workers in Australia.

BackgroundThe rate of international migration for the primary purpose of employment has increased exponentially in recent decades. A significant proportion of this global movement takes place across East and Southeast Asia as workers move on a temporary basis from lower-middle-income home countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to high-income host destinations including Hong Kong and Singapore. Relatively little is known about the unique and long-term health needs of this heterogeneous group of people. This systematic review presents an analysis of recent research into the experiences and perceptions of health of temporary migrant workers in the East and Southeast Asian regions.MethodsFive electronic databases CINAHL Complete (via EbscoHost), EMBASE (including Medline), PsycINFO (via ProQuest), PubMed and Web of Science, were systematically searched for qualitative or mixed methods, peer-reviewed literature published in print or online between January 2010 and December 2020. Quality of the studies was assessed using the Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research published by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Findings from the included articles were extracted and synthesised using qualitative thematic analysis.ResultsEight articles were included in the review. Findings from this review indicate that multiple dimensions of workers’ health is impacted by the processes of temporary migration. In addition, the research reviewed indicated that migrant workers used various strategies and mechanisms to attempt to address their health-related issues and to take better care of themselves. Such agentic practices could help them manage and maintain their health and wellbeing across physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions within the structural constraints of their employment.ConclusionsLimited published research has focused on the health perceptions and needs of temporary migrant workers in East and Southeast Asia. The studies included in this review focused on female migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines. These studies provide valuable insights but do not reflect the heterogeneity of migrants moving within these regions. The findings of this systematic review highlight that temporary migrant workers experience high and sustained levels of stress and are exposed to certain health risks which may compromise long-term health outcomes. These workers demonstrate knowledge and skills in managing their own health. This suggests that strength-based approaches to health promotion interventions may be effective in optimising their health over time. These findings are relevant to policy makers and non-government organisations supporting migrant workers.

This article examines how migration law and policy is being used in two jurisdictions to address the labour needs of the care sector. Both Australia and New Zealand have distinct regulatory approaches when it comes to determining how labour supply challenges are met in the care sector. New Zealand uses its Essential Skills visa to allow the temporary entry of care workers, whereas Australia has historically eschewed specific visa pathways permitting low skilled temporary labour migration and has only provided a limited temporary migration pathway restricted to the highest skill care occupations through its 457 visa programme. Instead, Australia has relied on a mix of temporary migrants on partner visas, international students and working holiday makers to meet labour supply challenges in the care sector and to supplement the local workforce, which includes many long-term permanent migrants. However, there is mounting pressure on the Australian Government to provide a dedicated temporary labour migration pathway for care workers. Recent reforms such as the introduction of a Designated Area Migration Agreement for Northern Australia, the Pacific Micro States trial and changes to the work rights of working holiday makers provide new opportunities for temporary migrant care workers to come to Australia and work in the sector. Both New Zealand’s revolving door of temporary migrant care workers and Australia’s de facto low skilled migration pathways present regulatory challenges with regard to the protection of these workers in the labour market, their claims to citizenship in receiving countries and their opportunity to realise the ‘triple win’ promised in the temporary labour migration literature. The increasing reliance by Australia and New Zealand on temporary migrant care workers to meet the labour supply challenges in the sector also masks a range of other endemic employment relations problems in the sector (in particular, low pay) and may lead to a permanent demand for temporary migrant workers at the expense of local care workers.

Normative discussions of temporary labour migration have focused mostly on what social and political rights, if any, temporary migrant workers should have. This chapter focuses on a different set of potential entitlements: cultural rights. The question I am interested in is whether the cultural needs and preferences of temporary migrant workers should be accommodated or even supported by receiving states (note that ‘culture’ is construed broadly here so as to include religious needs and preferences). Specifically, I ask when, if ever, temporary migrant workers should have access to three kinds of cultural rights from a liberal perspective: (i) cultural exemptions from laws and working regulations; (ii) cultural subsidies; and (iii) cultural recognition. Asking this question is important not just to fill a lacuna in the literature on multiculturalism (most of which is concerned with the cultural entitlements of citizens), but also from a practical point of view, as many countries harbour large numbers of temporary migrant workers.

This paper investigates whether temporary migrant workers still attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in China nowadays after they played a strong magnet role for FDI in the last century. This paper tests the hypothesis that foreign firms reduce investments to avoid urbanization diseconomies from temporary migrants when China is experiencing rapid urbanization in the 2000s, with the urbanization rate raised from 36% in 2000 to 59% in 2017. This research employs spatial statistics and analyses to examine the change in the spatial inequality of temporal migrant workers and FDI. This research also uses regression models to investigate whether temporary migrant workers still attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in China nowadays. Temporary migrants are increasingly concentrated in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Rim Region of the eastern region, and Chengdu in the western region. The results indicate that a one-person increase in temporary migrant workers is associated with 259 dollars decrease in FDI, suggesting that FDI might reduce with increased migrants to avoid urbanization diseconomies from these cities, helping policymakers develop urbanization and migration policies to optimize labor allocation and promote industrial upgrading, developing peripheral cities.

How can civil society actors address regulatory deficiencies in complex systems? The challenge of regulating employment standards in non-unionised industries is shared by many developed countries. In industries like horticulture, violation of minimum employment standards for vulnerable temporary migrant workers is widespread and state employment regulators struggle to enforce laws. This article examines the challenge at a system level incorporating a range of civil society stakeholders. It conceptualises a regional town and its surrounding horticulture-dependent economy and society as a complex system in which stakeholders face the challenge of reputational damage among temporary migrant farm workers, threatening future labour supply. This ‘tragedy of the commons’ was created by some stakeholders acting solely in their individual interests by underpaying and otherwise mistreating the workers. Using a qualitative approach including 30 interviews, focusing on a single farming region in Queensland, Australia, this article identifies the conditions in which civil society stakeholders in a horticulture system regulate employment standards through orienting and connecting with one another to advance both individual and shared interests.

This paper examines current labour policies directed at unskilled women migrant workers in Singapore. Since the early 1980s, the rationale underlying Singapore's labour policies towards temporary migrant workers has been that of maximizing economic benefits while simultaneously minimizing social and economic costs. But adopting this position has been increasingly difficult because of the persistent abuses these migrants experience. Closer scrutiny of the immigration policies and practices for unskilled women migrants over the last two decades reveals a gradual shift by the Singapore State towards greater seriousness in addressing temporary women migrant worker issues. This paper argues, however, that the resulting policies tend to reinforce placement procedures more than they help to ensure the actual protection and empowerment of these migrant workers. Moreover, any shift in labour policies and practices towards unskilled migrant workers tends mainly to benefit first the State, then the employer and, only last, the worker.

Purpose Anecdotal accounts of suicide among temporary low-wage migrant workers in the UAE are numerous, but unofficial and qualitative accounts remain unexplored. This study aims to examine how the socio-environmental context can lead some low-wage migrants, irrespective of their nationality or culture, to contemplate suicide for the first time after arriving in the host country. Design/methodology/approach The findings draw from ten months of qualitative fieldwork (2015–2016) and in-depth interviews conducted with 44 temporary migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, earning in the lowest wage bracket in Dubai. The study used a non-probabilistic, purposive sampling approach to select participants. Three criteria drove eligibility: participants had to reside in the UAE, be non-national and earn Dh1500 (US$408) or less a month. Otherwise, diversity was sought in regard to nationality, occupation and employer. Findings Eight (18%) of the 44 study participants interviewed admitted to engaging in suicidal thoughts for the first time after arriving in the UAE. The findings suggest that for low-wage migrants working in certain socio-environmental contexts, the religious, gendered or other cultural or group characteristics or patterns that may be predictors of suicide in migrants’ country of origin may become secondary or possibly even irrelevant when one is forced to survive under conditions that by most objective standards would be deemed not only oppressive but extremely exploitative and abusive. Originality/value This study contributes to understandings of how the emotional and psychological well-being of temporary foreign low-wage migrant workers can be impacted by the socio-environmental context of the host country. It is a first step in understanding the intimate thoughts of low-wage migrant workers on the topic of suicidality, furthering our understanding of suicidal ideation and the factors that can contribute to it.

This article analyses contemporary developments in top source countries of Canada's temporary migrant worker programmes, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and International Mobility Program (IMP). An analysis of administrative data and policy suggests that most temporary migrant workers from key source countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are present in Canada under highly restrictive conditions of the TFWP, largely as agricultural workers. Simultaneously, most temporary migrant workers from key source countries in Europe and Asia migrate to Canada under the growing IMP, comprised of a diverse set of subprogrammes which, in some cases, have the potential to perpetuate conditions associated with exploitation identified historically with the TFWP. At the same time, unprecedented levels of temporary migrant workers from India and China are being granted open work permits in Canada, raising questions about how racialization and colonial pasts intertwine with this fast‐growing and under‐studied side of temporary labour migration.

The 21st century has witnessed a growth in temporary labour migration programs. Such a development is surrounded by fierce controversy over the effects of such programs on temporary migrant workers, their countries of origin and the host countries. One point of consensus is, however, clear: temporary migrant workers should effectively enjoy whatever legal protection is provided in relation to their working conditions. Yet, what is most uncontroversial may turn out to be the most complicated - evidence internationally and in Australia suggests that non-compliance with labour protection is widespread with temporary migrant work. Why is this the case? This paper analyses this important question through a focus on 457 visa workers and international student workers in Australia. It argues that non-compliance in this context is structural - it arises from the interaction of the vulnerability of temporary migrant workers, including their precarious migrant status, and employer practices in poorly regulated industries.

Over the last two decades, New Zealand has increasingly relied on temporary migrant workers (TMWs) to address labour shortages. This reliance has occurred as part of changes to the immigration system, including working visa conditions and growing diversity in the nationalities and occupations of TMWs entering New Zealand. Correspondingly, there has been a continuous increase in reports of TMWs’ labour exploitation. Based on 131 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019, we outline multiple factors that enable TMWs’ exploitation. We analyse both TMWs’ and stakeholders’ views, and within the latter group, we look at both the demand and supply sides. We discuss related matters, including policy initiatives addressing the issue.

Despite concerns about negative consequences for clients and permanent staff, temporary agency workers (TAWs) are frequently employed to manage staff shortages in personal social services (PSS) in Sweden and elsewhere. Drawing on qualitative interviews with thirty-four TAWs, managers and permanent social workers, this article aims to enhance our understanding of how TAWs are utilised in the PSS and the impact this has on (i) the preconditions for TAWs and (ii) the work environment for permanent employees. The findings suggest that TAWs are mainly contracted for core tasks, and often for heavy-duty work. In order to meet demands for expedient case administration, the supportive aspects of social work are sometimes deprioritised. Permanent staff report that positive effects of the use of TAWs include relief of workload and an influx of new knowledge, whereas negative effects include stagnated work development, deteriorating group dynamics and additional work. Moreover, it is shown that TAWs often reside in the periphery of the organisation and that they typically are contracted on an ad-hoc basis and during times of crisis. It is suggested that the organisational conditions that TAWs are contracted to help remedy paradoxically are unlikely to create the best preconditions for a successful use.