Foreign Labor Force Research Articles

Ethnic Division on Emerging Foreign Labour Markets in Poland during the Transition Period

A NUMBER OF ECONOMISTS HAVE NOTED the segmentation of the labour market into primary and secondary sectors in advanced industrial economies (Gordon, 1972; Edwards, 1975; Piore, 1979; Portes, 1981). In the capital-intensive primary sector employers invest in workers by providing specialised training and paying for their education. Unemployment benefits are guaranteed in the contracts. Jobs, although complicated, are stable, and workers are professionals and become more like capital for employers (Piore, 1979). As far as the foreign labour force is concerned, the primary labour market generally tends to occur through legal channels, so the legal status of immigrants is regulated and is mainly on the basis of a work permit visa or permanent residence. Ethnicity does not play an important role here since workers are hired mainly according to ability. Immigrants tend to have mobility chances comparable with those of native workers. They may start at the bottom of the job ladder but work conditions and remuneration are equal to those of domestic labour. And finally, the function of the primary sector is usually to supplement the domestic labour force rather than to discipline it (Portes, 1981). The primary sector in the receiving countries is strongly correlated with the phenomenon of the brain drain in the sending countries. Thus, for example, the third and sixth preference categories of the amended 1954 US Immigration Act are reserved for professionals, technical and skilled workers in short supply in the country

Foreign Workers, Refugees and Prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian Agreement

David Bartram argues that Israel's recent acquisition of a sizable foreign labour force carries the potential to complicate negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, especially concerning Palestinian refugees. Though officially temporary, many foreign workers in Israel show signs of long-term settlement, recalling foreign worker experiences in Western Europe and elsewhere. As the Israeli government attempts to manage foreign workers' demands for proper treatment and respect for human and civil rights, what is likely to emerge is the extent to which the country is unprepared to offer any meaningful membership to new populations of non-Jews. The foreign worker episode, then, may reinforce Israel's resistance to demands for the return of Palestinian refugees. As Israel and the PLO/Palestinian Authority stumble towards (and sometimes away from) a comprehensive peace agreement, a new factor in the equation needs to be considered: Israel's new foreign labour force. In this paper the author reviews the history of Palestinian refugees and surveys the problems associated with Israel's recent experience with foreign workers. The importation of these workers signals a transition in Israel's development trajectory that is in all likelihood irreversible, at least in the short term. Specifically, with low-wage foreign labour now constituting more than 10 percent of Israel's labour force, the size of the foreign labour population has easily reached a critical mass that typically leads to permanent settlement and the formation of networks that encourage sustained migration. The availability of low-wage foreign labour is also severely hampering efforts to increase productivity in certain sectors, notably construction. It is argued here that the presence of this new non-Jewish population in Israel is likely to complicate negotiations with the Palestinians concerning difficult outstanding issues, in particular the fate of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. The structure of the Israeli state is not well suited for coping with the prospect of non-Jewish immigration of any type. The government's handling of the foreign workers issue highlights the difficulties involved and has raised sensitivities concerning Israel's ‘self concept’ as a Jewish state. One likely consequence is an increased resistance to demands for the return of Palestinian refugees. This episode thus illustrates the effect of economic development choices on inter-state relations.

The labour market in Switzerland: the end of a special case?

This paper presents a general survey of the Swiss economy. It emphasises the various factors that have been put forward to explain the very low unemployment rate recorded in Switzerland up to the beginning of the 1990s. It also analyses the factors which may be held responsible for the dramatic reversal of the Swiss labour market situation, by considering the modification in the employers’ and workers’ behaviour in Switzerland as well as the changes observed in the structure of the foreign labour force. It comes to the conclusion that the unemployment observed since 1991 is not simply a consequence of a deterioration in the functioning of the Swiss labour market compared with earlier periods, but rather a result of changes in immigration policies and also the reflection in the statistics of a truer picture of the labour market imbalance created by the restructuring of the economy.

Foreign Workers in Italy: Are They Assimilating to Natives? Are They Competing Against Natives? An Analysis by the S.S.A. Dataset.

The paper shows that it is possible to derive a dataset on foreign workers from the Social Security Archive by using the place of native workers; however, the cumulative duration of occupation of foreigners and natives is more similar. The analysis of the wage birth as selecting device and controlling for age and date of entry. Three main issues have been analyzed in the paper: the employment behavior of foreign workers and the degree of their assimilation, their wage differential and their wage assimilation, as well as their competitive or complementary role in the labor market. Migrant workers are more mobile than differential; using the Oaxaca decomposition reveals a small wage gap, 70% explained by the different characteristics of native and foreign labor force and only the remainder is due to unobserved characteristics or discrimination. Last but not least the competitive or complementary role of foreign workers in the labor market is explored. The first difference estimates of the native workers' wage do not appear to be affected by variations in local demand or by the share of foreign workers and this result was to be expected because the institutionalized system of determining wages is not sufficiently flexible to react quickly to external changes such as an increase in the supply of labor.

Culturally competent health care: a challenge for nurses in Saudi Arabia.

An emerging global reality is the presence of a culturally diverse workforce in health care environments. Not only are nurses delivering care to culturally diverse clients, the nurses themselves may come from different cultural and educational backgrounds. In order to provide culturally competent health care, such diversity must be molded into professional collaboration and respect. To date, health care to the citizens of Saudi Arabia has been provided largely by a foreign labor force, the vast majority of whom are non-Arabic speaking. This paper explores a number of strategies aimed at educating expatriate non-Saudi health professionals in the provision of culturally competent and culturally congruent health care. Leininger's transcultural health care theory is identified as the framework for achieving this goal. The theory has proved to be of great relevance in a hospital setting where some 40 different nationalities are represented among the work force. In such a setting, the potential for cultural conflict and stress is very real. Health professionals new to the Kingdom are introduced to the cultural dimensions of health care as it relates to patient care modes, as well as living and working together in a transcultural environment. Transcultural nursing is a major component of a professional nurse practice model which provides a visionary perspective for nursing care. Within the practice model, transcultural care principles are used to guide education, clinical practice and nursing research. Furthermore, Leininger's theory serves to grasp a comprehensive view of generic (folk) and professional health systems and to identify ethical issues confronted by nurses in the transcultural setting.

Transience and settlement: Singapore's foreign labor policy.

"Foreigners constitute 15 percent of the population and over 20 percent of the labor force in Singapore.... This large foreign labor force is managed by a comprehensive and highly selective foreign labor policy, which is described in this paper. The strict enforcement of a guestworker policy of transience on the one hand, and the liberal encouragement of settlement on the other, are the twin pillars of this policy. Seen originally as a dispensable appendage to a labor-scarce economy, foreign labor has now become integral to the economic and increasingly, population policy of the country, as evidenced by the recent announcement of a national policy to ¿attract foreign talent'."

2.5 Processus de concentration et de diffusion des activités dans l'espace alpin (Module 4)

2.5 Processus de concentration et de diffusion des activités dans l'espace alpin (Module 4)

Les travailleurs étrangers dans l'Allemagne réunifiée

Foreigner's work in reunited Germany Jochen BLASCHKE This article draws up a large panorama about immigration and its role in the german labour market as well as its evolution plan in the beginning ofthe 90s. The use of a foreign or external labour force, spontaneous or strained, is a constant component of this labour market since the end of the 19 th century and since all sorts of flows kept joining in. The end of the 80s shows a complete change with the coming in West Germany of third world people through the law about political asylum and above all the coming in of people from German family background who have a « rehabilitation » in the German nationality. East Germany, on the other hand, had also to develop a labour immigration from communist countries. The unification, the opening of the frontieres, the changes in Eastern Europe make us think of new changes inside and towards West Germany.

L'emploi étranger à la fin de 1985

Foreign manpower at the end of 1985 André LEBON Data upon the number of foreign workers proceed from three sources : the general census of population, l'enquête-Emploi INSEE and the so-called Enquête ACEMO (Manpower Activity and Employment conditions) performed by the Ministère des Affaires sociales et de l'Emploi upon a representative sampling of some 60 000 units belonging to the private commercial and industrial sector and employing ten wage-earners and over. This paper relies on the findings of the last Enquête ACEMO from december 1985 to propose an evaluation of the foreign labor force at this date (1.5 to 1.6 million active people). It then relates the quantitative evolution since 1973 (the labor force recording a diminution of some 225 000 members). A breakdown of these data is given according to each category of workers (wage-earners, self-employed, employment seekers) and to each large economical sector (manufacturing, construction and service employment) ; they are also compared to those which allow to record the over all evolution of the national and foreign labor force. The decline of legal foreign employment, as is shown, comes up at a time when the over all foreign population is continuing to increase slightly.

The Swiss Recipe: Conservative Policies Ain't Enough!

The Swiss case Jean-Pierre Danthine and Jean-Christian Lambelet The success of the Swiss economy relies on a blend of conservative policies, cooperative labour relations and a geographically diversified economic structure. The lesson that Switzerland offers other countries is a microeconomic, supply-side one, with little evidence for any particular macroeconomic recipe. Is the Swiss experience really an economic success? In terms of growth, the Swiss record may look poor but inflation is very low. The unemployment rate is, and has always been, at very low levels, but there was a massive reduction of the foreign labour force in the early 1970s. While the ‘guest-worker story’ is part of the explanation, there is much more to it. Three key factors characterize Switzerland. First, macroeconomic policies are not actively used. Fiscal policy focuses more on balancing the budget than on counteracting business cycles. Monetary policy is preoccupied with a stable growth path for its chosen target, although short-run policy is pragmatic rather than rigid. Second, the labour market is best described as a vast number of bilateral monopolies, mostly at the firm level. Bargaining is therefore cooperative, and this is reinforced by the legal threat of binding arbitration. Finally, the industrial structure is geographically well diversified. This makes job search and mobility relatively costless. It also means that local or regional pressures for subsidies or macroeconomic support are weak, with little temptation to deviate from the principle of non-intervention.

ÜBERNAGHFRAGE UND LOHNENTWICKLUNG IN DER SCHWEIZ‐ EINE NEUE HYPOTHESE*

SUMMARYThe purpose of this paper is to present a new hypothesis to explain the excess demand for labour in an economy with large foreign labour immigration. Home and foreign labour force are not homogeneous. Starting from this preliminary observation, the authors were finally led to propose a new indicator for the excess demand for labour, consisting of the relationship between the foreign labour force and the home labour force of the preceding period. Empirical testing of this hypothesis for the case of the Swiss economy has given satisfactory results.

FOREIGN BANTU WORKERS IN SOUTH AFRICA: THEIR PRESENT POSITION IN THE ECONOMY

Summary and ConclusionsIt is not possible to compile accurate statistics about the size, origin, distribution, earnings, remittances and similar measurable aspects of the foreign Bantu labour force in South Africa. From the foregoing discussion it will be obvious that such data are most unlikely to become available in the foreseeable future. There is, however, a growing need for reasonably reliable information concerning economic interrelationships in Southern Africa. The only way to arrive at a workable basis for informed studies of labour matters in the regional context, appears to be the one followed here. By compiling, and fully documenting, as much of the accessible and relevant data as possible into comprehensive and intrinsically consistent tables, the present article can, it is hoped, serve as a convenient starting point for further, more detailed investigations.Briefly, the principal figures derived in the foregoing may be recapitulated. The total number of foreign workers in the Republic in 1964 can be put at roughly half a million men, almost 300,000 (59 per cent.) of them in mining, about 140,000 (29 per cent.) in agriculture, and about 60,000 (12 per cent.) in other employment.In these sectors, they constitute roughly 53, 14, and under 4 per cent. respectively of all Bantu employed there. Approximately 45 per cent. of all foreign workers come from the former High Commission Territories (Basotho accounting for about 60 per cent of this group), about 30 per cent. from Moçambique, 18 per cent. from Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi together, and the remaining 7 per cent. from South West Africa, Angola, Tanzania and other territories. The total annual earnings of foreigners can be put at R133.4 million (R82.3 million cash and R51.1 million in kind), out of which cash and goods to a total value of R23.9 million (R17.7 million cash and R6.2 million worth of goods) are estimated to be remitted to the countries of origin.About 40 per cent. of the total population of Southern Africa, more than 80 per cent. of its White inhabitants, and approximately two‐thirds of the region's wage‐earning opportunities for Bantu are to be found in the Republic. Apart from the remittances of migrant workers, the labour supplying countries derive substantial benefits, though of course to a varying degree, from the movement of their nationals to the Republic. These are: 1. the absorption of surplus population into the Bantu groups of the Republic; 2. the fact that at any given moment, a large number of people are living off the resources of another country instead of pressing on inadequate resources at home; 3. the financial benefits from the administrative activities of the recruiting organizations; and 4. the instruction in various subjects imparted to employees on the mines and elsewhere, and generally the knowledge and skills brought back by migrants to their home countries. (The social and economic drawbacks of the migrant labour system cannot be ignored but an evaluation of this system falls outside the scope of this study.It must be recognized that intra‐regional labour movements are inextricably bound up with the economic life of Southern Africa. It can, rightly, be pointed out that the abundant supply of foreigners to mining and agriculture in the Republic tends to depress the earnings of indigenous Bantu in these sectors. It is, however, prima facie, open to serious doubt whether drastic reductions in the number of foreign workers is the best way to promote the economic well‐being of the local Bantu population. From the standpoint of the labour exporting countries, it is naturally regrettable that their nationals are mostly confined to the less well paying sectors of the South African economy. On the other hand, and in view of the undeveloped state of their economies, they have every reason to welcome such employment opportunities as there may be in the Republic. The newly independent states of the region are earnestly striving to develop their potentialities. By supplying (or releasing) scarce resources, labour migration to the Republic contributes materially, and in the case of Lesotho and Botswana even decisively, towards the attainment of higher levels of living throughout the region. The Republic's neighbours would suffer most if political passion or animosity towards South Africa were to disrupt the present network of the intra‐regional flow of labour.