Immigrant Workers Research Articles

El costo de la independencia: Latino house-cleaners in Technology-Mediated Labour Markets

This paper explores the interplay between identity, collective action, and digital marketplaces among Latino house-cleaners in Toronto. Domestic work, such as house-cleaning, has traditionally been devalued, gendered, and delegated to marginalised immigrant populations. The informal nature of house-cleaning work, also introduces precarity, vulnerabilities and potential avenues of exploitation. Drawing on 19 interviews with Latino house-cleaners, the paper underscores how identity shapes experiences and strategies in the labour markets. We find that Latino house-cleaners prefer to use asynchronous digital marketplaces, such as social media commerce groups and online classified advertisement websites, as the platforms provides flexibility and control over their labour outcomes. The paper further delves into how group identities online - such as being Latino and women - foster collective action and solidarity. The paper provides insights on how we can support the needs support the challenges and needs of immigrant domestic workers in technology-mediated labour markets.

Immigrant Work and the Production of Italian Agrifood: The Variants of Subordinate Integration

The agri-food industry in Southern Europe and elsewhere is typically seen as a place of harsh exploitation of immigrant workers. This article aims to give a more comprehensive picture of immigrant work in the Italian agrifood system. Based on nine case studies of local production systems, it elaborates on the concept of “subordinate integration,” showing its different variants. In addition, it discusses the relationship between subordinate integration at work and different forms of social insertion on the territory, mainly focusing on the housing question. In conclusion, the social regulation of work in agriculture and the role of trade unions is highlighted.

How do communities define “work precarity” and “labour exploitation”? Lessons for research from participatory research in high economic hardship communities in Chicago, Illinois/USA

Abstract Labour migration has both social and economic drivers that channel workers into jobs that are less desirable to citizens of the receiving countries. Immigrant workers find jobs through contacts from their home countries, including temporary staffing companies. These workers tend to co-locate in segregated communities and coalesce in jobs that entail hard work, low wages, and limited social benefits. As such, labour migration adds a dimension to the structural and social determinants of health (SDOH) that can broaden our understanding of health inequities, and that can point us toward policies and practices to enhance the health and wellbeing of migrant workforces. However, to generate evidence, align interventions with workers’ needs and priorities, and move evidence to action, it is crucial to engage communities. This presentation describes a community-university research partnership that co-investigates the relationship between work and health as experienced at the community level in two high-economic-hardship neighbourhoods in Chicago, Illinois/USA. The academic and practice partners co-developed and tested a conceptual model of the interrelations among migration, work and health, conducted an inventory of local employers, and executed a street-level survey of 497 workers in these two communities. The research findings helped enhance existing models of the structural/social determinants of health and of work precarity, thus informing methodological approaches to measure work precarity, labour exploitation, and their health effects. The community-based participatory research further led to several action-research projects that are ongoing. This presentation will describe the development of the community-university research partnership and its work, the subsequent enhancements made to the worker precarity and SDOH models, and preliminary findings of the partnership’s current action-research projects.

Through Immigrant Lens: A Reflection on Pierre Boudier’s Concept of Habitus Clivé through Photography

This article explores the creative practice of immigrant photography, specifically examining the artistic work of immigrants who have chosen Australia as their place of settlement. Analysing their photographic works, the article reflects on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus clivé, which develops the notion of a fractured or divided self. This division arises when individuals confront conflicting social contexts, resulting in internal tension or dissonance within their sense of identity. In the context of migration, habitus clivé can manifest in various ways, such as tensions or conflicts between cultural traditions and new cultural contexts. Furthermore, migration can involve adaptation and adjustment in which individuals may selectively incorporate elements of the new culture into their existing habitus while maintaining aspects of cultural identity associated withtheir country of origin. These processes of negotiation and hybridisation can further contribute to the development of habitus clivé. For Bourdieu, these internal contradictions within one’s social identity are not static but evolve through ongoing social interactions. By closely examining immigrant photographers, the article highlights the visual narratives that emerge, illustrating how photography can transcend physical boundaries, creating an intermediary space between dislocation and settlement. This space becomes a potent mechanism for fostering a sense of belonging that extends beyond geographic boundaries. Interestingly, this sense is not secured to a specific geographic location but, rather, encompasses broader, internalised, notion of place. These changes align with the concept of habitus clivé as individuals navigate the complexities of migration and settlement. As a medium, photography enables individuals to inhabit this interim space of familiarity, enabling embodiment and facilitating connection with a sense of place that transcends traditional notions of belonging. The article discusses how photography can empower immigrant narratives, supporting a sense of belonging while capturing the diverse experiences of individuals navigating the challenges of immigration and settlement.

The Need for Speed: The Role of Employers in Immigrant Work Visa Regulatory Prioritization

The Need for Speed: The Role of Employers in Immigrant Work Visa Regulatory Prioritization

Navigating occupational balance and identity in the platform economy: Perspectives from immigrant workers

ABSTRACT Gig work, or platform work, refers to short-term jobs acquired through digital platforms and constitutes a growing share of Canada’s economy (Jeon et al., 2021). Compared to Canadian-born individuals, immigrants make up a higher percentage of workers in the gig economy (Statistics Canada, 2024). There is a literature gap concerning how immigrants’ engagement in the gig economy shapes their occupational identity and sense of occupational balance. This study explores the experiences of immigrants working in the gig economy to develop an understanding of gig work through a perspective centering occupational, rather than economic, perspectives that are dominant in the literature. Using an instrumental case study approach, a secondary thematic analysis of 10 qualitative interviews with immigrants currently employed in different forms of gig work in Metro Vancouver, Canada was completed. Findings highlighted three main themes. First, a balancing act illustrates ways that gig work is often balanced with other occupations in participants’ lives given the flexibility and autonomy it offers. Second, shifting identities addresses how gig work helped participants navigate shifts to their identities following their immigration. Third, beyond the dollar discusses participants’ motivations for engaging in gig work beyond the income it generates. Gig work is nuanced and people’s motivations to engage in this type of employment are diverse. As immigrants experience a shift in their occupational identity and balance a variety of occupations, they may be drawn to this form of employment due to its unique characteristics and perceived benefits given other challenges they may face during their economic integration.

The Unintended Consequence of Stringent Immigration Enforcement on Staffing Levels in Nursing Homes: Evidence from Secure Communities

AbstractThe provision of healthcare in the United States is increasingly reliant on immigrant workers. In this paper, I examine the impact of Secure Communities, a major immigration enforcement program designed to check the immigration status of all individuals arrested by local police, on staffing levels in nursing homes. Using a difference‐in‐differences strategy that exploits the staggered activation of Secure Communities across US counties, I found that the program reduced directcare staff hours per resident day by 0.073, an approximately 2% decline relative to the mean of treatment counties in the baseline period. This finding suggests that stringent immigration enforcement may exacerbate the healthcare worker shortage in the United States.

Shifting Perceptions: Unpacking Public Support for Immigrant Workers Integration in the Labor Market

Shifting Perceptions: Unpacking Public Support for Immigrant Workers Integration in the Labor Market

Greener pastures: why Indian international students leave the US labor market

ABSTRACT This paper revisits conventional wisdom on US degree premiums for immigrant workers and shows that, despite the benefits of a US degree, migration policies and substandard labor conditions contribute to international student motivations to return home. Using two original datasets, I find that about a third of Indian-born US graduates leave the US, seeking employment opportunities abroad and a respite from US work visa restrictions. I draw on 105 in-depth interviews and 7,177 employment histories constructed from LinkedIn, and the analysis demonstrates the use of digital data to shed new light on under-studied patterns of return migration in institutional perspective. I find that US work visas are related to the underemployment of immigrant workers, and gaps in visa availability are associated with US labor market departure for Indian international students. At the same time, foreign employers reward skills and credentials developed in the US, and the results suggest that US degrees carry a higher premium in foreign labor markets. The paper emphasizes the role of institutions in the skilled migration system and identifies disjunctures in US migration policy. I identify opportunities for policy reform to improve immigrant labor conditions and increase the retention of US-educated migrants in the US labor market.

Assessing rural wellbeing through design of a farmer-focused survey methodology: The importance of cultural health, ease of use and farming specific questions

There is limited data to baseline and track changes in farmer wellbeing. The aims of this study are to 1) review existing wellbeing assessment approaches, 2) identify key features of a farmer-focused wellbeing assessment, and 3) propose a farmer-focussed wellbeing assessment tool. We conducted a literature review of wellbeing assessment approaches within peer-reviewed literature and interviews with stakeholders to identify a wellbeing assessment approach for the agricultural sector. Key factors to incorporate into a farmer-focused assessment approach are: i) cultural health, which is especially important when measuring wellbeing amongst indigenous and recent immigrant farmers and workers; ii) farming-specific questions, using a combination of pre-existing and newly developed questions; and iii) ease of use, using a combination of short pulse and longer surveys depending on the survey context and aims. This paper contributes to the debate of how to measure wellbeing, which is useful for programme designers and developers. Furthermore, it provides a coherent review on wellbeing assessment approaches, which can be used to steer future research in this area. Despite the widespread focus on wellbeing, this is the first literature review for wellbeing approaches in the agricultural sector.

Nondeictic accusative and dative clitics and their variant forms in European and Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract This article raises the hypothesis that 3rd person, accusative o/a (“him/her”) and dative lhe (“to him”/ “to her”) clitics, as well as the indefinite clitic se (“one”), contrary to 1st and 2nd person me/te (“me/you”), were never part of the grammar of the populations who acquired Portuguese as L2 in Brazil; rather, 3rd person clitic pronouns have been learned by a small number of Brazilians with school access (0.5 %), in the beginning of the 19th century. To bring support to this hypothesis, socio-historical information is presented, according to which, during about 350 years of colonization, slaved Africans and their descendants constituted the largest part of the population; their contact with several waves of Portuguese immigrant workers contributed to the emergence of Brazilian dialects differing in many aspects from European Portuguese (EP). Data from European and Brazilian Portuguese (PB) popular theater plays, written across the 19th and the 20th centuries, show that EP exhibits a robust and stable system of 3rd person accusative and dative clitics, contrary to BP. Analyses of recorded EP and BP since the 1970s attest the extremely rare use of such clitics in BP, very close to the percentages shown in the more recent plays, whereas formal writing reveals the school relative success in the effort to teach 3rd person clitics.

Physiotherapy experiences of injured immigrant workers in Quebec: an intersectional perspective.

Immigrant workers are more likely to suffer work-related injuries compared to native-born Canadians. Their physical rehabilitation usually involves physiotherapy. This study sought to better understand the experiences of injured immigrant workers receiving compensation and physiotherapy treatments. We conducted a qualitative study using an interpretive descriptive methodology. Semi-structured interviews were completed with 10 compensated immigrant workers about the physiotherapy services they received. Transcripts were analyzed thematically and with an intersectional lens. Two major themes were identified: 1) complex pathways to physiotherapy, and 2) key pillars of physiotherapy experiences. The first theme demonstrates that a lack of familiarity with the health and compensation systems, delayed access to physiotherapy, and cumulative burdens complicate the care of immigrant workers. The second theme shows that moral/emotional support, pain relief, and the recognition of sociocultural beliefs and fears are key aspects to improving the experiences of care for these workers. This study offers new insights into physiotherapy in the context of a work injury, which may help physiotherapists adapt care to the complex needs of immigrant workers. The intersectional lens used in the analysis offers interesting ways of accounting for the multiple social identities of these workers.

Too Cold to Venture There? January Temperature and Immigrant Self-Employment Across the United States

Immigrants in the United States have higher self-employment rates than native-born Americans. However, immigrant self-employment rates vary considerably across areas of the country. The authors examine the percentage of immigrant workers in local areas who are self-employed (i.e., the self-employment rate for the foreign born). Areas with colder winter temperatures have especially low self-employment rates among their immigrant populations compared to warmer areas. The relationship between winter temperature and immigrant self-employment persists after controlling for numerous individual and local area characteristics. The relationship holds for numerous subsamples of immigrants but is strongest for immigrants arriving to the United States as adults. Child immigrants and native-born Americans exhibit a weaker relationship, possibly because of previous exposure and attachment to particular locations chosen by their parents that constrain the migration responses of potential entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial immigrants arriving to the country as adults appear especially footloose and particularly responsive to January temperatures in their location decisions.

A Comparison of Working Conditions Between Immigrant and Non-immigrant Healthcare Workers in the United States: Evidence From the National Health Interview Survey

Immigrants in the United States (U.S.) healthcare workforce face challenging working conditions. This study aimed to compare the working conditions of healthcare workers based on immigration status. Using National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 2015 data, we compared the sociodemographic characteristics and working conditions between 374 non-U.S. born and 1,986 U.S. born healthcare workers. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine associations between immigration status and selected working conditions. It was found that non-U.S. born and U.S. born healthcare workers differed in sociodemographic and occupational characteristics. After adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, non-U.S. born healthcare workers had higher odds of non-permanent contract work (aOR: 1.87, 95% CI [1.25, 2.79], p < 0.01) and lower odds of workplace harassment (aOR: 0.51, 95% CI [0.31, 0.83], p < 0.01), compared to U.S. born healthcare workers. Immigrant healthcare workers' occupational experiences should be further explored to improve organizational and psychosocial working conditions.

Robots and immigration

Changes in local labor supply may affect robot adoption by firms. We test this hypothesis by exploiting an increase in the number of workers and a change in the local workforce composition induced by exogenous immigration into Danish municipalities. Using the Danish employer-employee matched dataset over the period 1995-2019, we show in a shift-share regression that a larger share of non-Western immigrants in a municipality leads to fewer robot adoptions at the firm-level. Several demographic characteristics, including prime age and low skill level, make immigrant workers particularly substitutable for robots. As many advanced economies are facing labor shortages, this paper sheds light on the future of robotization.

Правовое регулирование деятельности трудовых иммигрантов-корейцев российским императорским правительством в годы Первой мировой войны (на английском)

The article analyzes the conditions of labor migration of ethnic Koreans from Manchuria and China to the Urals of the Russian Empire in 1915—1916, and their experience of interaction with the local Russian authorities. The research is based on the archival materials of the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk region (GASO). This article focuses on the legal and social status of the Korean laborers, their living conditions, habitat, and local conflicts. The study draws on theoretical insights from a range of works on immigration, and the political and economic integration of immigrants. With the onset of World War I, conscription into the Russian Imperial Army drained the manpower reserves, especially in the industries in the Urals. Some industries were under threat of permanent closure. The local tsarist administration petitioned the Foreign Ministry to employ Chinese and Korean laborers in these regions. The results of the research show that the Imperial government did not have a coherent structural plan for the accommodation of Eastern immigrant workers. The government largely improvised, regulating the migration process by issuing various decrees aimed at creating a legal basis for the immigrants. The findings also contradict the earlier Soviet historiography hypothesis about the widespread oppression of ethnic minorities in the Russian Empire. Unlike the Chinese workers who eventually left Russia for Manchuria, the Korean workers chose to stay in Russia after their contractual obligations expired and enjoyed the same rights and privileges as local Russian workers. The research reveals evidence of mistreatment of Korean workers; however, the wrongdoers were local Russian Korean merchants who acted as intermediaries between the local administration and the hired Korean immigrant workers.

Institutional diversity and the immigrant wage gap? A comparison between the German and British experience with statutory minimum wages

ABSTRACT This article exploits the introduction of a sectoral minimum wage in the German construction industry and the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in the UK to examine the influence of minimum wages on the immigrant wage gap in two sectors with a large population of immigrant worker and varying wage-setting environments. Our results suggest that minimum wage reform may reduce the wage gap between immigrants and natives in liberal market economies where wage-setting arrangements are largely decentralized. As anticipated, this effect appears to be confined at the bottom end of the wage distribution with no apparent spill-over effects higher in the wage distribution.

Education Service for Children of Unregistered Indonesian Migrant Workers in Malaysia

Following registration records for the 2022 Unlicensed Foreign Worker Recalibration Program (PATI), 418,649 Indonesian citizens are participating in the labour recalibration program in Malaysia, so this will have a negative impact, namely an increase in the number of children of Indonesian migrant workers. Malaysian immigration authorities do not allow all migrant workers to invite their families to come live in Malaysia. This causes migrant workers' children to feel ostracized, discriminated against and denied their right to education due to a lack of access to education and love from their parents. The research aims to explore the role of government in providing educational services. The research method is descriptive and qualitative. The subjects of this research were the Indonesian and Malaysian governments, the children of unregistered immigrant workers in several guidance studios, and migrant workers. Data was collected through interviews, observation, and documentation. Data analysis techniques include data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The research results found that the rights of Indonesian citizens and children have been fulfilled, such as access to education. Fulfilling these needs is achieved through the role of government, such as establishing formal and non-formal schools to foster a sense of comfort and protection. In addition, the government, with its role, can create appropriate policies to provide rights and safety to the children of unregistered immigrant workers

Double Discrimination: Attitudes toward Syrian and Ukrainian Immigrant Entrepreneurs' Job Postings in Türkiye

This study uses a vignette experiment to examine the discriminatory attitudes towards immigrant entrepreneurs. The aim is to assess how biases based on ethnicity affect the job application intentions directed towards immigrant entrepreneurs, specifically comparing those from Syria and Ukraine with their Turkish counterparts. The research addresses several objectives: to determine whether discriminatory practices against immigrant entrepreneurs differ from those faced by immigrant workers; to explore the presence and nature of discrimination against immigrant entrepreneurs in Türkiye, including taste-based and statistical forms of discrimination; to investigate potential double discrimination between entrepreneurs of Middle Eastern (Syria) and European (Ukraine) origins; and to analyze whether ethnic cues in job advertisements influence job application intentions. Findings reveal that immigrant entrepreneurs experience significant discrimination, with Syrian entrepreneurs facing more bias compared to Ukrainians, influenced by geopolitical and cultural factors. This study offers a new perspective by examining how potential applicants respond to job advertisements from immigrant entrepreneurs, differing from previous research on discrimination faced by immigrant workers. The results highlight the need for inclusive policies and practices to support immigrant entrepreneurs and enhance their participation in the Turkish economy, contributing to a more equitable and diverse entrepreneurial landscape.

Participatory action research: A tool to develop occupational health and safety education for new immigrant workers

Immigrant workers are a growing segment of Canada’s labour force, essential to its economy and society. Yet, they face occupational health and safety (OHS) challenges due to communication barriers, limited training, scarce resources, and workplace discrimination. This study sought to design learning resources to enhance the understanding of OHS in Canadian workplaces among new immigrant workers, drawing from their personal experiences. Through participatory action research, nine immigrant workers took part in six online sessions over three months, where they identified problems, discussed education, reflected, and decided on actions. Key issues raised included inadequate training, unawareness of OHS rights, hesitation in reporting safety concerns due to fear of backlash, and facing psychological threats like discrimination. This research illuminated the complex interplay of cultural and communication differences in OHS. Consequently, five education modules, rooted in real-world insights, were developed, emphasizing the significance of OHS, psychological risks, Canadian workplace norms, communication, and vital resources. This PAR successfully developed OHS learning modules, which not only tackle challenges and provide solutions for new immigrant workers but also craft with cultural sensitivity and lived expertise. These tools are tailored to equip new immigrant workers with the knowledge and confidence needed to enhance their OHS practices.