Internal Migrant Workers Research Articles

Platformed identities of female migrant domestic Ayi's in the Chinese gig-economy

Focusing on the Chinese context, this investigation addresses how digital labor platforms as specific instances of social media, mediate interactions between workers and clients. This article addresses the evolving landscape of domestic labor in contemporary China, specifically focusing on female internal migrant workers - commonly referred to as “Ayi’s” — in the gig economy. More specifically, by employing a feminist intersectional lens, we analyze the platformization of migrant Ayi’s identities on digital labor platforms and Chinese super-apps like WeChat and Swan Daojia. We also address how these rural-to-urban migrants may use these platforms to create new narratives for themselves. Based on in-depth interviews with 15 female migrant workers alongside a walkthrough study of three digital labor platforms, Ayi’s are found to represent themselves by branding themselves. This form of self-marketing offers the potential to transform their visibility in public from perceived low-skilled laborers to “pre-packaged” professionals. While enhancing visibility, and thereby improving the standing of some, the representational practices of Ayi’s also offer insights into newly emergent forms of vulnerability and marginalization, shaped by gender, migrant status, and socioeconomic class.

COVID-19, Internal Transitions and Vulnerable Citizens: Narratives of the Migrant Crisis in India during the Pandemic

This article illustrates how the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic led to an internal migrant crisis in India, making the country realise the presence of physical borders within itself. Through a narrative analysis of the chronicles of internal migrant workers and the migrant crisis published in print media during the first wave of COVID-19, this article elucidates how internal borders within a country became impermeable, affecting the rights and well-being of vulnerable citizens, who were labelled ‘disease carriers’. The discrimination and othering faced by migrants aggravated during this period, making them more prone to fall through the cracks of the crisis. Although mobility restrictions were important public health tools to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 infections, they undoubtedly exacerbated the pre-existing socio-economic inequities and vulnerabilities. Problematising these aspects of the migrant crisis during the pandemic, this article proposes migration policies and governance through effective public communication, inclusive decisions and human rights as a way forward.

Wage Bargaining Power of Internal Migrant Workers: Evidence from Urban Labor Market in China

This study analyses the wage bargaining power of employers and internal migrant workers in the urban labor market in China using a two-tiered SFA model. The findings indicate that bargaining power decreases the observed wage relative to the benchmark wage which is associated with worker’s actual productivity. The availability of migrant labor is identified to be a key variable in the wage bargaining process. This study reveals that the migrant workers who obtain jobs via informal job search methods stand in a weak bargaining position relative to those using formal search methods which is consistent with limited choices hypothesis. Additionally, the migrant workers in the manufacturing and construction industries or producing and processing occupations extract surplus nearly identical to other groups.

Social identity and labor market outcomes of internal migrant workers

Previous research on internal mobility has neglected the role of local identity contrary to studies analyzing international migration. Examining social identity and labor market outcomes in China, the country with the largest internal mobility in the world, closes the gap. Instrumental variable estimation and careful robustness checks suggest that identifying as local associates with higher migrants’ hourly wages and lower hours worked, although monthly earnings seem to remain largely unchanged. Migrants with strong local identity are more likely to use local networks in job search, and to obtain jobs with higher average wages and lower average hours worked, suggesting the value of integration policies.

Remitansi Internal dan Konsumsi: Implikasi bagi Kesejahteraan Rumah Tangga di Indonesia

This research aims to examine the impact of internal remittances on household welfare in Indonesia. The focus of this study is not only to identify the direct influence of remittances on welfare but also to investigate how internal remittances affect household welfare through consumptive expenditures. The analytical tool used is Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The data used in this study is derived from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) for the years 2007 and 2014. The research sample consists of 772 households with members who are internal migrant workers. The results of the study indicate that the improvement in household welfare is not only directly influenced by internal remittances but also by how these remittances are managed, particularly when used for consumptive spending. Other factors, such as the number of household members, also play a significant role in enhancing household welfare.

Negotiating Multiple Risks: Health, safety, and well-being among internal migrant sex workers in Brazil during COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, experts called attention to the fact that the pandemic was disproportionately affecting socially vulnerable groups. Research suggested that structural inequalities resulted in unequal access to healthcare and that infection prevention measures increased precarious working conditions in illegal, informal, or unregulated sectors, such as the sex industry. This article reports on research findings that examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives and working conditions of 25 women internal migrant sex workers in the city of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. It demonstrates that the pandemic and measures to control it severely impacted the lives of internal migrant sex workers, their affective and work relationships, as well as their income, safety, and physical and mental health. Furthermore, sex workers suffered from disturbing levels of violence and precariousness as well as a lack of effective policies aimed at protecting their health and well-being. This was exacerbated by the stigma, lack of labour rights, and the fact that they were migrants, which impacted them financially and emotionally during movement restrictions.

Factors associated with mental health of internal migrants (Kayayei) in Agbogbloshie-Ghana

BackgroundThe United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Eight (8) advocates for decent work and improved economic outcomes for all. However, internal migrant workers in Ghana, especially female head porters, commonly known as “Kayayei”, work in exploitative and hazardous conditions exposing them to physical and mental health risks. Yet, mental health among this vulnerable group of migrants has not been given the needed attention it deserves in the country. We, therefore, examined the factors associated with mental health challenges among internal migrants (Kayayei) in Ghana.MethodsA cross-sectional study among a systematic random sample of 352 Kayayei was conducted in Agbogbloshie-Accra, Ghana. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on the factors impacting the mental health of Kayayei. The study used binary logistic regression in predicting factors impacting mental health distress at a 0.05 level of significance and 95% confidence interval.ResultsThe prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress were, 305 (86.6%), 332 (94.4), and 149 (42.4), respectively, with 147(41.1%) of respondents having all three mental health issues. The difficult nature of work significantly predicted depression, anxiety, and stress. Respondents who perceived their work as very difficult were 4.3 times, (aOR = 4.36, 95% CI = 2.17, 8.76, p = < 0.001), 3.66 times (aOR = 3.66, 95% CI = 1.37, 9.76, p = 0.009), and 1.73 times (aOR, = 1.73, 95% CI = 1.04, 2.85, p = < 0.009) more likely to be depressed, anxious, and stressed respectfully as compared to those who rate their work as just difficult.ConclusionThe majority of the Kayayei suffered from mental health distress (depression, anxiety, and Stress) due to their work circumstances. This study suggests that the Ghana Labour Commission must extend the Labour Act 2003(Act 651) to cover the informal sector and create awareness among the Kayayei community to know their rights and report any abuse to law enforcement agencies. It is also suggested that the government, NGOs, and other benevolent organisations train the Kayayei to attain alternative and sustained livelihoods that will not negatively impact their mental health as has been found in the current study. Finally, the government should fully implement the 2012 Mental Health Act to increase awareness and access to quality mental health care.

Familiar Othering at Work: A Study of Exploitation of Internal Migrant Workers in India

Familiar Othering at Work: A Study of Exploitation of Internal Migrant Workers in India

Financial exclusion of internal migrant workers of India during COVID-19: can digital financial inclusion be facilitated by AI?

ABSTRACT We examine ways to facilitate the digital financial inclusion of internal migrant workers in India, using technologies assisted by Artificial Intelligence. Internal migrant workers, whose vulnerabilities were cruelly exposed during COVID-19, constitute 37% of the population of India. We argue that an AI-enabled solution augmenting preexisting financial transaction processes in public sector banks and post offices could integrate vulnerable groups into the economy and empower them socio-politically. AI-assisted ATMs have the potential to improve digital financial inclusion, bring accountability, ensure security, build trust, and protect privacy in the process of empowering marginalized communities. The paper uses a case study method since it deals with a contemporary event, the deleterious impact of digital and financial exclusion of migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first wave of COVID-19, migrant laborers were stranded without access to basic needs. Facilitating digital financial inclusion could have provided access provisions in desperate situations.

Reliability and Validity of the Defeat Scale among Internal Migrant Workers in China: Decadence and Low Sense of Achievement.

Internal migrant workers have a great chance to experience defeat due to their low social status and economic situation. It has been reported that defeat might play a prospective role in predicting depression and anxiety; however, defeat is rarely explored among internal migrant workers due to the lack of appropriate measurement scales. The defeat scale (DS) can measure the feeling of defeat, social hierarchy reduction, and loss in social struggle. But its reliability and validity among internal migrant workers have not been reported. This study aimed to verify the content validity and structural validity of the DS among internal migrant workers in China and to explore its correlations with anxiety and depression. 1805 internal migrant workers (IMWs) were recruited by stratified multistage sampling from 16 factories in Shenzhen, China. The content validity index (CVI) was used to assess content validity. Cronbach's coefficient alpha of each factor and the total scale were calculated to assess the reliability of DS. The scree test was used to determine the number of factors. Convergent validity and discriminant validity were estimated by calculating the average variance extracted and composite reliability. Logistic regression was performed to explore the effects of DS scores on anxiety and depression. Mean score of DS among IMWs was 18.42 ± 9.40. There were 606 (33.6%) IMWs who were considered to have depression symptoms, and 524 (29.0%) IMWs were considered to have anxiety symptoms. A two-factor model was obtained and fitted well (CFI = 0.956, GFI = 0.932, IFI = 0.956, RMSEA = 0.068, SRMR = 0.052). Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for the DS was 0.92. Logistic regression showed that DS scores were positively associated with anxiety and depression among IMWs. DS performed well among IMWs on content validity and structural validity, and it was suitable as a measurement instrument to assess defeat among this population. Defeat was positively associated with anxiety and depression and might play an important role in the mental health of IMWs.

A Case Study of Educational Equity in Saskatchewan Schools and Implications for Educational Development in China

This paper probes the phenomenon of underperforming indigenous students in Canada through a case study in the school district of Saskatchewan. It is discerned that the disparity between indigenous students’ home culture and the mainstream classroom culture is the major obstacle between indigenous students and academic success. Such a disparity is caused by a couple of reasons. First of all, educators’ misconception, along with education decision-makers’ ineffectiveness, leads to adversity for indigenous students to face in the classroom; secondly, biased evaluation and misjudgments in the current education system also result in indigenous students’ underperformance. Lastly, educators’ low cultural proficiency towards indigenous culture culminates in indigenous students’ low classroom engagement. The results of the case study could be enlightening for Chinese education decision-makers, given that the Chinese booming economy has caused millions of internal migrant workers to work in an alien subculture, their children could face similar social and linguistic debacles as compared to indigenous students in Saskatchewan.

Emerging challenges of internal migrant workers in India: a need for law and governance

Emerging challenges of internal migrant workers in India: a need for law and governance

The Psychological, Social, and Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on Nepali Migrant Workers

The global pandemic impacted Asian migrant workers disproportionately. During the first COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, Nepali migrant workers faced many challenges due to widespread misconceptions of them being vectors of COVID-19. This research examines COVID-19 impacts on international and internal Nepali migrant workers. A national survey on the social, economic, and psychological challenges of returning Nepali migrant workers was administered online from 10 May to 20 July 2020. A total of 672 responses were received. Using a binary logistic regression model, the research finds that the domestic migrant workers were less likely to get economic support, expect to borrow money during COVID-19, experience negative changes in their personal lives, and expect the COVID-19 contraction. In contrast, international migrant workers were less likely to return to their pre-pandemic employment. The research exposed long-standing vulnerabilities of migrant workers and identified immediate actions from Nepalese Central, Provincial, and Local governments to address their needs.

The long walk home: India’s migrant labor, livelihood, and lockdown amid COVID-19

ABSTRACT Covid-19-induced curbs on movement and social distancing, imposed by governments around the world brought transportation and the economy to a standstill in many nations. In India, with its billion-plus population, it severely exposed the problems of the poor, especially millions of internal migrant workers working primarily in unorganised sectors as daily wagers (Umanath, 2020) with little or no culture of savings. When the Indian government announced its first lockdown on March 24, 2020 – factories, construction sites, offices, institutions, organisations and the sort immediately suspended all activities indefinitely, nullifying the migrant labour force’s ability to earn a living and pay bills as they were forced indoors. Then began India’s biggest migration since partition (Ellis-Petersen & Chaurasia, 2020), when millions of these migrant workers based in India’s big cities began their march home to distant villages. This manuscript reflects on this sudden reverse labour migration, demystifying the reasons for this exodus .

Association between socioeconomic status and mental health among China's migrant workers: A moderated mediation model.

Mental health problems are prevalent among China’s internal migrant workers. However, research on the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and mental health is insufficient. Therefore, this study, utilizing the China’s National Dynamic Monitoring Survey data from a sample of 15,997 migrant workers aged 15–59 years to explore differences in the relationship between migrants’ objective and subjective SES and mental health status in 2015. Both the mediating effect of perceived interpersonal discrimination and the moderating effect of age were examined through structural equation modeling. The results indicated that subjective SES has a stronger direct relationship with mental health than objective SES. Perceived interpersonal discrimination mediated the association between subjective SES and mental health. Furthermore, a much stronger relationship was found between subjective SES and perceived interpersonal discrimination among migrants older than 24 years of age than younger migrant groups. The results showed that, compared with traditional objective SES indicators, subjective SES could be a more sensitive index for identifying those migrant workers with a high risk of mental health problems. In addition, reducing interpersonal discrimination toward migrants can alleviate their mental health problems. And we should pay more attention to older migrant workers since they are more likely to prone to interpersonal discrimination and mental health issues.

Reserve army of Ho Chi Minh City: migrant workers in the Ho Chi Minh City's industrial parks and processing export zones under the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT COVID-19 appeared in Vietnam in January 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the new strain of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) around the globe on 1-3-2020. From 1-4-2020, Vietnam introduced social distancing to prevent the spread of the disease in society, affecting every social class, including ‘internal' migrant workers who were often formerly farmers. This paper reports on research evaluating the impact of the pandemic on the internal migrant ‘reserve army of labour' now working in industrial parks (IPs) and export processing zones (EPZs) in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Internal migrant workers make up the majority of employees, at 70% to 85.5% and this article offers a chance to evaluate Marxist categories of work, along with the point of view of the systems and social network approaches, to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts production activities at IPs & EPZs. The paper asks how management of workplaces in the face of the pandemic imposed coping strategies affecting levels of employment and lives of migrant workers at EPZs and IPs. Looking especially at migrant workers' strategies in facing the challenges of the pandemic, the use of Marx’s “floating, latent and stagnant” categories of the “reserve army of labour” is reconsidered on the basis of information from available statistical data and from detailed interviews and observations in the Project “Improving the effectiveness of dialogue and collective bargaining in private enterprise and foreign directed investment enterprises in HCMC” under a grant from the Ho Chi Minh City Science and Technology Development Fund, 2020-22 - HCMFOSTED.

Implementation Evaluation of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial to Promote the Use of Respiratory Protective Equipment Among Migrant Workers Exposed to Organic Solvents in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

BackgroundWhile the effectiveness of several occupational healthcare interventions has been demonstrated, successful implementation of such programs among internal migrant workers (IMWs) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been limited. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of a three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial promoting respiratory protective equipment (RPE) use among IMWs exposed to organic solvents in SMEs and to assess the association between participants' compliance and effectiveness of intervention.MethodsA total of 60 SMEs were randomly allocated to a low- or high-intensive intervention group, or a control group that did not receive any intervention. The low-intensive intervention group was subjected to both traditional and mHealth occupational health education. The high-intensive intervention group was subjected to the low-intensive group activities and peer education. The Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework was used to guide implementation evaluation of this 6-months intervention. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were used to evaluate the effects of participants' compliance with the intervention on the primary outcomes, regarding the appropriate use of RPE.ResultsOf 4,527 potentially eligible participants, 1,211 individuals were enrolled, with a reach rate of 26.8%. Sixty of the 66 SMEs approached (90.9%) SMEs adopted the intervention. Fidelity to traditional education (100.0%) and mHealth intervention (97.5%) was higher than fidelity to peer education (20.0%). Peer leaders cited inconvenient time and unfamiliarity with peers as two major barriers to delivering peer education. Compared with the control group, IMWs who complied with the interventions in both groups were more likely to wear RPE appropriately [low-intensive group: adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 2.58, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.56–4.28; high-intensive group: aOR = 7.52, 95% CI: 3.72–15.23]. Most participants (95.8%) were satisfied with the program and 93.1% stated that they would maintain the use of RPE in the future.ConclusionsA multi-component occupational health intervention to promote the use of RPE among IMWs in SMEs was feasible and acceptable. Peer education had great potential to enhance the occupational health behavior of IMWs, and thus strategies to improve participants' adherence to this component warrant further investigation.Clinical Trial Registrationhttp://www.chictr.org.cn, identifier: ChiCTR-IOR-15006929.

Social Integration as Mediator and Age as Moderator in Social Capital Affecting Mental Health of Internal Migrant Workers: A Multi-Group Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

The rise of migrant workers has been a unique social phenomenon as China goes through industrialization, urbanization, and modernization. They are a special social group formed during the economic and social transition of the country. Migration of rural labor has pushed China on its new path toward industrialization and urbanization. Because of the urban-rural dual system of the country, however, it is difficult for migrant workers to be fully integrated into host cities, making them susceptible to negative emotions and mental health issues. Therefore, their mental health is an issue of great volume in the domains of social undertakings, people's livelihood, and public health. However, existing studies have paid limited attention to the psychological profile of migrant workers and even less to the interplays among their social capital, social integration, and mental health. Targeting China's internal migrant workers, this article tapped the interactions among their social integration, social capital, and mental health with a sample of the cross-sectional data from the China Labor Dynamics Survey (CLDS) in 2018. Multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the moderating action of age by analyzing whether the mediation model differed significantly in the paths among young, middle-aged, and older migrant workers. The SEM based on bootstrapping suggested that, after controlling for the influence of gender, education, marital status, personal annual income, employer type, and self-rated health, migrant workers' social capital positively affect their mental health in a significant way, with social integration playing a mediating role. In terms of age difference, middle-aged migrant workers were more subject to the aforementioned mechanism than young ones, and young migrant workers were more affected by the mechanism than older ones. This study revealed different psycho-social interplays among social capital, social integration, and mental health across young, middle-aged, and elderly migrant workers. The findings could serve as an important theoretical reference and as practical guidance for improving policies concerning migrant workers' mental health and social benefits in the context of economic transition.

Has environmental policy improved the job quality of migrant workers? A quasi-natural experiment on China's Clean Air Action

Whether China's Clean Air Action can be imperative to job quality improvement of labour force while improving environmental quality is still an ongoing research topic. It is a critical area to understand the economic and social effect of environmental policy under the strategic goal of high-quality economic development. We use China's “Clean Air Action” policy as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the causal effect and potential long-run impact of the environmental policy on internal migrant workers' job quality. Based on the difference-in-difference estimation and a series of robustness tests, such as PSM-DID, counterfactual framework, placebo test, and event study, we find that China's Clean Air Action does have a positive effect on the job quality of migrant workers, and the job quality of the migrants in the Clean Air Action sampling cities increased by 0.31 on an average compared with cities that did not implement Clean Air Action. This positive effect will increase over time, and with the level of regional economic development and urban scale rise. Moreover, the job quality improvement could be driven by the productivity effect and the positive adjustment of labor force employment structure from action. This study provides an important empirical evidence for directions of this new action. Our results suggest that further policy measures with a clear goal together with strong-oriented and sub-regional joint governance mechanisms over different levels of government are called for.

Adoption of mobile money among internal migrant workers during the corona pandemic in India: a study focused on moderation by mode of payments

The paper studies the impact of the corona pandemic on the adoption and diffusion of mobile payments (m-payments) among internal migrant workers in India. These internal migrant workers in India constitute approximately one-third of the workforce. Protection motivation theory (PMT) and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) are models used to examine the impact of the corona pandemic on the adoption of m-payments systems among internal migrant workers in India. A schedule was filled by 400 such migrant workers in India during the pandemic period. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). Analysis shows that social influence, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, perceived severity, self-efficacy, and response efficacy during the corona pandemic significantly influence the migrant workers' behavioural intention. The mode of payment convenience acts as a moderator between response efficacy and behavioural intention.