International Workers Research Articles

Structural barriers and facilitators to mental health services for international aid workers.

Structural barriers and facilitators to mental health services for international aid workers.

Migrants at the university doorstep

The Finnish Government recently launched policies to meet labor shortage challenges, recruit highly skilled international workers. However, they overlook a skilled population already living in Finland, namely highly educated migrants. The problem is that migrants tend to be treated similarly, whether they are well-educated or not. This means that migrants are typically directed into low paying jobs. How is it possible to better develop this group with more effective career guidance? We believe an important answer lies in improved university education for migrants. This investigation is based on responses from surveys, interviews, and project evaluations. An analysis is made of three successful university-based short-term integration programs. The emerging questions include, to what extent are obstacles for migrants appropriately deliberated in universities? What can we learn from the three model programs? Should language learning be incorporated into advanced academic programs? The analysis includes how current practices constrain migrants’ access to university education. Even with positive intentions, the prevailing understanding of equality involves equal treatment for all, despite educational or other differences. In addition, simplistic understanding of language skills and learning appears to predominate how migrants are treated. Highly educated migrants face serious challenges when there is a disconnect between language training and one’s disciplinary studies. We surmise there are critical differences between general population language training programs and those situated within disciplinary departments. Analysis of the model programs reveals that a systematic and holistic approach for overcoming current challenges is possible but with an emphasis on sustainability.

Optimalisasi Kesejahteraan Left-behind Children pada Keluarga Pekerja Migran di Pedesaan melalui Penguatan Sistem Keluarga Inti: Sebuah Perspektif dari Sisi Anak

Children who are left by their parents who work outside the region or abroad as migrant workers will face various well-being problems. This requires a further study to explore the well-being of left-behind children of migrant workers' families in Indonesia, both circular migrant workers and international migrant workers. This study aimed to analyze left-behind children's subjective well-being condition and its relation to family-based social capital and social support that children of migrant worker families perceive. This study is expected to be an initial finding to direct further studies related to strengthening the nuclear family system for families of migrant workers who can optimize the left-behind children's well-being of families of migrant workers. This research was conducted in Juntinyuat, Limbangan, and Dadap Villages, Juntinyuat District, Indramayu Regency. The sampling technique used snowball sampling with samples of children aged 12-18 years from families of migrant workers, both circular and international. The total respondents were 120 children whose data were collected through a self-administered method. The study found that left-behind children whose mothers worked as international migrant workers were more vulnerable to their well-being than other left-behind children. The role of family-based social capital and social support as components in strengthening the nuclear family system of migrant worker families is discussed further in this article

Advances in Research on COVID-19 Vaccination for People Living with HIV.

Advances in Research on COVID-19 Vaccination for People Living with HIV.

U.S. Citizenship Supremacy

On July 1, 2021, most NCAA student-athletes could finally monetize their names, images, and likenesses (NIL). Although the change was both welcome and historic, international college athletes (ICAs) could not. This commentary situates NIL within the broader context of U.S. nationalism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and college sports. We find that U.S. immigration laws combined with NCAA amateur policies prevent ICAs from monetizing their NIL. We conclude with reform suggestions at the legal, policy, and practice levels that will benefit all international students and immigrant workers.

Legal Policy on the National Education System In Influencing Worker Productivity in Indonesia

Human resource investment significantly impacts the economic growth and development of a nation, including Indonesia. It is believed that education expenditures affect worker productivity in Indonesia. Theoretically, education expenditures will contribute to an improvement in worker productivity. Several factors, including a comparison of the competitiveness of domestic workers to the competitiveness of international workers, can be used to determine the effect of education investment on the rise in worker productivity. Empirically, productivity is a function of worker skills. The quantity of a worker's salary might be used to gauge their competitiveness and productivity. At the national level, it is simple to identify the productivity of various economic sectors, such as agriculture, services, and manufacturing. Due to the lack of trained people required by the labour market, conditions in Indonesia have prevented the three sectors mentioned above from achieving their full potential for productivity growth. This condition directly manifests some concerns, notably Indonesia's investment in education and worker productivity, which impacts economic growth. This study employs qualitative research methodologies of the normative research type. This study's research objectives will be satisfied by the study model. This study will answer how education investment affects worker productivity in Indonesia. The study's findings indicate that it is not accurate to assert that the education policy in Indonesia has a good effect on enhancing workers' abilities. Therefore, the issue of worker productivity must still be handled seriously to compete with workers from other nations.

Predictors of mental health in aid workers: meaning, resilience, and psychological flexibility as personal resources for increased well-being and reduced distress.

Aid workers operate in stressful environments and tend to experience high psychological distress, yet not enough is known about their well-being and how to improve their mental health. This research project surveyed 243 aid workers in 77 countries undertaking humanitarian and development work who reported lower well-being and higher psychological distress than the general population. Well-being and distress emerged as two related but distinct mental health outcomes, encouraging further research on well-being in the sector. Better mental health outcomes were predicted by the presence of meaning, psychological flexibility, and resilience. Presence of meaning was the strongest predictor, whereas resilience was the weakest. Meaning was a stronger predictor of good mental health among national workers, whereas psychological flexibility was a stronger predictor among female, older, and international workers. These results can support evidence-based approaches to staff care and mental health interventions for aid workers, expanding the current focus on resilience to include meaning and psychological flexibility.

Two countries, similar practices: the political practices of the food industry influencing the adoption of key public health nutrition policies in Guatemala and Panama.

To identify the corporate political activity (CPA) strategies used by food industry actors during the development of two public health nutrition policies in Central America: Law #570 (taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages) in Panama and Bill #5504 (labelling and food marketing regulations) in Guatemala. We triangulated data from publicly available information from 2018 to 2020, (e.g. industry and government materials; social media material) with semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. Guatemala and Panama. Government, academia and international organisations workers in health and nutrition. CPA strategies were categorised according to an existing internationally used taxonomy into action-based, instrumental strategies (coalition management, information management, direct involvement and influence in policy, legal action) and discursive strategies. Instrumental strategies included the establishment of relationships with policymakers and direct lobbying against the proposed public policies. Discursive strategies were mainly criticising on the unfounded ground that they lacked evidence of effectiveness and will imply negative impacts on the economy. The industry pointed at individuals for making their own food choices, in order to shift the focus away from the role of its products in contributing to ill health. We provide evidence of the political practices used by the food industry to interfere with the development and implementation of public health nutrition policies to improve diets in Central America. Policymakers, public health advocates and the public should be informed about those practices and develop counterstrategies and arguments to protect the public and policies from the vested interests of the food industry.

Help-seeking attitudes and behaviours among humanitarian aid workers

Due to the nature of their work and operating environments, humanitarian aid workers experience higher rates of psychological distress, burnout and mental health conditions than other emergency service worker populations. Fourteen international humanitarian workers were interviewed to examine whether they seek help from others in the context of work-related distress, specifically, their attitudes and behaviors regarding personal help-seeking at such times, their preferred sources of support and factors that enable or constrain effective help-seeking. Thematic analysis of the data derived five superordinate themes: (1) cultural aspects of help-seeking; (2) risks with formal, internal support; (3) lack of shared understanding of humanitarian context; (4) self-censoring and withdrawal; and (5) role maturity. There is high, in principle, support for personal help-seeking but its use is highly selective. Work colleagues are regarded as the most trusted and effective source of help in high stress periods, while barriers that exist with family and friends mean they are rarely sought out at such times. Trust and confidentiality concerns limit the use of internal agency supports and psychosocial services. External psychological services are preferred but are often found to be unsatisfactory. These findings can support aid organisations to address stigma perceptions that are commonly associated with personal help-seeking, particularly among early career practitioners, and normalise its use as a form of occupational self-care.

Celebrating May 1: Visual Propaganda from Different Perspectives in Communist Hungary

Celebration has been a key idea in the disciplinary fields of Mentalitätsgeschichte and anthropology: my paper aims to introduce this in the specific context of May Day parades and marches in Hungary in the 1950s and 1960s, focusing on the educational nature of the communist system. For decades, verbal and visual propaganda tried to indoctrinate students and their parents and teachers by transforming perceptions of everyday reality through cultural practices and quasi-religious rites. From the perspective of theories about political religion, statues and symbols intended for the unification of leaders and masses in ceremonial- festive surroundings were meaningful elements with both continuous and changing characteristics. I would like to analyse this kind of message associated with May 1 through photographs of official processions in Budapest, choosing a concrete place as a starting point and adding verbal sources and different dimensions to the interpretation. First, party documents, minutes, and preparations establish the basic level of my approach, showing the original (and contemporary hidden) intentions of the ruling power to organize and execute International Workers’ Day. Next, propaganda and photographs of children and students demonstrate how the main celebration of the communist era was staged in order to legitimize its acceptance and popularity. The discussion concludes with a counter-narrative compiled from reports of the US legation and archives of Radio Free Europe, presenting an anti-communist view and a construction of Western propaganda.

Home and away: How career adaptability and cultural intelligence facilitate international migrant workers' adjustment

The steady upsurge of international labor migration has raised new and important questions for career scholars: how do migrant workers adjust to their work and living conditions and what accounts for their successful adaptation? We address these issues in two time-lagged and multi-source field studies involving Filipino migrant workers in the Middle East. In Study 1, we found that migrant workers' career adaptability promotes work and general adjustment, which in turn enhances their work (i.e., job performance and retention) and psychological health (i.e., life satisfaction) outcomes. In Study 2, we found that the indirect effects of career adaptability on work and psychological health outcomes via work and general adjustment were stronger for migrant workers with high, rather than low, levels of cultural intelligence. Implications for research and practice are discussed along with the study limitations and opportunities for future research.

International Mobile Workers Caught Between Restrictive Measures and Freedom of Movement During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Slovenia

The COVID-19 pandemic and the government measures to curb it in the past two years have had a significant impact on the mobility of workers within the EU. In this article, we analyze the measures adopted by the Slovenian government and the governments of some neighboring countries in the first half of 2020 and examine how these have affected international mobile workers. We identified the economic and social risks to which workers have been exposed following their return to Slovenia or while working in neighboring countries. Such risks were largely due to inconsistently adopted measures on an international level and the adoption of measures at short notice.

Các vấn đề của người xuất khẩu lao động ở Đồng Tháp khi quay về địa phương giai đoạn 2018 – 2020

Objective: This study aims to identify barriers and propose appropriate policies and solutions to support reintegration of international migrant workers as returning to their localities. Methods: We used a mixed-method cross-sectional study with 320 workers (quantitative questionnaire) and stakeholders (in-depth interviews). Results: Most workers did not have difficulty in reintegrating into their families and communities after their labour export. 71.2% had no vocational training before exporting and 32.5% found difficulty to seek a job due to their lack of concrete skills; - 13 - only 37.2% had a job the same as previous job oversea. The local government did not have an appropriate strategy for consulting, orientation and vocational training to promote this human resource of export workers. Conclusion: Our study made recommendations in terms of human management, vocational training according to the capacity and needs of the labor export market and the local market. Keywords: international migrant workers, labour export, reintegration, vocational training

LEGAL STATE OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS (MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES) IN THE INTERNATIONAL LAW

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is a non-profit organization that offers health and medical services to people based on their requirements irrespective of race, gender, beliefs, religion, and political origins. Physicians, as the MSF's most important members, assist people in their greatest need. They provide services ranging from consultations, vaccinations, and primary care to the most complex surgeries. Given that the doctors in the organization are very active members of the MSF and understand the risk of their presence in dangerous regions with prevalent epidemic and contagious diseases or under distress, insecurity, and war in underdeveloped or third world countries, research into the legal status of this self-giving and venture group of the international society is critical. The legal status of humanitarian aid workers such as the physicians in doctors without borders in international law has not been studied and recognized. This is due to the absence of a complete definition of “humanitarian aid workers” in international humanitarian law. Furthermore, the issue of the status of humanitarian NGOs in international law is novel. Therefore, studying the legal status of the humanitarian aid workers is an essential case because they are exposed to many potential risks in facing armed conflicts. This research planned a web-based survey as part of our study to find articles, books, reports, or studies in relationship with national and international humanitarian organizations and workers, NGOs, and the legal status of these organizations and their workers. We did normative legal research using secondary data from the internet, references, etc. While the operation of the MSF is mainly aimed at supporting the survival and recovery of people within a war or disease outbreak-afflicted country, its efforts put the lives of its personnel at risk. Herein, we will investigate how the MSF can adequately support its primary staff, the physicians. We can get the response to this question by studying the legal status of the doctors without borders in international law.

LEGAL STATE OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS (MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES) IN THE INTERNATIONAL LAW

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is a non-profit organization that offers health and medical services to people based on their requirements irrespective of race, gender, beliefs, religion, and political origins. Physicians, as the MSF's most important members, assist people in their greatest need. They provide services ranging from consultations, vaccinations, and primary care to the most complex surgeries. Given that the doctors in the organization are very active members of the MSF and understand the risk of their presence in dangerous regions with prevalent epidemic and contagious diseases or under distress, insecurity, and war in underdeveloped or third world countries, research into the legal status of this self-giving and venture group of the international society is critical. The legal status of humanitarian aid workers such as the physicians in doctors without borders in international law has not been studied and recognized. This is due to the absence of a complete definition of “humanitarian aid workers” in international humanitarian law. Furthermore, the issue of the status of humanitarian NGOs in international law is novel. Therefore, studying the legal status of the humanitarian aid workers is an essential case because they are exposed to many potential risks in facing armed conflicts. This research planned a web-based survey as part of our study to find articles, books, reports, or studies in relationship with national and international humanitarian organizations and workers, NGOs, and the legal status of these organizations and their workers. We did normative legal research using secondary data from the internet, references, etc. While the operation of the MSF is mainly aimed at supporting the survival and recovery of people within a war or disease outbreak-afflicted country, its efforts put the lives of its personnel at risk. Herein, we will investigate how the MSF can adequately support its primary staff, the physicians. We can get the response to this question by studying the legal status of the doctors without borders in international law.

Nicolas Moll: Solidarity is More than a Slogan. International Workers Aid During and After the 1992–1995 War in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Article Nicolas Moll: Solidarity is More than a Slogan. International Workers Aid During and After the 1992–1995 War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was published on June 1, 2022 in the journal Comparative Southeast European Studies (volume 70, issue 2).

외국인 근로자 환자 대상 문화간 진료 담화에서의 환자 지시 화행 연구

The present study investigated international worker patients’ English directive speech acts in their intercultural consultations with domestic doctors at three institutions in the Republic of Korea. Special attention was paid to the patient-initiated directives at the treatment or advice phase and to the discursive links that they triggered. The factors considered included the overall process across the individual sessions, the diachronic continuity (or lack thereof) of the sessions, and the intertextuality or intratextuality of the links as well as the directness of the speech act in question. Close qualitative analysis led to the identification of (at least) four discursive links that the patients’ directives triggered: ㆍDirect directives that trigger a link to all sessions in general ㆍDirect directives that trigger a link only to the immediate follow-up session ㆍNon-direct directives that trigger a link to a discourse unrelated to the current session ㆍNon-direct directives that trigger both intertextual and intratextual links simultaneously Each was closely compared and contrasted to each other and to those in Černý’s (2007, 2017) intracultural consultations. Discussions and limitations were also discussed.

The Fourth Wave of the COVID-19 in Afghanistan: The Way Forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Afghanistan at a time when the country was most vulnerable, with a fragile healthcare system and unable to contain the disease, and meet the needs of the vulnerable people. The country has gone through four waves of the disease thus far. An analysis of the COVID-19 cases reported by the District Health Information Software-2 shows that the fourth wave has just passed in March 2022. With the resurgence of the COVID-19 cases in other countries, it is likely that the next wave might not be too far. Challenges such as the lack or insufficiency of donor funds, unstable political situation, inadequate healthcare services, insufficient healthcare workers and diagnostic capacity, illiteracy of people, poor economy and shortage of the COVID-19 vaccine are greatly threatening the nation. The de facto authority does not seem to have a clear plan to fight against the pandemic. Therefore, the international community, civil societies, healthcare workers and other stakeholders should stay alert and combine their efforts to rescue an already plagued nation. Fortunately, many COVID-19 hospitals and laboratories have resumed their activities with the funds coming from international donors. However, to combat the infection in the long term, there seems to be a great need to integrate the COVID-19 services in the existing package of healthcare services, ie the Sehatmandi project. Moreover, awareness campaigns should be continued to keep the most vulnerable groups safe and protected. Vaccination services also need to be speeded up to have a significant portion of people immunized. Public willingness towards getting the vaccine should be increased through awareness campaigns mostly conducted by social media volunteers and healthcare workers.

SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance as an evidence-based infection control approach in an offshore petroleum employee population

BackgroundIndustrial hygienists (IH) in the oil and gas business instituted an extraordinary number of safety protocols to limit spread of SARS-CoV-2 onto offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. We used genomic surveillance to provide actionable information concerning the efficacy of their efforts.MethodsOver 6 months, employees at a single company were serology and PCR tested during a 1-5 day predeployment quarantine and when postdeployment symptoms were reported. From each positive test (n = 49), SARS-CoV-2 genomes were sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis was used to investigate the epidemiology of transmissions.ResultsGenomic surveillance confirmed 2 viral strains were infecting 18 offshore workers. Genomic data combined with epidemiological data suggested that a change in quarantine protocols contributed to these outbreaks. A pre-deployment outbreak involved a WHO variant of interest (Theta) that had infected 4 international workers. Two additional predeployment clusters of infections were identified.ConclusionsOur findings support that IH quarantine/testing protocols limited viral transmissions, halted offshore outbreaks, and stopped the spread of a variant of interest. The study demonstrates how genomic data can be used to understand viral transmission dynamics in employee populations and evaluate safety protocols in the offshore oil and gas industry.

Heritage Culture Detachment Predicts Hope and Well-Being of Filipino Migrant Workers: A Study of Low- and Semi-skilled Filipino Workers in Macau.

Heritage culture detachment occurs when migrants tend to distance themselves from their own cultural norms and values as they engage their host culture; research suggests that this approach to acculturation is often associated with psychological distress. We explore heritage culture detachment and well-being among Filipino migrant workers in Macau. Participants (N = 249) were recruited to answer a questionnaire that inquired into heritage culture detachment and several measures of well-being. The relationships between well-being and heritage culture detachment were examined by testing two structural equation models: Model 1: well-being predicts heritage culture detachment; Model 2: heritage culture detachment predicts well-being. The results show better fit between the data and Model 2; in particular, heritage culture detachment positively predicted satisfaction with life, external-peer locus-of-hope, but also negative self-esteem, and goal disengagement. Heritage culture detachment also negatively predicted external-spiritual locus-of-hope. The results are interpreted as possibly indicating how heritage culture detachment reflects efforts to adjust and cope in a new sociocultural environment. Unlike other migrants, international migrant workers may see their foreign work environment as temporary contexts and circumstances, wherein subordinating their cultural norms may have some utility. The discussion highlights how sources of well-being need to be understood within the specific temporal and sociocultural context of individuals’ life experiences.