Labor Opportunities Research Articles

Land scarcity, resettlement and food security: Assessing the effect of voluntary resettlement on diet quality in Malawi

Food insecurity persists globally, with lack of access to farmland among the main factors contributing to chronic undernourishment. Population resettlement to areas of low density presents a possible but controversial solution to land scarcity. This paper examines the case of Malawi’s Community Based Rural Land Development Project, a World Bank funded internal resettlement scheme for 15,000 participating households. Based on four months of fieldwork, including a survey of 200 households, 5 focus group discussions and 20 expert interviews, we assess how voluntary, internal, ‘rural to rural’ resettlement affects food security and nutrition through diet quality. Overall, we found that lack of wage labour opportunities and poor access to markets lowered food access (HDDS) among beneficiaries compared to non-beneficiaries (who did not participate in the resettlement scheme from the outset but were eligible), former beneficiaries (who had participated in scheme but had abandoned it by the time of the study), and national averages. Diet quality (IDDS) varied significantly according to resettlement location, as well as between beneficiaries and former-and non-beneficiaries, where overall, beneficiaries who were still living in their resettlement location at the time of the study had the lowest IDDS and therefore poorest diet quality. The regression results and the focus group discussions suggest that beyond access to infrastructure and markets, secure entitlements to training and farming inputs need to be sustained and improved in relocation areas to bring about positive food security outcomes for resettled populations.

Tobacco Farming and Its Social Impacts on Farmers in the Rural Mardan, Pakistan

Despite the growing concern regarding the hazardous effects of tobacco by the international community, tobacco farming still prevails worldwide. This study was planned to explore how the rural farmers perceive the significance of tobacco farming in term of its social impacts on the farming community in district Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Tobacco farming was taken as independent variables and its social impacts on the farmers were selected as the outcome variable. The social impact variable was operationalized with sub-variables as income, social status, expanding kin relationships, labor opportunity, and linkages with people of different social background. Data were collected from 144 tobacco growers through structured questionnaire and analyzed through correlation and regression models. The study concluded that tobacco farming brings about positive impacts on the social status of the farming community by increasing their income, elevates their social status, expands kin relationships, and provides labor opportunity to the farmers.

“Mining is in the belly”: The pursuit of individual wealth in Rwanda

This paper examines the socio-economic conditions under which Rwandan men moved into artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), and highlights the personal progress made possible through their labour. In the face of an unforgiving rural environment and an economy limiting in labour opportunity, young men leave their family homesteads in search of off-farm employment. Though these men never associate their labour migration with poverty, their stories are laden with reference to the “better life” they have achieved by working in the mines. Their stories show how mining is an over-looked solution to the long-held puzzle confounding underemployment and bleak non-farm opportunities in rural Rwanda.

Economic exiles. The new Spanish emigration to Argentina (2008-2015)

The article analyzes the Spanish emigration to Argentina between 2008 and 2015, with the prospect of understanding the demographic profile of the new Spanish emigrants to Argentina, the causes of their migration, the initial problems of migration process, the conditions of their later situation and their expectations of the future. We use a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodological strategy, combining first and second order research. Findings include that these migrants are mostly young and middle-aged workers, highly qualified and with work experience. Pushed from Spain by the economic crisis and attracted to Argentina for its labor opportunities, they have found a migratory and institutional network of support which guarantees a social, labor and economic integration. For the most part, they are satisfied with their migratory experience even though most desire to come back to Spain.

Con CIENCIA Agropecuaria (EDITORIAL)

The Agricultural Awareness initiative led by the MGAP, carried out in conjunction with public and private institutions, seeks to promote a social transformation to actively mobilize Uruguayans around the opportunities for labor and professional development offered by agriculture. We adhere to and participate in this program convinced of its importance and opportunity. In this editorial, we will not refer to that awareness, but to that which refers to how up-to-date we are in Uruguay on the road to incorporating technological development and innovation into agricultural production. Our contry is an agro-exporting country, in which agricultural income represents 80% of total exports. We are the first exporters of milk and rice, and the second largest exporters of meat on the continent. In spite of these titles, we know that the path for the country's development will not only be linked to quantity, which must continue to increase, but also to the value that we can incorporate into our products. All this is tied to the indispensable ethical commitment to the environment and society.

Maritime labour and economic opportunity: Shetlanders and the Dundee Arctic whaling trade during the late nineteenth century

From the late eighteenth century until the early twentieth century, British Arctic whaling vessels called at the Shetland Islands to hire additional crew members. Whalers valued Shetlanders for their boat-handling expertise, and Shetlanders benefitted from earning cash wages. After 1872, local documentation on Shetlanders in Arctic whaling becomes scarcer. This article traces social, economic and environmental factors to contextualise Shetland’s involvement in Arctic whaling during its last decades. It draws information from British merchant marine crew agreements to identify prosopographical characteristics of Shetlanders joining the whalers, and it links this information to other Shetland sources to understand how whaling influenced Shetland’s society and economy. The article also demonstrates the value of using crew agreements to develop alternative perspectives of social, economic and labour histories across a multiscalar range of local, regional and transoceanic histories.

How Do Farmers Respond to Water Resources Management Policy in the Heihe River Basin of China?

Reducing agricultural water use is an inevitable choice to alleviate water shortage in arid and semi-arid regions, and high-efficiency irrigation technologies provide conditions for water conservation. However, without unified water resources management policy to redistribute the saved agricultural water, farmers’ behavior will lead to water rebound and large-scale expansion of cultivated areas, especially on the edge of oasis regions. To solve these issues and promote the sustainable development of water resources, it makes sense to explore the impact of unified water resources management policy from the perspective of farmers’ behavior. This study takes the typical irrigation zone in the Heihe River Basin as a case to discuss the response of farmers’ economic behavior to transferring irrigation water and restricting land reclamation, i.e., the unified water resources management policy with the technical efficiency of crop irrigation improved based on the bio-economic model. The results show that in the case of loosening land constraints, farmers will reuse all the saved water for agricultural production by reclaiming unused land or increasing the area of water-intensive crops (vegetables). Although the policy of restricting land reclamation can restrict land expansion, it cannot avoid water rebound caused by adjusting the crop-planting structure. Farmers’ land-expansion behavior can be largely restricted by transferring the saved irrigation water to non-agricultural sectors in irrigation zones with inadequate water, but to contain land-expansion behavior in irrigation zones with surplus water, the policy of restricting land reclamation must be implemented simultaneously. The study also reveals that farmers will choose to grow more cash crops (seed maize, vegetables, tomato, seed watermelon, potato, and rapeseed) and fewer food crops (wheat, maize) to increase the profit per unit of water in the scenario of loosening land constraints or transferring agricultural water. Furthermore, the study indicates that farmers’ economic income can be decreased or at least not increased with the transfer of agricultural water. Both benefit compensation from non-agricultural sectors and increased non-agricultural income can compensate farmers’ economic loss. Therefore, it is necessary to improve water rights trading systems and increase employment opportunities for surplus agricultural labor to promote economic development in rural areas.

DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF POOR HOUSEHOLDS IN VILLAGES

Poverty in the villages is an acute socio-economic phenomenon that attracts negative demographic trends affecting economic development, including the quality of human capital and living conditions. Having predicted the worsened demographic structure of the population in these areas, which is reflected in a progressive increase in the age and age of young people aged 0-17. it is necessary to identify those categories of drugs for which the highest risk of living in poverty is required. A number of sociological and statistical surveys show that poor rural households have specific age, educational and socio-economic characteristics. Research interest is to reveal what this specific is? Here valuable information is provided by the published studies on poverty at the national level and the corresponding cuts on the city-village axis (see EU-SILC, 2016, UNICEF, Word Bank). A necessary clarification: In Stratifying literature, there is no clear distinction between "family" and "household" as observed in demography or family sociology [4:35]. Speaking of a family, it is often treated as a social group that conforms to norms and values in a society that lives in a particular economic (lifestyle) and cultural context (values, norms) [1]. "Its members are under the same roof and create a home farm that can unite two, but often three generations" [5]. In stratification, we are interested in both the family and the household, and more often the object of attention is the household, insofar as it is mostly the "group carrier of the redeployed material wealth and income, as well as of a given socio-demographic status" [4:35]. It is necessary to assign to all interested persons and persons who wish to benefit from their own goals and effectiveness. On the basis of the secondary analysis of the data from the "Income and Animal Statistics" panel, the results of the long-term interviews with the beneficiaries of households and citizens will be checked of tested households. Regardless of the measures taken to date in this area, the efforts of the state institutions should continue in order to create opportunities for rural poverty reduction, in which problems related to the limited opportunities for labor are becoming more and more popular. Considering the worsened demographic structure of the population in these areas, consisting in a gradual increase in the share of elderly people and respectively in the reduction of the young people in the 0-17 age range, it is necessary that the efforts of all stakeholders are prioritized towards the following categories of persons, for whom there is the highest risk of living in rural poverty. These are: households of single parents with children and large households; Unemployed households; households where household members have low or no educational level and households of representatives of the Roma ethnic community.

A Measure Against Unemployment Problem Expected to Occur by Industry 4.0: Cittaslow

Industry 4.0, or with the other name the 4th industrial revolution, is composed of integratedly with components like data exchange and related manufacturing technology thanks to automatic control systems and internet. Due to Industry 4.0, it is expected that smart factories where productivity is at the top and each data can be viewed simultaneously will become popular. Smart factories are becoming current issues as activities where machine-robots do almost impeccable manufacturing and the human factor is minimized in production. Due to the increase in the number of smart factories in the forthcoming period, it is thought that unskilled labourers will be unemployed. At this point, Cittaslow may be one of solutions to reduce unemployment as a local development model. This study has been conducted for emphasizing that, local production, sales and other similar activitities can create employment opportunities for women and unskilled labor in cittaslow cities. This study was prepared by using the literature review of qualitative research methods and some concepts in tourism literature were explained and the concepts such as Industry 4.0, unemployment and employment were emphasized. Within the scope of Cittaslow, a number of interviews were held with the authorities of the municipalities of cities with slow cities. Therefore, interview method was also used. In the conclusion of the study, the activities of Cittaslow led to an increase in employment and public income, and in the recommendations section the activities that Cittaslow cities could implement for employment and income growth.

Working wives: gender, labour and land commercialization in Ratanakiri, Cambodia

ABSTRACTIn Ratanakiri province, home to a large share of Cambodia's indigenous minorities, land commercialization involving large-scale land transfers and in-migration has led to shrinking access to land for indigenous households. Drawing on qualitative interviews and a household survey conducted in Ratanakiri, this paper explores the links between social reproduction and agrarian production in the current phase of agrarian transition through the lens of everyday gendered experiences. It argues that while wage labour is becoming an essential component of agrarian livelihoods for land-poor indigenous households, gendered hierarchies mediate access to local wage labour opportunities due to the incompatibilities between care work and paid labour. This paper contributes to the literature by exposing locally-specific processes through which gender-differentiated impacts are produced under multiple modes of dispossession. It also illuminates the links between dispossession and social reproduction and the tensions between capitalist accumulation and care activities in agrarian trajectories following land commercialization.

Migration, Intensification, and Diversification as Adaptive Strategies

Agent-based modeling (ABM) has transformed the century-old field of mechanistic migration modeling, by shifting the unit of analysis from the city (in the gravity model) to the individual decision maker. Various efforts over the past decade have leveraged ABM tools to integrate competing labor opportunities, climatic shocks, and sharing across networks into decision-based models of migration patterns. We present the MIDAS (Migration, Intensification, and Diversification as Adaptive Strategies) framework, which draws on the 'push-pull-mooring' (PPM) theory of migration to integrate the influences of social networks, climatic shifts, and opportunities for livelihoods diversification on migration in a single framework. We demonstrate some of the strategic responses to opportunities that are possible in a true PPM modeling framework, including substitution of income streams, the choice to specialize or diversify, as well as to migrate in response to shocks. We observe what may be the emergence of a distinct class of agents within one of our experiments, highlighting the value of tools like MIDAS to capture migration and adaptive behaviors under conditions for which analogs do not yet exist in census datasets or otherwise. Importantly, we show how adaptation decisions depend strongly on a small number of behavioral parameters, key among them preferences for risk, for different forms of utility, and for time.

АСПЕКТИ ПІДТРИМКИ ФЕРМЕРСТВА В КОНТЕКСТІ ПРОТИРІЧ СТАЛОГО ТА ІНКЛЮЗИВНОГО РОЗВИТКУ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ЕКОНОМІКИ

The article reveals and generalizes aspects of the functioning and support of farming as an ecological-economic sphere of activity, based on the analysis of theoretical views and contradictions of sustainable and inclusive (supportive) development in the national economy system. The theoretical-methodological basis of the study is a dialectical method of scientific views and transdisciplinary provisions analysis, relevant to the issues of sustainable and inclusive development contradictions of the agricultural economy, in particular, farms. The method of comparison was used in the analysis of the agricultural production dynamics according to the statistics of the farm in Ukraine. Analysis of the indicators of the farming functioning dynamics demonstrates the relative stability of the sector, both in the development of animal husbandry and crop production. However, there is a decrease in the level of production profitability of most types of farm products, except for potatoes and poultry for meat, etc. The contradiction in the development of Ukrainian farms is their insufficient support from the state. In order to solve it, it is necessary to study the sustainable and inclusive development contradictions of the entire national economy system. To date, the most important component of the sustainable development model is the economic potential of the state, in particular, its motivational component. Economic potential can be considered as a model of sustainable development of a country or industry as a synergetic system that combines natural, industrial, financial, labor and socio-cultural opportunities (resources) of the national economy system. Herewith, the economic potential in different contexts can act both as in the role of cumulative national economic capacity, and as an aggregate of the resources listed above. In both cases, the economic potential characterizes the achieved level of social development. In the motivational context, which is laid to the basis for understanding economic potential as a sustainable development model, and provides for the creation of a solid foundation for resolving social and environmental contradictions of the national economy, the subject-object relationships and interconnections are considered and optimized, that are usually aimed at maximizing the goals of socio-economic processes participants. As a result of the study, the following conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the analysis of sources relevant to the topic of study revealed that in the whole set of controversial issues connected to the sustainable and inclusive development of the national economy, the smallest share of attention is paid to the narrow specific importance of the ecological-economic contradiction. In this regard, the need to form the motivational potential for resolving ecological-economic contradictions in the sectoral-territorial context of the national economy is justified. Secondly, the paper reveals and generalizes theoretical approaches to resolving the sustainable and inclusive development contradictions, aimed at the formation of support processes to farming as a socio-ecological and economic sphere of activity.

Male Bodies, Women's Souls: Personal Narratives of Beauty Salons Workers in Pakistan

The current study is conducted in Lahore, Pakistan. Through this study, an effort has been made for analyzing the relationship between embodiment, subjectivity, and labour activity involving beauty salons workers. To comprehend the objective of the study, researchers have selected thirteen respondents through purposive and networking sampling technique, and informal interview/ discussion method has been used as a tool for the collection of data. It observed that bodies have a role to play in the power relations and in the various discourses producing the abnormal and normal bodies in the society, leading to establishing the intelligibility of the body by the gender categories. For producing one's subjectivity, the body also has an active role to play. The intelligibility of the binary gender matrix considers transgender people abnormal, making them prone to be discriminated against, socially excluded and stigmatized. Considering the labour opportunities, the observation is that the physical bodies of these people (working in beauty salons) create obstacles for attaining any formal jobs and position in the family and society. Therefore, for their survival, they choose such professions which provide the space for the subjective interpretation of their body.

Educational, Economic, and Employment Influences to English Language Proficiency

The academic, business, and employment sectors have expressed rising concerns about low English skills among learners and workers in countries where English is considered a communication necessity. The recognized need for English language skills situates researchers for useful inquiries; therefore, this research attempts to find out whether there is proof connecting English language skills to academic access, financial opportunities, and job opportunities. The study used data mined online information from 57 nations. Further, this used principal component analysis of data treatment in which two indices were produced from eight indices. Analysis of regression was used to determine the correlation between variables. Findings show that an increase in a country’s English proficiency index (EPI) is directly connected with more access to both basic knowledge and basic information, mean years of stay in school, and labor services. However, the EPI rank is not substantially affected by the access to the Advanced Education and Economy (AEE) Index. Also, this study ascribed 30.21% of the variation in the EPI rank to Access to Basic Knowledge and Labor Opportunities (ABKLO) and Access to Advanced Education and Economy (AAEE) Indices. It is concluded that English language proficiency is a valuable investment, both individually and collectively. Moreover, individuals with education and with good English language proficiency are perceived to have higher labor opportunities and earnings.

Finding Jobs, Forming Families, and Stressing Out? Work, Family, and Stress among Young Adult Women in the United States.

AbstractThe transition to adulthood is increasingly characterized by complex paths into the world of work and family, especially for young women. Yet how work and family combine to influence stress among young adult women is not well understood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we leverage new extensions to latent class analysis (LCA) to identify common combinations of work and family circumstances among young adult women, their earlier life and contemporaneous correlates, and associations with two stress measures: a multi-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Epstein–Barr Viral (EBV) antibody titers, a well-validated biomarker of stress-related immunity impairments. We identify seven different common combinations of latent work–family combinations among young adult women ranging from well-compensated professional workers with and without children, mothers without paid employment, and delayed transitions to work and family. Completing a college degree was associated with a higher likelihood of membership in classes marked by professional work irrespective of motherhood, while being raised in a community with greater female labor opportunities was generally associated with membership in child-free classes. Mothers and child-free women in “pink-collar” work with low wages and decision-marking freedom reported higher stress compared to women in “white-collar” work with higher wages and decision-making freedom. These differences are mostly attenuated following adjustments for poverty-related stressors and work–family conflict. While prior work has emphasized the health benefits for women of combining work and family, our research suggests these benefits may be limited to women of higher socioeconomic status with flexible, well-compensated jobs.

Do Perceptions Match Reality? Comparing Latinos’ Perceived Views of State Immigration Policy Environments with Enacted Policies

This paper explores assumptions made and measurement approaches in the nuanced pathway between enacted state immigration policies and the outcomes they affect in Latino immigrant communities. Scholars across a variety of fields have found that contemporary state immigrant policymaking is associated with outcomes in immigrant communities including political engagement, mental and physical health, access to education, and labor opportunities. In this paper, we explore questions of how state immigration policies produce these and other outcomes. Much of this literature relies on the assumption that members of the immigrant communities are aware of the state policies being enacted, yet few quantitative studies of the effects of state immigration policy contain measures of both policy and of perception. We seek to determine the extent to which Latino immigrants are aware of state immigrant policymaking to help determine whether state immigration policies are a valid approach to measure perceptions of the immigration policy environment in Latino immigrant communities. Additionally, we explore alternative measures of immigration policy. Our findings are particularly relevant to policymakers and immigration scholars as the contemporary political environment has helped to fuel anti‐immigrant sentiments and rhetoric contributing to Latinos’ perceptions of the state immigrant policy environment.

Caring for children and the elderly in Argentina: A grammar of class and gender inequalities

This article examines the social organization of care for children and dependent older adults in Argentina, based on data from the National Survey on Social Structure. It analyzes perceptions and practices around care in public and private institutions, home-based care services, and care provided by families, with a particular focus on gender implications. Due to a shortage of public services, care is highly feminized, largely performed by families, and subject to class inequalities. Although family care tends to be preferred for early childhood, among mothers with better labor opportunities there is a growing (and often unmet) demand for public care services. The outsourcing of care is more widely accepted for the elderly, for whom there is an acute lack of public services, but only better-off families can afford these privatized solutions. In both cases, the organization of care reflects shortfalls in care policies and deep-rooted cultural patterns.

Globalization and Its Effect on Vocational Human Relations for Arab Woman

This research aims to study and analysis the concept of globalization and its effect in the economic field and what will lead to of mixing powers and parties unqualified in their capabilities and abilities also their values and traditions and their negative effects on the vocational human relations that Arab woman and what reflects on her role in the economic development that passed it a long way to fill her status in work with his brother the man and contribute in the movement of building and development in her country, consequently, there were duties and responsibilities to face this mixing and inference that world witnessed and working on limiting its negative effects on building and structuring Arab Homeland economically which provide Arab Woman with enough opportunities and suitable climate for development. Inductive Methodology and Explanative Methodology have been used for studying reality and concept of globalization and its effect on human relations in the work of Arab Woman by review globalization concept, globalization and labor opportunities, concept of vocational human relations, Arab Woman role in the economic activity , then analyzing concept of globalization and its effect on vocational human relations for Arab woman by depending on latest publishing on this field of researchers and studies , the researcher reached to number of conclusions most important are:
 
 Changing in vocational human relations in field of globalization will lead to decline role of Arab woman in the economic development.
 Preference for material profit will be on account of moral side for Arab woman.
 Instability the system of values and confusions in human relations between individuals and groups in formal and informal working.
 Decreasing income level of woman because of decreasing labor opportunities and dividing labor on basis of sex for man as psychological, natural and social character.

Labour opportunities provided by Spanish high-speed rail (HSR) commuting services in a period of financial crisis: an approach based on regional wage disparities and housing rental prices

ABSTRACTLabour migration derived from interregional high-speed rail (HSR) commuting is a relatively new behaviour, whose development has partly coincided with a worldwide period of recession. Little research has been done to date to assess the influence of HSR on interregional labour mobility data taking into account key variables linked to a time of financial crisis. Using interregional labour mobility figures (2002–14), a model based on a multivariate panel data analysis was tested to estimate HSR impacts in the three main Spanish interregional commuting relations.

Impacts of CDM projects on sustainable development: Improving living standards across Brazilian municipalities?

Abstract The goal of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is both emission reduction and sustainable development, but while emission reductions generate revenues for the project developer, no such benefit results from the achievement of sustainable development. The objective of this research is therefore to analyze to which extent CDM investments have led to sustainable development benefits, and whether there is a difference in these effects between renewable energy and waste handling and disposal projects. Complementary to existing studies, which are based on potential effects reported ex-ante by project developers, this paper aims at quantifying impacts of CDM projects on sustainable development based on empirical data. Using data for years 2000 (pre-CDM) and 2010 (post-CDM) for Brazilian municipalities, this paper combines difference-in-differences assessment with matching techniques to identify the effect of CDM investments on development and poverty indicators by distinguishing for four project’s types: hydro, biomass energy, landfill gas and methane avoidance. Results show that CDM project types have stimulated local income and labor opportunities but only hydro projects have contributed to reduce poverty at the municipal level for the period analyzed.