Migrant Workers Research Articles

Barriers to Trade Union Participation among Rural Migrant Workers in China: An Analysis of Labor Disputes, Employment Characteristics, and Socio-Demographic Factors

This study aims to understand the potential for migrant workers to join trade unions by analyzing labor disputes, employment characteristics, and socio-demographic factors. Utilizing data from a survey of 823 migrant workers conducted in Shanghai and nine other cities in China, this research examines both the associational (organizational membership) and behavioral (activity participation) aspects of trade union participation. The results indicate that rural migrant workers exhibit a low level of union participation, contrary to expectations based on their labor market position and the recruitment efforts by Chinese unions. Three primary barriers to union participation were identified: (1) migrant workers in state-owned firms are significantly more likely to participate in unions compared to those in private firms, where union presence is weaker; (2) occupational and employment status discrimination within workplaces hinders rural migrant workers from joining unions; and (3) trust in trade unions is relatively low among Chinese migrant workers, likely due to the close relationship between unions and the government, which may undermine union legitimacy and impede worker engagement. These findings highlight the systemic challenges that rural migrant workers face in engaging with trade unions in China.

The Correlation between Dental Health Status and Educational Level, Age, and Gender as Demographic Attributes of the Children of Migrant Workers

Introduction Migrant workers and their families appear to have greater health issues, given their need to adjust to new environments and restricted access to healthcare services. One obstacle to receiving healthcare is culture. This study aims to analyze the correlation between dental health status and the level of class, age, and gender as demographic attributes in the children of migrant workers. Methods This cross-sectional study involved the children of Indonesian migrant workers who resided in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The population of the study consisted of children who met the inclusion criteria. Their ages varied between six and twelve. In this study, we used the purposive sampling method. There are 93 samples that met the inclusion criteria. We obtained the data on dental health status using the RedCap online form, which is used in the WHO oral health survey. The researchers performed data analysis, the def-t and DMF-T measurement index and prevalence analyses, and the Spearman-Rho correlation tests to examine the data and determine the appropriate analytical tests. Results The characteristics of the children of Indonesian migrant workers are as follows: based on the class level, 1, 5, and 6; based on age, 6-8 and 9-11; and based on gender, nearly equal between the male and female respondents. The DMF-T index score was 1.22, and the def-t index was 3.77 among the migrant children. The prevalence of caries in permanent adult crowns was lower (53.76%) than that in primary children crowns (64.52%.). Root caries is present in less than 1% of the adult population; however, its prevalence among the children of migrant workers is indeterminable. The majority of the negative correlation occurs between the level of grade and age of the children of Indonesian migrant workers and their dental and oral health status; however, there is no significant correlation between gender and oral health status. Conclusion The DMF-T index of migrant children is low, while their def-t index is high. The prevalence of crown and root caries among the children of migrant workers is significantly higher. There are many negative correlations between the educational level and age of the migrant children and their oral health status.

The Shift in the Use of Keigo by Migrant Care workers on TikTok Social Media

Honorifics are one of the causes of stress for migrant care workers in Japan. To alleviate stress, they play TikTok, a social media platform widely used to upload videos of conversations between care workers and the elderly. From the videos, this study scrutinized how language was used between care workers and the elderly in communicating. This research explored video displays on TikTok based on the use of language in conversation services between care workers and elders based on culturally based concepts around the usage of Japanese honorifics in constructing social identities. The data were obtained from 35 TikTok accounts used through an online survey. The data, in the form of videos on TikTok social media, showed language use between care workers and the elderly, and were then analyzed using a sociolinguistic framework. Findings have shown that in the communication, the care workers manipulated honorifics (keigo). The results of data analysis show that in the TikTok videos, there is a language shift from keigo form (sonkeigo 'respect form', kenjōgo 'humble form') to teineigo 'polite form' and even shifted to futsuutai 'plain form'. This shift in honorifics is influenced by changes in (1) social position, regard (2) power, and intertwined, but the major (3) age, and (4) formality. The results of this research can educate migrant care workers in selecting a language appropriate to social factors to create a good relationship between care workers and the elderly in delivering services to the elderly in-home care.

Migrant workers within the platform assemblage: entwined temporalities of gig work and the border regime

ABSTRACT The temporal structuring of migrant gig workers’ work and lives has been insufficiently addressed in research. Drawing on multi-sited onlineoffline methodologies, including interviews with migrants working via location-based work platforms (cleaning, food delivery) in Finland, we propose the term platform assemblage to analyse the temporal entanglements of living labour, work platforms and the border regime. We argue that migrant gig workers’ entanglement in the platform assemblage engenders experiences of constraint, not only via formally weak labour market positions but also through the specific temporalities arising in the complex entwinement of algorithms, the varying digital platforms used, ratings, urban interferences, migratory status and the personal resources required to navigate these constraints. Discerning the relationship between migrants’ encounters with the temporal border regime, the temporal organisation of platform work, and migrants’ contestations over the dynamics of work, the article contributes to the emerging literature on migrant gig workers.

Who’s got time for social reproduction? Migrant service workers as embodied infrastructures of the algorhythmic city

ABSTRACT This article, working within the ‘infrastructural turn’, combines social reproduction and Lefebvrian rhythm analysis to examine the everyday labour and life of migrant cleaners and delivery service gig workers in Stockholm. Using in-depth interviews, we demonstrate how this highly mobile and flexible workforce makes the city ‘tick’ by keeping its inhabitants clean, fed, healthy and cared for. Specifically, we highlight a contradiction: workers extricating free time for others through reproductive labour, are themselves systematically deprived of the (paid and unpaid) time necessary to meet their own reproductive needs. The conditions of work in the urban on-demand and just-in-time service economy, we show, produce spatiotemporal (dis)orders of living and labouring in the algorhythmic city, as workers are required to be both on standby, waiting, whilst also fulfilling customer orders at an ever-increasing speed. Migrant gig workers who appear on the doorstep, on demand and just in time, form a kind of human infrastructure, serving the urban population whilst nonetheless being subject to disinvestment – unrepaired and unmaintained. This article, then, contributes to the literature on gig work, migration and social reproduction, by theorizing the algorhythmic city as reliant on the constant transformation of gig labour into an urban infrastructure for social reproduction.

Looking through the lens of “essential workers”: a landscape of (im)mobility, labor, and social reproduction

This article explores the contradictions the category of “essential workers” entails, especially in conjunction with the governance of their mobility, citizenship, and the dilemmas thereof. I concentrate on the temporary/seasonal migrant workers as the epitome of essential workers’ paradoxical assemblage of rights and value to scrutinize both labor and its production and reproduction in contemporary capitalism. The essential workers were not only caught between mobility and immobility but also between visibility and invisibility vis-à-vis their activity as labor and, outside of it, between worthlessness and being of value. Their governance and location in society and economy reveal the structural dilemmas of capital and labor, as well as social reproduction in contemporary capitalism.

So How Did We Get Here? A Historical Case Study of Migrant Employment in the New Zealand Hotel Sector

This article maps the transition from a corporatist to a neoliberal consensus in the hotel industry in New Zealand, focussing on the changing labour conditions for migrant workers. We show how the current vulnerabilities for migrant workers, such as poor pay and conditions, and low unionisation, came into being. While much “presentist” research takes migrant worker vulnerability in hospitality and tourism for granted, this article finds that migrant workers did not always experience such vulnerability but, rather, this was constructed over time. The impacts of employment legislation and ownership changes during the 1980s and 1990s were crucial. By taking a critical historical employment relations approach, we better contextualise the current moment of labour shortages, reliance on migrant labour and by “race to the bottom” employment conditions. This suggests that the drive for sustainable employment practices will remain “aspirational” until the power imbalance in New Zealand employment relations is addressed.

The realities of return migration: Reintegrating women migrant domestic workers in Sri Lanka

This paper critically analyzes the Sri Lankan government’s management of return migration. Adopting an intersectional lens, it examines how exclusionary policies and programs fail to protect the rights and welfare of returnee women migrant domestic workers, resulting in poor reintegration outcomes. The paper focuses on three interconnecting issues that disproportionately impact upon their rights, as revealed by empirical fieldwork carried out in Colombo in 2018. Research findings from interviews and focus group discussions with civil society organizations (9), government agencies (3) and international organizations (3) highlight the need for an inclusive policy approach. Such an approach would involve a holistic response guided by inter-agency coordination and comprehensive data that would better tailor services to the specific skillsets and diverse circumstances of returnee women domestic workers.

Accumulating delay: Filipino Time, COVID-19 and experiences of male returnees in Cebu

Unique to this paper is a gendered examination of return migration from the point of view of male return migrants. I analyze the perspectives of repatriated male migrant workers during their return migration in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a discussion of time as “accumulated delay,” I suggest that the (de)constructions of masculinity concerning overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) experiences of waiting and delay under repatriation and quarantine can be understood through the theoretical lens of immobility in migration research. I suggest that systemic delays in the circulation of global capital, necessitated by the global health pandemic, challenged migrant men’s cohesive narrative of migrant productivity.

At your service: the mobilities, rhythms and everyday lives of migrant labour in the gig economy

ABSTRACT This introduction presents a framework for the contributions to the special issue At Your Service: The Mobilities, Rhythms and Everyday Lives of Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy. The article begins by providing an overview of the current literature on the gig economy and the growing attention towards its relationship to processes of migration. The introduction continues by outlining and discussing three themes that in different ways shape the contributions in the issue. First, we situate the issue in relation to contemporary and historical migration processes and regimes of mobility. Second, we discuss how the articles in this issue explore the rhythms of gig work in relation to the spatio-temporalities of migration regimes and cities increasingly built on a logic of fulfilment. Finally, we draw attention to the infrastructural role of migrant gig workers in midst of the contemporary social reproductive crisis. This perspective opens new avenues for future research with questions of social reproductive justice at its core.

Gig work in transnational spaces: infrastructures of migration and the simultaneous lives of migrants in the gig economy

ABSTRACT This article explores how platform-mediated gig work is entangled in the migration process across transnational, national and local scales. Drawing on the concepts of simultaneity and migration infrastructure from critical transnational migration studies as well as qualitative interviews with migrants, the analysis focuses on the figures of three migrant gig workers from both EU and non-EU countries to elucidate two matters. First, we analyse how different forms of citizenship produce different ways of responding to the migration infrastructure that results in frictions and/or smoothness across different times and spaces in the migration process. Second, we analyse how migrants who perform platform-mediated gig work on a local scale in Copenhagen, Denmark, establish particular transnational lives. Thus, this article contributes a timely transnational perspective on the relationship between the growing gig economy and migration.

The work of waiting: migrant labour in the fulfillment city

ABSTRACT Drawing on research conducted with platform delivery workers in Washington D.C., this paper builds on the work of scholars committed to both describing and challenging the degrading conditions that so often define the gig economy. Acknowledging the importance of both employee classification and citizenship status to understanding the plight of platform-based migrant workers, this paper directs attention to the distinction that platform companies draw between what counts as work and what counts as waiting. This distinction is not only central to understanding the degrading nature of gig work, but to understanding the logic of what we describe as the fulfilment city – a city organized around the promise and potential of one-click, same day, or even same hour, delivery services. We end by arguing that questions of waiting and fulfillment are important for migration scholars concerned with the formation of ‘immigrant counterpublics’.

Live-in or locked-out: housing of migrant workers before and during COVID-19

This article presents a comparative policy analysis of housing arrangements for migrant caregivers and farmworkers before and during COVID-19. By Juxtaposing structural conditions and industrial sectors, we explore the link between housing and labour migration regime, analysing its implications on migrant workers’ living conditions. Despite substantial differences in housing arrangements, prioritising employers’ needs and ethnonational values over migrant workers’ well-being and rights places migrant workers in both sectors at risk of exploitation. Crisis conditions, such as COVID-19, exacerbate the vulnerability of migrant workers to exploitation. By unpacking the repercussions of disparities between official rights-based housing policy and their implementation, this article seeks to contribute to the literature on the intersection between labour migration and housing policies. Rooted in a structural perspective on labour exploitation, we argue that bridging these disparities and preventing exploitation, while improving migrant workers’ living conditions, requires policymakers to address power imbalances between employers and migrant workers.

Workplace factors affecting migrant workers' health

Introduction. Migrant workers are individuals who relocate from their country of origin to another to engage in economic pursuits. Working conditions, the work environment and process, lifestyle and habits of workers have an impact on the results of work and the health of workers. These factors are called risk factors and cannot be completely eliminated, but they can be controlled. The aim of the study was to examine the actual factors affecting the health of migrant workers at the workplace. Materials and methods. Eighty Korean compatriots from different countries who resides in “Korean Compatriot Village” were interviewed using a questionnaire. To analyze the survey results, the SPSS Statistics program, version 25, was used. Results. Migrants who work more than 12 hours a day have worse health over time. Noise can cause health problems and diseases. Time for work and rest, work responsibilities affect weight gain and lead to health changes. Limitation. Migrant workers weren’t asked about home country work experiences and start of work in Korean factories. The researcher didn’t know Korean factories well, hence detailed questions couldn’t be formulated. Conclusion. Most respondents were young Korean compatriots who came to Korea to work. They experienced stress and fatigue due to the burden of responsibility and worry for their relatives. For elderly migrant workers it’s difficult to find work in home country and the problems with the musculoskeletal system occur due to their lack of work experience in such production and their advanced age.

KPHA 2023 should explicitly include state accountability: Response to Fernandez et al.

The commentary "Public health ethics and the Kerala Public Health Act, 2023" published on January 27, 2024 in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME) has received a response from members of the State Health Systems Resource Centre and Government Medical College, Malappuram, Kerala. They explain that the Kerala Public Health Act (KPHA) is a legal document and not required to explicitly include accountability mechanisms and social obligations of the state. Given the very real danger of state over-reach as was evident during the Covid pandemic, these checks and balances should, in fact, be non-negotiable. The position of KPHA on healthcare of migrant workers and patients with tuberculosis goes against existing public healthcare principles. There is therefore a need to revisit the Act to explicitly include state accountability.

The Experiences of Migrant Care Workers in Long-term Care Facilities: A Scoping Review.

The employment of migrant care workers provides a remedy to face the challenges of increased demand for care of older adults. A scoping review aimed to identify, categorize, and summarize the existing knowledge about migrant care workers' working experiences in long-term care facilities. Identifying gaps in the literature can inform future research. Five electronic databases were searched in April 2024 in addition to a manual search for articles published in English. Forty-five articles were reviewed. A few studies described migrant care assistants' main tasks as assisting physical care and care assistants' characteristics grouped into personal and acquired qualities to provide good quality care. Migrant care workers experienced work satisfaction, achievement, adaptability and adjustment, organizational support, work burden, sense of loneliness, low wages, low social status, and loss of profession. They faced challenges involving inadequate knowledge of palliative care, communication and language barriers, cultural and religious differences, and health concerns. Friendly and discriminatory relationships were found between migrant care workers and stakeholders. Existing evidence regarding the experiences of migrant care workers in delivering palliative care to dying residents or facilitating death preparation is limited. Additionally, there is a notable absence of data from the perspectives of employers and residents on discrimination issues. Further research is necessary to investigate these areas.

The path from home to school: study on migrant workers' children in Haining, Zhejiang Province

With the rapid development of urbanization in China, the number of migrant workers is increasing. As a result, the problem of whether children move with them has arisen, which has led to the emergence of a group of children who are in urgent need of child-friendly attention. At the institutional level, the most important measure of the Chinese government is to ensure the enrollment of migrant children, but now the institutional optimization is not enough. For example, the ' enrollment difficulty ' still exists, and many migrant children are forced to go to schools far away from home. This also leads to the lack of non-institutional level, such as the long distance to school so that these children cannot go to school independently. Through the data of parent interviews and behavior logs, this study verifies that the transfer of children significantly increases the cost of childcare for migrant workers, indirectly verifies the importance of school distance, and proposes that schools and matching public service facilities should be configured near industrial parks where migrant children are concentrated.

Bionomic characterization of Anopheles mosquitoes in the Ethiopian highlands and lowlands

BackgroundThe protective effectiveness of vector control in malaria relies on how the implemented tools overlap with mosquito species-specific compositions and bionomic traits. In Ethiopia, targeted entomological data enabling strategic decision-making are lacking around high-risk migrant worker camps in the lowlands and resident communities in the highlands—resulting in suboptimal malaria control strategies for both populations. This study investigates spatial and temporal mosquito behavior, generating baseline evidence that will improve malaria control for both migrant workers in the lowlands and their home communities in the highlands.MethodsHourly Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) light trap collections were performed indoors and outdoors during the peak (October to December 2022) and minor (March to May 2023) malaria transmission seasons. These seasons coincide with the post-long rain and post-short rain seasons, respectively. Eight resident households were sampled from each of four villages in the highlands and eight households/farm structures on and near farms in four villages in the lowlands. The sampling occurred between 18:00 and 06:00. Spatiotemporal vector behaviors and hourly indoor and outdoor mosquito capture rates, used as a proxy for human biting rates, were calculated for overall catches and for individual species. Adult mosquitoes were identified using morphological keys, and a subset of samples were confirmed to species by sequencing ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer region 2 (ITS2) and/or mitochondrial DNA cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (Cox1).ResultsIn the highlands, 4697 Anopheles mosquitoes belonging to 13 morphologically identified species were collected. The predominant species of Anopheles identified in the highlands was An. gambiae sensu lato (s.l.) (n = 1970, 41.9%), followed by An. demeilloni (n = 1133, 24.1%) and An. cinereus (n = 520, 11.0%). In the lowland villages, 3220 mosquitoes belonging to 18 morphological species were collected. Anopheles gambiae s.l. (n = 1190, 36.9%), An. pretoriensis (n = 899, 27.9%), and An. demeilloni (n = 564, 17.5%) were the predominant species. A total of 20 species were identified molecularly, of which three could not be identified to species through comparison with published sequences. In highland villages, the indoor Anopheles mosquito capture rate was much greater than the outdoor rate. This trend reversed in the lowlands, where the rate of outdoor captures was greater than the indoor rate. In both highlands and lowlands, Anopheles mosquitoes showed early biting activities in the evening, which peaked between 18:00 and 21:00, for both indoor and outdoor locations.ConclusionsThe high diversity of Anopheles vectors and their variable behaviors result in a dynamic and resilient transmission system impacting both exposure to infectious bites and intervention effectiveness. This creates gaps in protection allowing malaria transmission to persist. To achieve optimal control, one-size-fits-all strategies must be abandoned, and interventions should be tailored to the diverse spatiotemporal behaviors of different mosquito populations.Graphical

Interpersonal Communication Between PT. Employment Services Distributors and Prospective Migrant Workers During Recruitment (Case Study of Ms. YH as a Representative of Illegal Services Distributors and Ms. EE as a Former Migrant Worker)

Recruitment carried out by PT labor service providers is still carried out today in Sumbawa Regency. The main problem in this research is how service distributors succeed in convincing prospective migrant workers to work as household assistants abroad. The theory used in this research is interpersonal communication theory by Joseph A Devito in 1989. The research method used in this research is a qualitative method and data collection techniques using observation of the situation and environmental conditions where the informants live and interviewing research informants directly and the objectives of This research is to determine the interpersonal communication used by PT labor service providers to prospective migrant workers during recruitment. And the results of this research show that there is an attitude of openness carried out by PT service providers towards prospective migrant workers. Empathy is in the form of actions carried out by PT service providers to prospective migrant workers. Support in the form of assistance and materials provided by PT service providers to prospective migrant workers. A positive feeling in the form of respect and listening is given by PT service providers when interacting with prospective migrant workers, and finally there is no equality in communication between PT service distributors and prospective migrant workers.

Cooperation Between Indonesia And Taiwan In Supporting The Protection Of Runaway Indonesian Migrant Workers In Taiwan

Indonesia's relations with Taiwan cannot be separated from problems and issues related to Indonesian Migrant Workers. Among these issues is the case of Indonesian Migrant Workers who exceeded the period of stay or overstayed in Taiwan. The overstaying status of Indonesian Migrant Workers creates vulnerability to violations of the rights of Indonesian Migrant Workers and even Indonesian Migrant Workers can be treated arbitrarily. So protection is needed so that the rights of Indonesian Migrant Workers are fulfilled. The type of research that the author will use is qualitative descriptive research because it is considered appropriate to research needs. The data sources used by the author in this research are secondary data such as data obtained from documents, photos, research journals, books relevant to research, news and credible internet media as support for primary sources related to regulations. the rights of Indonesian migrant workers abroad. The results of this research show that the protection and cooperation efforts undertaken to protect Indonesian Migrant Workers include institutional improvements through BP2MI, the launch of the SP2T and Embedded SP2T schemes, the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Taiwan and Indonesia regarding the Recruitment, Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers in December 2018, as well as a self-surrender program for overstayer workers from the Taiwanese authorities.