Patterns Of Labor Migration Research Articles

Climate change: the biggest challenge of the modern century for workers

Climate change, as the greatest challenge of the century, has widespread effects on workers. These changes can lead to an increase in heat-related diseases, loss of jobs, and economic damage to businesses, change labor migration patterns and a decrease in job productivity. Therefore, considering the fact that climate change is currently and in the future considered one of the most important environmental challenges, long-term forecasting of climate variables to understand the extent of changes and consequently taking necessary measures to reduce the adverse effects of climate change should be of concern to various experts, including environmental science professionals. In this regard, public health experts, in line with their mission (the science of prevention), are seeking and organizing strategies to reduce these harmful effects on the health of communities and workers. Conducting research related to climate change for better preparedness for adaptation to this phenomenon and also reducing the costs of damages caused by these changes is very essential.

ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ СХЕМ ТРУДОВОЇ МІГРАЦІЇ ТА ЇЇ СОЦІАЛЬНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНИХ НАСЛІДКІВ В УЗБЕКИСТАНІ

Formulation of the problem. Labor migration has emerged as a significant socioeconomic phenomenon in Uzbekistan, impacting both the sending regions within the country and the receiving countries abroad. This research paper aims to analyze the patterns of labor migration within Uzbekistan and to other countries, while also assessing its socioeconomic implications. The purpose of the article is to analyze and evaluate the schemes of labor migration in Uzbekistan, taking into account their socio-economic consequences, as well as studying the volume of labor migration, the main directions and motivations of migrants, determining the impact of this phenomenon on the economy, the labor market, the social sphere and other aspects of public life in Uzbekistan. The object of the study is labor migration schemes and their socio-economic consequences in the context of Uzbekistan. The methodological basis and information base of the research are current scientific and applied research, statistical information. The article uses a number of methods, including analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalization. The main hypothesis of the study is that the analysis of labor migration schemes and their consequences will reveal the key factors that influence this process and its impact on the economy, the labor market, the social sphere and other aspects of public life in Uzbekistan. We assume that such an analysis will allow us to develop effective strategies and policies to optimize labor migration in order to ensure sustainable socio-economic development of the country. Presenting main material. The study utilizes a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of labor migration data and qualitative interviews with migrants and relevant stakeholders. By understanding the drivers and consequences of labor migration, this research provides valuable insights for policymakers to design effective strategies that maximize the benefits and minimize the challenges associated with labor mobility. The originality and practical significance of the study lies in a comprehensive approach to the analysis of labor migration schemes and its socio-economic consequences in the context of Uzbekistan, new insights into the relationship between labor migration and the country's development, revealing the peculiarities of this phenomenon in the Uzbek context. The practical significance of this article is that it can serve as a basis for the development of effective strategies and policies for the management of labor migration in Uzbekistan. Conclusions of the study can be useful for governmental and non-governmental organizations dealing with issues of migration and socio-economic development. The findings of the study indicate the need to develop comprehensive programs to support migrants, as well as the need to reform the labor migration management system in Uzbekistan in order to ensure sustainable development of the country and improve the quality of life of migrants and their families.

Acculturation orientation and expectation: mapping the labour migration processes of Cham youth in Cambodia

ABSTRACT In multi-ethnic societies, different cultures interact with each other, and communities often have to consider acculturation strategies. These strategies are fluid and develop across geographical boundaries while intersecting with cultural diversity. A host society’s stance toward migrants and governmental migration policies significantly influence these strategies. This dynamic is evident in the case for Cambodia’s ethnic Cham youth, who are Muslims in a predominantly Buddhist Khmer society. Chamic ethnicities are found widely in South East Asia, including in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, so their transnational connections and experiences are worth investigating in detail. This article draws on discourses on acculturation orientation and expectation to delve into Cham youth’s acculturation, particularly exploring the factors shaping their labour migration patterns. Based on fieldwork conducted in Cham villages in the Tbong Khmum Province of Cambodia, this research introduces a conceptual model highlighting ineffective enculturation and differential acculturation among Cham migrant workers. The findings enrich academic knowledge of acculturation orientation and expectation as well as labour migration patterns.

Evolving Patterns of Labour Migration from Romania in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract This paper examines the specifics of the migration process in recent years, from before the COVID-19 pandemic to the post-pandemic years. It focuses on the reasons why Romanian citizens choose to emigrate to other EU member countries and explores the factors that motivate their return. The paper also includes a bibliometric analysis of the literature on labour migration during the pandemic and post-pandemic period, with a focus on the works published in the period 2019-2024, as well as a detailed analysis of data collected at the Romanian level by the National Employment Agency (ANOFM), reported for the period January 2019 - September 2023. Main results entail clear trends and intentions of Romanians to work abroad in the coming years, considering the skills and competencies that will be required in the future in a globalized digital economy and the training and knowledge of certain fields of activity.

Feminized forced migration: Ukrainian war refugees

This paper looks at war-induced migration flows from Ukraine to Poland and Germany in 2022 to understand who is migrating and the challenges they face. Data were collected in the spring and summer of 2022 through survey questionnaires and interviews. The results of the research reveal that a) this wave of migration from Ukraine is overwhelmingly female; b) women are often migrating with children, which makes arranging appropriate childcare and school placement essential to their entry into the destination workforce; c) Ukrainian labor migration patterns before the war have had a significant impact on current flows; d) Ukrainian refugees to Poland and Germany often want to be able to travel regularly back to Ukraine; this affects their willingness to apply for temporary protection schemes that oblige them to remain in destination countries, which in turn makes it difficult to precisely quantify the number of refugees in a given country.

The impact of global climate change on migration in the Russian Federation and Central Asian countries

Global climate change has a dramatic impact on the environment, transforming the conditions of human life and economic activities, which affects migration patterns as well. Climatic conditions have always played a crucial role in population distribution in Russia. Today, the impact of severe climatic regime of the Northern Russian territories is becoming increasingly aggravated with the negative effects of the global climate change, spurring up the population outflow from such strategically important regions as the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East. This study aims at estimating the role of environmental factors in this process on the basis of analysis of statistical data on the distribution of migrants by reasons for resettlement. Results of the analysis proved that climatic conditions are a powerful push/pull factor of internal migration in Russia; hence, as the climate change progresses, the population outflow especially from the Russian North is likely to become more intense. On the other hand, the climate change has already become a serious problem for Central Asian countries, creating risks for food security, water supply and energy systems there. Gradual environmental deterioration provokes socio-economic crises which force the population of vulnerable areas to migrate in search of livelihood sustainability. The majority of such migrants resettle within their countries, but a part is likely to move to Russia following the traditional labor migration patterns. Our preliminary estimates show that by 2050Russia is going to get additionally up to 120,000 migrants from Central Asia in total. In the authors' opinion this trend should be considered as positive both from the point of view of a contribution to the population of Russia, and from the point of view of Central Asian population's adaptation to the climate change.

Unintended effects of regional planning in Germany

AbstractRegional planning plays a central role in Germany's multi‐level system for managing regional and local land use, giving concrete shape to state planning specifications and providing municipalities with binding guidelines for urban land use planning. While planning proponents affirm the positive effects of regional planning such as reduced land consumption and less urban sprawl, representatives of neoclassical urban economic theory see regulation as the reason for lower economic growth. With the help of fixed effects panel models, we examine the impact of regional planning regulations on the housing market, migration and prices in Germany's growing labor market regions. We conclude that regional planning regulations reduce construction activity. However, this effect is relatively small and does not raise building land prices and rents. Nevertheless, results indicate that the lower level of construction activity—due to strict regional planning regulations—contributes to weaker overall population growth. Based on our results, we cannot confirm important predictions of neoclassical urban theory regarding the effects of regional planning regulations on labor migration patterns and downstream processes for Germany.

Living alone and depression in a developing country context: Longitudinal evidence from South Africa.

In South Africa, single-person households were a household type enforced by apartheid legislation, designed to restrict the “influx” of Africans into “white” and typically urban areas of the country. Yet the increase in living alone has been one of the most marked demographic trends of the post-apartheid period. The trend, which has occurred alongside the persistence in individual labor migration patterns and a decline in rates of union formation, has been driven by changes among working-age adults, rather than among older adults. This is the first empirical study to investigate the mental health implications of living alone among all adults in South Africa using national longitudinal data. The data come from five waves of the panel household survey, the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), conducted from 2008 to 2017. Information on depressive symptoms was collected from all adults (15 years and older), who were asked the ten questions which make up the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Short Depression Scale (CES-D 10). Adults who lived alone reported significantly higher depression scores than other adults, in the pooled ordinary least squares models, and in the fixed effects model, which controlled for any unobservable, time-invariant differences between the two groups of adults. Vulnerability to depression was moderated by adults’ preferences to continue living in their area of residence (as a measure of their social integration), but the positive relationship remained sizeable and significant across all models. The findings shed light on a further dimension of the migrant labor system in South Africa, which has not received adequate attention in the empirical literature, viz. the mental health implications for adults of solo migration, and they provide further motivation for the provision of affordable and safe family housing in local areas of employment.

Pedimos Posada: Local Mediators and Guatemalan Refugees in Mexico, 1978-1984

Objective/Context: This article investigates how indigenous Guatemalan campesinos who took refuge in Chiapas, Mexico, relied upon Mexican mediators and community solidarity to secure their safety during the Guatemalan army’s genocidal campaign (1979-1983) against Mayan campesinos. The objective is to identify why different groups of mediators successfully met refugee needs. Methodology: Using the framework of forced migration studies, the article uses archival and oral histories to examine patterns of labor migration and refugee movement. Originality: The study uses previously uncatalogued archival collections, including the Guatemalan Refugees Collection in the Archivo Histórico Diocesano de San Cristóbal de las Casas, local documents from the Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas (formerly Instituto Nacional Indígena, ini), and oral histories collected in communities of ex-refugiados. Conclusions: Refugees relied upon local mediators, primarily campesinos and small farmers, for food, shelter, and work. Although formal mediators (governmental and intergovernmental organizations) potentially offered more services to refugee settlements, refugee camps also required formal registration and restricted peoples’ rights to work and move freely. Indigenous Maya villagers on both sides of the border shared long histories of labor migration, along with social, religious, and family ties. These links formed the base of new communities and provided refugees with needed flexibility. More broadly, this research shows how grassroots community formation protected, and at times exploited, the human rights of refugees.

The Threat from Within across Empires: Strikes, Labor Migration, and Violence in Central Europe, 1900–1914

AbstractThe decade before the First World War saw a heightened level of social and political conflicts throughout Germany and Austria-Hungary. Strikes in pre-1914 central Europe have largely been examined as part of the development of the workers’ movement, but much less often from the perspective of the employers and government elites. Their strategies to counteract “strike terrorism” included hiring replacement workers through private strikebreaking agents, who provided a variety of services such as recruitment, transportation, housing, and providing “willing workers” with weapons for their self-defense. The discourses around “strike terrorism,” and the repressive strategies to counter it, are a lens through which we can look afresh at some of the most crucial issues in the history of central European empires in the prewar years, namely the structure of violence embedded in social conflicts, migration, growing political antagonism, and fears surrounding social democracy. This article analyzes the public debate around the protection of “willing workers” as well as concrete episodes of antilabor violence in a transnational framework. It offers a reassessment of social conflicts in the period following the 1905 social mobilizations in central Europe, and it explores the circulation of antilabor measures between Germany and Austria-Hungary, their radicalizing impact, and their connections with labor migration patterns.

Assessing labour migration patterns in marine fisheries sector across the coastal States of Gujarat and Maharashtra

Assessing labour migration patterns in marine fisheries sector across the coastal States of Gujarat and Maharashtra

Cross-border labour markets and the role of trade unions in representing migrant workers’ interests

New patterns of labour migration are reshaping labour markets and raising new challenges for labour market actors, especially trade unions. This article critically discusses unionization strategies targeting migrant workers and the political and organizational dilemmas involved, taking as an example the case of Luxembourg, a founding member of the European Union with a highly internationalized labour market. Relying on qualitative research and survey results, this article sets out the strategies adopted by trade unions to unionize migrant workers, before discussing the dilemmas and tensions related to the diversification of trade union policies and organizational structures in response to labour migration. It provides valuable insights into two broader issues: the socio-political and organizational dynamics involved in trade unions’ inclusion of migrant workers and the potential role of trade unions in building transnational links and cohesion in border regions.

Liminality of the Japanese Empire: Border Crossings from Okinawa to Colonial Taiwan by Hiroko Matsuda

Reviewed by: Liminality of the Japanese Empire: Border Crossings from Okinawa to Colonial Taiwan by Hiroko Matsuda Michele M. Mason (bio) Liminality of the Japanese Empire: Border Crossings from Okinawa to Colonial Taiwan. By Hiroko Matsuda. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2019. xii, 205 pages. $68.00, cloth; $28.00, paper. Liminality of the Japanese Empire is an important work that addresses a long-overlooked topic and region while recognizing the complexity of history and human experience. Hiroko Matsuda examines the various motivations for and lives of Okinawan migrants crossing the watery border to Taiwan during Japan's colonial era and repatriating after Japan's defeat. In an introduction, epilogue, and six clearly organized chapters, Matsuda fleshes out the complex political, social, and cultural contexts of the perennially [End Page 482] shifting burdens on and desires of the people of Okinawa. The analysis is framed through the concept of liminality to good effect. Matsuda highlights the precarious place of the Ryukyu Kingdom/Okinawa (understood as the numerous islands that make up what we now call Okinawa Prefecture), which has been forced to negotiate its own identity and agency vis-à-vis China, Japan, and the West. Set against the backdrop of Japan's radical transformation through nation-state and empire building, modernization, and industrialization, this scholarly treatment of Okinawa's imposed identity as the "southern gate" of Japanese empire investigates both the liminal spaces and identities that settlers inhabited and the biases and discrimination they navigated. This is not just a sweeping history. Through firsthand accounts of personal journeys, hardships, and achievements, Liminality of the Japanese Empire portrays diverse trajectories of Okinawans in schooling, employment, and social integration in Okinawa and Taiwan during and after Japan's colonial rule. Matsuda captures the dramatic changes in Taiwan and Okinawa under the cloud of Japanese imperialism featuring both individual life stories and multiple generations of families. Crucially, Matsuda's focus extends beyond the main island of Okinawa and the ordeals of the Battle of Okinawa, thus enriching our perspective of this period and people's experience. Many of her informants hailed from the southwestern part of the archipelago—specifically, the Yaeyama and Miyako islands. While tracing their multifaceted marginalization within dominant mainland Japan and Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, Matsuda skillfully integrates topics such as class and gender throughout the work. The inclusion of a wide range of supplementary materials—including maps, photographs, tables, and advertisements—enhances the reader's ability to imagine the macro and micro picture of the realities and meanings of the border crossings. The introduction offers clarifying historical contextualization of the Ryukyu Kingdom, its complex and contested relationships with Japan and China, and the predicaments caused by the region's engagement with the United States from the late nineteenth century. Matsuda situates her theoretical underpinnings within a broad range of scholarship in colonial, border, and ethnographic studies, putting her ideas in conversation with the works of Victor W. Turner, Ann Stoler, Edward Said, and Oguma Eiji. At its heart, this book is an examination of the lived experience of Okinawans caught in a state of betwixt-and-between-ness not just amidst political entities or countries but also the constructed and contested lines demarcating the superiority and inferiority of peoples. Matsuda therefore attends to the material and discursive nature of the terms "boundary" and "border" as they interact with the conceptualization of "liminality." To use Matsuda's language, this project sheds light on "the intricate relationship between the geographic borders and the boundaries of Japan and the Japanese by examining the narratives and practices of people living in the border zone" [End Page 483] (p. 7), which brings to the fore "the malleable nature of the ruler and the ruled" and the "dynamic use of the border between the Inner Territory and the Outer Territories" (p. 5). The first chapter, "Migration in the Age of Modern Colonialism," contextualizes labor migration patterns from both Japan and Okinawa within larger geopolitical transformations in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Common destinations promoted by government and private agencies for Japanese/Okinawans included Hawai'i, the west coast of the United States, South America (Brazil, Peru, and Argentina), the Philippines, and the...

Circular labor migration and land-livelihood dynamics in Southeast Asia's concession landscapes

Abstract Labor migration and large-scale land enclosures are increasingly central to the story of agrarian change throughout the Global South. Nonetheless, there remain limited understandings of how recent explosions of mobile labor and new sources of smallholder capital shape and are shaped by ongoing land use and property transformations. This article reviews this gap in Southeast Asia – a region where labor and capital are highly mobile and where the expansion of industrial agriculture and forestry has been particularly rapid. We begin by synthesizing recent labor migration trends in Southeast Asia and discussing key conceptual frameworks for studying labor mobility and agrarian transformations. We then summarize shifts in land use, land control, and labor relations linked to both labor mobility and large-scale land enclosures. We conclude by highlighting two questions deserving of further study. First, how do large-scale industrial agriculture and forest concessions affect rates and patterns of labor migration out of nearby communities? Second, how do new patterns of household resource control and labor allocation from labor migration affect land use and land cover, particularly in sites dominated by large-scale commodity concessions? These questions cannot yet be answered fully though work has begun to address them both directly or indirectly. We use the existing literature to highlight directions for future research on these themes.

Precarity chains: cycles of domestic worker migration from Southeast Asia to the Middle East

ABSTRACT This article examines how the emergent serial labour migration patterns (Parreñas, Rhacel, Carolyn Choi, Maria Hwang, and Rachel Silvey. 2018 (on-line). “Serial Labor Migration: Precarity and Itinerancy among Filipino and Indonesian Domestic Workers.” On-line First: October, 2018. Accessed January 15, 2019. doi:10.1177/0197918318804769 [IMR]) of migrant domestic workers are shaped by their precarious positions in the global labour market. Based on interviews with migrant domestic workers from the Philippines (n = 82) and Indonesia (n = 79) working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the article outlines the forms of precarity at work in various stages of the migration cycle: (1) the precarity of migration engendered by their levels of indebtedness prior to migration and their dependency on a recruitment agency to determine not only their employer but also country of destination; (2) the precarity of labor that results from their employment in countries of destination that offer only limited-term contracts and very limited rights to domestic workers; and then finally (3) the precarity of future reflecting the low levels of income, savings and investment they are able to accumulate. We argue that overall, domestic workers from Southeast Asia working in the Middle East are embedded in precarity chains, a concept we introduce that refers to the transfer of insecure jobs and insecure financial status (low wages, indebtedness) across migrants’ places (origins and destinations) and their family members. Precarity chains effectively remit persistent dependence and future precarity on the families and household economies of these low-wage domestic workers, tending overall to reproduce the relative poverty, persistent socio-spatial precarity, and transnational subordination of domestic workers over the life-course.

Transformations in China's Internal Labor Migration and Hukou System

This paper examines China’s changing internal labor migration patterns between 1990 and 2005 as its household registration (hukou) system evolves. We document a drastic increase in the size of the migrant population, along with significant composition shifts in migrants’ characteristics, and geographic and employment distributions. Decomposition analysis shows that changes in individual characteristics can account for little of the increase in migration propensity during this period. By employing a simple migration location choice model, we investigate the relationship between hukou policy and migration behavior. We find that larger and more developed cities are more attractive to migrants but tend to set more stringent hukou restrictions. Rural migrants are significantly more deterred by hukou restrictions relative to urban migrants. These findings suggest that institutional factors, such as the hukou system, are important for understanding the observed patterns in China’s labor migration.

Heterogeneous labor and structural change in low- and middle-income, resource-dependent countries

In this paper we analyse structural change and its implications for labor productivity growth in Kazakhstan, Malawi, and Zambia, three resource-dependent countries, during the resource boom that lasted from 2001 to 2013. We pay particular attention to the effects of labor heterogeneity by assessing the demand for pre-determined occupations. The effects of structural change on heterogeneous labor markets are studied by developing a model to explain the observed patterns of labor migration between sectors. We use labor force survey data from Kazakhstan and census microdata for Malawi and Zambia available from the IPUMS International database. In-depth examinations are performed using a decomposition technique and multinomial logit regression to examine labor demand patterns. Results show that private services experienced the largest increase in employment across all occupations and relative skill deepening. Substantial decreases in managers occurred in public services. The results indicate that structural change is fundamental in shaping the allocation of individuals across different occupations within the labor market. Moreover, during a resource boom, the results indicate that the public sector experiences a skill-drain that may affect the quality of governance.

Serial Labor Migration: Precarity and Itinerancy among Filipino and Indonesian Domestic Workers

This article examines the mobility patterns of migrant domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates. It identifies and explains the emergence of serial labor migration, which we define as the multi-country, itinerant labor migration patterns of temporary low-skilled migrant workers. It argues that policy contexts shaping temporary labor migration, as they impose precarious and prohibitive conditions of settlement in both countries of origin and destination, produce the itinerancy of low-skilled migrant workers. We offer a holistic analysis of the migration process of temporary labor migrants, shifting away from a singular focus on the process of emigration, integration, or return and toward an examination of each stage as a co-constitutive step in the migration cycle. Our analytic approach enables us to illustrate the state of precarity and itinerancy that follows low-wage migrant workers across the various stages of the migration cycle and produces serial migration patterns among migrant domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia.

Are Poland and Ukraine Gravity Centres for Each Other? Study on the Labour Migration Patterns

The paper consists of three parts. It starts with an introduction followed, by theoretical backgrounds of migration, outlining its main types and models. The next parts highlight the volume, directions and structure of migration flows for Ukraine and Poland. The evolution of the Ukraine-Poland migration channel and its mutual effect on the economies of both countries is highlighted in the final part.

Talkin' about Class Formation

Talkin' about Class Formation Diane P. Koenker (bio) Reading Boris Mironov's assessment of the role of workers in the 1917 revolution immediately swept me back to the 1970s, when an entire cohort of historians of Russia engaged with a broader community of historians of labor to reassess the prevailing view of Russian workers as "dark masses" (from the right) or "red masses" (from the left). Seeking to replace condescension with respect for individuals as well as for sources, we social historians sought to interrogate these generalizations, whether from the right or the left, whether about "irrational" peasant-workers or monolithic working-class armies.1 In bringing these methods to the study of the 1917 revolution, this cohort—whether looking at workers, peasants, soldiers, or sailors—contributed to a new consensus that dispelled theories of revolution based on assumptions of conspiracies (German or Masonic) or coups d'états. If in our early writing, we confronted these interpretations each time we presented our evidence, after a while these old views of conspiracies aided by idiotic social forces became so discredited that we no longer needed to engage with them. Now the argument of "cannon fodder" is back, challenging a 30-plus-year consensus about the nature of the Russian working class in 1917. "Class theory" has remained important to me and this broad cohort of scholars as a heuristic tool for analyzing the phenomena of revolution and worker experience. The work of E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, and others led us to seek to disentangle "class," to search for divisions as much [End Page 377] as commonalities.2 Demographic data—especially from censuses and other forms of social surveys—were necessary but not sufficient to draw conclusions. Mironov acknowledges as much when he recognizes that "the proletariat was also distinct from other groups in terms of its multilayered social structure" (354). Their political views could be varied. But he rejects the distinction among "vanguard," "intelligent," and "socialist-minded" workers and the mass of backward, patriarchal, alcoholic, thieving workers. Even the "vanguard" was insufficiently advanced to act politically without mentors from the intelligentsia, he says. For Mironov, the primary attribute of "workers" is their low level of literacy (drawn from census aggregates), which meant they were unable to think critically or analytically. Thus he considers "workers" to be a mass of deplorables who did not really understand what they were supporting. But let's take "multiple structure" a little more seriously. The more closely we look at work experience, the more we see many sources of difference and distinction. It is now well established for European, US, and Russian historiography that artisanal workers—laboring in small shops, possessing high levels of skills, proud of their ability to control their own working conditions—were the leaders of the earliest trade unions and other forms of labor organization.3 Contrary to Marx, the more complex organization of large factories did not predispose workers there to imagine parallel forms of labor organization. For labor historians, "skill" has become an [End Page 378] important analytical tool. However imprecisely we can distinguish among "skilled," "semiskilled," and "unskilled," labor historians have shown how workers who share these attributes react to economic and political challenges in similar ways, precisely because the nature of their work shapes the way they see their world.4 Certain types of trades were more conducive to drinking on the job: one cannot track alcoholism along a straight line from "backwards" to "politically aware."5 Gender (a category of analysis that came late to labor history and that troubles Mironov not at all) and generation complicate these divisions and our ability to generalize about structure. Many skilled male workers refused to believe that women could acquire skills at all. The different social roles of men and women also led them to different forms of activism, not neatly measurable in trade union membership statistics or arrest records.6 Historians of Russian labor have long noted the distinctiveness of patterns of labor migration, with men leading the way to the cities and living in bachelor communities.7 But they have disagreed on the political significance of this phenomenon. Did having "one foot in the city and industry...