Immigrant Workers Research Articles

“Everybody that's here, is legal” white employers' racial ideologies in the workplace and justifications for hiring undocumented Latino laborers

AbstractWhite employers routinely hire undocumented Latino immigrant workers based on their perceived racializations about their subservience. Researchers have explored how employers racialize Latinos, yet there is less understanding of how white employers justify breaking immigration labor policies. This study analyzes the justifications of both racialized exploitation and organizational decoupling that supports violations of immigration laws. Using in‐depth interviews with 20 white employers, this study explores employer racializations of Latinos, views of whiteness in the workplace, and justifications to hire undocumented immigrants. White employers praise Latinos for their perceived subservience, favor whites for management, and neutralize their own unlawful actions of hiring undocumented laborers. White employers frame themselves as rational, innocent, and virtuous while reinforcing racial stratification and breaking immigration laws. This study provides insights on employer labor practices with implications for labor mobility, migration reform, and racial inequality in the workplace.

The High Costs of Caring: Measuring the Prevalence and Consequences of Birth-Related Career Interruptions for Immigrant Care Workers in Canada

Le présent article examine la question de la prévalence et des conséquences du retrait du marché du travail du personnel immigrant des soins à autrui au Canada après la naissance d’un enfant. Les analyses ont été menées principalement à partir des données issues de la Base de données longitudinales sur les immigrants (BDIM) de 2009-2018, en comparant un échantillon de personnes immigrantes entrées au Canada par le biais du Programme des aides familiaux résidants/Programme des aides familiaux (PAFR) avec celui des personnes qui sont arrivées dans le cadre des programmes économiques ou au titre de la catégorie du regroupement familial. Les résultats démontrent que les immigrantes PAFR étaient les plus susceptibles d’avoir subi une interruption de carrière liée à la naissance d’un enfant au cours de cette période et qu’elles avaient en moyenne des réductions de revenu beaucoup plus grandes après l’interruption, malgré la pénurie actuelle dans le secteur des soins à autrui. L’article se termine par une discussion sur les changements potentiels de la politique fédérale visant remédier aux disparités existantes.

Romanian transnational families: insights from a qualitative study on care workers

PurposeAn increasing number of international immigrant workers enter the EU labour market to fill the gap in many key economic sectors. Labour migration often implies a process of family adaptation and, in some cases, a breakdown in the community structure and networks. This study aims to provide insights into the dynamics of transnational families, focusing on changes in the redefinition of roles within family members and children care arrangements.Design/methodology/approachThe study was based on the analysis of 12 biographical interviews conducted using semi-structured interviews between November 2018 and December 2019 among Romanian women who worked as caregivers in families in an Italian metropolitan city and the surrounding urban area.FindingsDespite the economic dimension being essential, psychological well-being increasingly burdens workers’ migratory experience and that of their family members. Findings suggest including employers and children among the actively involved actors of the family decision-making process; working and contractual conditions as factors that significantly impact the opportunities and capability of workers to provide and receive care, mainly if the latter are employed in the informal market.Originality/valueThe study makes it possible to highlight that the dynamics in decision-making processes in transnational families change in the different phases of the migration project and involve numerous actors. These processes are not always rational and are strongly influenced by the labour market structure in which migrants are employed.

Undocumented immigrants at work: invisibility, hypervisibility, and the making of the modern slave

The undocumented immigrant represents a socio-legal category, referring to a subject who does not have legal standing to be in the country in which they are located. Extending from their lack of legal standing, undocumented immigrant workers in the United States occupy spaces marked by extreme conditions of vulnerability, which were exacerbated by the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016. The aim of this ethnographic study is to make sense of the experiences of undocumented immigrants under a particularly vicious political rhetoric. Studying the lives of Latinx undocumented immigrant workers in the U.S., our findings capture how the dynamic interplay between the types of labor that they undertake and the socio-legal identity they are attributed function together to systematically disenfranchise them. Specifically, we explicate how doing invisible labor while, at the same time, occupying a hypervisible identity culminates in extreme conditions of vulnerability. In addition to developing the concept of hypervisible identity, we also inform theory on the idea of modern slavery. We contend that without the existence of invisible labor and hypervisible identity performing as interlocking, constitutive precursors, some forms of modern slavery would be negated.

Impact of the 2016 presidential election and restrictive immigration climate on the work and wellbeing of Bangladeshi immigrant community frontline workers in New York City, U.S.A

ABSTRACT Community-based organizations (CBOs) are key players in mitigating the impact of restrictive policy changes on immigrant communities. The ability of these organizations to help diffuse the stress caused by restrictive, rapidly changing immigration policies depends, in part, on the capacity and health of their workforce. This study presents findings from a qualitative study conducted with 10 Bangladeshi community frontline workers working in various CBOs and advocacy organizations to understand their experience navigating a heightened anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim climate. Through thematic analyses, we inferred that the 2016 presidential election increased stress and mobilization among community frontline workers, with a meaningful distinction between participants working for immigration-focused institutions versus those in institutions where immigration issues were not the primary focus (e.g. health services, cultural programming). For those working in immigration-focused institutions, work burden increased due to challenges in managing misinformation, making sense of policy changes, and meeting the needs of families impacted by deportation. A toll on frontline workers’ own physical health and mental health was discussed, as well as the need for culturally congruent mental health supports for the South Asian community.

Violence suffered by Venezuelan immigrant female sex workers: an intersectional view.

To characterize and analyze violence committed against Venezuelan immigrant female sex workers, from the perspective of an intersectional look at social class, gender and race-ethnicity. Exploratory study with a qualitative approach. Data sources: interviews with 15 Venezuelan immigrant women sex workers and 37 Brazilian online media reports that addressed the topic. Data were submitted to thematic content analysis, with the support of Qualitative Data Analysis (WebQDA) software. Thematic analysis of data from reports and interviews allowed the emergence of three empirical categories: Structural violence and reasons that led to prostitution: a question of social class; Among the forms of violence, the most feared: physical violence; Violence based on gender and race-ethnicity. The study made it possible to recognize that Venezuelan immigrant women who are sex workers in Brazil are subject to different types of violence and exploitation. This scenario is due to a reality of life and work that is based on the exploitation of female workers who experience the consequences of the interweaving of subalternities characteristic of their social insertion of class, gender and race-ethnicity.

Medical Professionals’ Migration from Turkey: Motivations, Legal Challenges, and Employment Barriers

This cross-sectional study compares the professional, economic, and social status of health professionals who left Turkey within the last 10 years before and after their resettlement. An online questionnaire was developed by the researchers. Using several social media groups of healthcare professionals, the questionnaire was shared with the target population. Additionally, snowball sampling was applied by asking the participants to distribute the study link to other acquaintant immigrants. The mean age of the 513 participants was 39.9±8.7 years. Of the participants, 79.3% were medical doctors, 9.0% were nurses/midwives, 3.1% were dentists, and 8.6% had other occupations. Around one-fifth (n=113) held some academic titles, and another one-fifth (n=115) had finished a postgraduate specialization training. The mean duration after migration was 34.8±22.9 months. When the job ranks before/after emigration were compared, 63.4% had lower-rank jobs, while 36.6% maintained a similar rank or had a higher rank; 45.2% were unemployed or taking some courses. People holding a B2 language certificate had higher probabilities (OR: 4.2) of obtaining the same or higher job rank in the immigrated country compared to Turkey. More emphasis must be given to specialized language education to speed up the integration process of immigrant health workers from Turkey.

Violence suffered by Venezuelan immigrant female sex workers: an intersectional view

RESUMO Objetivo: Caracterizar e analisar violências praticadas contra mulheres imigrantes venezuelanas profissionais do sexo, na perspectiva de um olhar interseccional de classe social, gênero e raça-etnia. Método: Estudo exploratório de abordagem qualitativa. Fontes dos dados: entrevistas com 15 mulheres imigrantes venezuelanas trabalhadoras do sexo e 37 reportagens da mídia online brasileira que abordavam o tema. Os dados foram submetidos à análise de conteúdo temática, com o apoio do software Qualitative Data Analysis (WebQDA). Resultados: A análise temática dos dados das reportagens e das entrevistas permitiu a emergência de três categorias empíricas: Violência estrutural e motivos que levaram à prostituição: uma questão de classe social; Entre as violências, a mais temida: a violência física; Violências baseadas no gênero e na raça-etnia. Conclusão: O estudo permitiu reconhecer que mulheres imigrantes venezuelanas profissionais do sexo no Brasil estão sujeitas a diferentes tipos de violência e exploração. Este cenário deve-se a uma realidade de vida e trabalho que se fundamenta na exploração de trabalhadoras que vivenciam as consequências do entrelaçamento das subalternizações características da sua inserção social de classe, gênero e raça-etnia.

Violence suffered by Venezuelan immigrant female sex workers: an intersectional view

RESUMEN Objetivo: Caracterizar y analizar la violencia ejercida contra trabajadoras sexuales inmigrantes venezolanas, desde una mirada interseccional de clase social, género y raza-etnia. Método: Estudio exploratorio con enfoque cualitativo. Fuentes de datos: entrevistas con 15 trabajadoras sexuales inmigrantes venezolanas y 37 informes de medios en línea brasileños que abordaron el tema. Los datos fueron sometidos al análisis de contenido temático, con el apoyo del software Qualitative Data Analysis (WebQDA). Resultados: El análisis temático de los datos de los informes y entrevistas permitió la emergencia de tres categorías empíricas: Violencia estructural y motivos que llevaron a la prostitución: una cuestión de clase social; Entre las formas de violencia, las más temidas: la violencia física; Violencia basada en el género y la raza-etnia. Conclusión: El estudio permitió reconocer que las mujeres inmigrantes venezolanas que ejercen el trabajo sexual en Brasil están sujetas a diferentes tipos de violencia y explotación. Este escenario obedece a una realidad de vida y de trabajo que se fundamenta en la explotación de los trabajadores que experimentan las consecuencias del entrecruzamiento de subalternidades propias de su inserción social de clase, género y raza-etnia.

La boîte noire de la gestion de la diversité : Une étude exploratoire au sein des entreprises localisées en région

This study explores the black box of diversity management in 60 companies outside major urban centers. The interviews show that the extent to which leaders believe in diversity influences their HR strategies and practices, the actions of middle managers and HR managers, the organizational climate, their results in terms of attracting, integrating, and retaining immigrant workers and ultimately performance at the individual, organizational, social, and societal levels. Ways of action are proposed to make diversity management a real organizational change that is a source of competitive advantage.

АНАЛІЗ НОРМАТИВНО-ПРАВОВОГО РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ТРУДОВОЇ МІГРАЦІЇ В У КРАЇНІ

The paper examines the current state and peculiarities of legal regulation of labor migration in Ukraine. Legislative acts, international documents and regulatory acts regulating labor migration were analyzed in order to determine the main problems of the functioning of this sphere. The article focuses on the main challenges faced by the labor migration system in Ukraine, such as insufficient effectiveness of mechanisms for monitoring the observance of the rights of immigrant workers, unequal working conditions for migrants and domestic workers, as well as shortcomings in the implementation of international agreements on labor migration. It was determined that the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union in 2014, as well as granting Ukraine a visa-free regime with a number of countries, became a prerequisite for mass labor migration of Ukrainian citizens. It was established that in connection with the introduction of martial law in Ukraine, a number of innovations were introduced aimed at protecting the labor rights and interests of employees working for an employer-a natural person - the introduction of additional guarantees through acts of social dialogue, such as collective agreements and agreements, where these acts enable the parties to regulate labor, social and economic relations, taking into account the interests of each of the parties during the period of martial law. It was found that in order to stimulate the creation of new jobs and the return of displaced persons, the program "Affordable loans 5-7-9%" was introduced, which provided support for entrepreneurs at rates from 5% to 9%, depending on the size of the enterprise and the duration of its activity. It was determined that one of the shortcomings of the government's urgent response in the conditions of martial law is that most of the normative legal acts of Ukrainian legislation require constant updating. It was found that there are no legal documents in the legislation that would regulate relations with the Ukrainian diaspora, protect the rights of Ukrainian migrants abroad and facilitate the possibility of their return under special conditions.

Legalization and Long-Term Outcomes of Immigrant Workers

Legalization and Long-Term Outcomes of Immigrant Workers

Walking in the Shoes of Immigrant Workers: US Labor Documentaries for the Twenty First Century

Walking in the Shoes of Immigrant Workers: US Labor Documentaries for the Twenty First Century

The Main Tendencies of Discourse Representation of Immigrant Workers: A Critical Discourse Analysis in Malaysian Online News Portals

Being one of the most industrialised nations in Southeast Asia, Malaysia has been receiving many immigrant workers from neighbouring countries to provide labour for economic expansion. The government was heavily criticised following its announcement on the intake of 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers into the country. The local media have profoundly reported on the issues of immigrant workers in Malaysia. This study focuses on the main tendencies of discourse representation of immigrant workers in Malaysia, specifically in The Star and Malaysiakini online news portals. A total of 20 news articles, 10 from each news portal concerning the above-mentioned issues are analysed according to Fairclough’s (1995) Discourse Representation in Media Discourse framework. Each phrase undergoes a five-level parameter analysis to investigate the language and the strategies employed. As a whole, both online news portals maintained the ideational meaning of the primary discourse in their news reports.

Assessment of the immigrants’ impact on Slovak economy

The migration process is becoming more and more intensive in European region. There are different opinions about effects from immigration on country economy. Most of them show the positive effect via fulfilling deficit in labour market and tax payments. From the other hand, there is negative long-term effect on social security system because of poor integration of immigrants into domestic population. This paper analyses effects from immigration based on United nations National transfer accounts methodology invented by Lee and Mason. This methodology is called to break down system of national accounts with respect to age groups or generations and shows economic flows between them. Findings of this paper show that earnings and consumption behaviour of immigrants and natives in Slovakia differs – immigrants work after retirement age, earn more and consume less, what leads to positive effects in aggregate life cycle deficit.

Access to care for aging former workers living in an immigrant hostel

The Chibanis represent the population of aging former immigrant workers who arrived in France in the 1970s in order to take up employment. Most of them still live in immigrant hostels, which are not appropriate for an older population. This anthropological study was conducted on Chibanis living in an immigrant hostel in the 15th arrondissement of Marseille. The objectives were to assess the medical, economic, and social characteristics of this population, to understand their access to health care, and to measure their adherence to the prevention actions of an association. 67 Chibanis aged 65 and over were included, with a median age of 77: 91% had access to a general practitioner, and 86.6% had more than two chronic diseases. More than half of the Chibanis complained of dental problems, and 20% complained of ophthalmological problems. Only 32.8% of the Chibanis included agreed to follow-up care with the nurses from the association. The population of Chibanis are isolated geographically from their families, live in poor socio-economic conditions, and often have insufficient medico-social coverage. They must "manage" their chronic diseases, as well as costly health problems such as dental or ophthalmic diseases. Improving care pathways for this population requires us to identify their specificities and all the factors hindering prevention actions.

Converging economies of care? Immigrant women workers across 17 countries and four care regimes.

This study analyses 17 care economies using 2016 Luxembourg Income Study data to contribute to extant debate regarding the ongoing utility of care regimes as a classificatory schema for cross-national comparison. Examining similarities and differences in the provision of low-status work in health, education, social work, and domestic services - the 'care economy' - the data reveal devaluation of the labour done by immigrant women care workers, net of national and regime-level variation. In addition, numerous similarities across liberal, corporatist, social democratic, and central and eastern European care regimes emerge, in terms of the overrepresentation of immigrant women in low status care work, and the disproportionate financial penalties these workers incur. Together, findings suggest that notwithstanding national and policy-specific differences, there has been considerable convergence across economies of care towards a 'migrant in the market' model of employment. Such large-scale evidence of this trend calls into question the ongoing efficacy of care regimes for national comparisons of migrant care work under conditions of neoliberal globalization.

Employability narratives in digital storytelling: do overqualified Brazilian and Venezuelan immigrants in Portugal tell the same story?

ABSTRACT Migration has been steadily increasing worldwide, bringing with it precarious work conditions and the issue of overqualification, having repercussions on job satisfaction and the mental health of migrants. This study explores digital storytelling (DST) as a tool to promote debate on those issues among immigrant workers and potentiate soft skills valued in the job market. A three-day DST workshop and focus group with 7 semi and skilled Brazilian and Venezuelan immigrants working in Portugal showed barriers familiar to all employability trajectories and the importance of social capital and social support, especially the latter group, leaning towards collectivist values, and facing additional language barriers in the adaptation process. The advantages and disadvantages of DST and immigrants' perceptions of Portuguese employers are also listed. Results point to DST being a relevant tool in the context of employability in migration, promoting debate, sharing information about decent work, and developing valued soft skills in immigrants.

Optimizing Long Short-Term Memory to Predict Currency Rates

As a travel destination, Saudi Arabia attracts individuals worldwide, including tourists, investors, and immigrant workers, for various purposes, including trip planning, investment decisions, and remittance transfers. Indonesia and Pakistan are the biggest countries that send Umrah and Hajj pilgrims. We need to predict currency rates in 3 pairs of currencies that are frequently used by travel agencies, Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, such as the Saudi Riyal (SAR) against the Pakistani Rupee, the SAR against the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR), and the United States Dollar (USD) against the IDR. This study utilizes Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models, the machine learning approach for predicting currency pairs exchange rates. Previous studies succeeded in predicting USD/IDR rates using the LSTM time series-machine learning approach, but the root mean square error (RMSE) value was the worst 271. The research aims to optimize the LSTM to predict the currency rate in the future using historical data obtained from investing.com. We use Python to predict the currency rate pairs, following an experimental investigation with adjustments to the batch size, epoch, and prediction days. The experimental results show that SAR/PKR has a smaller mean square error (MSE) of 0.94, RMSE of 0.97, and MAE of 0.61, while SAR/IDR and USD/IDR Excel with Models 2 and 1 have smaller MSEs of 317.79 and 6654.41, RMSEs of 17.82 and 81.57, and MAEs of 10.54 and 50.12, respectively.

Reindustrialization and Transnational Labour Regimes in Maramureș County: Between National Deregulation and Export-Dependence

Abstract The paper examines Maramureș County’s labour regime and describes its transformation from a heavily unionized formation under socialism to today’s deregulated, transnational condition. The region’s former mining cluster and current furniture production hub are posited as sectoral focal points. Union militantism prevented the mining sector’s accelerated decline in the 1990s, but liberalisation and conformity with the European Union’s regulatory frameworks gradually eroded labour rights and shifted the region’s economic profile to export-oriented sectors. Among these, domestic and foreign furniture manufacturers emerged as dominant economic actors in the early 2000s. While the county is well-known for its wood processing, the companies in question tap into IKEA’s global production network and employ low-cost, flexible labour in just-in-time supply schedules. Recent developments include the use of immigrant agency workers as a solution to the county’s skilled and unskilled labour shortage.