This paper explores the experiences of Temporary Foreign Workers in health care in Alberta by examining a cohort of internationally-educated nurses hired to alleviate shortages. In particular it evaluates the assessment of foreign credentials and processes that followed. Drawing on social closure theories, we look at the experiences of foreign workers whose employment and residency status are extremely precarious. We suggest the use of temporary workers to address 'short term' labour demand has implications for the workers themselves as well as for larger political, social and economic contexts.
The enlargement of the European Union provides opportunities for members to be mobile in seeking various forms of permanent and non-permanent employment, particularly temporary work and contract labour. These changing conditions require quick reactions, overcoming soft issues such as language barriers and coping with culture clashes and political issues that could create problems for the worker. While the influx of foreign workers may bring much needed skills and meet the labour demands of the sector, the existence of an irregular workforce can have an impact on labour market conditions, local economy and health and safety measures. Currently, the use of foreign workers and contractors on construction sites has been identified as one of the major issues confronting clients, employers and unions. This paper will present the benefits and disadvantages of employing foreign workers and contractors in the Swedish construction sector and why the need to examine their working environment.
The Korean economic miracle of the 1980s drastically altered the regional labor landscape. Once a major labor exporter, Korea has become a prime destination for migrant workers from developing countries due to a severe shortage of unskilled production workers in small- and medium-size industries. Also, Korean workers had developed the so-called "3-D syndrome," an aversion to difficult, dangerous and dirty jobs in factories and sought relatively higher-paying employment in the construction sector. Of the three types of migrant workers ñ the legal employee, the industrial and technical trainee and the undocumented migrant worker, the latter two, in general, are made to endure long working hours, low wages and poor working conditions. In some cases, the trainees receive the least in terms of wages, even less than the undocumented worker because of the Industrial and Technical Training Program for Foreigners (ITTP). The ITTP prevents them from acquiring proper working status and benefits. However, undocumented workers have the least protection from abuse since employers routinely threaten them with deportation. Protests in the mid-1990s forced the implementation of a measure ordering employers to pay at least the minimum wage directly to the workers, reducing the chances of exploitation by agencies handling remittances. In 1998, the Working After Training Program for Foreigners (WATP), which allowed trainees who pass certain skills tests after a two-year period to enjoy workers' rights under the Standard Labor Act and the Minimum Wages Act, was introduced amid protest that it was as flawed as the ITTP. Government likewise announced its intention to strengthen the monitoring of undocumented migrant workers and freeze the total quota of trainees. Pro-migrant workers activists are seeking the implementation of the Employment of Foreign Workers Act as an alternative scheme to maximize the economic benefits from the inflow of unskilled migrant workers without discriminating against them economically and socially. But the ...
The Singapore government regulates 'non-resident' workers through employment passes and repatriation in economic downturns. 'Non-residents' make up more than a third of Singapore's workforce. Until recently, Singapore's 'non-resident' manual workers have been segregated from mainstream Singapore society, and largely ignored by Singapore's trade unions. However, in late 2012 a group of bus drivers recruited from China, organised an illegal strike, something unknown in Singapore since 1977. Their action exposed to criticism by Singaporeans of the government's reliance on foreign workers. After the strike and subsequent prosecutions and repatriations, some National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) affiliates began to recruit foreign workers into their memberships. This paper reviews the political and social construction of Singapore's workforce, the re-emergence of industrial conflict, and the responses of the Singapore authorities to it. It reflects on the prospects for labour market regulation of partially incorporating foreign workers into its industrial relations system.
He felt that the commonplace idea that the huge inflow of foreign workers in the past decade caused a stagnation and even decline in real wage earnings of Singaporean workers in the bottom half of the income distribution was flawed. He argued that real wage earnings of the median worker actually increased when the number of inflows of foreign workers was reaching its peak. Prof Hoon thus felt that Singapore must now find a means to gear its political and economic institutions to continue to embrace economic openness in the next half-century, in order to be able to deliver good jobs and wages.
This research aims to describe the changes in the provisions on the employment of foreign workers in Indonesia. In order to create job opportunities, through Act No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation, there is a simplification of the requirements for foreign workers. It is different from the previous one based on Act No. 13 of 2003 on Manpower, which the employment of foreign workers is an exception with certain conditions. This research used a normative juridical method with a statutory approach, it can be concluded that the provisions under Act No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation which only requires the endorsement of Foreign Workers Utilization Plan to employ foreign workers, make it easier for foreign people to work in Indonesia. As a result, there is intense competition between foreign and local workers. The government is responsible for fulfilling the rights of citizens to obtain work, lest the simplification of foreign workers requirements to work in Indonesia causing violations of the human rights of citizens. Therefore, it is necessary to strive so that local workers are not excluded from foreign workers.
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the H-1B program's implementation and implications for the American workforce, focusing on: (1) the jobs that H-1B workers are filling in the United States and the characteristics of those workers; (2) the adequacy of the H-1B visa program's implementation and enforcement; and (3) efforts underway to improve information technology (IT) skills in the American workforce."
Migration can be a hazardous venture, particularly if carried out clandestinely. Evidence indicates that foreigners working without formal authorisation, i.e. 'irregular migrant workers', are in a particularly vulnerable position primarily because of their irregular immigration status. They are more likely to be subjected to exploitative and unsafe employment practices in terms of benefits and conditions. This study examines the protection available to this category of migrant workers in South Africa, particularly their right of access to work-related social protection. South Africa is a major migrant-receiving country in Southern Africa because of its relatively stronger economy and political stability. However, the employment of foreign nationals without work permits, or foreigners working contrary to visa requirements, raises a series of policy issues. These issues, against the background of fairness and equity discourses pertaining to socio-economic entitlements, become exacerbated. This study examines the adequacy of domestic, constitutional and legislative frameworks that offer work-related social protection to foreign workers in South Africa. In the context of international, continental, and regional instruments that provide similar protection to irregular migrants, it could be argued that South Africa's restrictive legislative framework compromises equality in the right of access to social protection for some migrants. Although effective migration management depends on careful juxtaposition of myriad policies, emerging evidence suggests conflicting interplay between key South African policies intended to manage the rights of workers specifically and labour migration in the country generally. Critical analysis of relevant national immigration, labour, and social security laws indicates inconsistency with international human rights principles concerning the equality of opportunity or treatment of irregular migrants vis-àvis regular migrants and nationals regarding social protection. Yet, inequalities in the actual processes or opportunities (means) embedded in these policies disentitle many vulnerable foreign workers from important constitutionally entrenched fundamental rights because their presence and/or employment violates existing immigration laws. The study concludes by recommending policy interventions that may help remedy these problems.
The existence of foreign workers, which so far has not been balanced with clear legal arrangements, has in its development led to problems of legal certainty in the field of employment. This writing uses doctrinal research or normative juridical research as for the research results obtained that the re-orientation of the implementation of legal policies on the use of foreign workers has not been able to achieve justice. This is because the legal politics of the use of foreign workers has resulted in reduced job opportunities for domestic workers, which in turn resulted in unemployment and poverty problems. Weaknesses in the implementation of the politics of using foreign workers are the shortcomings in the form of time limits and the amount of use of foreign workers is not clearly regulated in the politics of foreign labor law in Indonesia, then the weakness in the case of dualism in work permits for foreigners in Act No. 13 of 2003 and Act No. 6 of 2011.
Employing a survey method to explore attitudes towards foreign workers in Japan, we uncover evidence that upends the conventional wisdom that "socio-tropic values" are anchored in perceptions of threat. Building a new typology that differentiates among native-born citizens who value or fear foreigners for their expected effects on the economic and cultural dimensions, we find that Japanese corporate managers, especially in labor-scarce sectors, appreciate the positive effects of foreign labor more than they dread the dilution of cultural beliefs and practices that underpinned the fabled Japanese labor force. This finding is significant because, even without becoming whole-hearted multi-culturalists, a positive disposition of Japanese corporate management towards foreign workers could signal a shift in policy. Although ethnocentrists remain in Japan (as elsewhere), the views of the business community are likely to have more bearing on government policy than those of other groups.
The ASEAN Economic Community provides opportunities for foreign workers to enter Indonesia, including Central Java Province. The existence of these foreign workers tends to negatively and positively impact the regional economic growth of the country. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effects of foreign workers' human capital spillover inflow on the economic growth of Central Java. The Euclidean distance spatial weight matrix was used to calculate the spatial autoregressive model from 2015 to 2020. These results indicate that the presence of skilled foreign workers positively impacts increasing economic growth in Central Java Province. The influx of foreign workers, along with the influx of investment, encourages local workers to follow the performance of foreign workers. This study suggests a policy to encourage technology transfer from foreign workers to local workers. The government is also expected to strengthen local workers' productivity to compete with foreign workers.
International audience ; This article is based on material I collected between 2005 and 2010 for my doctoral research in Geography. This work explores the questions of identity, territory and mobility in Israel and more generally the impact of globalization on place and sense of place in urban settings (Rozenholc, 2010).
