A "migrant
worker" is a person who migrates one place to another place within their
home country or outside the country to gets better work opportunities. Usually,
migrant workers do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or a region where they work.
Migrant workers
are also called foreign workers as they work outside their home country. In
some places they may also be called expatriates or guest workers (i.e. Kerala,
India), especially when they have been sent for or invited to work in the host
country or state before leaving the homeland.
In 2014, The
International Labour Organization estimates worldwide 232 million international
migrant workers who were outside their home country for at least one year and about
half of them were estimated to be economically active (i.e. being employed or
seeking employment) (ILO,
2015). The numbers of migrant workers varied from one country to another. Some
countries have millions of migrant workers. Some migrant workers are illegal
immigrants.
Definitions of Migrant Workers
The "United
Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families" defines migrant worker as follows:
The term "migrant worker" refers to a person who is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national.
Guest workers
may have their status defined in their host country by a particular guest
worker program.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica
defines migrant labour as casual and unskilled workers who move about
systematically from one region to another offering their services on a
temporary, usually seasonal basis.
General Causes of Migration
In Europe and
the Middle East, most of the migrant worker has been recruited for urban
centers rather than agricultural sectors and settle for longer periods.
Whereas, in North America migrant workers mainly hire for farming work,
primarily during harvesting time. This demand for agricultural migrant labour depends
on seasonal harvesting.
In the Northern
Hemisphere, migrant labour moves seasonally from south to north following the
harvest, while this pattern is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. Most of
these agricultural workers move in established patterns within these general
directions, and their work typically involves tasks that are manual,
repetitive, and easily learned (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
So the basic reasons behind the migration of workers are as follows.
- High wages and higher demand in agriculture sectors in North American countries attracts workers from underdeveloped countries.
- The huge demand for urban-based work opportunities in Europe and Middle East countries instigate to move workers from their native country.
- Normally, the wages of labour outside the agriculture sector are higher and thus, workers moved into urban-based other sectors from rural agriculture-based livelihood and this scenario mostly observed in developing countries.
- Seasonal variation of agriculture practice is responsible for the migration of workers from one place to another place mainly in the Northern Hemisphere.
- In some cases, migrant workers come to their workplace far from home because of unfavourable economic and social conditions in their home regions.
- Extreme population growth in developing countries creates huge unemployment and therefore, people try to move some other places for work opportunities.
Work Conditions
The short-lived
relationship between migrant workers and employers create a disorderly labour
market. Most migrant labourers have no reemployment rights, are usually not
organized in unions, and have limited access to the job market.
Middlemen, job
brokers, labour contractors, and crew leaders add some order to the system. For
example, labour contractors will recruit workers, transport and supervise them,
and dispense their pay. Contractors also negotiate wages and working conditions
with the employers.
On the other
hand, the wages, working conditions, and standards of living for migrant
workers tend to be lower than those of other labourers, and migrants must often
work long hours under exacting requirements.
In some
countries, child labour is widespread among migrant labourers, and even in the
United States those children who do not work might not attend school, because
in many localities schools are open only to legal residents. There can also be
inadequate housing for migrant workers, and their literacy levels, social
cohesion, and rates of political participation are low.
Whether native
or foreign-born, migrants are fundamentally alien to the community in which
they work. As a result, migrant workers can have difficulty accessing local
health and social services and can be deprived of rights either because of
their illegal status or because they lack easy recourse to the courts. The
nomadic nature of migrant workers makes the regulation of their working and
living conditions difficult and may negate union and government labour
standards that apply to regular work settings.
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Source of information │ Wikipedia │ Encyclopaedia Britannica
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