scholarly journals Vulnerability and Resilience in the Covid-19 Crisis: Race, Gender, and Belonging

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-84
Author(s):  
Eileen Boris
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Face ◽  
Home Care Workers

AbstractDuring the early months of the 2020 pandemic, migrants who travelled to the United States to pick crops, scrub floors, stock warehouses, and tend to elders became ‘heroes’ for performing necessary labour – unless they were surplus bodies crammed into prison-like detention waystations before being deported for the crime of arriving without proper papers. The pandemic intensified states of precarity. Especially among those labelled as ‘essential workers’, the lack of protective equipment and labour rights put them on the frontline of exposure. But domestic and home care workers, meatpackers, fieldhands, and others in the US stepped out of the shadows to demand inclusion in social assistance, occupational health and safety laws, and other state benefits. This chapter historicises the recent hardships and the organising of (im)migrant workers: it shows that the policies of Donald J. Trump were not an aberration, but part of a national pattern of racial differentiation with gendered inflections. Vulnerability, however, is only part of the story. Workers remained resilient in the face of the hidden enemy of Covid-19, as they sought safe and decent living and working conditions.

scholarly journals Filipino Home Care Workers: Invisible Frontline Workers in the COVID-19 Crisis in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110004
Author(s):  
Katherine Nasol ◽  
Valerie Francisco-Menchavez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Assisted Living ◽  
Elder Care ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Home Care Workers

Filipino home care workers are at the frontlines of assisted living facilities and residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs), yet their work has largely been unseen. We attribute this invisibility to the existing elder care crisis in the United States, further exacerbated by COVID-19. Based on quantitative and qualitative data with Filipino workers before and during the COVID-19 crisis, we find that RCFEs have failed to comply with labor standards long before the pandemic where the lack of state regulation denied health and safety protections for home care workers. The racial inequities under COVID-19 via the neoliberal approach to the crisis puts home care workers at more risk. We come to this analysis through Critical Immigration Studies framing Filipino labor migration as it is produced by neoliberalism and Racial Capitalist constructs. Last, while the experiences of Filipino home care workers during the pandemic expose the elder care industry’s exploitation, we find that they are also creating strategies to take care of one another.

scholarly journals 1.E. Workshop: Comparative Public Health: Politics, science, and professionalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Systems

Abstract Look around EUPHA, or any other public health conference. Public health is difficult to define, in theory and in practice. Its boundaries are all blurred, whether with medicine, schools, environmental protection or workplace safety inspectorates. Too often, we overstate the similarities between public health systems among countries. Efforts to promote networks, good practice, and even basic coordination have been undermined for decades by misunderstandings born of different educational, organizational, financial and political systems. The lack of comparison, and comparative political analysis in particular, also means that countries can have very similar debates about the proper nature and scope of public health, an about who is to blame for deficiencies, without awareness of when they are distinctive and when they are actually part of larger trends. This project aims to identify and explain variation in the scope and organization of public health systems in selected high-income countries. Based on a formalized comparative historical analysis of Austria, France, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, researchers in the study first mapped the various axes of divergence: workforce composition, organization, levels of government, relationship to medicine, and the extent to which public health encompassed adjacent areas such as environmental health and occupational health and safety. For each country we then followed both case studies (communicable disease control including vaccines, HIV/AIDS, tobacco control, diet and nutrition, occupational health and safety) as well as the legislative history of the public health field in order to identify its changing organization and scope. It then identifies the relative role of historical legacies, changing science, burden of disease and politics in explaining patterns of both divergence and convergence. This workshop presents four country specific case studies (France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States) that identify the most important forms of variation and the political, scientific and professional drivers of convergence and divergence. Key messages Political organization and scope as images of public health are grossly under-researched and nonexistent in a comparative nature. Understanding the scope and organization of public health in different countries will permit better lesson-drawing and identification of relevant and effective levers of change.

Grassroots struggles to protect occupational and environmental health

2019 ◽  
pp. 189-210
Author(s):  
Kathy Jenkins ◽  
Sara Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Downward Pressure ◽  
The Face ◽  
Changing Patterns

This chapter is based on a number of international case studies of grassroots occupational and environmental health struggles that are attempting to link workplace, environment and community. Interviews with key people involved in each struggle, in combination with documented campaigns and our own experience as occupational and environmental health activists, have provided a picture of the changing patterns of work under neoliberalism, and the implications for community and workers’ struggle for environmental justice and occupational health. Themes include the erosion of the distinction between work and community and between the workplace and the environment; the increasing casualisation and precarity of work; downward pressure on working conditions; repression of trade unions and decline in union membership; deregulation of work, safety and environmental protection; and particular risks faced by women, young and migrant workers. Union and community organisers are employing diverse tactics in the face of these challenges.

Migrant Workers

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Wolff ◽  
Karen Dodge
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Child Labor ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Social Work Programs

This entry discusses migrant workers in the United States and the unique circumstances and conditions they face. Included in the discussion are social problems faced by migrants with respect to health, housing, working conditions, child labor, and education. Policy issues are addressed, including relevant national, international, and corporate laws. Migrant patterns, demographics, and definitions are presented. Finally, social work programs, responses, and interventions are identified.

scholarly journals Occupational health and safety in agriculture. A systematic review

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Licet Paola Molina-Guzmán ◽  
Leonardo Alberto Ríos-Osorio
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Occupational Accidents ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Search Terms

Introduction: The prevalence of occupational diseases in the agricultural sector is higher than in other industries, since agricultural workers are at higher risk of exposure to different chemicals and pesticides, and are more prone to occupational accidents.Objective: To conduct a review of recent literature on occupational health and risk in agriculture.Materials and methods: A literature search was conducted in PubMed, SciencieDirect and Scopus using the following search strategy: type of articles: original research papers; language: English; publication period: 2006-2016; search terms: "agricultural health", "agrarian health", "risk factors", "epidemiology", "causality" and "occupational", used in different combinations ("AND" and "OR").Results: The search yielded 350 articles, of which 102 met the inclusion criteria. Moreover, 5 articles were found in grey literature sources and included in the final analysis. Most research on this topic has been conducted in the United States, which produced 91% (97/107) of the articles included.Conclusions: Most studies on health and safety in agriculture focused primarily on the harmful effects of occupational exposure to agrochemicals and pesticides, and the consequences of occupational accidents. However, since more than 90% of these studies come from the United States, a more comprehensive approach to health in agriculture is required, since what is reported here may be far from the reality of other regions, especially Latin America.

scholarly journals A Missed Partnership: Russia and the US at the Pacific

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-184
Author(s):  
D. V. Suslov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Asia Pacific Region ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Face ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
Favorable Conditions ◽  
Post Soviet Space

Both Russia and the United States consider the Asia-Pacific as the center of the world economy and politics and assume the active presence in the region crucial for their security and economic development. They did not have such sharp contradictions there as in Europe or in the post-Soviet space. Moreover, some of their interests in the Asia-Pacific Region coincide – such as preventing Chinese hegemony. In this regard, the Russian-American dialogue and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific could be an important pillar of the positive agenda of their relations and a factor in their sustainability. Due to foreign policy inertia, the inflexibility of the agenda of Russian-American relations and the inability of the parties to go beyond the usual pattern, such a dialogue has not even begun. Both sides demonstrated strategic myopia. This weakened the resilience of US-Russian relations in the face of new challenges and accelerated their deterioration and disruption to a new confrontation. The Asia-Pacific has become another theater of the US-Russian systemic confrontation. However, it is in the interest of bothRussia and the United States to separate relations in this region from their general confrontation. This will create favorable conditions for Russia to build a balanced partnership system in the Asia-Pacific, which is necessary to consolidate its role as an independent global great power. In addition, the Russian-American dialogue on the Asia-Pacific, or at least the weakening of their confrontation in this region, will reduce its polarization and prevent tensions between the US and its Asian allies and partners.

Consigned to hedge: south-east Asia and America's ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ strategy

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
See Seng Tan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
East Asian ◽  
The United States ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Great Power ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Face

Abstract This article assesses how south-east Asian countries and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have responded to the ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ (FOIP) strategies promoted by the United States and the other countries in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the ‘Quad’: US, Japan, Australia and India). Their nuanced ripostes imply a persistent commitment to hedging and shifting limited alignments in the face of growing great rivalry and the lack of a clear FOIP vision among Quad members. In the face of external pressure to take sides, the ASEAN states are likely to keep hedging through working selectively with China and the United States. Given the United States' apparent preference to balance China and Trump's disregard for multilateralism, ASEAN's ability to maintain its centrality in the evolving regional architecture is in doubt—despite the Quad countries' (belated) accommodation of ASEAN in their FOIP strategies. However, the success of the US strategy depends on Washington's ability to build and sustain the requisite coalition to balance Beijing. ASEAN has undertaken efforts to enhance bilateral security collaboration with China and the United States respectively. In doing so, ASEAN is arguably seeking to informally redefine its centrality in an era of Great Power discord and its ramifications for multilateralism.

scholarly journals The British and American Systems of Diplomatic Training in the Face of Globalization Shifts

2019 ◽  
pp. 570-584
Author(s):  
Liudmyla Chekalenko ◽  
Viacheslav Tsivatyi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Training Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Training System ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Advanced Training ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Face ◽  
Diplomatic Training

The article deals with frameworks for studying diplomacy in the leading foreign countries, namely the United States and the United Kingdom. The methods of determining educational disciplines for mastering the principles of diplomatic work are explored. At the same time, as an example, attention is attached to the experience of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in the preparation of diplomatic staff for Ukraine. The article is dedicated to institutional and human resource issues and stages of establishment of the US diplomatic service, including the current rotation model and advanced training system. The need for drastic changes in the system of foreign policy institutions and the advisability of reforming the US diplomatic service came to the forefront of American political and academic discourse in the mid-1990s. The events of September 11, 2001 served as a catalyst for rejuvenating the preparation and advanced training model as well as the personnel management model in the US foreign policy and made the topic discussed increasingly relevant. Historically, the US diplomatic service has been relatively small but the most competent, qualified and efficient part of the US foreign policy mechanism. It is the experience of the United States which is valuable and helpful for post-Soviet countries with respect to the use of the US experience, given its established traditions and prompt response to emerging threats and challenges of the globalized world of the 21st century in the context of the ongoing reform of the diplomatic service in Ukraine. The article covers the urgent issue of renovating the diplomatic training model in Ukraine based on the analysis of experience of its US counterpart. The US experience is important and useful for Ukraine in the context of government service reforms as well as for other post-Soviet countries within the framework of integration processes and globalization. Keywords: diplomatic training system, UK diplomatic service, US diplomatic service, foreign policy, diplomacy, diplomatic institutions, institutionalization, Ukraine.

scholarly journals The Lessons of TPP and the Future of Labor Chapters in Trade Agreements

2019 ◽  
pp. 140-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Álvaro Santos
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Labor Standards ◽  
Compensatory Mechanisms ◽  
Rules Of Origin ◽  
High Point ◽  
The Us ◽  
Rich Countries

Linking labor standards to trade agreements out of dual concern for poor working conditions in low-wage countries and unfair labor competition in rich countries reached its high point in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The US labor movement’s opposition to TPP shows the disenchantment with this agenda. Other elements of the agreement were seen as equally important to workers: investment, rules of origin, procurement, and currency manipulation. These new frontiers for labor advocacy in trade agreements highlight the need to re-balance how trade agreements treat capital and labor. A promising, though overlooked, feature of TPP was the pressure the US exercised to encourage domestic labor reforms—formally through a side agreement in the case of Vietnam and informally in the case of Mexico. The US withdrawal set those reforms back. The hardening opposition to TPP also made clear that rich countries’ workers expected losses from trade will not be made palatable in the absence of effective domestic safety nets and compensatory mechanisms. TPP’s reception in the United States was a resounding rejection of liberal globalization as we know it, and the CPTPP, unfortunately, does not seem to chart a different path.

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