Understanding abusive child labor practices in the shadow of the Arab spring

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeb F. Al Ganideh ◽  
Linda K Good
Keyword(s):  
Child Labor ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Refugee Children ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Refugee Child ◽  
Working Children ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
Syrian Civil War

Purpose – The Syrian civil war that forced hundreds of thousands of Syrian women and children into Jordan as refugees dramatically increased the number of child labourers in that country. The current investigation aims to establish a body of knowledge on the issues surrounding child labour in Jordan by providing an exploratory diagnosis of the phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to explore verbal and physical abusive practices towards working children and investigate whether there are differences between the treatment of domestic and Syrian refugee child labourers. Design/methodology/approach – The research design is quantitative; however, we use a qualitative technique to support and expand the research findings. Data were collected from 124 Jordanian and Syrian working children over a seven-month period in 2013. Findings – The results reveal that it is poverty that forces Jordanian children into work while Syrian children are driven by the need for asylum. Of the abusive practices directed towards working children, verbal abuse is the most common. Older children, children from unstable families and those who work long hours are more vulnerable to this form of abuse, while children from unstable family structures and who work long hours are more likely to experience physically abuse. The results reveal that Syrian children are paid much less, are less verbally abused, had better schooling and perceive working conditions more positively than do their Jordanian counterparts. Research limitations/implications – Limitations of this research arise from the size the sample. Social implications – The current study aims to raise awareness about the importance of preventing abusive practices towards local and refugee children working in Jordan. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, very little is known about refugee child labour and how it might differ from domestic child labour.

scholarly journals Displacement, deprivation and hard work among Syrian refugee children in Lebanon

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. e001122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rima R Habib ◽  
Micheline Ziadee ◽  
Elio Abi Younes ◽  
Houda Harastani ◽  
Layal Hamdar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Refugee Children ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Working Children ◽  
Syrian Refugee ◽  
Occupational Characteristics ◽  
Female Headed Households ◽  
Separation From Parents

BackgroundThe protracted Syrian war resulted in the largest refugee crisis of our time. The most vulnerable are children who face separation from parents, interruption of schooling and child labour. This study explores the living and working conditions of Syrian children in Lebanon.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, we randomly selected 153 informal tented settlements and conducted interviewer-administered surveys among Syrian refugee working children in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. Those aged 8–18 completed a questionnaire on sociodemographic and occupational characteristics; those aged 4–8 years were surveyed through a household questionnaire.ResultsWe surveyed 1902 households, including 12 708 individuals and 4377 working children. Female-headed households were poorer and more food-insecure than male-headed households. Among working children (4–18 years), the average age of starting work was 10.9 years and 74.8% worked in agriculture. Compared with boys, girls earned less and were less likely to be enrolled in school. For 96.3% of working children aged 8–18 years, forced exodus to Lebanon was associated with a first child labour experience. Working conditions were harsh and worse for girls who compared to boys were less likely to receive their salary on time and take time off work. Girls worked longer in the sun and cold and were more likely to report having a health symptom at work, working under pressure and using sharp or heavy objects at work. Seventy-nine children reported knowing another child who died following a work accident.ConclusionChildren, as young as 4, are forced to work, and many are compelled to forgo educational opportunities in favour of harsh and harmful labour due to difficult economic conditions. State policies facilitating access to work for adult refugees will help families meet basic needs and decrease their dependence on child labour as a coping strategy.

scholarly journals Liminality and Child Labour: Experiences of School Aged Working Children with Implications for Community Education in Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Okechukwu Stephen Chukwudeh ◽  
Akpovire Oduaran
Keyword(s):  
Peer Influence ◽  
Community Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Informal Market ◽  
Working Children ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Southwest Nigeria

Background: Liminality brings confusion among children as they cannot progress to the next stage of life, neither could they regress to their previous state of events. The situation is precarious for socioeconomic deprived children in Africa as it cast aspersion on their career, health and well-being. The study, therefore, examines the experiences’ of children who were supposed to be in school but were observed working at the informal market space in Africa. Methods: Qualitative data was collected through referral and non-discriminative snowballing. Fourty-eight participants (48-KII 2, IDI 10, FGD 6–6 person per group, total 36) from Aleshinloye and Bodija markets in Southwest Nigeria were included in the study. Results: Parental poverty, poor education facilities, peer influence, and the frequent strike by education institutions (pre-tertiary and tertiary) were implicated for the prevalence of child labour in the informal market space in Southwest Nigeria. Conclusions: The negative consequences of the liminality stage far outweigh the positive. Therefore, there is a need for conscientious efforts by community leaders, parents, and relevant stakeholders in the society to eradicate snags within the liminality of children’s education in order to curb child labour. This is necessary to achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030.

The impact of an unconditional parental benefit on employment of mothers

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 33-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Kurowska
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Employment ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Employment Rate ◽  
School Age ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Similar System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to solve the puzzle of the disproportionately lower employment rate of mothers of toddlers with relation to the employment rate of mothers of preschool and school-age children in Estonia. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on the Most Similar System Design and compares Estonia with Lithuania. The applied methods include inferential statistics and microsimulation techniques, employing the OECD Benefits and Wages Calculator, the OECD Family Support Calculator and EUROMOD – the European tax-benefit microsimulation model. Findings The comparison revealed that the overwhelming majority of the crucial aspects of socio-cultural, economic and institutional conditions were more favourable for maternal employment in Estonia than in Lithuania. This explains the higher maternal employment rates both for mothers of pre-schoolers and school-age children in Estonia. However, one particular element of the institutional context targeted to the mothers of toddlers – the unconditional parental benefit – had an entirely opposite character. This particular feature of the parental leave scheme was the only factor that could explain why the employment rate of mothers of toddlers is disproportionately lower than the employment rate of mothers of older children in Estonia and much lower than the employment of mothers of toddlers in Lithuania. Originality/value This study complements previous research by providing evidence on the relative importance of universal parental benefit schemes in the context of other country-specific conditions for maternal employment, including the availability of institutional childcare. Furthermore, the results presented show that childcare regime typologies, at least those that characterise Eastern European countries, should be more sensitive to children’s age.

scholarly journals Article 22: The Right to Protection for Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Children

2022 ◽  
pp. 357-367
Author(s):  
Christian Whalen
Keyword(s):  
Due Process ◽  
Hague Convention ◽  
Refugee Children ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Refugee Child ◽  
Residency Status ◽  
Alternative Measures ◽  
Children First ◽  
The Right

AbstractArticle 22 guarantees the substantive application of all Convention rights to the particular situation of asylum seeking and refugee children, and also guarantees them protection and assistance in advancing their immigration and residency status claims and in overcoming the hurdles posed by international migration channels, including guarantees of due process. The rights of refugee and asylum-seeking children can be analyzed in relation to four essential attributes. First of all, Article 22 insists upon appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance. Refugee children are not granted a special status under the Convention, but they are not given any lesser status. They are to be treated as children first and foremost and not as migrants per se, in the sense that national immigration policy cannot trump child rights. The basic rights to education, health, and child welfare of these children needs to be protected to the same extent, and as much as possible, as children who are nationals of the host country. The second attribute preserves the rights of refugee children not only under the Convention but under all other international human right treaties and humanitarian instruments binding on the relevant States Party. These may include, for many governments, the 1951 Refugee Convention, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Convention for the Protection of Minors, 1961, among others. A third attribute of Article 22 insists upon the duty to protect and assist refugee children. This entails a clear duty to provide children with appropriate due process rights throughout their asylum and refugee claims procedures, including the child’s right to be heard and participate in all the processes determining the child’s residence or immigration status, border admission, deportation, repatriation, detention, alternative measures, or placement, including best interest determination processes. The fourth and final attribute of Article 22 asserts that two basic principles should guide each activity with the refugee child: the best interests of the child and the principle of family unity.

Is Google scholar really scholarly?

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fayaz Ahmad Loan ◽  
Shueb Sheikh
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Impact Factor ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Google Scholar ◽  
H Index ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
Good Number

Purpose This paper aims to identify the scholarly nature of the results retrieved by the Google Scholar on the five major global problems, i.e. global warming, economic recession, terrorism, HIV AIDS and child labour. Design/methodology/approach The five terms (global warming, economic recession, terrorism, HIV AIDS and child labour) were searched into the Google Scholar database, and the first 50 retrieved hits were manually analysed to record the relevant bibliographic details. The scholarship of the results was measured by quality indices like h-index, Altmetrics and Journal Impact Factor. The Scopus – the world’s biggest abstract and citation database – was used to identify the h-index of the prolific authors, citations of articles and impact factor of journals. Findings The study reveals that Google Scholar retrieves a good number of publications on the selected global problems from reputed publishers such as Nature Publishing Group, Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, Blackwell and Sage and published from well-developed countries such as the USA, UK and Switzerland. Google Scholar mostly retrieves articles and research papers from qualitative journals having a good impact factor such as Nature, Science, The Lancet, American Journal of Public Health, The Economic Journal, Social Science and Medicine and Annals of Tourism Research. These articles and books are contributed by the reputed authors having high h-index. The journal articles and books retrieved have also a good number of citations, although such results are limited. The results prove that Google Scholar is scholarly in nature to a great extent. Research limitations/implications The findings are limited to Google Scholar only and cannot be generalized for the rest of the search tools or databases. Further, the study included only five major global problems in the study, and thus, results cannot be applicable to other areas of knowledge. Practical implications The study is a checklist to know the retrieval performance of Google Scholar in terms of quality of content. Originality/value It is the first study of its kind that takes into account the nature of content on major global problems retrieved by the Google Scholar. It is also the first study that used bibliometric analysis to evaluate the quality of results retrieved.

scholarly journals Policy Entrepreneurs and the Origins of the Regulatory Welfare State: Child Labor Reform in Nineteenth-Century Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Child Labor ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Policy Entrepreneurs ◽  
Labor Laws ◽  
Labor Reform ◽  
Structural Class ◽  
Working Children ◽  
Child Labor Laws

Industrial child labor laws were the earliest manifestation of the modern regulatory welfare state. Why, despite the absence of political pressure from below, did some states (but not others) succeed in legislating working hours, minimum ages, and schooling requirements for working children in the first half of the nineteenth century? I use case studies of the politics behind the first child labor laws in Germany and France, alongside a case study of a failed child labor reform effort in Belgium, to answer this question. I show that existing structural, class-based, and institutional theories of the welfare state are insufficient to explain why child labor laws came about. Highlighting instead the previously neglected role of elite policy entrepreneurs, I argue that the success or failure of early nineteenth-century child labor laws depended on these actors’ social skill, pragmatic creativity, and goal-directedness. At the same time, their actions and influence were conditioned by their field position and the architecture of the policy field. By specifying the qualities and conditions that enable policy entrepreneurs to build the alliances needed to effect policy change, this analysis lends precision to the general claim that their agency matters.

Socioeconomic determinants of primary school children dropout: a case study of Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazim Ali ◽  
Muhammad Rizwan Yaseen ◽  
Muhammad Sohail Amjad Makhdum ◽  
Abdul Quddoos ◽  
Azeem Sardar
Keyword(s):  
Child Labor ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Probit Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Socioeconomic Determinants ◽  
Family Head ◽  
Development Goals

PurposeThe main purpose of this study is to identify the socioeconomic determinants of dropout from primary schools and to give policy suggestions to address the issue.Design/methodology/approachA total of 600 dropout and enrolled respondents were selected from 60 government primary schools of district Chiniot. School heads and parents of dropout children were taken as samples. The results were obtained by employing the Probit regression model.FindingsNumbers of family members, age of the family head, exchange marriage and poverty status have positive relationship with dropout from primary schools. The findings revealed a higher rate of dropout among girls, which is a major cause of concern.Practical implicationsEducation is regarded as a basic human right and a valuable human capital. It is included in Millennium Development Goals to achieve universal primary education and in Sustainable Development Goals as quality education. Underdeveloped countries are facing the problems of high dropout and lack of quality education, especially in Pakistan. These problems need to be addressed to keep pace with developed nations and to meet development goals.Originality/valueIt is recommended that government should create employment opportunities, family planning programs, legislature measures on exchange marriage and child labor. The involvement in co-curricular activities in learning and usage of audio-visual aids in the teaching process can improve the enrollment in the primary schools.

Broken chocolate: biomarkers as a method for delivering cocoa supply chain visibility

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Lafargue ◽  
Michael Rogerson ◽  
Glenn C. Parry ◽  
Joel Allainguillaume
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Unknown Origin ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Institutional Pressures ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Chain Map

Purpose This paper examines the potential of “biomarkers” to provide immutable identification for food products (chocolate), providing traceability and visibility in the supply chain from retail product back to farm. Design/methodology/approach This research uses qualitative data collection, including fieldwork at cocoa farms and chocolate manufacturers in Ecuador and the Netherlands and semi-structured interviews with industry professionals to identify challenges and create a supply chain map from cocoa plant to retailer, validated by area experts. A library of biomarkers is created using DNA collected from fieldwork and the International Cocoa Quarantine Centre, holders of cocoa varieties from known locations around the world. Matching sample biomarkers with those in the library enables identification of origins of cocoa used in a product, even when it comes from multiple different sources and has been processed. Findings Supply chain mapping and interviews identify areas of the cocoa supply chain that lack the visibility required for management to guarantee sustainability and quality. A decoupling point, where smaller farms/traders’ goods are combined to create larger economic units, obscures product origins and limits visibility. These factors underpin a potential boundary condition to institutional theory in the industry’s fatalism to environmental and human abuses in the face of rising institutional pressures. Biomarkers reliably identify product origin, including specific farms and (fermentation) processing locations, providing visibility and facilitating control and trust when purchasing cocoa. Research limitations/implications The biomarker “meta-barcoding” of cocoa beans used in chocolate manufacturing accurately identifies the farm, production facility or cooperative, where a cocoa product came from. A controlled data set of biomarkers of registered locations is required for audit to link chocolate products to origin. Practical implications Where biomarkers can be produced from organic products, they offer a method for closing visibility gaps, enabling responsible sourcing. Labels (QR codes, barcodes, etc.) can be swapped and products tampered with, but biological markers reduce reliance on physical tags, diminishing the potential for fraud. Biomarkers identify product composition, pinpointing specific farm(s) of origin for cocoa in chocolate, allowing targeted audits of suppliers and identifying if cocoa of unknown origin is present. Labour and environmental abuses exist in many supply chains and enabling upstream visibility may help firms address these challenges. Social implications By describing a method for firms in cocoa supply chains to scientifically track their cocoa back to the farm level, the research shows that organizations can conduct social audits for child labour and environmental abuses at specific farms proven to be in their supply chains. This provides a method for delivering supply chain visibility (SCV) for firms serious about tackling such problems. Originality/value This paper provides one of the very first examples of biomarkers for agricultural SCV. An in-depth study of stakeholders from the cocoa and chocolate industry elucidates problematic areas in cocoa supply chains. Biomarkers provide a unique biological product identifier. Biomarkers can support efforts to address environmental and social sustainability issues such as child labour, modern slavery and deforestation by providing visibility into previously hidden areas of the supply chain.

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