“Looking for Better (Job) Opportunities”: A Qualitative Analysis of the Occupational Health of Immigrants in Southern Spain

2021 ◽  
pp. 216507992098800
Author(s):  
Rocío de Diego-Cordero ◽  
Manuel Romero-Saldaña ◽  
Ana Jigato-Calero ◽  
Bárbara Badanta ◽  
Giancarlo Lucchetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Food Service ◽  
Southern Spain ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Government ◽  
Employment Sectors

Background: Spain hosts the fourth largest number of immigrants in Europe, resulting in a large proportion of migrant workers. To date, few studies have examined the working conditions of immigrants in Southern Spain who are known to be at risk for adverse working conditions. This study aimed to investigate the patterns of work and working conditions of immigrants living in southern Spain and to understand how these factors may affect their health. Methods: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted throughout 2019 and included 93 immigrants. Transcription, literal reading, and theoretical categorization were performed and a narrative content analysis was carried out. Results: Three themes emerged on working conditions of this study population, including social and labor-related characteristics, working conditions, and occupational health issues. Four employment sectors were most commonly occupied by these immigrants, including caregiving and food service for women and agriculture and construction for men. Most immigrants were from Latin America, unemployed or working part-time jobs, and not hired under an employment contract. Most worked in low-qualified jobs, and were exposed to occupational hazards such as falls from heights, manual handling of materials, and psychological strain. The lack of training on occupational risk prevention and labor rights was related to a low identification of work situations having a negative impact on the health of immigrants. Conclusions/Application to Practice: These findings should be taken into account by the government and public health managers to provide better assistance to immigrant workers in Europe.

The Unbearable Precarity of Pursuing Freedom: A Critical Overview of the Spanish sí soy autónomo Movement

2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042110400
Author(s):  
Tiago Vieira
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Employment Status ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Labour Legislation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Wage Earners ◽  
Critical Overview

Throughout 2020, the Spanish Government initiated the process of regulating all activities related to platform work with the purpose of ‘chasing the fraud of bogus self-employment’ (PSOE and Unidas Podemos, 2020). Somewhat surprisingly, this initiative was met by a substantial wave of protest from the workers who the government proclaimed to be attempting to protect. In this light, the present research explores the arguments of the Spanish sí soy autónomo (yes I am self-employed) movement in its struggle against the Spanish Government. Drawing from a critical discourse analysis of semi-structured interviews to couriers of Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Glovo, as well as to a representative of an association in favour of the preservation of the self-employed status (N = 20), the main finding is that the pursuit of self-employment status is primarily informed by workers’ attempt to escape the precarious working conditions offered to wage-earners in the Spanish labour market as a whole, rather than by an empirically grounded claim. This suggests that new labour legislation addressing the challenges posed by platform work must not overlook the broader context in which it is intended to unfold – otherwise, it may not only fail to improve the workers’ situation, but also drive them to demand what are, actually, further deregulated legal arrangements. As such, this article’s main contribution to the sociological knowledge consists of pointing out that platform work, specificities notwithstanding, cannot be seen as detached from the broader Work landscape.

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.

“Sasi”

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-36
Author(s):  
Ivonne Raystika Gretha Kaya ◽  
Johannes Hutabarat ◽  
Azis Nur Bambang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The West ◽  
Seaweed Farming ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Seaweed Production ◽  
The Government ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article describes how seaweed farming is one of the primary livelihoods in the West Ceram Regency. This activity has been done by the local people and others since 2006. However, the competition over land use between the cultivators of the seaweed, groupers, and fishermen have caused declining seaweed production. Semi-structured interviews, in-depth interviews and participant observations were conducted with seaweed farmers, fishermen catch, grouper farmers, and the government (Marine and Fisheries Department) (n = 83) in three villages. An in-depth interview with seaweed farmers was performed to deepen the understanding of the working conditions and related problems. One way to resolve the seaweed farmers problem in Kotania Bay is by applying Molucass local wisdom, named sasi. Sasi is applied at the time of planting seaweed and called “Tutup Sasi” and called “Buka Sasi” at harvesting with Kewang control. Finally, the article concludes that the use of “sasi” can manage the competition and resolve conflict, ensure continued business, increase efficiency and provide equity resource management.

scholarly journals “Work Like a Chinese”: Aspirations, Patterns of Work, and Working Conditions of the Chinese Immigrant Community in Southern Spain

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (19) ◽  
pp. 7063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bárbara Badanta ◽  
María González-Cano Caballero ◽  
Elena Fernández-García ◽  
Rocío de Diego-Cordero ◽  
Giancarlo Lucchetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Chinese Immigrants ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Southern Spain ◽  
Immigrant Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Psychosocial Risks ◽  
Provision Of Services

Expanding businesses was the main reason for the immigration of Chinese people in Spain, which consists the fifth largest nationality of immigrants in this country. Nevertheless, few studies have been carried out to understand the working conditions of this population. Using an ethnographic design, this study examined the work patterns and working conditions among Chinese immigrants living in southern Spain and how these factors affected their health. Observing participants, field notes, and semi-structured interviews with question script were conducted with 133 Chinese immigrants. Five main themes were defined: “Economic improvement as a migratory reason”, “Conception to Work”, “Labor Sector”, “Work conditions”, and “Occupational health”. Our results showed that Chinese immigrants worked in the provision of services, with long working hours and little rest. Although they had low rates of unemployment, the working conditions had an important impact on their dietary patterns and their family life. Ergonomic and psychosocial risks also explained high rates of musculoskeletal problems and stress. In conclusion, Chinese immigrants living in southern Spain work actively in the service sector of the economy, but with many work hours. These characteristics seem to impact their health at a physical, psychological, and social level.

scholarly journals ASEAN Migrants: A Boon for Taiwan’s Aging Populace

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Hong-Ming Huang ◽  
Jenn-Jaw Soong
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Elderly Person ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Care For The Elderly ◽  
The Government

Taiwan is home to a rapidly growing aging population as life expectancy rates increase and birth rates go down in this island. The government of Taiwan opted to bring in migrant workers to care for the elderly following a shortage in adequate domestic manpower who were willing to take on the positions of caregivers for the elderly. In time, eldercare in Taiwan switched hands: from the actual families of the elderly to migrant workers coming in from across the Southeast Asian region. Questions have arisen in light of this development. Is the government policy that allows for Southeast Asian migrants to care for the elderly in Taiwan a good one, or a bad one? Who benefits most from this deal: the elderly, their families or the migrant care workers? Is providing care for the elderly in their own homes by just one caregiver the only option? And can such a policy help both ends: the elderly person who requires safer care, and the migrant care worker whose labor rights require full protection? This paper, drafted out following the review of relevant literature and the conducting of interviews by Hong-Ming Huang and Jenn-Jaw Soon, analyzes the political-economic aspects of this policy and offers certain recommendations and conclusions. One conclusion is the fact that Southeast Asian workers take better care of the elderly in Taiwan when eldercare is provided through institutions, rather than if the care was provided by just one foreign caregiver engaged directly by families of the elderly. The positive effects of ‘institution-style’ workers are reflected in the work performance, life quality and management as well as labor rights protection. 

Labor Rights in Selected Asian Countries

1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmelo C. Noriel
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Basic Rights

This article highlights the ILO concerns regarding the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers and the legal protection that they enjoy in selected Asian countries, particularly in the fields of working conditions and industrial relations. National situations and the latest trends and developments concerning labor rights are described for the ASEAN and South Asian countries including the Asian NICs. ILO's guiding principle is that migrant workers in foreign lands ought to be entitled to the protection and benefits of national laws and that national laws, in turn, should be adequate to protect and promote the basic rights and welfare of all workers whether national or foreign. In particular, the article cites the limitations of national laws and their implementation as well as the latest progress made to reform or improve local legislation.

scholarly journals An extensive analysis of the health hazards for RMG workers in apparel sector of Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rony Mia ◽  
Taosif Ahmed ◽  
Md Navid Tanjim ◽  
Md Azhar Waqar ◽  
Md Mahamudul Hasan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Health Hazards ◽  
Industrial Accidents ◽  
Improve Working ◽  
Manufacturing Plants ◽  
Extensive Analysis ◽  
Fast Development ◽  
The Government ◽  
Worldwide Network

Since the 1980s, the Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh has encountered fast development and is at present positioned the second most elevated exporter on the planet after China. The RMG business has made a generous commitment to the economy and society by fundamentally giving a wellspring of work to around over 4,000,000 laborers, for the most part, ladies. This amazing development is subverted by the absence of safety in the factories and industrial accidents, which has defined the health hazards associated with the RMG division. These mishaps stunned the nation and the worldwide network. Because of these mishaps, the Government of Bangladesh and the advancement accomplices have prepared extraordinary help and made responsibilities to improve working conditions and worker's safety in the RMG business in Bangladesh. This paper is an endeavor to confirm the advancement and execution level of various activities taken by Bangladesh Government and the worldwide purchasers and retailers of RMG explicitly in the field of occupational health hazards, for example, health and hygiene, safety, other issues of health, hygiene and safety, welfare as well as OHS management system & training. A useful study was done straightforwardly on RMG laborers to rough their insight level on consistency factors and their comprehension and acknowledgment of the current acts of occupational health hazards and safety in RMG manufacturing plants.

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 The Occupational Health of Female Immigrant Caregivers: A Qualitative Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (21) ◽  
pp. 7807
Author(s):  
Rocío de Diego-Cordero ◽  
Juan Vega-Escaño ◽  
Lorena Tarriño-Concejero ◽  
María Ángeles García-Carpintero-Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Immigrant Women ◽  
Musculoskeletal Diseases ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Female Immigrant ◽  
One Year

In general, immigrants suffer poor working conditions. This is particularly true in the case of women, who constitute 48% of international migrants, and these poor conditions are closely linked to the sectors they mainly occupy, such as domestic and care-giving services. The aim of the present study was to investigate the working conditions of the female immigrant population living in southern Spain and how these conditions may affect their health. A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and discussion groups was conducted over one year in 2019, with 61 immigrant women recruited. The sectors occupied by immigrant women were caregiving for dependent people and domestic services. Most of the female immigrants interviewed were working (63.94%), although the majority were employed in an irregular situation, with a very long working day. Among the main risks identified were biological risks, physical attacks, falls, wounds and musculoskeletal complaints related to handling patients and carrying out household chores. Most of them had not taken an occupational health test and did not report accidents occurring in the workplace for fear of losing their jobs. The main health problems were related to physical and mental health (such as musculoskeletal diseases and stress). These findings highlight the importance of making a major change in our perspective regarding the social value of including immigrant women in the labour market and the different aspects related to their health.

scholarly journals Challenges faced by franchise entrepreneurs operating in a volatile business environment: a case of the fast food industry in Harare, Zimbabwe

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 436-444
Author(s):  
Knowledge Shumba ◽  
Stanislous Zindiye ◽  
Gift Donga
Keyword(s):  
Fast Food ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Fast Food Industry ◽  
Standards Of Living ◽  
The Government

Franchising plays a pivotal role in sustainable economic development through employment creation, improving the standards of living and increasing the growth of entrepreneurship worldwide. However, the volatile business environment in Zimbabwe has a negative impact on the growth of franchising in the fast food industry. The aim of the study was to uncover the challenges of franchising in a volatile business environment in Zimbabwe. The study focused on an under studied area of franchising in the fast food industry of Zimbabwe. The study is important, as franchising can be used as a tool for economic growth and the study breaks a new ground, as no similar studies have been conducted to identify the challenges faced by franchise entrepreneurs in a volatile business environment. Ten qualitative interviews were successfully conducted with franchise entrepreneurs using face to face semi structured interviews as data collection method and thematic coding was used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study indicate that franchise entrepreneurs face difficulties in obtaining operating licences from the Harare’s City Municipal Authorities and registering their businesses. Electricity power cuts severely affect the operations of fast food businesses. The majority of the entrepreneurs do not have adequate capital to expand and grow their businesses and they fail to meet lending requirements from the financial institutions, top-most among them being the provision of collateral security accompanied by rigid application procedures for funding. Recommendations made include that the government must play an active role in promoting franchising by setting up a vibrant franchise board and speeding up the business registration process.

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