scholarly journals COVID-19 and International Labor Migration in Agriculture

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-44
Author(s):  
Philip Martin
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Agricultural Systems ◽  
Guest Workers ◽  
The North ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Agricultural Industries ◽  
Seasonal Farm Workers

Two thirds of the 272 million international migrants in 2019 were employed in the destination country. Demographic and economic inequalities between countries, combined with globalization that reduced barriers to migrants, were expected to continue to increase the number of international migrant workers. Covid-19 closed many national borders to non- essential travelers, with limited exceptions. Seasonal farm workers were one of the notable exceptions, suggesting that many governments do not expect local workers to fill seasonal farm jobs despite record-high unemployment rates. For agriculture, the longer term effects of the pandemic include faster mechanization, more guest workers, and rising imports. Responses are likely to vary by commodity and be shaped by government policies. This article provides a review of the distribution and activities of the world’s 164 million international migrant workers in 2017, including the 111 million in high-income countries. The analysis focuses on the North American migrant worker and the differences between their integration in the agricultural industries. American agricultural systems are integrating in the sense that Canadian blueberries, Mexican avocados and U.S. meat trade freely, but the farm workforces in each country are increasingly Mexican.

Health Care for Children of Migrant Families

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 739-740
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Migrant Health ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Health Maintenance ◽  
Seek Health Care ◽  
Migrant Families ◽  
Seasonal Farm Workers

Migrant and seasonal/farm workers constitute a major portion of the labor force in the American food industry. By harvesting and processing farm crops, they contribute positively to agricultural communities and the American economy. Currently, the office of Migrant Health estimates that nationwide there are between 3 and 5 million migrant and seasonal farm workers and dependents. The average annual income for migrant and seasonal farm workers is well below the poverty level (US Dept of Health and Human Services, unpublished data, 1988). Because health care insurance is invariably beyond the reach of migrant family budgets, and employers of farm workers rarely provide health care benefits for their employees, these families are usually uninsured. In some cases, these families lack US citizenship or are in this country illegally, which complicates obtaining health care for their children. Medicaid enrollment is also complicated by migration because aliens must meet eligibility requirements in each state to which they migrate, and only US citizens are eligible. Because of their income and mobile life-style, migrant worker families often find that comprehensive child health care (health maintenance, anticipatory guidance, and preventive medicine) essentially is not available. Migrating families must seek health care whenever it is available. This results in a pattern of service that usually is fragmented and ad hoc. Migration not only interrupts continuity of care but it also contributes to a lack of knowledge about a community's health services and/or jeopardizes eligibility for these services by conflicting with residency requirements. Other problems that delay or prevent access to health care for the children of migrant families include language barriers and differences in culture.

Translating People and Policy: The Role of Maid Agents in Brokering between Employers and Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore’s Migration Industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 992-1015
Author(s):  
Kellynn Wee ◽  
Charmian Goh ◽  
Brenda S.A. Yeoh
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Labor Market Intermediaries ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Language Brokers ◽  
Working And Living Conditions ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

There has been a surge of recent interest in the migration industries that facilitate the movement of migrants, particularly that of low-waged laborers engaged in temporary contracts abroad. This article extends this research to include migration brokers working in destination contexts, thus drawing analytical attention to the arrival infrastructures that incorporate migrants into host societies. Based on ethnographic research involving the employment agents who recruit women migrating from Indonesia to work as migrant domestic workers in Singapore, we use the concept of “translation” as a broad theoretical metaphor to understand how brokers actively fashion knowledge between various actors, scales, interfaces, and entities. First, we argue that through the interpretation of language, brokers continually modulate meaning in the encounters between potential employers and employees at the agency shopfront, reproducing particular dynamics of power between employers and workers while coperforming the hirability of the migrant worker. Second, we show how brokers operate within the discretionary space between multiple sets of regulations in order to selectively inscribe the text of policy into migrant workers’ lives. By interrogating the process of translation and clarifying the latitude migration brokers have in shaping the working and living conditions of international labor migrants, the article contributes to the growing conceptual literature on how labor-market intermediaries contour migration markets.

scholarly journals Low practice of malaria prevention among migrants and seasonal farmworkers in Metema and west Armacheho districts, Northwest Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Getu Debalkie Demissie ◽  
Tadesse Awoke Ayele ◽  
Sintayehu Daba Wami ◽  
Malede Mequanent Sisay ◽  
Destaw Fetene ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Length Of Stay ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Malaria Prevention ◽  
Northwest Ethiopia ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Cluster Sampling ◽  
Malaria Endemicity ◽  
Seasonal Farm Workers

Abstract Background More than hundreds and thousands of migrants and seasonal farm workers move from the highlands (relatively low malaria endemicity areas) to the lowlands (higher malaria endemicity areas) for the development of the corridor of the Amhara region during planting, weeding, and harvesting seasons in each year. Seasonal migrant workers are at high risk of malaria infection. Therefore, evidence of their knowledge level and practice in the prevention of malaria during their stay would be important. Objective The aims of this study was to assess the knowledge and practice of malaria prevention and associated factors among migrants and seasonal farm workers in Northwest Ethiopia. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted from October to November, 2018 in Metema and West Armacheho districts, northwest Ethiopia. A sample of about 950 migrants and seasonal farm workers were included using two stages of cluster sampling technique. Interview administered structured questionnaire was used. Both bi-variable and multivariable binary logistic regressions were applied to identify predictors of malaria prevention. Result The overall good knowledge of malaria (those participants who scored more than 60% of correct response for knowledge related questions) was 50.2% with 95% CI (47.0–53.0) and the overall good practice of malaria (those participants who practiced more than 60% for practice related questions) was 27.2% with 95% CI (244.3–29.9). Age (AOR = 0.51(95%CI; 0.33–0.80)), level of education (AOR = 0.55(95%CI; 0.32–0.94)), using mass media as a source of information (AOR = 2.25(95%CI; 1.52–3.32)) and length of stay at the farming site (AOR = 0.59(95%CI; 0.44–0.79)) were significantly associated with knowledge of malaria prevention. Knowledge (AOR = 6.62(95%CI; 4.46–9.83)), attitude (AOR = 2.17(95%CI1.40–3.37), use of mass media (AOR = 1.64(95%CI; 1.30–2.60)) and the length of stay (AOR = 1.93(95%CI; 1.35—2.77)) in the farming area were significantly associated with practice of malaria prevention. Conclusion The practice of malaria prevention among migrant and seasonal farm workers was low. The programmers and implementers should design tailored malaria intervention programs and strategies for these hard to reach population.

Guest Workers of the World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Immanuel Ness
Keyword(s):  
Labor Movement ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Undocumented Migrant ◽  
Guest Workers ◽  
Potential Influence ◽  
Regulatory Policies ◽  
Corporate Profits

This introductory chapter lays out the major themes to be explored in this book, and positions guest workers (as opposed to undocumented migrant workers) at the center of discussion. Ineffectual regulatory policies have bifurcated migrant workers into two groups—undocumented laborers and guest workers. Focusing on guest workers rather than on undocumented laborers foreshadows the potential prospects and pitfalls of the program for foreign workers as well as U.S. nationals, and the potential influence of such a program on the broader labor movement and working class. Moreover, the chapter focuses the U.S. as the world's leading recipient of foreign workers in order to briefly examine the intersection between labor, capital, and government policies in advancing corporate profits.

Filipino Guest Workers, Gender Segregation, and the Changing Social/Labor-Scape in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-512
Author(s):  
Simeon S. Magliveras
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Guest Workers ◽  
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia ◽  
Gcc Countries ◽  
Overseas Filipino Workers ◽  
Dress Codes ◽  
Social Labor

Filipinos are a major part of the workforce in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a population of almost one million. This article investigates the effects of gender segregation on Filipino workers and how they navigate their lives through systems imposed on them. In particular, it examines the Kafala system (administrative sponsoring system) used for recruiting migrant workers for GCC countries. This article suggests that contrary beliefs about gender segregation and dress codes, Filipinas found it empowering. However, this article also concludes that gender segregation and dress codes also lead to isolation and loneliness. In addition, it is concluded that the fate and contentment of the overseas Filipino workers are directly dependent on who sponsors them.

Migration and US agricultural competitiveness

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip L. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Farm Workers ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Guest Workers ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Lower Wage ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One

Agriculture has one of the highest shares of foreign-born and unauthorized workers among US industries; over three-fourths of hired farm workers were born abroad, usually in Mexico, and over half of all farm workers are unauthorized. Farm employers are among the few to openly acknowledge their dependence on migrant and unauthorized workers, and they oppose efforts to reduce unauthorized migration unless the government legalizes currently illegal farm workers or provides easy access to legal guest workers. The effects of migrants on agricultural competitiveness are mixed. On the one hand, wages held down by migrants keep labour-intensive commodities competitive in the short run, but the fact that most labour-intensive commodities are shipped long distances means that long-run US competitiveness may be eroded as US farmers have fewer incentives to develop labour-saving and productivity-improving methods of farming and production in lower-wage countries expands.

Language competence, identity construction and discursive boundary-making: Distancing and alignment in domestic migrant worker narratives

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (262) ◽  
pp. 97-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans J. Ladegaard
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Boundary Making

AbstractMany people in developing countries are faced with a dilemma. If they stay at home, their children are kept in poverty with no prospects of a better future; if they become migrant workers, they will suffer long-term separation from their families. This article focuses on one of the weakest groups in the global economy: domestic migrant workers. It draws on a corpus of more than 400 narratives recorded at a church shelter in Hong Kong and among migrant worker returnees in rural Indonesia and the Philippines. In sharing sessions, migrant women share their experiences of working for abusive employers, and the article analyses how language is used to include and exclude. The women tell how their employers construct them as “incompetent” and “stupid” because they do not speak Chinese. However, faced by repression and marginalisation, the women use their superior English language skills to get back at their employers and momentarily gain the upper hand. Drawing on ideologies of language as the theoretical concept, the article provides a discourse analysis of selected excerpts focusing on language competence and identity construction.

scholarly journals Addressing the Needs of Migrant Workers in ICUs in Singapore

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 238212052097719
Author(s):  
Crystal Lim ◽  
Jamie Xuelian Zhou ◽  
Natalie Liling Woong ◽  
Min Chiam ◽  
Lalit Kumar Radha Krishna
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Medical Terminology ◽  
Singapore General Hospital ◽  
Medical Interpreters ◽  
General Wards

Background: With nearly 400 000 migrant workers in Singapore, many from Bangladesh, India and Myanmar, language and cultural barriers posed a great many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was especially so as majority of the COVID-19 clusters in Singapore emerged from their communal dormitories. With concerns arising as to how this minority group could be best cared for in the intensive care units, the need for medical interpreters became clear. Main: In response, the Communication and Supportive Care (CSC) workgroup at the Singapore General Hospital developed the ‘Medical Interpreters Training for ICU Conversations’ program. Led by a medical social worker-cum-ethicist and 2 palliative care physicians, twenty volunteers underwent training. The program comprised of 4 parts. Firstly, volunteers were provided with an overview of challenges within the COVID-19 isolation ICU environment. Discussed in detail were common issues between patients and families, forms of distress faced by healthcare workers, family communication modality protocols, and the sociocultural demographics of Singapore’s migrant worker population. Secondly, key practice principles and ‘Do’s/Don’ts’ in line with the ethical principles of medical interpretation identified by the California Healthcare Interpreters Association were shared. Thirdly, practical steps to consider before, during and at the end of each interpretation session were foregrounded. Lastly, a focus group discussion on the complexities of ICU cases and their attending issues was conducted. Targeted support was further provided in response to participant feedback and specific issues raised. Conclusion: As a testament to its efficacy, the program has since been extended to the general wards and the Ministry of Health in Singapore has further commissioned similar programs in various hospitals. In-depth training on the fundamentals of medical terminology, language and cultural competency should be provided to all pertinent healthcare workers and hospitals should consider hiring medical interpreters in permanent positions.

Migrant Worker Health

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
High Status ◽  
New Host ◽  
Worker Health

More than 150 million international migrant workers and an unknown number of internal migrant workers toil across the globe. More than workplace exposures affect migrant worker health; their health is also affected by exposures in the sociocultural milieu from which they came and in which they currently live. Although some of these migrant workers include professionals in high-status occupations such as doctors, nurses, engineers, and computer scientists, most are low skill workers employed in the most dangerous jobs in the most hazardous industries. The health of these migrant workers has been a long-term concern in public health, and this concern has increased with the rise of greater globalization, the recent growth of displaced and refugee populations that will need to enter the workforce in their new host countries, and the anticipated effects of climate change. The domain of migrant worker health is expansive, and is necessarily limited in this bibliography. This bibliography focuses on workers and not the family members who may accompany them, although other family members also may be workers. It focuses on low-skill migrant workers, rather than on professionals who migrate for work. Low-skill migrant workers are the individuals for whom health and public health are concerns. Additionally, research on the health of migrant professional workers is scant. At the same time, this bibliography attempts to place migrant worker health in a holistic context; because migrant worker health is affected by more than workplace exposures, the bibliography addresses exposures in their current sociocultural milieu. This bibliography has three major sections. The first section summarizes general resources that provide information on migrant workers, including International Agencies, Nongovernmental Organizations, Data Sources, Reference Works, and Journals. The second section addresses the characteristics of migrant workers that affect their health, including their Personal Characteristics, the Circumstances of Migration, Forced Migration, Industries which employ migrant workers, and 3-D Jobs: Dangerous, Dirty, and Demanding. The final section considers the health status of migrant workers, with discussions of Conceptual Frameworks for understanding migrant worker health, Work Organization Exposures, Environmental Exposures, Sociocultural Exposures, Health Conditions, Approaches to Improve Migrant Worker Health, and Policy/Regulations.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and reverse migration of workers during lock down their health and prevention

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 2411-2415
Author(s):  
Milind Abhimanyu Nisargandha ◽  
Shweta Dadarao Parwe
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Reverse Migration ◽  
Metropolitan Cities ◽  
Coronavirus Infection ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Native Place ◽  
Mental And Physical Health

Migrant workers are a valuable community for developing the Indian economy; adverse effect occurs on their mental and physical health during this pandemic situation. The coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic emerged in India due to spread nationwide from China, Wuhan city, and then Spread overall, 213 Countries and Territories worldwide have been reported. The Indian Government immediately set up a lockdown and quarantined the patients in the hospital and declared that area as a contentment Zone to avoid infection transmission. In this pandemic situation, many labour workers were living with their families in metropolitan cities. The urgent demand for public transport in the migrant workers from different states in India. For reaching them to the native place. These lead to spreading the coronavirus infection and increase the cases of nCOVID-19. It concluded that public health services and transportation for the migrant worker to reach the native place from all states. A maximum number of trains were needed, rather than travel restriction aware of them regarding wearing of Mask, Handwashing, and Quarantine after travelled. It has been six months since COVID -19; many questions remain unanswered about the coronavirus and its pathology. It was clear by global authorities that countries need to plan and increase health clear awareness and facilities for the migrant workers. 

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document