scholarly journals A Decade of Studying Guest Workers Through the Projects of the Serbian Ethnological and Anthropological Society

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 981-1012
Author(s):  
Dragana Antonijević ◽  
Ana Banić Grubišić ◽  
Miloš Rašić

This review paper provides an overview of the ten-year long anthropological research on the cultural identity of guest workers and their descendants as part of the projects implemented by the associates of the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade and the SASA Institute of Ethnography. The projects were supported by the Serbian Ethnological and Anthropological Society and the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. The phenomenon of “temporary workers abroad”, or the so-called guest workers (Gastarbeiter), which emerged in the early 1960s and continued in the decades to come, has long remained beyond the interest of Serbian anthropological and ethnological science. This is why, after having noticed a scientific research gap related to this phenomenon, in 2010 we initiated the anthropological research of the cultural identity of guest workers. Our intention was to take into account different factors of guest-worker identity construction and to look at the processes, discourses and concepts related to this socio-cultural group from different angles. Over time, as we delved deeper into the problem of migrant workers and migration in general, our interests, and consequently our research, expanded to other topics in addition to cultural identity. In that context, this review paper intends to inform the scientific and professional public about the findings of research on migrants working temporarily abroad and their descendants, and to highlight some of the most important topics that we focused on in this research, while being aware that the phenomenon of migrants and migration is so diverse that it is impossible to include or investigate all its elements that make it so complex.

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Banić Grubišić

The subject of this paper is a thematic analysis of a bilingual collection of poems by Drago Trumbetaš entitled “Poems of guest-workers“ (“Gastarbeiter-Gedichte“). The poems in this collection were written during his stay in FR Germany from 1969 to 1980. Drago Trumbetaš (1937–2018) was a versatile Croatian self-taught artist and a member of the first wave of Yugoslav economic migrants who went to “temporary“ work in the developed countries of Western Europe in the 1960s. During his stay in FR Germany, Trumbetaš worked various low paid physical jobs and his artistic expression was strongly imbued with personal migrant experiences. Almost all artistic work of Trumbetaš (series of drawings, novels, plays and poetry) is devoted to depicting the life of Yugoslav gastarbeiters. After determining the prevailing topics on the collection of poems, an analysis of their meaning will be undertaken through the anthropological, sociological and historical literature on the phenomenon of “temporary workers abroad“. Poetry of Trumbetaš has been interpreted in the broader context of the “migrant poetry” development in FR Germany since the 1970s. Particular attention will be paid to analyzing the ways of poetic self-representation of migrant workers, the ways of articulating identity through poetry in a new and different cultural and social environment respectively. The problem of using literary texts written in the first person, which are therefore shaped by the subjective aspirations of individual authors, as relevant sources in ethnological and anthropological studies of migration is problematized in this paper.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-512
Author(s):  
Simeon S. Magliveras

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.


Author(s):  
Jozefien De Bock

Historically, those societies that have the longest tradition in multicultural policies are settler societies. The question of how to deal with temporary migrants has only recently aroused their interest. In Europe, temporary migration programmes have a much longer history. In the period after WWII, a wide range of legal frameworks were set up to import temporary workers, who came to be known as guest workers. In the end, many of these ‘guests’ settled in Europe permanently. Their presence lay at the basis of European multicultural policies. However, when these policies were drafted, the former mobility of guest workers had been forgotten. This chapter will focus on this mobility of initially temporary workers, comparing the period of economic growth 1945-1974 with the years after the 1974 economic crisis. Further, it will look at the kind of policies that were developed towards guest workers in the era before multiculturalism. This way, it shows how their consideration as temporary residents had far-reaching consequences for the immigrants, their descendants and the receiving societies involved. The chapter will finish by suggesting a number of lessons from the past. If the mobility-gap between guest workers and present-day migrants is not as big as generally assumed, then the consequences of previous neglect should serve as a warning for future policy making.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110314
Author(s):  
Simon Schaupp

This article analyses the interaction of the algorithmic workplace regime and the migration regime in manual work in platform logistics and manufacturing in Germany. Based on ethnographic case studies, the article reconstructs how companies integrate migrant workers by using systems of algorithmic work control. These simplify the labour process and direct workers without relying on a certain language. Algorithmic work control, however, does not realise its intended disciplining effects on its own but is dependent on external factors. A precarious residence status is such an external disciplining factor as it can create an implicit alliance of migrant workers with their employers in the hope for permanent residence. Nonetheless, the interaction of the two regimes also produced new forms of solidarity between the workers, which in some cases led to new forms of self-organisation. Thus, workplace regime and migration regime co-constitute each other.


2013 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clíodhna Murphy

AbstractWhile the rights of domestic workers are expanding in international law, including through the adoption of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention in 2011, migrant domestic workers remain particularly vulnerable to employment-related abuse and exploitation. This article explores the intersection of the employment law and migration law regimes applicable to migrant domestic workers in the United Kingdom, France and Ireland. The article suggests that the precarious immigration status of many migrant domestic workers renders employment protections, such as they exist in each jurisdiction, largely illusory in practice for this group of workers. The labour standards contained in the Domestic Workers Convention, together with the recommendations of the UN Committee on Migrant Workers on the features of an appropriate immigration regime for migrant domestic workers, are identified as providing an alternative normative model for national regulatory frameworks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-84
Author(s):  
Vitalii Boiko ◽  
Olha Mulska ◽  
Ihor Baranyak ◽  
Olha Levytska

Based on the multiple regression model and scenario approach to forecasting, the article estimates the Ukrainian migration aspirations towards Germany (the scale of migration, the economic activity of migrants, and their economic benefits). It is argued that major transformations in the gender-age structure of the German population may cause a demographic crisis and labour market imbalances. Our projections indicate the growing role of foreign human resources in the German economy. When modeling the scale of emigration from Ukraine, an integrated approach is applied, considering not only trends of pull-push factors but also special aspects of the German migration policy and the outflow of 8–10 million Ukrainian migrant workers. Given the poor statistical data on the scale of labour emigration needed for constructing reliable econometric models, the use of expert forecasting method remains the most optimal technique for assessing potential migration flows and migration systems.


Author(s):  
Verónica Castillo-Muñoz

This chapter summarizes key themes and presents some final thoughts. Looking back at how Baja California was transformed from a backwater to one of the most productive regions in northern Mexico, one could easily conclude that foreign investment was a catalyst for Baja California's dramatic economic success. But this is only part of the story. This book demonstrates that intermarriage, land reform, and migration were vital to the development of the Baja California peninsula and the Mexican borderlands. Without Asian, mestizo, and indigenous workers, it would have been impossible for the Compagnie du Boleo and the the Colorado River Land Company to become some of the most productive enterprises in Latin America. In the post NAFTA era, Baja California continues to be a strategic place for commerce and migration. The boom of maquilas (assembly plants) and agribusinesses persist in attracting migrant workers from different parts of Mexico.


2015 ◽  
pp. 425-439
Author(s):  
Kana Takamatsu

This chapter examines how the foreign aid policy should and should have supported families facing risks by using the case study of Myanmar. The chapter starts by addressing the issue of poverty, which continues to be the gravest risk in the developing countries, and how family could be the cause of poverty as well as the solution of poverty in foreign aid policy discussion. The situation of poverty and migration as a risk management tool are then examined in the second section of the chapter. Interviews with migrant workers in Thailand and Japan were conducted. Finally, there is a discussion about the developments of Myanmar and how the foreign aid and international community has inadequately responded to the democratization of Myanmar and to the needs of its people.


Author(s):  
Fikadu Kumsa

Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is globally cultivated as commercial fruit crop usually used for fruit purpose or industrial product. The objective of the current review is to review and identify the research gap on the effect of different growth media and vitrification on shooting and rooting performance of grape. Factors affecting rooting of grape cuttings can be internal or external factors. Currently, grapevines are very sensitive to disease in the conventional method of propagation. Even if tissue culture is recommended for healthy propagation of the grape varieties, still factors affecting the growth of the plant verifications were reported. This, review paper progressively revised for the existing factors and possible solutions during in vitro propagation of grapevines. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 10(1): 1-5, June 2020


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