Migrant worker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term migrant worker has different official meanings and connotations in different parts of the world. The United Nations' definition is very broad, essentially including anyone working outside of their home country. In some countries, notably the United States[citation needed], the term has a specific connotation that the work will be low paid[citation needed]. The term can also be used to describe someone who migrates within a country, possibly their own, in order to pursue work such as seasonal work.
Contents |
[edit] United Nations' definition
The "United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families"[1] defines migrant worker as follows:
| “ | The term "migrant worker" refers to a person who is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national. | ” |
The Convention has been ratified by Mexico, Brazil, and the Philippines (amongst many other nations that supply foreign labour) but it has not been ratified by the United States, Germany, and Japan (amongst other nations that depend on foreign labour).
[edit] Worldwide perspectives
[edit] Canada
In Canada, companies are beginning to recruit temporary foreign workers under Service Canada's recent expansion of an immigration program for migrant workers.
[edit] China
Migrant workers from China's impoverished regions search for work in the more prosperous coastal regions. According to Chinese government statistics, the current number of migrant workers in China is estimated at 120 million, approximately 9% of the population. China’s urban migrants sent home the equivalent of US$65.4 billion in 2005.[2]
[edit] European Union
The recent expansions of the European Union have provided opportunities for many people to migrate to other EU countries for work. For both the 2004 and 2007 enlargements, existing states were given the rights to impose various transitional arrangements to limit access to their labour markets.
[edit] United States
The term foreign worker is generally used in the United States to refer to someone fitting the international (UN) definition of a migrant worker while the term migrant worker is considered someone who regularly works away from home, if they have a home at all.[3]
In the United States, migrant worker is commonly used to describe low-wage workers performing manual labor in the agriculture field; these are often immigrants who do not have valid work visas. The United States has enacted the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act to remove the restraints on commerce caused by activities detrimental to migrant and seasonal agricultural workers, to require farm labor contractors to register, and to assure necessary protections for migrant and seasonal agricultural workers, agricultural associations, and agricultural employers. Most migrant workers in the United States are people from Mexico and Central America[citation needed].
The term migrant worker sometimes may be used to describe any worker who moves from one seasonal job to another.[3] This use is generally confined to lower-wage fields, perhaps because the term has been indelibly linked with low-wage farmworkers and illegal immigrants.[3] Examples of professions which could be called migrant workers, some of them quite lucrative, include: electricians in the construction industry; other construction workers who travel from one construction job to another, often in different cities; wildland firefighters in the western United States; temporary consulting work; and Interstate truck drivers.
In America's history, starting at the end of the Civil War, hobos were the migrant workers who performed much of this agricultural work, using freight trains as their means of transportation to new jobs[citation needed]. During the Great Depression, Okies who fled the Dust Bowl were a significant source of temporary farm labor[citation needed].
[edit] See also
- Cesar Chavez, migrant worker organizer in the United States
- Dirty, Dangerous and Demeaning, also known as the 3Ds in Japan
- Migrant domestic workers
[edit] References
- ^ "United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families". United Nations. http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/45/a45r158.htm. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.
- ^ Zhenghua, Wang (2005-09-21). "Convicted migrant worker killer waits for final verdict". China Daily. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-09/21/content_479492.htm. Retrieved on 2009-05-21.
- ^ a b c Newport City Refugees and Asylum Seekers
