As increased mobility of workers challenges the ability of the traditional labour movement to protect workers’ rights, global union federations such as Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) attempt to organize migrant workers across borders. The construction sector in Malaysia is one example of a domestic industry reliant upon the labour of migrant workers. Through surveys with migrant construction workers and interviews conducted at BWI’s Asia-Pacific office, the exploitation of migrant construction workers and the effectiveness of BWI’s advocacy work are examined. Factors identified as facilitating the exploitation of migrant workers include the historic legacy of colonialism and post-colonial transformation, and the obstructive impact of Malaysia’s contemporary laws and policies. As a global actor, BWI’s strategies for incorporating migrant workers within transnational advocacy initiatives include the development of migrant support groups, SMS helplines, and local capacity building for migrant workers. / Graduate

The migration of economically and socially marginalized rural Ethiopian women and girls is becoming an accelerating phenomenon. Although the displacement is disguised by voluntary labour migration, their vulnerable position makes them easy targets creating a fertile ground for traffickers. The purpose of this study is identifying the causes of the plights Ethiopian domestic workers are facing in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The study is conducted in light of phenomenological framework aiming to understand the problem through the lived experiences of returnee victims. In-depth interviews with key informants are conducted in order to acquire a broader insight of the root causes and consequences of the problem. Findings of this research indicate that intersections of multiple identities; such as gender, class, race as well as religion, shape the standpoints of Ethiopian women as vulnerable. The themes of the result from interviews and observations are discussed in line with the relevant theoretical explanation provided in the study. In addition, the obstacles that challenge the effort of combating women trafficking is also discussed in accordance with the research question. This contributes to a further understanding of the challenges Ethiopian women face as domestic workers abroad.

This study investigates the impact of migration networks on the decision to migrate in Moldova. Using a recent cross-sectional household survey with extensive migration information I am able to disaggregate the migration networks according to kinship and further investigate the impact of different kinds of networks. The results show that migration networks have a significant positive impact on the decision to migrate, whereas the results do not reveal any conclusive evidence that certain kinships have stronger or different influence on the decision to migrate than others. The most influential determinants of migration when it comes to networks are ex-household members who migrated abroad and no longer make part of the household, and other individuals outside the household (i.e. friends, neighbours etc.) who migrated.

In response to shifting borders and radical changes in political and economic regimes, a great number of Hungarian Romanians left their homeland in the last century. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a Hungarian village in Romania, in this thesis I argue that the growing uncertainty in villagers’ working lives, a result of the high unemployment accompanying post-socialist transformation, and ethnic and class based disadvantage in Romania, impels them to engage in pluriactivity in their livelihood strategies. This includes circular labour migration in Hungary and other European Union states. Economic inequalities within the expanded EU create an ethnically segmented labour market, in which working class Transylvanian Hungarians become associated with certain types of work, in this case, temporary and often undocumented jobs in the least desirable sectors of the economy.

This thesis examines the gendered work experiences and labour migration aspirations of Tamang women in Nepal. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the various factors that encourage and discourage Tamang women from travelling in search of paid work. I investigated these factors by conducting a qualitative study of Tamang women’s gender roles, economic opportunities, economic contributions, physical mobility, as well as cultural attitudes regarding women’s mobility. I found that participants wish to migrate in order to seek better employment opportunities, improve the financial status of their households, acquire prestige, as well as to experience adventure, modernity and independence. Although many participants wish to migrate, discourses about appropriate gender roles, women’s sexuality, human trafficking, travel and safety are all influential in discouraging Tamang women from travelling in search of paid work. In this thesis, I argue that anti-trafficking campaigns contribute to propagating these discourses and discouraging women’s independent travel. / Richard and Sophia Hungerford Graduate Scholarship and the Richard and Sophia Hungerford Research Travel Grant

This thesis looks at the relationship between labour migration and socio-economic well-being of the rural households in the communities in Northeastern Thailand, and provides one of the few detailed case studies of the costs and benefits of labour mobility within Southeast Asian labour market system. This research aims to deepen our understanding of the implications of labour migration at micro-level. More specifically, the study aims to examine 'how much such labour migration and remittances do support the rural households and their family members left-behind?' by seeking a holistic assessment based on well-being perspectives with mixed-methods approach. To appreciate this question, we must first understand that there has been rapid economic development and change in Thailand over the past decades, and Thailand is now a leading economy in Southeast Asia that is evolving into a global and regional migration hub for outgoing, incoming, and transiting migrants. The rural communities in Northeastern Thailand, however, have experienced economic and environmental marginality, and as a result, have developed an institutionalised and self-sustaining migration culture after the Vietnam War in 1975. Yet existing research does not tell us much about what are the consequences of the labour migration on well-being for the households in this area. The research explores associations between remittance behaviours and gender difference using sex-disaggregated data, measures dimensions of poverty alleviating effects on the three Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty indices, and assesses economic well-being of the rural households (on the basis of differing participation in labour migration) and non-economic well-being of the family left-behind. On the evidence of this research with various levels of significance in regression analyses, international labour migration and remittances have several implications on rural households in Northeastern Thailand. Firstly, the results show that women and migrants from poorer households behave more altruistically, while men and migrants from richer households behave more contractually. These heterogeneities in remittance behaviours also linked to the asset accumulation patterns for migrants' own future well-being and related to inheritance culture of the rural Thais. Secondly, labour migration is a rational economic strategy of rural households to combat poverty and to improve economic well-being. The analysis reveals clearly that the entire income gap and most of the gap in economic well-being between households with and without migrants can be accounted by availability of remittances. However, the remittances also increase economic inequality (i.e. disparities in well-being) among households in the communities as well-known. Finally, the absence of adult children (for the elderly) or parents (for children) because of international labour migration does not create major disruptions of the non-economic well-being of the family members. The possibilities for frequent correspondence, returns, and the economic benefits of migration contribute to cushion the negative impacts of migration. Most of all, the extended family system plays a decisive role in functioning as a support mechanism.

This thesis is an ethnographic study of a rural community in central Vanuatu, many of whom have been engaged as seasonal workers in New Zealand and Australia’s horticultural industries since 2008. Based on sixteen months’ ethnographic fieldwork divided between Lamen Island and Lamen Bay, Epi, I examine why people choose to leave their home to engage in often-difficult work and seasonal absences, in order to build a ‘good house’ and ‘good life’ at home. I suggest that ‘the good house’ is an icon of the Li-Lamenu vision for improved moral and material ‘standards of living’. I reveal how seasonal work engagements emerge in the context of mutually dependent and moralised but often-ambivalent employer-employee relations. Time away is often experienced as the subordination of one’s life and work to the demands of a labour regime, but is submitted to as opening opportunities, or ‘roads’ for value conversions of time into money, and money in into the future of the household, and community development. However, the quest for a good life in the shape of the good house raises tensions and contradictions that householders must negotiate in order to ‘live together well’ with kin and community. The rise of the ‘good house’ is associated with a concomitant decline in ‘respect’ for kin and Chiefs, and the proliferation of ‘broken homes’, and land disputes. Throughout this thesis, I will suggest that the good house concretises the increasing direction of money, time and resources into household-oriented goals. This process of household nucleation is also evident in tensions over changes in ritual performance and expenditure and land tenure patterns. I conclude that these insights contribute to the anthropology of kinship and ritual, as well as wider understandings of temporary migration and development theory and policy.

This diploma thesis focuses on migration policy in the Czech Republic since 1989. The main objective is to analyze benefits and on the other hand negatives associated with the employing foreign workers. At the beginning of this thesis, there is briefly described a development on Czech labor market since 1989. Then the rest is focused on an actual situation on Czech labor market. There is a definition of a law scope connected with employing foreigners, what they have to do, what kind of visa they need, etc. Another section is focused on reasons, why foreigners come to work to the Czech Republic and in which sectors their labor is mostly used. One paragraph is also dedicated to projects that are focused on helping foreigners with the integration. The evaluating part deals with the pros and cons of employing foreigners and possible solutions that could improve that situation in the future and the final part is focused on the Czech inhabitants coming to work to foreign countries.

This thesis aims to outline how the labour exploitation of migrant workers is problematized in contemporary Canadian labour migration policy discourse; the consequences of this problematization(s), and possibilities for creating an alternative critical space for discourse. Using concepts of (social) harm, (un)freedom, and (hyper)precarity as departure points for analysis, this project endeavours to untangle problematizations of migrant worker exploitation from their representations in Canadian policy discourse through a post-structural policy analysis. From this theoretical perspective, policy discourse will be analyzed employing Carol Bacchi’s (2009) ‘What is the Problem Represented to Be?’ (WPR) methodology. With this theoretical and methodological basis, the goal of this thesis is to make space to open a critical dialogue between the consequences of the global neoliberal capitalist order, Canadian policy discourse, the Canadian border/migration regime, and the conditions of migrant labourers caught in the middle of this complex nexus.

The research project takes a hard look into the linguistic challenges faced by foreign migrant workers and informal traders in Gauteng province, South Africa. The research makes a panoramic view into the linguistic challenges faced by foreign migrant workers and informal traders. The focus of the research is on the challenges regarding language use in business domains. It dissects into business communication dynamics and the cultural contexts in the developing economies of Southern Africa. The study focused on finding out language challenges for immigrants as a consequence of migration. The research undertakes to discover language policy frameworks operating in industries and informal business environment in Gauteng. It seeks to establish the strategies that could be used to solve the language problems faced by foreign migrants taking into consideration that most of the immigrants in the construction industry and informal sector are semi-literate or illiterate. In other words, the research explores alternatives and the different roles of different organizations in the approach to language challenges when doing business. The study attempts to make some recommendations that can rescue immigrant challenges. These include language training programmes and changing attitudes as they have to learn the indigenous languages used in Gauteng province. The discussion reviews the sociolinguistic aspects in view of the changing demands of the developing economies of Africa where languages are used as vehicles for economic development and technological innovation. It attempts to reflect on why European languages continue to dominate business operations in Africa while African languages remain marginalized. / African Languages / (D. Litt et Phil. (African Languages))