published_or_final_version / abstract / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

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There are several diverse types of employment discrimination in China’s labour market. Two of the most significant are differentials in employment opportunity and differentials in earnings by gender and household registration system (hukou). Thus, female migrant workers are doubly disadvantaged as victims of discrimination against both rural people and women. This thesis uses mixed research methods (both quantitative and qualitative approaches) to explore four questions related to this dual disadvantage: First, in the public sphere, are those with higher socioeconomic status (i.e., urbanites in China) willing to allow equal opportunities and rights for female migrant workers? Second, in the labour market, is there any evidence to demonstrate that gender and household registration system interact to shape female migrant workers’ employment opportunities and earnings? Third, still in the labour market, if a significant interaction is found between hukou and gender, the female migrant worker group will be compared to the members of three other groups: male migrant workers, urban males, and urban females. The following question will then be investigated: Do female migrant workers experience double (additive assumptions), less than double or more than double (intersectional assumptions) jeopardy in employment discrimination (opportunities and earnings) in 2003 and in 2006? Last, what are the trends in employment discrimination against this group over time? In an exploration of these four questions, this thesis offers theoretical, methodological and practical contributions to an understanding of female migrant workers’ experiences in urban China. It is found that Chinese urbanites indeed do not want to share social goods, attributes and services with female migrant workers. This hostility and intolerance in the public sphere have affected female migrant workers’ access to employment opportunities and earnings. In most cases, they have suffered more than double jeopardy with respect to employment opportunities and earnings. The trends in these two types of employment discrimination are mixed. Employment discrimination against these female migrant workers both in public sphere and in the labour market not only points to the social exclusion based on ascribed features (i.e., hukou and gender), but also reveals the nature of China’s transitional economies that involve both institutional and socio-cultural barriers to social equality.

The media plays a crucial role in framing social issues, and it decides whether and how these issues become social problems of wider public concern. This study offers a detailed analysis of this process with regard to the reporting of issues related to migrant workers over the last two decades in Chinese evening newspapers. Using data from evening newspapers in Jinan, a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis, and discourse analysis are used to explore how these representations have changed. The findings show that, contrary to the previous studies which found that representations of migrant workers in the Chinese evening newspapers tended to be mainly negative, portrayals of migrant workers, in reality, are more dynamic and complex. Actually, positive reports about migrant workers have dominated some evening newspapers. Using a large number of interviews with senior management staff and journalists, this study also illuminates the reasons for the changing representations of migrant workers in the evening newspapers, which are the result of the interaction of politics, market forces and professional practice of Chinese journalists.

This dissertation traces the state-directed agricultural migration of 200,000 Japanese farmers to rural Brazil in the 1920s and 30s. From its origins in late nineteenth century Japanese interpretations of German economic and colonial theory to its end in the mid-1930s under the populist Estado Novo government of Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas, my research connects this migration scheme to nation-state and empire-building projects in Japan and Brazil. Using Japanese, Portuguese, and English-language sources from archives in Japan, Brazil, and the United States, it argues that this state-directed migration scheme was an attempt by Japanese and Brazilian intellectuals and policymakers to use international migration to solve the crises of rural labor that stemmed from rapid industrialization and economic development. Japanese policymakers believed that their surplus agricultural labor could be settled in isolated Brazilian nucleos, where daily life for settlers was still dominated by Japanese cultural and government institutions. Japanese emigrants in Brazil saw themselves as imperial subjects performing service for a Japanese settler colonial project, and Japanese state institutions continued to define their everyday lives. Japanese government-produced guidebooks and migrants’ own writings in Brazil’s Japanese-language newspapers reveal how the unique circumstances of state-directed migration blurred the distinctions between migrants and colonists. In Brazil, the Japanese found themselves trapped between two competing visions of the Brazilian nation. They owed their existence there to the loose federalism of the Old Republic (1889-1930) that allowed individual Brazilian states to set their own immigration policies. Under the terms of the 1891 Brazilian Constitution, wealthy Southern states, like São Paulo, could offer land concessions to foreign immigration companies without federal oversight, meaning they were free to enact racial preferences for immigrant labor at the expense of the country’s poorer, racially-mixed citizens in the Northeast. However, when the Old Republic fell in the 1930 Brazilian Revolution, the Japanese community quickly became a racialized symbol of the old political order’s regional political and economic inequality. Influenced by new fascist governments in Europe and anti-immigrant sentiment that had swept the Western Hemisphere, the Getúlio Vargas-led Provisional Government redefined national identity and redistributed political power. Furthermore, Vargas’s expansion of participatory politics in the early 1930s merged a strain of nativism with his efforts to erase São Paulo’s regional dominance. His government limited the economic rights of non-citizens in 1932 and introduced the first national immigration policy, a strict quota, in 1934. Through an analysis of Brazilian constitutional theory and the debates surrounding the country’s first national immigration policy – which was written directly into the 1934 Brazilian Constitution – my research demonstrates how regional competition motivated and racialized Brazilian immigration policy at the expense of the country’s Japanese community. As neither Europeans nor Brazilians, the Japanese found themselves victims to more powerful political and racial ideologies in 1930s Brazil. In response to nativist efforts to close Japanese language schools in 1935 and 1936, the Japanese government attempted unsuccessfully to intervene on the community’s behalf. When news of the restrictions on Japanese Brazilian life reached Japan, the Japanese government used it to further justify its withdrawal from the international community and ramp up its colonial efforts in Manchuria. By 1937, when the Japanese settlement experiment came to an end, both the Japanese government and the Japanese in Brazil had already shifted their gaze to Manchuria as the preferred destination for surplus Japanese farmers, and Japanese government officials applied many of the same organizational techniques to facilitate agricultural emigration to Japan’s East Asian colonies.

Background and objectives: This study set out to explore identities among university students from forced migrant backgrounds. Issues related to identity have been found to contribute to the specific and significant challenges this student group can face in higher education. The research question was: how do students from forced migrant backgrounds understand their identities. Focusing on identities, through a dialogical narrative lens, offered a route into investigating the subjective and intersubjective experiences of forced migrant-background students, as well as processes of change associated with being at university, and how wider discourses may impact upon them. Methodology: Three participants from forced migrant backgrounds who had recently completed university studies were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were employed to generate data. Interviews incorporated the use of an artefact: participants were invited to bring an object which represented something about their identities. Data were analysed using dialogical narrative analysis. This involved focusing on aspects of positioning, the use of small stories, and multivoicedness, in the interview encounters. Attention was given both to what participants said about their identities, and the ways in which they constructed these identities. Analysis: Analysis of participants' narratives is presented individually and structured according to interrelated themes, each conveying some aspect of their identities. Themes include 'activist and ambassador', and 'not representing what is expected'. Commonalities identified in ways of expressing, understanding and adapting identities across the narratives are also presented, in the form of five elements which fit together to form a narrative synthesis. The elements are: education as important for identity; being different; identity transformation, as part of being a university student; using new power and identities to react against injustices; and, facilitating this, identity choice and agency. Reflexive considerations, fundamental to the dialogical narrative research approach, are discussed. Discussion and conclusions: A key contribution to knowledge is that despite facing adversity, forced migrant-background students make use of their identity transformations - attributed in part to their university participation - to respond proactively to societal forces which may discriminate against them and others. Methodologically, both dialogical narrative analysis and the use of artefacts are found to contribute to investigating issues of identity. Indications for counselling psychologists include the importance of promoting awareness among practitioners of the complex issues forced migrant students often face. For higher education institutions as well as counselling psychologists, the importance of providing adequate support for these students is emphasised. It is highlighted that research into forced migration issues fits with counselling psychology's commitment to social justice, in terms of supporting groups at risk of marginalisation. It also aligns with calls within the discipline for increased attention to issues regarding race, culture and ethnicity, which intersect with forced migration. The wide-ranging potential benefits of supporting students from forced migrant backgrounds towards educational success are outlined.

Farmers and farmworkers are at a high risk for development of musculoskeletal symptoms due to the physically demanding nature of their work environment, the repetitive nature of many agricultural tasks, and the time-dependent nature of agricultural work that often requires greater than full-time hours at various times of the year. The purpose of this dissertation was to gain a better understanding of musculoskeletal symptom prevalence in Iowa farmers, examine age-related effects, determine how those symptoms related to safety on the farm, and to determine musculoskeletal symptom prevalence in migrant farmworkers in Iowa on H-2A Visas. Study data of 438 Iowa farmers was examined retrospectively through a cross-sectional survey that examined musculoskeletal symptoms prevalence, safety scores of the farm environment, and health-seeking behaviors of this population. This study found prevalence rates that varied from 28% (elbow) to 73% (back) with 4.15 (S.D. = 2.75) average painful joints. More farmers in the older age category were in the lower safety category. Significant predictors of seeking healthcare due to musculoskeletal symptoms included arthritis, employee help on the farm, hip pain, or upper back pain. Migrant farmworkers who were in Iowa on an H-2A Visa for agricultural work were surveyed about their musculoskeletal symptom prevalence at the beginning of their work contract in Iowa. The data from these 180 migrant farmworkers was compared to the National Agricultural Workers Survey. A chart review was completed that provided information about musculoskeletal symptoms throughout the contracted work period and also information about the treatment provided through the non-profit migrant health clinic. Baseline prevalence varied from 1.4% (hip) to 15.9% (neck) with 56 (39.7%) workers reporting 1 or more painful joints. Throughout the contracted work, 33.6% of visits were attributed to musculoskeletal complaints with farmworkers over 35 being 2.5 times more likely to have musculoskeletal complaints (OR = 2.5; 95% CI: 1.1-5.5). The information from these studies provides support for the need to develop and test interventions to prevent musculoskeletal symptom development in agricultural worker populations.

Throughout the Western world, governments have increasingly viewed migration through the lens of economic efficiency. In the era of globalisation, they argue, migrants should be selected on the basis of their skills and qualifications. Australian governments have been strongly committed to this policy direction, and over the last two decades, have reoriented the country�s migration program from the recruitment of unskilled labour to targeting educated professionals. The current Liberal-National Coalition government claims that this policy redirection has paid off, with migrants more skilled than ever, and successfully contributing to the economy. The government bases these claims on research conducted by scholars of migrant employment, who equate high levels of human capital with successful employment outcomes. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA), these researchers show that migrants with qualifications and English language ability have higher rates of labour force participation, lower unemployment, and higher occupational attainment and incomes, compared to their less skilled counterparts. This thesis critically analyses this �success story� narrative. It argues that the focus on human capital has overshadowed exploration of other important factors shaping migrants� employment experiences, including the gender and birthplace of new arrivals. This thesis shows that male and female migrants, and migrants from English versus non-English speaking backgrounds, can have very different experiences of working in Australia, regardless of their skills or occupational histories. I highlight the importance of these factors by investigating the experiences of Chinese women in Australia today. Using in-depth interviews with women from China and Hong Kong, and quantitative data from the Australian census and LSIA, I show that Chinese women�s employment experiences in Australia do not conform neatly to the prevailing �success story� promoted by the Government and migration researchers. Migration to Australia causes a widespread reduction in Chinese women�s paid work. While it is normal for men to seek work immediately after arrival, women find that migration intensifies their domestic workloads, while depriving them of sources of domestic support, such as relatives and hired help. Consequently, for Chinese women, migration often means moving from full-time to part-time jobs, or withdrawing from the workforce entirely. In the process, they experience a �feminisation� of roles, as they shift from being �career women� to fulfilling the traditional �female� roles of wife and mother. Thus migration and settlement are highly gendered, and the household context is crucial for understanding migrants� employment experiences. Among those women who are in the labour force, employment outcomes vary substantially by birthplace, pointing to the cultural specificity of human capital. Although both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong migrant women tend to be highly educated, mainland women achieve far poorer outcomes than Hong Kong women. Hong Kong women, with their relatively good English language skills and officially-recognised qualifications, are generally able to secure comparable jobs to those they had in Hong Kong, although they often have problems advancing further in Australia. Meanwhile, mainland women tend to have poorer English skills and greater difficulty in having their qualifications recognised, and thus suffer often dramatic downward mobility, moving from highly skilled professions to unskilled, low-paid and low status jobs in Australia. Thus this thesis demonstrates that the value of human capital is context-dependent. It can only be valorised in a new labour market if it is sufficiently culturally compatible with local standards. Therefore, the experiences of Chinese migrant women complicate the �success story� that dominates discussions of migrant employment in Australia. Ultimately, the prevailing economistic approach fails to see the diversity and complexity of migrant experiences. We need to see migrants as social beings, whose settlement in a new country is crucially shaped by their gender and birthplace, and broader institutional factors, which determine how human capital is used and rewarded. This is the mission of this thesis.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

This thesis explores Korean-Chinese migrant workers’ local experiences of the global phenomenon of international migration of care labour, focusing on how the care labour of migrant workers is being constructed through the intertwined social and political processes in South Korea’s shifting long-term care sector for the elderly. The thesis uses a qualitative case study method and relies on data collected through participant observation, interviews, and textual analysis during field research between November 2009 and May 2010. The analysis is based on a global economy of care framework, which understands care work as being made of products that are socially and politically constructed in the global processes. My study findings illuminate the roles and relations of the state, the employers, and the workers in producing a huge migrant workforce in South Korea’s segregated elder care labour market. The policy analysis at the intersection of elder care, labour market, and immigration policies shows that, over the last decade, the South Korean government has significantly reconstructed the boundaries of elder care work through the expansion of publicly-funded programmes for the elderly and the institutionalisation of care work in those programmes. In the institutionalisation process, the government’s ignorance about the care work performed in the private care sector has resulted in different regulations and working conditions for care workers in the publicly-funded versus the private sector. My empirical findings highlight how employers’ search for ‘cheap’ and ‘flexible’ labour and older female migrants’ disadvantageous status in the labour market have placed these workers in the less regulated private sector and their pay and working conditions at the bottom of hierarchical elder care workforce. In advocating for migrant care workers’ labour rights, this thesis challenges the current discriminative employment practices and the government’s lack of protection and regulation of care work in the private sector.