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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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Title: The CSR strategies of the MNCs to ensure the labor rights of migrant workers: the 2022 FIFA World Cup Project in Qatar (Case study based on Migrant Workers of Bangladesh)Authors: Nandita Farhad and Nataliia SlobodianSupervisor: Charles WoolfsonDate: May 30th, 2012Background: The Corporate social responsibility (CSR) became at the forefront of corporate strategy of many businesses. However, the area of human and labor rights as a part of CSR of the business is not deeply studied, especially when it comes to the ground level workers which constitute the majority of employees in the construction sector. There is quite a mystery in the CSR field what exactly CSR is and what are the motives and benefits of being socially responsible. MNC’s compliance to the legal system of the country is seen as one of the basis for CSR, but will it be still place for CSR when the ‘legal basis’ is missing as it is in Qatar, country of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Project.Aim: The purpose of this research is to find out whether multinational construction companies incorporate human and labor rights into their CSR strategy upstream as the basis of CSR policy, and what is even most important, downstream as a resource for CSR practice including those throughout the supply chain. This research aims to enhance the understanding of the importance of human and labor rights as the part of CSR, especially when it comes to migrant workers from the third world countries.Methodology: A qualitative study has been conducted. Relaying on the existing theories of CSR and by applying the 2022 FIFA World Cup Project case study as an empirical tool we support and review established theoretical understanding. This allows us to make use of existing knowledge in the field as well as contribute with our own findings and critical review.Completion and results: The study found that the MNCs of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Project have unclear CSR strategies, hence ineffective practices towards ensuring human and labor rights for the Bangladeshi migrant workers, especially within their supply chains.Search terms: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Multinational Corporation (MNC), human and labor rights, migrant workers, Qatar, the 2022 FIFA World Cup Project.