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To satisfy its need for seasonal low-skilled labourers, Canada is hiring temporary foreign workers (TFWs). As part of a study on the management issues related to the hiring of TFWs, employers and informants from related NGOs and governmental agencies were interviewed about their motivations to use TFWs. The primary motivation, unlike that which would be expected, is not cost savings. The interest in hiring TFWs would appear to be based on cost-utility considerations, including the benefit of an available, efficient, loyal workforce during the whole season and the flexibility for employers to reduce risk and uncertainties related to the availability of labour. Employers thus give preference to TFWs rather than local workers, because they meet the entirety of their expectations of workforce flexibility, be it numerically or in relation to scheduling, remuneration or skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrants account for almost a quarter of the Canadian working-age population and in the wake of the aging of the population this proportion is deemed to increase even more. Yet despite their high-level education, immigrants experience difficulty in integrating into the Canadian labour market. Many factors are put forth to account for this such as a lack of recognition for their foreign credentials, the uneven quality of their diplomas, their insufficient knowledge of the official languages, discrimination, etc. This paper points out a less frequently emphasised factor that could partly explain the immigrants’ difficulties to integrate into the labour market: their literacy skills. Using the OECD’s survey data on adult skills (PIAAC), the authors compare the literacy skills of the immigrants and the Canadian-born population. This study focuses on active participants in the labour market aged between 25 and 54 years old. Results suggest that the higher level of overqualification observed among immigrants could partly be explained by their lower literacy skill level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given an ageing population and a persistent low birth rate, several industrialized countries have chosen to attract immigrant labour, as evidenced in a recent report by OECD (2012). However, the integration of immigrants in the labour market poses several challenges. Thus, in Quebec, compared to natives, immigrants participate less often in the labour market and tend to occupy lower quality jobs. This study aims to highlight the last finding by using two databases largely neglected in the analysis of the integration of immigrants: The Labour Force Survey (LFS) and a survey of the conditions of work, employment, health and work security in Quebec (EQCOTESST). In addition to examining the usual indicators such as the participation rate, the employment rate and the unemployment rate, this study is interested in unique dimensions which have never been taken into consideration, such as overqualification, job quality as well as physical and psychological conditions of work. As expected, the results confirm that the economic performance of Quebec immigrants is lower than that of the native-born Quebecers. In addition, there is a greater presence of immigrants in low quality jobs, but a smaller presence in high quality jobs, while the reverse is true for native workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public funding of child care (CC) features prominently in the achievement of several social objectives in Quebec and across Canada. This article provides evidence on the impact of three main measures of public CC funding in Quebec (the provincial tax credit, the federal income tax deduction, and the direct subsidies to early childhood centers) on family income, female labor market participation and provincial and federal public finances. Unlike the existing Canadian literature, this impact is estimated using a structural model of labor supply that explicitly incorporates the work/leisure preferences of families. This model also takes into account the provincial and federal tax and transfer system, the effect of fixed costs to working, the variability of the costs of CC, and the distribution of the socio-demographic characteristics of Quebec families. Public CC funding increases family income significantly (after taxes, transfers and CC expenses); it also has a greater impact on incomes and female labor market participation for single mothers than for biparental families. Cuts in public CC funding would result in substantial savings for the provincial government but would have little impact on the federal government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The labor force had two structural components, resulting from social differences increasingly emphasized: the people and the slaves, as friendly labor force. The legal system that characterizes this period is that of customs, founded on the idea of reciprocity - "The person who is condemned by the society is liable to quit the community or to commit suicide". The paper presents the history of labor relations from ancient times till the 16th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study on constructing an industrial enterprise at Apuseni Mountains in Transylvania, Romania. It cites several objectives of the research which include understanding the selections for residence, knowledge regarding the professional options and labor force availability, and estimating the financial status of the families situated in the area of research. It mentions that the research shows that the local population revealed a favorable attitude on the project.

Since the mid-twentieth century, France's overseas départements (DOM) have seen intense migration, with criss-crossing flows of DOM native-borns leaving and returning, alongside migrants from France and other countries. Practically all of the DOM native-borns who emigrate - mainly towards metropolitan France - are working-age adults who leave their home for work or educational purposes. This study measures the scale of these migration flows and describes their complexity, focusing on the selection mechanisms at play among leavers and returners, notably in terms of educational level. We also examine the conditions of integration of DOM native-borns in their place of destination and assess the benefits of migration for those who return, the youngest especially (ages 18-34), by comparison with their elders (ages 35-64), the aim being to shed light on the changes which, from one age group to another, have marked this powerful and long-standing migration tradition. The original findings of the Migrations, Family and Ageing survey (MFV), and of the Trajectories and Origins survey (TeO), associated with census data from the DOMs and metropolitan France, provide scope for detailed analysis of the population of DOM native-borns, whatever their place of residence, and for a better understanding of the dynamics involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese immigration has emerged in Romania since the collapse of Communism. Still under researched, these new flows first concerned a population of traders; other categories of migrants came later. Their migration will be analysed though its embeddedness in the social, economic, political and institutional environment in Romania. The Chinese traders - who soon attracted attention from authorities and the national media - are concentrated in Bucarest. There they benefit from an opportunity-structure which sustained their commercial activities. They play an important role on the open air markets of the capital and take part to the ethnicization process that is nowadays occurring in the economy and the labour market. Only part of them are however economically successful. Furthermore, changes in Romania's immigration policy have increased disparities within the Chinese population by favouring a few important businessmen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the theory of institutional entrepreneurs, this article examines the coexistence of different forms of governance within a given economic space. Since the approach based on models of capitalism does not make it possible to account for this institutional diversity on the same territory, a theoretical perspective centred on the innovative action of social actors has been used to explain such a phenomenon. Our demonstration is based on a comparative analysis of two recent cases of transformation of public labour policies in Quebec: outsourcing and labour force training. These two major contemporary employment relations issues which are part of the same environment, have brought into play the same social actors in very similar institutional frameworks and have nevertheless led to contrasting dynamics and results. The actor's autonomy, more than a model, allows us to understand the different institutional trajectories that have thus been adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do children and gender attitudes affect women's labor force participation in Russia and France, two countries with different welfare states and different conceptions of gender roles? The determinants of women's participation in the labor force are compared by using data from the first wave of the Generations and Gender Surveys conducted in both countries. In Russia, the age of the youngest child is the key factor explaining the decrease in women's labor force participation rate. In France, the effect of having children is multidimensional; and gender values, unlike in Russia, have a major impact. The broader range of possibilities for Frenchwomen (work full- or part-time, or not at all) accounts for the greater variety in their labor patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s, the Czech Republic became a land of immigration and transit. Regulating the flow of immigrants and integrating them have become major issues. The principal characteristics of immigration to the Czech Republic are described. Given current population trends - a negative balance and the increasingly top-heavy age pyramid - immigration will not offset losses. Immigrants, legal as well as illegal, play an important role in the Czech labor market. The results of a survey of immigrants sheds light on the conditions and processes underlying this economic immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2001-2004 we conducted 22 interviews with immigrants from North Africa in Montreal and Sherbrooke. The objective was to access their representations of the problems they experience in integrating the labor market in both cities. Some interviews (15) were also conducted with persons working with immigrants looking for a job. The objective is to link individual and collective trajectories by putting the emphasis on the social networks held by these immigrants. Results show that the presence of a community of origin in a migratory context cannot guarantee access to a viable social network providing access to information and jobs. In that sense institutional supports and programs may favor an increase of social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The slowly changing nature of the gender gap responds both to significant social changes, such as urbanization, education, the entry of women into the labor force, and democratization, as well as to concerted efforts by social movements and political leaders to broaden women's right. These factors have clearly played an important role in the Dominican Republic over this past decade, impacting the country's gender gap. We assess the nature and evolution of the Dominican Republic's gender gap over the 1994-2004 period employing data taken from four nationwide public opinion surveys in the Dominican Republic -- the Demos surveys -- conducted in 1994, 1997, 2001, and 2004. The analysis of these surveys indicates that elements of what has been termed a traditional gender gap remain in place in the country with regard to civic engagement, political interest, and attitudes toward democracy. At the same time, this gap disappeared with regard to voter participation in elections and a modern gender gap emerged for the first time with regard to attitudes about the role of women in politics. Age and education have consistent and substantial differential effects across the attitudinal profiles of Dominican men and women over this time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes occupational trajectories in Switzerland on the basis of hypotheses about standardization, individualization and gendering of life courses which are often related to the increasing and later decreasing influence of the welfare state that accompanies the reinforced influence of neoliberal policies. It is based on the retrospective data of the Swiss household panel collected in 2002. Sequence analyses show that female trajectories are at a time more varied and more sensitive to factors such as education, number of children, and birth cohort, than male trajectories which are comparatively more stable and homogenous. The standardization, individualization, and gendering hypotheses can only partially account for the existence of the differentiated trajectories we find and should be completed by the principle of gendered master statuses that is informed by the perspective of linked lives and the feminist critique of life-course sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The daunting challenge of obtaining sufficient labor for their colonial enterprise in Senegal led the French to implement a system of travail force or forced labor Its violence and the sustained resistance of the colonized populations plagued the system from the very beginning, and ended by affecting it very deeply by the late 1920s. What followed was a vast reorganization of the Senegalese prisons in 1927, aiming at a better use of penal labor The outcome would he the institution of itinerant penal camps in 1936. They were established in the cercles (provinces) of Louga, Thiès, Diourhel, and eventually in Bignona. They were used until 1940 to supply much of the work force for road building and maintenance along the main transportation routes of the colony. Lacking any deterrent or rehabilitative objective, the penal camps epitomized the political and economic functions of colonial imprisonment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to predict the timing of job changes by Canadian workers who had already chosen to change their job. The job market of the 1970's-80's proved too precarious due to economic fluctuations, and individual decisions too arbitrary, to formulate an accurate predictive model of when job transitions would occur.

WHO IS AN ORGANIZED worker today in Québec? After a review of the main changes in the labour market since 1975 in three main areas: feminization, precarisation and tertiarisation, this article portrays the internal characteristics of the organized population. The authors then go on to compare organized and unorganized workers with the potential labour force regarding their age, sex, education, work status and average wage. They conclude that the organized population is relatively older, that men are over-represented, that it enjoys better job security, relatively high wages, and sectorial concentration. Finally, the article attempts to throw some light on the impact of new demographic parameters on the difficult strategic repositioning being crystalised in the Québec labour movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the results of a comparison between perceptions related to 'the difficulties of integrating the labour market in Quebec and Canada, as measured in Statistics Canada and Employment and Immigration Canada's Labour Market Activity Survey (1986-1987), and the difficulties actually experienced, estimated by the objective reasons for quitting a job. It then presents a follow-up of the iteration of sub-groups who have perceived such integration difficulties. The core question consists in verifying the foundations of a widespread opinion according to which individuals are more and more responsible for their probability of being employed, mainly due to their lack of instruction or experience. This study shows that some sub-groups overestimate the weight of their individual responsibility in facing the probability of being employed, as opposed to the responsibility linked with the structural factors. As the follow-up of sub-groups' iteration also shows, the youth likely to enter the labour market, as well as the poorly and moderately schooled sub-groups, experience the most difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Sixty Years on the Margin: The Evolution of Ontario's Tree Planting Industry and Labour Force: 1945-2007," by Brendan Sweeney is presented.