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Though the political economy of Filipina care workers and their lives on the ground might appear to be a world distinct from that of digital platforms, this article explores their continuity: between the multiple demands for Filipina care workers in Taiwan to relentlessly serve the demands of others, and thus to be "always-on," and the logics of the platforms that they use to stay in touch with loved ones and chill during down time. Based on interviews and online observation, I argue that examining the lives of women OFWs in Taiwan helps us understand how platforms that require their users to be always online remediate the asymmetries of global care work and the longstanding demands for feminized and racialized servitude that have historically been made upon various "others," including migrants, people of color, and residents of the Global South. Such demands, I further show, cannot be divorced from U.S.-driven developmentalist policies that continue to "modernize" the Asia Pacific into a readily extractable market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores themes of precarity and hope through histories of tourism in Quilotoa, Ecuador. The initial embrace of tourism among Quilotoans in the late 1980s responded to prevailing conditions of precarity in the livelihoods of young migrant laborers from Quilotoa and other rural indigenous communities of the Ecuadorian highlands. The sense of hope that prevailed among Quilotoans by the mid 2010s was rooted in their collective management of tourism as a shared resource, and their shared feeling that tourism provided a bulwark against the intense pressure to migrate that was still felt by young people in neighboring communities. Yet the collapse of tourism in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the precarity of tourism itself, and many young Quilotoans have once again been forced to leave home in search of precarious wage labor opportunities. This article identifies how the ebbs and flows of hope, precarity, tourism, and labor migration are linked in Quilotoa, and how they are managed collectively by the Center for Community Tourism that oversees tourism there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families are an important factor to consider when trying to understand if and when labor migrants decide to return to the origin. Research has mainly focused on how families provide incentives to return. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, stories about return migration decisions among male South Asian migrants in the Gulf reveal that families can exert substantial pressure on migrants to stay abroad, even during times of crisis. Using in-depth interviews with migrants in the UAE, returnees and family members between 2020 and 2022, we find that social expectations of migrants to maintain or build family reputation through actions abroad, in the context of broader communities of origin, is a key factor in deterring migrants from returning. Migrants and their families in the origin often seek to continue signaling a successful migration project, particularly by telling stories of entrepreneurial success or of being embedded in the destination through strong and resourceful networks. Returning early from a migration project, even during the pandemic, can be interpreted as a failure and risks negatively impacting the family's reputation. We observe that those who return early, despite family pressure to stay, face significant social sanctions from family and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This practical theological paper investigates how Philippine left-behind fathers manage family life and provides theological views on how the Christian faith may be a source of encouragement and constructive criticism. An analysis of data drawn from qualitative interviews with men whose children's mothers work abroad suggests that fathers "enshrine family," where they evaluate migration based on their familial ideals and concepts. Enshrining family involves strategies that fathers employ in response to the obstacles and possibilities brought by the transnational setup of their families. These strategies are theologically interpreted to give suggestions for how fathers might find significance in their Christian faith while doing family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The healthcare sector is ubiquitously plagued by workforce shortages in economies around the globe. The fragility of this structural shortage becomes apparent when external shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbate the lack of workers in clinical practice. In this article, we summarize current trends in healthcare workforce development across the globe, review theoretical concepts of workforce shortages, and discuss policies to address them. In practice, developed countries often address workforce shortages with targeted migration policies. However, targeted workforce migration policies only intensify workforce shortages in low-and middle-income countries. Theoretical macroeconomic models suggest that supply shortages may result from too low wages, supply lagging behind demand, and social perception. Changes in the wage rate cannot sufficiently increase the supply of health professionals as scholars find inelastic wages for physicians and nurses. Nonpecuniary factors such as working conditions, job satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation are at least equally important as financial incentives. In conclusion, increased wages can only be part of a heterogeneous policy plan to address shortages. Migration and retirement levels of health professionals can temporarily mitigate workforce shortages but rarely change the underlying systemic issues. Increasing the number of places available in medical and nursing schools while also improving, both, financial and nonfinancial incentives for employees are long-term structural policy options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an intersectional analysis of gender, class, and migration, this article reveals how a hegemonic culture of workplace masculinity, embodied by a group of 'gurus,' is constructed in China's tech companies. The guru masculinity is characterized by proactivity and aggressiveness at work, 'putting work first' and overwork, and the ability to navigate boundaryless careers and settle down in first‐tier cities. It translates hegemonic masculine norms of material success, enjoying urban life, and men's breadwinner position in contemporary China on the one hand, and responds to a labor regime of precarious employment relations and prevalent overwork norm on the other hand. The article contributes to the literature on hegemonic masculinity in work organizations by showcasing how a hegemonic masculinity in China's tech workplace is constructed at the conjuncture of hegemonic gender norms at a societal level and the distinct labor regime in the tech sector. It also reveals that many male workers fail to conform to this cultural ideal, experiencing masculine frustration rooted in the nature of the 'workplace masculinity contest,' uneven urban development, and the demanding labor regime. It thus opens further discussions on how men resist hegemonic gender norms and construct alternative masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of organic fertilizers is essential for advancing China's green agricultural transformation, ensuring food security, and supporting agricultural adaptations. However, several challenges hinder its widespread use in rural areas. This study examines how part-time farming and agricultural service provision influences organic fertilizer use, employing fixed and random effects models on data from 523 households in Shaanxi Province, one of China's main apple-producing regions. The results reveal: (1) Part-time farming reduces organic fertilizer use by 7.6%, primarily due to labor shortages; (2) Higher non-farm income exacerbates this decline, particularly for Type II part-time farmers; and (3) Mechanized fertilization services help mitigate this reduction. These findings offer valuable policy insights for promoting organic fertilizer adoption in the context of shifting rural labor dynamics and highlight the complex interactions between farming practices and labor migration in the broader trajectory of organic fertilizer use. Moreover, this study highlights the role of organic fertilizer use in enhancing food security while also helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the crop sector in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately one-third of the world’s 169 million migrant workers come from the Asia and Pacific region, primarily working in temporary, low-wage jobs in the Gulf, where they face human and labor rights issues. In 2003, 12 Asian migrant-origin states formed the Colombo Process to address these labor concerns. This article examines and contrasts two major emigrant-origin states’ – India and Bangladesh –behavior in the Colombo Process, a regional consultative process, and other multilateral migration governance fora, focusing on the social construction of skills. Both countries inherited a colonial legal system of emigration regulation which distinguished emigrants into “high-” and “low-skill” categories, which India continues to reproduce, while Bangladesh aims to reformulate their categorization. This article investigates the how, where, and when of the countries’ emigrant categorization processes by tracing the categories’ origins, their reproduction, and reformulation. This article highlights the significant role migrant-origin states play in the politics of skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex workers in Europe are increasingly of nonnational origin. The Schengen cooperation allows internal migration within the European Union, but many migrant sex workers originate from outside the EU. While sex workers are already in precarious positions, nonnationals risk deportation, dependent on their citizenship status, and may have debts to smugglers. Consequently, they may be more likely to work longer hours to increase short-term profits. Using a dataset of sex work advertisements from one Danish website (n = 2,594), we estimate the association between inferred citizenship status and a) advertised hours on shift using ordinary least squares regression, and b) the probability of advertising 24/7 availability using a linear probability model. Compared to Danish sex workers, we find migrants advertise almost twice as many hours on shift and are more likely to advertise 24/7 availability. These results shed light on the inequalities that persist between national and nonnational sex workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine the situation of the German community in St. Petersburg in the second half of the XIX - early XX century. The research is based on the published materials of the urban population censuses of 1869 and 1900 and the First General Census of Population of 1897 in St. Petersburg, as well as medical descriptions of commercial and industrial establishments of the capital. These office documents including petitions from artisans and other persons, correspondence be-tween the bodies of city management and central departments, contracts for the execution of orders found in the central and regional archives of the Russian Federation. The research shows that in the 1860s and 1900s, the bulk of German citizens moved from the central parts of St. Petersburg to newly built areas of the city largely due to the economic reasons. In the industrial parts of the city, German women made up the majority of ethnic Germans. In the late XIX - early XX century, the German population continued to play an important role in the system of interethnic division of labor of city. They occupied dominant positions in education, medicine, and credit institutions. In addition, despite the rapid development of large-scale industry, artisans still played an important role in the urban economy and the Germans continue to make a significant impact.

In this article, the authors examine the role of labor immigration as a source of institutional change. They use a "most different systems" comparative case study analysis of the Danish and Australian construction sectors to examine the impact of increased labor migration on skill-sourcing practices in countries with distinct national skill formation and industrial relations institutions. Drawing on 73 interviews with industry stakeholders, the authors find that labor migration has produced liberalizing pressures in both Denmark and Australia, albeit in ways that differ from each other. The article contributes to comparative institutional scholarship by illustrating how labor migration can promote or support institutional change in a liberalizing direction by disincentivizing coordinated skill formation. Findings suggest that while national institutions mediate external pressures, such as labor migration, such pressures may affect the incentive structures that can either maintain or erode national institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details the findings of a study conducted from October 2022 to December 2023 on the ethnocultural enclaves of Russophone Koreans in South Korea. The research delves into the origins of the term “Koryŏin Maŭl” and proposes a refined definition. It identifies key characteristics shared by these enclaves and introduces a preliminary classification scheme. Distinguished by a strong ethnic presence and a somewhat insular community formed around a common language (Russian) and shared cultural practices, the “Koryŏin Maŭl” can be defined as ethnocultural enclaves. These areas are self-determined and universally recognized among their residents. Through my research, I have concluded that the Koryŏin Maŭls in South Korea share a number of common characteristics. They all have distinct boundaries, formed by both terrain features and patterns of residential development. These neighborhoods also house a significant number of ethnic businesses, whose success largely hinges on the customer base formed within the ethnic enclave itself.

Guest worker programs entail an intrinsic tension between control over workers' mobility and workers' agency. By drawing on the qualitative data from Chinese construction workers in Japan's Technical Intern Training Program (TITP), I illuminate the dialectical nature of the tension between control and agency. My findings suggest that labor recruiters and employers implement labor control, but their practices have the opposite effect of pressing workers to abscond or to do irregular jobs. Staying in the program is not an outcome of effective control, but a response to circumstances wherein revisions to Japan's immigration policy bring rewards while China's surveillance policies incur potential punishments. The control-agency dialectic suggests that the regulative focus should be shifted from workers to employers and recruiters. Incorporating approaches of spatiotemporality and relationality, I analyze how workers sustain relations with various actors through three interconnected temporal stages, and how the relational dynamics shape workers' varied mobility choices. Two features of the construction industry shape workers' circumstances and occasionally facilitate their mobility: the stratification of the labor force according to legal status and the subcontract system. The paper thus highlights the need to contextualise labor agency in changing state policies, relations with co-ethnics, and industry-specific features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study examines the political motivations behind changes in labor migration rates in Chinese villages. Using data from the China village survey, we estimate the impact of the tenure gap between the village committee director and party branch secretary on village labor migration rates. We find that within the dual power structure of villages, a longer political tenure for the secretary relative to the director significantly suppresses village labor migration rates, while a shorter tenure significantly promotes them. IV estimation supports the causal interpretation found by OLS estimation. This mechanism of causality is associated with vested interests stemming from ambiguous ownership, having a director or secretary with a longer political tenure tends to bias these interests towards villagers or township authorities. Other accompanying effects of the tenure gap should not be ignored, including the amplification effect of the non-laboring population, the feedback effect of labor, and the shrinkage effect of outsiders. This causal relationship is heterogeneous, the dual role analysis shows that the structure and stance of village leaders will affect the strength of the causal relationship, and the regional heterogeneity analysis shows that economic factors that drive village labor migration may be more important than political factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of URVIO - Revista Latinoamericana de Seguridad Ciudadana is the property of FLACSO - Ecuador (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the increasing occurrence of labor migration (LM), off-farm employment has emerged as a crucial means to augment the income of agricultural households, bridge the urban-rural divide, and achieve rural regeneration. This study utilized a multiple linear regression model and quantile regression model to examine the effect of LM location on rural households' income. The analysis is based on research data from Jiangxi Province in 2018. The outcomes reveal that both intra-country LM and outside-of-county LM could make a substantial contribution to the increase of overall household income. However, the coefficient of impact for outside-of-county LM is greater. The findings of this study successfully passed the rigorous tests for robustness and endogeneity. Furthermore, the quantile regression analysis indicates that the greatest income-generating impact of intra-county LM occurred at the 90% quantile, whereas the highest income-generating impact of outside-of-county LM appeared at the 75% quantile. The study aims to determine if there is a variation in the income impact of LM in samples with distinct features. Specifically, it investigated the scale of forestland management and the LM of the household head. The results show that the promotion effect of intra-county LM on the total income of rural households was only observed in the sample group with a forestland area larger than 50 mu. Additionally, outside-of-county LM could only promote the growth of the total income of rural households in the sample group in which the head of household has not experienced labor migration. Hence, to enhance the growth of income for rural households amidst China's urbanization, policymakers should facilitate the controlled migration of labor from rural areas to urban areas while also encouraging the migration of labor within rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although collective forest tenure reform (CFTR) has improved the legal tenure security of forestland, its impact on increasing farmers' income is unsustainable. This study used a multiple linear regression model to empirically analyze data from 505 farmers in Jiangxi Province, examining the impact of legal, actual, and perceived tenure security on rural household income, and incorporating migration into the framework. The findings indicate that both actual and perceived tenure security have a substantial positive impact on the total rural household income and forestry income. However, it is worth noting that legal tenure security only has a positive effect on forestry income. Furthermore, outside-of-county labor migration can serve as a mediator for the income effects of actual and perceived tenure security. However, the mediating effect of intra-county labor migration is not considerable. The study found that the increase in income due to the security of actual tenure security is significant for the group of people who own less than 50 mu of forestland. However, both actual and perceived tenure security have a significant impact on income for the group of people who own more than 50 mu of forestland. The aforementioned findings indicate that, in the ongoing extensive advancement of collective forest right reform, it is crucial to prioritize the execution of forest reform policies at the local level and enhance farmers' awareness and comprehension of said policies. In addition, the government should enhance the monitoring system for policy implementation and intensify efforts in publicizing these policies, in order to fully utilize the benefits of CFTR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how domestic political dynamics and regional geopolitical considerations influenced the rise and fall of Australia's short-lived Agricultural Visa (AAV) program aimed at recruiting workers from ASEAN countries. Employing a qualitative case study approach and drawing on neoliberal economic theory, securitization theory, and complex interdependence theory, the analysis reveals key tensions. The AAV's genesis reflected neoliberal narratives of filling labor shortages, but its demise exemplified concerns over worker exploitation and adverse impacts on local labor standards. The visa also became entangled in Australia's strategic rivalry with China in the Pacific, with labor migration becoming a securitized issue. Crucially, the case exposes challenges of policy coherence, as actions in the security domain strained Australia's ASEAN relationships. The findings underscore the need for holistic approaches balancing economic needs, worker rights, regional diplomacy, and evolving security dynamics when crafting labor migration policies amidst complex global interdependencies. The AAV's failure serves as a cautionary tale about piecemeal, politically expedient migration strategies disconnected from on-the-ground realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The struggle for recognition of undocumented migrants is usually portrayed as a public affair involving the contestation of legal status. We advance a broader conceptualization that demands attention to the more intimate sphere where relational processes of recognition take place in interactions with significant others. Based on 70 in-depth interviews, we identify four recognition strategies adopted by Filipino undocumented migrant domestic workers in the Netherlands: being the breadwinner, taking pride in work, creating a sense of belonging, and being civically engaged. By illustrating the importance of personal recognition, this paper contributes to ongoing debates on recognition and migrant agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study examines the portrayal of Indonesian migrant women workers in Türkiye by major Indonesian online media outlets from 2018 to 2023. Using content analysis, the research explores dominant media representations surrounding workers in Türkiye's care service and tourism sectors. Findings reveal patterns of precarious work, exploitation, and vulnerability to undocumented employment, particularly involving Syrian employers. The study highlights a significant shift in media coverage from sensationalist reporting to echoing government narratives on combating undocumented migration. This shift aligns with Indonesia's labor-export policy reforms under President Jokowi, which aim to promote labor migration to formal sectors and distance the country's image from domestic worker exports. The research demonstrates how media reflects and reinforces state migrant protection policies through "domesticated protection." However, this approach inadvertently perpetuates victimization and potentially exacerbates vulnerabilities by stigmatizing unofficial migration channels. While intended to safeguard workers, stringent regulations may if not already contribute to increased undocumented migration. By analyzing the nexus between media representation, state policies, and migrant precarities, this study contributes to understanding the complex dynamics of labor migration in an emerging corridor, calling for a more nuanced approach to media coverage, policy-making, and future studies that acknowledges both migrant agency and structural challenges [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of children live apart from their parents who migrate for work. This dynamic raises questions about parental migration's impact on children's schooling. This paper investigated how Chinese junior high school students’ educational performance was shaped by the specific patterns of parental migration: whether it was only the mother, only the father, or both who migrate. The study analyzed data from 4204 students through a nationally representative panel survey, comparing children who experienced parental migration between two survey waves and those who did not. Difference-in-differences models were paired with propensity score weighting to estimate the immediate effects of parental migration. Results indicated that children's educational performance was heterogeneously affected by different arrangements of parental migration. Children's academic performance declined when mothers migrated alone, a pattern not mirrored when only fathers or both parents migrated. The findings indicate that the adverse effects of parental absence outweigh the financial benefits from migration, particularly in the scenario of mother-only migration.

Abstract The massive increase in labor migration to the Middle East during the past three decades has rivaled its historical trends bound to the West. This paper assesses how this growing trend of migration may have helped shape the economic structure and performance across the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Findings from a descriptive and time series regression analysis of the limited cross-country data show that the experience with labor migration and its linkage with other aspects of the economy are varied. The migration trend coinciding with increasing personal remittances attests to the competitive demand for foreign labor. While labor migration shows mixed association with the key aspects of the economy, the stock of migrant population is negatively associated with economic growth. Albeit seemingly contradictory, the insights from this six-country analysis covering the periods since 1990 are useful to understand the complex nature of relationship between labor migration and economic structure and performance in the region.

Abstract This article investigates the interplay between knowledge acquisition and the stepwise migration trajectories of low-skilled Vietnamese workers in China. Utilizing a rich array of data garnered from face-to-face interviews, customized surveys, on-site observations, media narratives, and an archival review of government regulations in Guangxi—a province bordering Vietnam—and in Guangdong, a non-adjacent province, this study proposes an analytical framework, skill-driven migration, to highlight the synergy between the pre-migratory socio-demographic attributes of migrants and the circumstances prevailing in both the places of origin and destination which orchestrates distinct job allocations and skill augmentation avenues. Notably, our study underscores that the competencies acquired in manufacturing employments potentially broaden the horizon of destinations for migrants in their subsequent stepwise migration endeavors. This phenomenon, in turn, poses intricate immigration management quandaries for newly emerged destination nations like China, spotlighting a nuanced dimension of labor mobility and policy frameworks in the evolving regional economic integration. Last, our findings challenge the conventional dichotomy of high-skilled and low-skilled categories of labor migration, as well as the dichotomy of explicit-tacit knowledge.

The massive increase in labor migration to the Middle East during the past three decades has rivaled its historical trends bound to the West. This paper assesses how this growing trend of migration may have helped shape the economic structure and performance across the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Findings from a descriptive and time series regression analysis of the limited cross-country data show that the experience with labor migration and its linkage with other aspects of the economy are varied. The migration trend coinciding with increasing personal remittances attests to the competitive demand for foreign labor. While labor migration shows mixed association with the key aspects of the economy, the stock of migrant population is negatively associated with economic growth. Albeit seemingly contradictory, the insights from this six-country analysis covering the periods since 1990 are useful to understand the complex nature of relationship between labor migration and economic structure and performance in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the relational construction of masculinity, specifically on intra-group interactions, relational resources, and interactional accountability among co-ethnic migrant men with shared class backgrounds. Through participant observation and interviews with 72 migrant men, the research uncovers how these men engage in status maneuvering. This process involves the strategic adaption of diverse and fluid forms of masculinity supported by co-ethnic relationships established in various settings like workplaces, dormitories, and social gatherings. Status maneuvering aims to optimize earnings while navigating hypermasculine and feminized low-status workplaces, all while preserving men's respectability outside of work. This reconceptualization of status maneuvering enriches our comprehension of gender interactional accountability, focusing attention on the sharing of co-ethnic knowledge. It also highlights the role of men with similar class backgrounds holding each other accountable for strategically performing fluid and dynamic masculinities through interactional resources such as humor, sarcasm, and humiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Taiwanese Journal of Sociology is the property of Taiwanese Sociological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Migration has been a constant phenomenon in human history. Throughout centuries the European continent has been a theatre of migratory movements that have contributed to shape the continent as we know it today. Growing levels of mobility nowadays are influenced by many factors, some being recurring conflicts, numerous crises, constant instability, economic imbalances, demographic developments, climate change as well as labor force demands and supplies. All these trigger a migration environment characterized by movements of people both voluntary and forced, both legal and illegal. However, the benefits of migration should be seen from the perspective of what migrants can bring to the destination country as well as the benefits in form of remittances for the country of origin. Some of the significant benefits migration brings to the destination countries are skilled workforce and cultural diversity, as well as improvements in the lives of communities in their countries of origin through the transfer of skills and financial resources. Although in general migration has always been perceived in a negative light, this paper contemplates to shed a new light on migration proposing a notion for its empowering transformation to societies and countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Population & Economics / Renkou yu Jingji is the property of Capital University of Economics & Business and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How and why does brokerage become pivotal to guest work governance? While research on intermediaries in temporary migrant labor programs has proliferated in the last decade, there is limited analysis of the conditions that create regulatory roles for brokers and shape their policy and social impacts in host states. By analyzing the causes and consequences of documentation brokerage in Thailand's guest work formalization process, I link sociological work on brokerage with relational conceptions of state power. Drawing from 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Thailand, I argue that gaps in the state's regulatory infrastructure amid heightened coercive policy enforcement create profitable opportunities for brokers to act as intermediaries between migrants, employers, and state offices to facilitate policy implementation. The informality and opportunism of such brokerage, however, can also generate activities that undermine official policy, with varying consequences for state control. Comparing brokerage between two sites, I show that brokers in each location improve the state's capacity to formalize migrant labor, but the added social/regulatory dimension of the border in the second site creates brokerage opportunities that push the boundaries of official policy. In both sites, documentation brokerage imposes adverse economic effects on migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a part of the conversation in the forum "Austria and the Czech Republic as Immigration Countries: Transnational Labor Migration in Historical Comparison" this article revisits the history of refugees in the Bohemian Lands and Czechoslovakia, from World War I until the occupation by Nazi Germany in 1939. Taking stock of existing research, it suggests alternative lines of thinking about the management of migrants' labor and contributes to the wider discussion about how to conceptually combine refugee studies and research on labor migration. For analytical purposes, it focuses on three distinct state approaches to managing refugee labor that often existed in parallel: mobilization of refugee labor in a crisis situation, the support of labor as a pathway to future citizenship, and the denial of work as a sign of statelessness. These three approaches show how refugees' work impacted their status, communicated ideas about the future, and reproduced hierarchies defined by ethnicity, class, or political persuasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing concerns over family separations draw renewed attention to temporary work migration and the factors shaping it. We leverage the randomized timing in a Chinese re-housing initiative, the Poverty Alleviation Resettlement (PAR) program, to shed light on the impact of rural living conditions on temporary labor migration. Applying a difference-in-differences framework to three waves of panel data (2016, 2017, 2019), we estimate impacts of re-housing on labor out-migration. Results reveal that improved housing decreased the propensity to send out migrant workers, particularly for young parents and households with dependents, with important implications for the rural left-behind. • China's Poverty Alleviation Resettlement is used in a quasi-experimental design. • Improved rural housing decreases the propensity to send out migrant workers. • Young parents and households with dependents drive the impact. • Migration rates in households with children drop by 10-20pp. • Improving rural living conditions may mitigate issue of "left-behind" children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the interplay between knowledge acquisition and the stepwise migration trajectories of low-skilled Vietnamese workers in China. Utilizing a rich array of data garnered from face-to-face interviews, customized surveys, on-site observations, media narratives, and an archival review of government regulations in Guangxi—a province bordering Vietnam—and in Guangdong, a non-adjacent province, this study proposes an analytical framework, skill-driven migration, to highlight the synergy between the pre-migratory socio-demographic attributes of migrants and the circumstances prevailing in both the places of origin and destination which orchestrates distinct job allocations and skill augmentation avenues. Notably, our study underscores that the competencies acquired in manufacturing employments potentially broaden the horizon of destinations for migrants in their subsequent stepwise migration endeavors. This phenomenon, in turn, poses intricate immigration management quandaries for newly emerged destination nations like China, spotlighting a nuanced dimension of labor mobility and policy frameworks in the evolving regional economic integration. Last, our findings challenge the conventional dichotomy of high-skilled and low-skilled categories of labor migration, as well as the dichotomy of explicit-tacit knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses are an essential resource in health systems. However, the shortage of skilled nursing workforce is a global phenomenon with negative consequences – many factors, including individual, occupational, and socio-political aspects, influence nurse migration. Thus, the aim is to explore the migration intentions of nurses and nursing students, forcing them to seek work abroad. An online survey was conducted among nurses and nursing students as part of the APVV and VEGA projects. The questionnaire focused on the essential characteristics of the respondents and staffing approaches in hospitals in Slovakia. Data were obtained from a survey of 752 hospital nurses and 423 university nursing students. The statistical analysis consisted of factor and correspondence analysis. The findings highlight the factors influencing the migratory sentiments of nursing students and working hospital nurses. They are organization of work, staff remuneration, employee benefits, workroom equipment, shortage of nurses, bureaucracy, communication and relations with colleagues, superiors, and patients, training and career development, material and spatial security, instrumentation, digitization of work, the prestige of the medical profession, and current situation in the Slovak Republic. The paper identifies and evaluates groups of push factors of migration intentions – satisfaction/dissatisfaction with hospital working conditions. The results of the factor analysis indicate that such factors as material and spatial security, communication and relations with colleagues, work organization, lack of personnel, bureaucracy, the prestige of the medical profession, and the current situation in Slovakia affect their working conditions and pleasure. AcknowledgmentThis study is elaborated within the framework of the projects APVV č. 19-0579 “Personnel management processes setup in hospitals and its impact on the migration of physicians and nurses to work abroad” and VEGA č. 1/0691/22 “Economic aspects of emigration of university graduates in health care departments in the context of the sustainability of staffing of health care facilities in the Slovak Republic.”

The article reveals the unique experience of Russia and other CIS countries, which are fast-growing digital economies with a dynamically developing industry 4.0, as well as free migration. The purpose of this article is to study the prospects for improving quality management in Industry 4.0 based on educational and labor migration in Russia and other CIS countries. It is proved using econometric modeling of the experience of Russia and other CIS countries using regression analysis based on data for 2021 that immigration does not allow attracting highly qualified personnel for industry 4.0, but emigration does not lead to the loss of highly qualified personnel for industry 4.0.Alternative scenarios of quality change in industry 4.0 in Russia and other CIS countries have been created, which are based on the flows of educational and labor migration in the "Decade of Action" (in the period up to 2030). The scenario of filtration of incoming and freedom of outgoing migration flow has proved to be the best, since the optimization of educational and labor migration flows provides the highest rates of qualitative growth of industry 4.0 in Russia and other CIS countries by 223.96% with a probability of 46.5%.To implement this scenario, a promising model of migration flow management has been proposed to improve the quality of Industry 4.0 products in Russia and other CIS countries. The theoretical significance of the results obtained in the articleis that they clarified the role that the migration mechanism has on the quality management of Industry 4.0 products, taking into account the unique experience of Russia and other CIS countries.The practical significance of the authors' conclusions and recommendations is that they make it possible to improve the effectiveness of quality management in industry 4.0 based on educational and labor migration in Russia and other CIS countries.

The purpose of the article is to define new horizons of economic integration in the EAEU based on educational and labor migration, provided that quality improvement in industry 4.0 is chosen as the key vector of this integration. Using the trend analysis method, changes in the incoming and outgoing migration flow to the EAEU in 2010-2019 have been determined. The influence of migration flows in the EAEU on the product quality in Industry 4.0 has been identified using the regression analysis method. As a result, it has been revealed that economic integration in the EAEU gives a powerful new impetus to the development of migration processes in these countries. The econometric model obtained during the study showed that the quality of Industry 4.0 products in the EAEU improves with an increase in incoming and a decrease in outgoing migration flows. The originality of this study lies in the fact that it proposes a new approach to economic integration in the EAEU, in which the management of educational and labor migration flows is rethought as a tool for the implementation of the common vector of Eurasian integration: quality improvement in industry 4.0 The authors have proposed a framework strategy for improving migration policy in the EAEU until 2025 to icrease the quality in industry 4.0. The implications for migration policy are related to the fact that the developed algorithm for managing educational and labor migration in the EAEU will prevent brain drain, strengthen the culture of the "knowledge society" and attract the best personnel from around the world for Industry 4.0 in the EAEU. The article substantiates new horizons of economic integration in the EAEU for improving migration management to increase quality in industry 4.0, namely: the creation of competence centers, innovation networks and integration associations in industry 4.0.

Abstract Background Parent‒child communication in migrant families is essential to family bonds and the mental health of left-behind children (LBC). Little is known about the different patterns of communication between migrant parents and LBC and associated communication quality and mental health outcomes. Methods A sample of 2,183 Chinese children (mean age = 12.95 ± 1.29 years) from Anhui province, including LBC whose parents had both migrated (n = 1,025) and children whose parents had never migrated (never-LBC, n = 1,158), was analyzed. With the LBC sample, latent class analysis was applied to identify the patterns of parent‒child communication. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the associations between the sociodemographic variables and class membership of LBC. Analysis of covariance and chi-square tests were used to compare communication quality and mental health outcome differences among the classes of LBC and between each of the classes and never-LBC. Results Five latent classes of communication formed through different media or channels between migrant parents and their LBC were identified. Higher household economic status (OR = 2.81, p

The adoption of organic fertilizers is essential for advancing China’s green agricultural transformation, ensuring food security, and supporting agricultural adaptations. However, several challenges hinder its widespread use in rural areas. This study examines how part-time farming and agricultural service provision influences organic fertilizer use, employing fixed and random effects models on data from 523 households in Shaanxi Province, one of China’s main apple-producing regions. The results reveal: (1) Part-time farming reduces organic fertilizer use by 7.6%, primarily due to labor shortages; (2) Higher non-farm income exacerbates this decline, particularly for Type II part-time farmers; and (3) Mechanized fertilization services help mitigate this reduction. These findings offer valuable policy insights for promoting organic fertilizer adoption in the context of shifting rural labor dynamics and highlight the complex interactions between farming practices and labor migration in the broader trajectory of organic fertilizer use. Moreover, this study highlights the role of organic fertilizer use in enhancing food security while also helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the crop sector in China.

Migration is commonly seen as a last resort for households impacted by climate shocks, given the costs and risks that migration typically entails. However, pre-existing labor migration channels may facilitate immediate migration decisions in response to climate shocks. This study explores the relationship between migration and droughts in a rural Sub-Saharan setting from which men commonly migrate in search of non-agricultural employment. We use data from the Men’s Migrations and Women’s Lives project, which includes a longitudinal household panel conducted in rural Mozambique between 2006 and 2017, and combine it with the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, a high-resolution climate measure. The fixed-effect models assess the lagged impact of droughts on the labor migration status of male household heads. We find an immediate increase in migration following a drought, peaking in the first year, then diminishing in the second year, with a slight resurgence in the third year. However, by the sixth-year post-drought, the likelihood of being a migrant turns negative. These findings demonstrate the complex associations of climate shocks with labor migration in low-income rural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reveals the processes of digitalization of social relations in the sphere of hired labor, which should be evaluated primarily from the point of view of matching the interests of the working person, satisfying his needs, since it is the working person who is the creator of material and spiritual goods. Accordingly, the state is obliged to refrain from arbitrary interference in natural and social processes and focus on its main task: protecting the rights and freedoms of working people who may be threatened by such processes. It is noted that the development of information technologies led to the formation of a new social and labor structure, which is characterized by innovative forms of employment. Digitization is gradually changing the nature of work. And the matter lies not only in the growth of remote work, but also in the emergence of relations, the legal nature of which remains debatable: the spread of crowdworking, work that is organized online with the help of Internet platforms that allow all or part of the work, as a result, to transmit through information and telecommunication networks. All this also requires professional development, professional growth of employees. It is noted that the processes of digitalization of production will require the solution of not only technical, legal, but also ethical problems, which will require the introduction of new rules and a ban on making any decisions based only on information processing without the participation of the employee. Accordingly, this will require not only legislative, but also collective agreement regulation. It is concluded that the introduction of innovative technologies in the labor sphere and their registration in the legal sphere cannot replace the important function of labor law - the social one, which at the same time forms respect for the values of the law, fixed in it by a person. It is from these positions that the so-called «heritage» in labor law with its historically and naturally acquired values should be respected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wages are one of the main socio-economic categories. The essence of wages is revealed through the functions that they must perform. The well-being of the population and its solvency depend on the level of wages. Currently, the study of the actual state of implementation of wage functions in Ukraine is relevant. The authors explored the essence of the concept of «wages», summarized the theoretical views of scientists and the definition of this concept at the legislative level in Ukraine. The main problems in the field of wages are highlighted and the main functions of wages and the state of their implementation in modern conditions are revealed. Based on statistical data, the dynamics and correlation between the level of nominal and real wages in Ukraine were studied. During periods of crisis, there are significant gaps between nominal and real wages. The situation when the quantitative increase in wages does not correspond to its qualitative direction leads to employee dissatisfaction. One of the important social problems in Ukraine is the significant gap between high living costs and low wages. An analysis of the research has shown that in modern conditions in Ukraine, wages do not fully fulfill their functions, in particular reproductive, regulating and stimulating. The presence in Ukraine of a significant number of workers below the poverty line poses a threat to social stability, reduces the motivation of workers to work effectively and leads to the emergence of various negative economic and social problems. In previous years, Ukraine suffered demographic losses as a result of the war, which led to hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded as a result of active hostilities, as well as millions of people who left the country in order to ensure their safety and material well-being. The priority task for the state should be to increase wages and increase their purchasing power. This can be achieved by introducing innovative approaches to improve the remuneration system, developing forms of material and non-material motivation and labor organization. It is the increase in the level of wages that will allow it to fulfill its main functions. This will prevent an increase in the level of labor migration for the national economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor migration policies within the European Union and its Member States typically address two conflictive labor market policy goals. They aim to attract and retain foreign workers in a situation of labor shortage, while at the same time protecting the national workforce from additional labor market competition. The balancing of these two goals is commonly resolved in favor of nationals and with fewer rights for migrant workers. It is precisely this nexus between migrant rights and the protection of the national workforce that is central to the understudied question of whether and under what conditions migrant workers from third countries (i.e. non-EU countries) may change their employer to quit low-quality work or exploitative employment, or for career reasons. Building on scholarly discussions on employer dependency and bureaucratic complexity as general sources of migrant precarity, as well as on international and EU law on the rights of migrant workers, this article presents three policy variations of the right to change employers currently in place in the European context. Thereby we fill a gap in the literature on labor migration, labor market regulation, and migrant workers' rights. To illustrate the mixed ambitions of EU institutions to reduce migrant precarity the article then presents and critically discusses the high-level negotiations over the recast of the EU Single Permit Directive 2011/98 that were centered around the right to change employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the world, societies are aging. Most governments have not prepared well for this demographic change, which requires a recalibration of existing social support programs like state pension and health care systems. Piecemeal state solutions have generated a reliance on migrant workers in elder care. This has worsened global inequalities in health care, subjected migrants to poor working conditions and exploitation, and revived racialized forms of domestic service for wealthy households in high-income countries. Finding fairer and more sustainable solutions to the demographic transition calls for innovative thinking and creative adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bioceanic Road Corridor, also known as the Bioceanic Route, aims to implement a land connection that facilitates the integration between Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay, even providing the connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. As a consequence of this international cooperation, the main aim is the economic growth of the central region of South America. However, in addition to the economic bias, other influences can be seen that the Bioceanic Road Corridor may bring, such as in the legal and social spheres. It urges to highlight that the current globalization brings human mobility as a corollary, and within that, the reasons that lead to the migratory process are different, among them the labor. Thus, with the perspective of increasing international labor migration among citizens of nationality of the four countries, the objective is to address the importance of the University Network of the Latin American Integration Route (UniRILA), formed by universities, from the four sovereign States, in legal debates, with the aim of standardizing national laws. For the development of the research, Brazil and its legislation, in the field of social rights, will be used as a reference to deal with the labor migration norms of the other three States. Despite the significant legal discussions on labor migration within UniRILA, the result has been that little or nothing has changed in the legislative field so far, partly due to the difficulty in visualizing the coming legal problems that migration international labor force can bring. Therefore, the methodology used is deductive, qualitative and bibliographical research, based on treaties, legislation, doctrine, scientific articles, as well as official and unofficial websites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Two Homelands / Dve Domovini is the property of Scientific Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences & Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Relations & International Law Journal / Seriâ Meždunarodnye Otnošeniâ & Meždunarodnoe Pravo is the property of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While language is clearly an important aspect of (labor) migration, there have not been many contemplations and interrogations, although truly compelling and necessary, on language varieties and their place and position in labor migration and transnational work in the contemporary world, and hence why we intend to do so in this article. In our paradigmatic analysis of language varieties in the context of labor mobilities, we shall take the case of the varieties of English arising from the global spread of the language worldwide as our focal point. The world Englishes paradigm thus greatly informs and substantiates our discussion so we shall first give the principles of this paradigm shift in linguistics begun by Braj Kachru. We subsequently connect world Englishes theorizing to labor migration practices. We shall argue that language is not only integral to the work being done by migrants, but is actually the work in itself. A consequence of this is that there are language varieties and Englishes which fit the work to be done more than others, and, therefore, these varieties and Englishes are becoming commodified as well in labor migration. We shall also take a look at the structural ramifications of labor migration on Englishes, how these new varieties are restructured further as they move from one place to another along with labor migrants. As it will become apparent, our discussion covers the situation of labor migrants in precarity more than the hyper-mobile elites often privileged in migratory contexts. Ultimately, we shall synthesize issues relating to language varieties in the context of transnational work and propose strategies in dealing not only with multilingual but also language-varietal diversity in (labor) migrations and mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]