Foreign worker
Encyclopedia
A foreign worker is a person who works in a country other than the one of which he or she is a citizen. The term migrant worker as discussed in the migrant worker
page is used in a particular UN resolution as a synonym for "foreign worker". In nations that have yet to ratify this resolution such as the United States the term migrant worker is not synonymous with foreign worker.
Green card workers are individuals who have requested and received legal permanent residence in the United States and who intend to work in the United States on a permanent basis.
Guest workers are persons who typically travel (either legally or illegally) to a country with much more preferred job prospects than the one in which they currently reside. These "workers" temporarily reside in the country in which they work and will often send most or all wages earned, back to their country of origin.
from 1955 until 1973, when over one million guest workers (German: Gastarbeiter
) arrived, mostly from Italy
, Spain
and Turkey
.
Current estimates on the total number of international foreign workers stand at about 25 million , with a comparable number of dependents accompanying them. An estimated 14 million foreign workers live in the United States
, which draws most of its immigrants from Mexico
, including 4 or 5 million undocumented workers
. It is estimated that around 5 million foreign workers live in Northwestern Europe, half a million in Japan, and around 5 million in Saudi Arabia.
The term can refer to professional experts, blue collar workers, language teachers, as well as entertainers.
). Most controversy in the United States since 1990 has been in regard to "guest workers" both legal and illegal.
In recent years in the United States, there has been much controversy over whether H-1B visa
s (a particular instance of guest worker), intended to bring highly skilled workers to fill gaps in the domestic labor pool, are instead being used to bring in skilled, but otherwise unexceptional, economic migrants as cheap labor to fill jobs that could readily be filled domestically. There is much controversy over pending legislation that would allow unskilled labor to enter the country for this same reason.
Foreign students coming into the US are also migrant workers. They may face large salary differences until the obtention of their green card as their visa is only company-specific.
Moreover, they are barred from many high-profile jobs where citizenship is a prerequisite.
Again, specific to the H-1B visa
s,countries such as India
, Pakistan
, and the Philippines have long experienced a brain drain
of highly skilled workers to countries like the United States
, Britain
, Canada
, France
, Japan
, South Korea
, Germany
, and Australia
. While the absolute number of such émigrés are not large, the economic implications of such very skilled workers are significant.
Sometimes, citizens of countries with heavily urbanized areas have migrated to more agrarian countries in order to find jobs as farmers and such. For more on this, see migrant worker
s.
In certain less tolerant nations, foreign workers may be abused and treated as second-class citizen
s by the governments and/or lack of unions to assert worker rights, although a counterargument could be made in that foreigners do not deserve to be treated as full citizens as long as they are accorded basic human rights and civil liberties. For instance, in many Asian nations, it is common for employers to withhold passports from their employees, thus preventing the foreign worker from returning home. In conjunction with the withholding of salaries, it is meant to put the foreign workers in very difficult situation (particularly because the laws of these countries are typically not sympathetic to foreigners in practice). In the UK, organisations such as Kalayaan
protect the rights of UK migrant domestic workers
. (The term "migrant domestic worker" is a standardized term, where the word "domestic" is taken to mean "within the home," rather than its more prevalent meaning of being of or belonging to a particular sovereign state.)
Migrant worker
The term migrant worker has different official meanings and connotations in different parts of the world. The United Nations' definition is broad, including any people working outside of their home country...
page is used in a particular UN resolution as a synonym for "foreign worker". In nations that have yet to ratify this resolution such as the United States the term migrant worker is not synonymous with foreign worker.
Foreign workers in the United States
The term foreign worker refers to those who fall the reason it was into two specific cases.Green card workers are individuals who have requested and received legal permanent residence in the United States and who intend to work in the United States on a permanent basis.
Guest workers are persons who typically travel (either legally or illegally) to a country with much more preferred job prospects than the one in which they currently reside. These "workers" temporarily reside in the country in which they work and will often send most or all wages earned, back to their country of origin.
Foreign workers in other countries
Sometimes, a host country sets up a program in order to invite guest workers, as did the Federal Republic of GermanyWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
from 1955 until 1973, when over one million guest workers (German: Gastarbeiter
Gastarbeiter
Gastarbeiter is German for "guest worker." It refers to migrant workers who had moved to West Germany mainly in the 1960s and 70s, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker programme...
) arrived, mostly from Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
.
Current estimates on the total number of international foreign workers stand at about 25 million , with a comparable number of dependents accompanying them. An estimated 14 million foreign workers live in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, which draws most of its immigrants from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, including 4 or 5 million undocumented workers
Illegal Aliens
Illegal Aliens is a 2007 film starring Anna Nicole Smith and Joanie Laurer. This comedy/science-fiction film is made in the mold of classic 1980s B-movies. Hitting stores on May 1, 2007, the release of the movie was pushed back following the death of Smith in February 2007 and it is her final film...
. It is estimated that around 5 million foreign workers live in Northwestern Europe, half a million in Japan, and around 5 million in Saudi Arabia.
The term can refer to professional experts, blue collar workers, language teachers, as well as entertainers.
Controversy
Although there have been disagreements over immigration in the broader sense (the current system facilitated with green cardsUnited States Permanent Resident Card
United States lawful permanent residency refers to a person's immigration status: the person is authorized to live and work in the United States of America on a permanent basis....
). Most controversy in the United States since 1990 has been in regard to "guest workers" both legal and illegal.
In recent years in the United States, there has been much controversy over whether H-1B visa
H-1B visa
The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101. It allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations...
s (a particular instance of guest worker), intended to bring highly skilled workers to fill gaps in the domestic labor pool, are instead being used to bring in skilled, but otherwise unexceptional, economic migrants as cheap labor to fill jobs that could readily be filled domestically. There is much controversy over pending legislation that would allow unskilled labor to enter the country for this same reason.
Foreign students coming into the US are also migrant workers. They may face large salary differences until the obtention of their green card as their visa is only company-specific.
Moreover, they are barred from many high-profile jobs where citizenship is a prerequisite.
Again, specific to the H-1B visa
H-1B visa
The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101. It allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations...
s,countries such as India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, and the Philippines have long experienced a brain drain
Brain drain
Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale emigration of a large group of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals...
of highly skilled workers to countries like the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. While the absolute number of such émigrés are not large, the economic implications of such very skilled workers are significant.
Sometimes, citizens of countries with heavily urbanized areas have migrated to more agrarian countries in order to find jobs as farmers and such. For more on this, see migrant worker
Migrant worker
The term migrant worker has different official meanings and connotations in different parts of the world. The United Nations' definition is broad, including any people working outside of their home country...
s.
In certain less tolerant nations, foreign workers may be abused and treated as second-class citizen
Second-class citizen
Second-class citizen is an informal term used to describe a person who is systematically discriminated against within a state or other political jurisdiction, despite their nominal status as a citizen or legal resident there...
s by the governments and/or lack of unions to assert worker rights, although a counterargument could be made in that foreigners do not deserve to be treated as full citizens as long as they are accorded basic human rights and civil liberties. For instance, in many Asian nations, it is common for employers to withhold passports from their employees, thus preventing the foreign worker from returning home. In conjunction with the withholding of salaries, it is meant to put the foreign workers in very difficult situation (particularly because the laws of these countries are typically not sympathetic to foreigners in practice). In the UK, organisations such as Kalayaan
Kalayaan (charity)
Kalayaan is a United Kingdom charity which works with and to support migrant domestic workers in the UK. The word 'kalayaan' means 'freedom' in Tagalog, with over 200,000 Filipinos working in the UK as domestic workers.Kalayaan won the 2006 Centre for...
protect the rights of UK migrant domestic workers
Migrant domestic workers
Migrant Domestic Workers who work for wealthy families in the UK are currently allowed to change employers without breaking the law so long as they continue working full time as a domestic worker in a private household....
. (The term "migrant domestic worker" is a standardized term, where the word "domestic" is taken to mean "within the home," rather than its more prevalent meaning of being of or belonging to a particular sovereign state.)
See also
- Body Shops
- Bracero programBracero ProgramThe Bracero Program was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated by an August 1942 exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and Mexico, for the importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States.American president Franklin D...
(historical American guest-worker program)- Mexican Americans
- Foreign Worker VisaForeign Worker VisaA Foreign Worker visa is an immigration document that allows a foreign national to temporarily live and work in a country. Ideally, such foreign nationals remedy a skill shortage in the host country, which gains support of business groups.-See also:...
- GastarbeiterGastarbeiterGastarbeiter is German for "guest worker." It refers to migrant workers who had moved to West Germany mainly in the 1960s and 70s, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker programme...
(historical German guest-worker program)- Turks in Germany
- Guest worker programGuest worker programThe Guest Worker Program is a program that has been proposed many times, including by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration as a way to permit U.S. employers to sponsor non-U.S. citizens as laborers for approximately three years, to be deported afterwards if they have not yet obtained a...
(a proposed foreign-worker program in the U.S.) - ImmigrationImmigrationImmigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
- Labor shortageLabor shortageIn its narrowest definition, a labor shortage is an economic condition in which there are insufficient qualified candidates to fill the market-place demands for employment at any price...
- Lavoie v. CanadaLavoie v. CanadaLavoie v. Canada, [2002] 1 S.C.R. 769, 2002 SCC 23 is a leading decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on whether preference on basis of citizenship infringed equality guarantee under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms...
(a Canadian Supreme Court case ruling on foreign worker status) - Schengen AgreementSchengen AgreementThe Schengen Agreement is a treaty signed on 14 June 1985 near the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, between five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community. It was supplemented by the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement 5 years later...
(an EUEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
agreement to open borders) - SweatshopSweatshopSweatshop is a negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for very low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labour laws may be violated. Sweatshops may have...
- Third Country NationalThird Country NationalThird Country National is a term often used in the context of migration, referring to individuals who are in transit and/or applying for visas in countries that are not their country of origin , in order to go to destination countries that is likewise not their country of origin...
External links
- How to hire seasonal foreign workers under J-1 visa? Reasons seasonal employers hire foreign workers
- Foreign workers in Malaysia - News update
- The PBS newsmagazine NOW focuses on America's "Guest Workers" including interviews with actual guest workers who work in Montana's forests
- Bitter Harvest on abuse of H-2A Guest Workers in Washington State
- Burma Migrant Worker Issues
- Migrant labor activism in New York City from Dollars & SenseDollars & SenseDollars & Sense is a magazine dedicated to providing left-wing perspectives on economics.Published six times a year since 1974, it is edited by a collective of economists, journalists, and activists committed to the ideals of social justice and economic democracy.It was initially sponsored by the...
magazine - Migrant Workers Television(MWTV) in Seoul Korea
- December 18 vzw - International Advocacy and Resource Center on Migrant Workers Rights
- Procedure for recruitment of foreign workers in Singapore
- Migrante International
- No One is Illegal
- Global Culture: essay on migrant workers
- Migrant Farmworkers and Their Children
- Payroll Tax Benefits for Employers Hiring J1 Foreign Workers. Savings Calculator
- A gift from heaven A short film on Thai workers in Israel
- "Guest Workers" and U.S. Unemployment - essay and video by Dan RatherDan RatherDaniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...