Breeding Hope during the Crisis: A Study on Unemployed Laborers' Willingness to Receive Educational Compensation under the Chinese "Zero-COVID” Policy

Under the Chinese "Zero-COVID” policy, many laborers were forced out of work. Participating in educational compensation can effectively help unemployed laborers achieve re-employment. This paper selected Jining, Shandong Province, as the research area, analyzed the data using a questionnaire survey and key interviews, and observed factors that affect and change willingness to receive educational compensation (WTEC) and the willingness to accept the training duration (WTTD) of unemployed laborers. The study found that 77.78% of unemployed laborers are willing to receive educational compensation, and the WTTD is 12.05 days. Among them, eight factors affect WTEC, such as the years of education, the duration of unemployment, whether there are dependents in the family, and the family's size. Nine factors such as gender, age, education, unemployed duration, dependents, and other supportable incomes affect WTTD. Based on this, by taking measures from the government and laborers, WTEC and WTTD can be improved, and then the rate of re-employment can be enhanced, and finally, the employment problem can be ameliorated.

Migrant Workers and Indian Labor Legislation: A Review

This article highlights the relevance of the two important Indian labor legislations in relation to migrant workers. A few observed gaps in these legislations are discussed. The article addresses the research questions and objectives through an understanding of both the laws. ISMA and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions code (2020) (OSH). The identified gaps in these legislations could be a reason for their ineffectiveness at critical situations like the crisis caused by the Covid 19 lockdown. The study takes a timely review to bring some suggestions to enhance the applicability and effectiveness of the upcoming Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020.

Social distancing causing crises: learning from workforce adaptation by e-tailers

PurposeThis study explores workforce related adaptation by e-tailers during social distancing causing crises (SDCC) and provides a conceptual framework.Design/methodology/approachA grounded theory based approach has been used wherein about 120 news articles were analyzed to understand the real-world measures taken. 50 journal papers were also referred to. A typical qualitative methodology, including open, and axial was used.FindingsIn the early stages, panic buying emerged as the key disrupting factor which necessitated staff shortage management. In the long term, e-tailers can adapt to prevent reverse worker migration and modify their hiring and training processes.Research limitations/implicationsThis study synthesizes knowledge on workforce-related adaptation by e-tailers and offers considerable potential for future research as well as the development of case studies and consulting services for the industry. Two research propositions are offered that can guide hypothesis generation and further studies can be conducted in sectors other than retail also.Practical implicationsThis study puts forward propositions based on theoretical dimensions for managers adapting to workforce-related problems during SDCC. The pandemic has led to vast unemployment and the shutting down of a number of businesses across the globe due to economic downfall. Hence, this study has economic and social implications.Originality/valueThis study is unique as it is one of the few that delves into e-tailers' workforce- related adaptation as SDCC evolves and contributes to a body of literature which is scarce.

Navigating crisis, navigating ICTs: A study of Indian migrant workers during the pandemic

In this note, we present the preliminary findings from a qualitative interview-based study among migrant workers in India who went through much hardship in the wake of one of most strict pandemic-induced lockdown in 2020. Through this study, we narrate the four ways in which digital technologies enabled the relief and crisis mitigation efforts targeted to migrant workers and how that in turn shaped the workers' experience of the crisis and associated relief efforts. We argue that more flexible use of familiar digital tools and channels, collaboration across state and non-state actors and assistance from human intermediaries in navigating ICTs make for more effective and inclusive relief measures. © 2022 ACM.

Negative Integration Is What States Make of It? Tackling Labour Exploitation in the German Meat Sector

In this article, we trace Germany's recent reform (and its precursors) seeking to remedy precarious working conditions in the meat sector. Focusing on an extreme case of labour exploitation, and asking how unique it is, allows us to uncover which institutional features of EU Member States condition the liberalization effects of negative integration. We thereby contribute to the literature on Europeanization, which has mainly emphasized weak industrial relations to account for the German meat industry's reliance on cheap migrant labour. Complicated enforcement structures, demanding requirements of administrative cooperation, and the complexities of an evolving case law, we argue, further contributed to the precarious conditions of migrant workers in Germany. Major COVID outbreaks in slaughterhouses created the political momentum for reform which specifically addresses this administrative side of labour protection, but remains limited to the meat sector – despite similar patterns of labour exploitation elsewhere.

Migrant Worker Dormitories: Virus in a Neoliberal Politics of Space

In neoliberal Singapore, capitalism thrives on the exploitation of low-waged migrant workers who are attracted to Singapore to earn a living building and cleaning the city and serving its residents. Their presence in this already crowded city provokes a dualistic public response that originates from a grudging acceptance of their indispensability: on the one hand, a refusal to allow them to fully integrate with Singapore society and be treated as equal human beings;and, on the other hand, a compassionate desire to help them when they are in need. The former tendency has had the effect of making migrant workers as invisible as possible, hence the profitable solution to house large numbers of them in dormitories located in the peripheral spaces of the island. Capitalism, profit maximization, and space optimization have created conditions and practices of exploitation that are, in normal times, cloaked in invisibility. The 2020 outbreak of COVID-19 in these dormitory spaces should not be surprising, unless they had been so well-hidden in the blind spots of public conscience and policy consciousness. The outbreaks also produced dualistic public reactions: moral panic and the stigmatization of infectious foreigners as dirty and dangerous folk devils, which demands further spatial segregation;and civic activism that steps up to the service of helping the vulnerable in their time of need. The solutions going forward will likely be technical rather than normative in nature, well within the segregating and exploitative logic of neoliberal globalization, with evermore-ingenious ways to extract value from migrant-worker labour, while making them and the heterotopia in which they exist as invisible and distant as possible. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Immigrant Legal Status among Essential Frontline Workers in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era: IMR

Emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has extracted a substantial toll on immigrant communities in the United States, due in part to increased potential risk of exposure for immigrants to COVID-19 in the workplace. In this article, we use federal guidance on which industries in the United States were designated essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, information about the ability to work remotely, and data from the 2019 American Community Survey to estimate the distribution of essential frontline workers by nativity and immigrant legal status. Central to our analysis is a proxy measure of working in the primary or secondary sector of the segmented labor market. Our results indicate that a larger proportion of foreign-born workers are essential frontline workers compared to native-born workers and that 70 percent of unauthorized immigrant workers are essential frontline workers. Disparities in essential frontline worker status are most pronounced for unauthorized immigrant workers and native-born workers in the secondary sector of the labor market. These results suggest that larger proportions of foreign-born workers, and especially unauthorized immigrant workers, face greater risk of potential exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace than native-born workers. Social determinants of health such as lack of access to health insurance and living in overcrowded housing indicate that unauthorized immigrant essential frontline workers may be more vulnerable to poor health outcomes related to COVID-19 than other groups of essential frontline workers. These findings help to provide a plausible explanation for why COVID-19 mortality rates for immigrants are higher than mortality rates for native-born residents.

Mental Health Status of Indian Migrant Workers in the United Arab Emirates during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Migration has become a de facto phenomenon in the contemporary globalized world and India is not untouched. Indian labourers from the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrated to the UAE in search of better jobs and prospects. They migrated alone and left behind their families. The distance between them and their family can also create mental disorders; therefore, it becomes necessary to analyze the mental health of the migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study is quantitative and based on a sample survey approach. The researchers collected 416 samples through a structured questionnaire and used the snowball sampling technique. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient, chi-square test and logistic regression were utilized to analyze and interpret the results. The outbreak of coronavirus disturbed their livelihood resulting in a cut to their salary or earnings; in total, 83% of migrants were affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in terms of loss of their income, out of which 76% were affected by less than AED 1000. The respondents' mental health was worrisome, but they were hopeful for the future. In total, 73.5% of respondents felt nervous, 62% felt depressed, 77% felt lonely, 63.4% had a hard time sleeping, and 63% had difficulties concentrating. The findings of the study draw attention to the policymakers to carry out necessary provisions to the targeted psychologically affected community. The findings also suggest creating awareness among the people by using social networking sites and diagnosing mental disorders on an urgent basis.

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and COVID-19-induced income disruption among migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.

Background: Neither COVID-19 vaccine acceptance nor income changes among migrant workers during the pandemic has been assessed in Saudi Arabia. Aims: To assess the correlates of willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine and a decrease in income during the pandemic among migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Methods: An electronic questionnaire was administered to 2403 migrant workers from the Middle East and South Asia employed in agriculture, auto repair, construction, food service (restaurants), municipality, and poultry farms in Al-Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia. The interviews were conducted in the native languages of the workers in 2021. Chi-square was used to assess the associations, and a multiple logistic regression was used to generate the odds ratio. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 27. Results: South Asian workers were 2.30 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.60-3.32] times more likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccine than those from the Middle East (reference group). Restaurant, agriculture and poultry workers were respectively 2.36 (95% CI: 1.41-3.95), 2.13 (95% CI: 1.29-3.51) and 14.56 (95% CI: 5.64-37.59) times more likely to accept the vaccine than construction workers (reference group). Older (≥ 56 years, reference group ≤ 25 years) workers were 2.23 (95% CI: 0.99-5.03) times, auto repair 6.75 (95% CI: 4.33-10.53) times, and restaurant workers 4.04 (95% CI: 2.61-6.25) times more likely to experience a reduction in income than construction workers. Conclusions: Workers from South Asia were more likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccine and less likely to experience an income reduction than those from the Middle East.

COVID-19 Geopolitics in Southeast Asia: Regional and National Health (in)Securities in Times of Pandemic

COVID-19 is a nonhuman threat that has thrust disease to the center of discourses about geopolitics, security, and national sovereignty. This chapter examines the multilateral, regional, and national dimensions of COVID-19 as the pandemic has played out in Southeast Asia. National vignettes are utilized to reveal different geopolitical dimensions of COVID-19 responses and influences. COVID-19 has had enormous implications for migrant workers worldwide, which may reinforce preexisting prejudices and practices of exclusion. In Singapore's case, migrant infection clusters have generated a growing state and public recognition of the nation's dependence on foreign workers as part of its political economic drive for growth and survival. The use of "war metaphors” as national propaganda against the disease and as a means for state-nation-building are explored in the case of Vietnam. Even a force as deadly as a global pandemic cannot prevent humanmade geopolitical rifts from becoming deeper. The chapter explores how the military in Myanmar have exploited the timing of pandemic and targeted public health workers in order to strengthen a hold over the country following a military coup. Finally, the chapter considers "ways forward, " and suggests that we draw inspiration from frontline workers, everyday struggles, and the realm of public health in order to seek sustainable meanings of justice and security. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

The Right to Property Taking Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Seriously

The right to property is part of International Human Rights Law (IHRL). However, the right is conspicuously missing from some fundamental treaties, and there are important inconsistencies in its interpretation by regional and global human rights bodies. In light of the indeterminacy and polysemy of IHRL in relation to property, this paper articulates a proposal to rethink this right taking Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR) seriously. The proposal contains four propositions. Firstly, property is a human right. Secondly, it includes private property as one of its forms, but this is not the only one. Thirdly, property has a social function. And fourthly, as a matter of proportionality, fulfilling ESCR is one of the most important objectives that may justify the limitation of private property.

In-Depth Ethical Analysis of the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout for Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries.

During the initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout, supplies were scarce, necessitating rationing. Gulf countries, hosting millions of migrant workers, prioritized nationals over migrants for vaccination. As it turned out, many migrant workers found themselves waiting behind nationals to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Here, we discuss the public health ethical concerns surrounding this approach and call for fair and inclusive vaccine allocation policies. First, we examine global justice through the lens of statism, where distributive justice applies only to sovereign state members, and cosmopolitanism, advocating equal justice distribution for all humans. We propose a cooperativist perspective, suggesting that new justice obligations can arise between people beyond national ties. In cases of mutually beneficial cooperation, such as migrant workers contributing to a nation's economy, equal concern for all parties is required. Second, the principle of reciprocity further supports this stance, as migrants significantly contribute to host countries' societies and economies. Additional ethical principles-equity, utilitarianism, solidarity, and nondiscrimination-are essentially violated when excluding non-nationals in vaccine distribution. Finally, we argue that prioritizing nationals over migrants is not only ethically indefensible, but it also fails to ensure full protection for nationals and hampers efforts to curb COVID-19 community spread.

Migrant farmworkers: Resisting and organising before, during and after COVID‐19

Migrant farmworkers are a ubiquitous but invisibilised, expropriated and exploited component of the global agricultural economy. Their conditions took centre‐stage during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Fear of production disruption in the migrant labour‐intensive sectors led to foreign workers being deemed ‘essential' in many countries, and exceptional procedures and regulations were instituted that further increased their exploitation, illnesses and deaths. However, the pandemic has not merely exposed the long‐established structures of racialised exploitation and expropriation in the domain of farm work. Although it exacerbated the precariousness of the living and working conditions defining the reality of migrant farm workers, there is evidence that the pandemic also strengthened farmworkers' individual and collective consciousness, along with forms of organisation and resistance. The symposium ‘Migrant Farmworkers: Resisting and Organizing before, during and after COVID‐19' explores two dimensions reflected in migrant farmworkers' realities during the pandemic. First, the contributions look at the general conditions defining power structures and material outcomes within the political economy of agriculture before and during the pandemic. Second, they explore the conditions under which resistance and solidarity emerged to question established structures of exploitation. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Agrarian Change is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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 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 . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Контуры миграционного кризиса 2020-2022 гг. в России

Миграционная ситуация в России в период пандемии COVID-19 имеет целый ряд признаков кризиса. Этот процесс, как правило, связан с притоком больших масс мигрантов на ограниченную территорию в течение непродолжительного периода времени. В России кризисные явления в миграционной сфере на протяжении 2020 – начала 2022 г. были вызваны закрытием границ и сложным социально-экономическим положением, в котором оказались трудовые мигранты из азиатских стран СНГ. Однако предпосылки этого формировались на протяжении как минимум второй половины 2010-х гг. Во многом они были связаны с заметным увеличением объема и изменением этнической структуры миграционных потоков в пользу выходцев из стран Средней Азии. Одновременно происходило снижение численности трудовых мигрантов из Украины и Молдавии. Черты миграционного кризиса носили преимущественно локальный характер и рельефнее всего проявлялись в наиболее привлекательных для мигрантов регионах – Москве, Санкт-Петербурге и прилегающих к ним областях. Его проявлениями стали массовые акции протеста, беспорядки и конфликты с участием мигрантов, а также заметное обострение их отношений с работодателями, властями и местным населением.Alternate :The migration situation in Russia during the COVID-19 pandemic has a number of signs of a migration crisis. The understanding of this phenomenon, which has developed under the influence of the migration crisis of 2014–2015 in the EU countries, is usually associated with the influx of large masses of migrants to a limited territory for a short period of time. In Russia, the crisis phenomena in the migration sphere during 2020 – early 2022 were caused by the closure of borders and the difficult socio-economic situation in which labor migrants from Asian CIS countries who were in the Russian Federation found themselves. However, the prerequisites for this crisis were formed during at least the second half of the 2010s. In many ways, they were associated with a noticeable increase in the volume and change in the ethnic structure of migration flows in favor of immigrants from Central Asian countries. At the same time, there was a decrease in the number of labor migrants from the European CIS countries – Ukraine and Moldova, who received the opportunity to work legally in the EU countries after signing Euroassociation agreements in the mid-2010s. Due to the vast territory of Russia and the unevenness of its economic development, the features of the migration crisis were mainly local in nature and were most clearly manifested in the most attractive regions for migrants – Moscow, St. Petersburg and adjacent areas. Its manifestations were mass protests, riots and conflicts involving migrants, as well as a noticeable aggravation of their relations with employers, authorities and the local population.

Sending Money Home in Conflict Settings: Revisiting Migrant Remittances

Despite the challenges, remittances frequently remain a primary source of economic support for those left behind, as well as for national development of post-conflict countries. [...]situations in the wake of recent conflicts are known for heightened remittance flows.3 As a large share of the remittance flows in conflict settings occurs through informal channels, the importance of remittances in these economies has often been underestimated. A focus on broader settings that can provide security, justice, and economic sustenance to individuals and communities affected by the crisis has been reflected in the human security approach6 to post-conflict7 development.8 Remittances can be central to fighting poverty—by diversifying household income sources, providing capital for productive investment and facilitating local markets, and funding education, health, and other social expenses.9 Remittances can contribute to post-conflict recovery in the long term. "20 Horst has shown that among the Somali diaspora in Norway, most political engagements do not occur through state institutions but take place on sub-national levels, including individual and group money transfers and certain humanitarian initiatives.21 Somali diaspora members mediate with clan leaders and elders who can contribute to reconciliation processes through customary mechanisms such as compensatory payments, but as noted above, such involvement can also sustain continued warfare.22 While the role of diaspora in post-conflict reconstruction efforts can be significant, diaspora can also remain an "under-utilized resource" whose strong emotional connection to their home country is offset by unstable institutional environments.23 Weak formal institutions and regulatory frameworks may offer little systematic support for entrepreneurship development, which is constrained by high transaction and compliance costs. Informal institutions and cultural attitudes remain important in the post-conflict assimilation of returning migrants who bring with them beliefs and understandings from their countries of settlement, resulting in hybrid norms and institutions.24 Many forcibly displaced and returning migrants may also lack properly transferable professional skills.25 The transfer of social and political remittances does not always signify "diffusion of democracy"—the effects of returning migrants to democratization depend on their experience of political mobilization as migrant workers, as well as on the status of democratic values in the political order of the host country, among other factors.26 Changing perspectives on conflict-affected remittances Remittances became central in the migration scholarship only in the 1990s, when the analytical focus shifted from migration as a result of [End Page 44] decision-making of rational individuals towards a more nuanced view of the role of households, social networks, and community in migration processes.

Our ‘Pacific family'. Heroes, guests, workers or a precariat?

Australia launched a Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) in 2012, shortly after a similar scheme in New Zealand, to bring seasonal workers from Pacific Island Countries (PICS) to work in agriculture. The scheme was seen as a potential ‘Triple Win' with sending and receiving countries, and workers' households, benefiting. Workers' remittances contributed to welfare, especially housing and education, and small business establishment, but there were social costs associated with repeated absences. In 2018, Australia introduced the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) to extend guestwork opportunities into other areas of non-seasonal labour shortage such as aged care, tourism and meat processing. The shortage of local labour during COVID-19 demonstrated that Pacific guestworkers were invaluable to Australia, and in 2022 the schemes were revamped and expanded further as the PALM (Pacific Australia Labour Mobility) Scheme. Concern over a Chinese threat in the region gave further support for the expansion. PICs expressed concerns about exploitative practices, while higher rates of participation increased the potential for an incipient brain drain from the PICs, with wages roughly four times those at home, as migrants now left non-agricultural jobs. The expanded scheme continues to favour Australian employers leaving questions over, equity, uneven development and the future of the PICs.

Taking on the "new normal”: emerging psychologists' reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeCoronavirus (COVID-19) rapidly became the "new normal” with profound implications for everyone's daily life. In this paper, emerging psychologists from diverse cultural backgrounds discuss four main ways in which COVID-19 impacted diverse psychological populations.Design/methodology/approachThis paper was written as a reflection on how COVID-19 has impacted diverse psychological populations using authors' academic and personal experiences.FindingsFirst, the authors explore inaccessible populations with a focus on domestic violence victims living in rural areas. Second, the authors consider consequences of social isolation with a focus on remote workers. Third, the authors investigate the consequences of public (dis)trust in the pandemic with a focus on migrant worker communities. Finally, the authors discuss pandemic-relevant subcultures with a focus on "anti-vaxxers”.Social implicationsThe paper concludes with a discussion of negative implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on diverse psychological populations, both for the present and the future, and ends with an action plan of possible interventions to overcome these limitations.Originality/valueOverall, the current paper provides a broad overview of how the pandemic has shaped and will continue to shape diverse psychological populations.

COVID-19 complications and economic recovery of China: guidelines for other economies

PurposeCoronavirus (COVID-19) brought massive economic damage throughout the globe. Economic as well as social set-ups have enormously collapsed. The present paper underlines some economic complications of China during COVID-19. The study also sheds light on initiatives taken by the government of China to fight against such a damaging pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed secondary research or desk research that involves existing data. The data were collected from reliable sources, described below. The data were summarized and organized to increase the overall efficacy and reliability of the research.FindingsThe study finds that China has confronted many downturns in export and import, GDP decline, blockage of markets and production evaluation. To recover from these unfavorable and adverse circumstances, China has recovered its economy by introducing digital transformation, effective legislations, A V-shaped recovery and A U-shaped recovery in manufacturing and services.Practical implicationsChina's steps and initiatives to invigorate economic developments during a pandemic would be beneficial for other economies facing the severe challenges of economic development, especially after COVID-19.Originality/valueThe present study is one of the rare studies of the domain that offers the guidelines to the policymakers and economists of developing countries to develop their policies regarding the digital economy to face the traditional market's challenges.

An Employment Guarantee for the Urban Worker.

Public attention has focused on the problems of urban migrants returning to rural India due to the Covid-19 crisis. It may be months before the majority of returning migrants, including several different kinds of migrants, go back to urban areas and are absorbed in employment. We know that there is considerable movement of labour between rural and urban areas, some of it long-term and some of it short-term or periodic or circular. This is necessary and is not going to change. There is a case for extending the existing rural employment guarantee to urban India. This works through self-selection and can reach groups not always reached by other, equally important, welfare schemes. Given how little we know about the magnitudes and characteristics of migrant workers, it is desirable to proceed with caution. A pilot project may be started in one or more selected cities, without calling it a guarantee. Based on what we learn from this experience, it can then be extended to the whole of urban India. Components on adult education and training/retraining should be included in the project to improve skills, productivity and worker rights.

State of care for EU mobile workers' rights in the Dutch meat sector in times of, and beyond, COVID-19

PurposeWith a focus on the position of EU mobile workers in the Dutch meat industry, this article discusses the multi-level State efforts to enhance protection of workers who experienced limited protection of existing State and private enforcement institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic, with virus outbreaks at Dutch meat plants, fuelled public and political will to structurally improve these workers' precarious work and living conditions. Yet, the process of policy change is slow. The authors show it is the gradual transformation in the institutional environment that the State needs to counter to become more protective for EU mobile workers.Design/methodology/approachUsing the gradual institutional change approach and the concept of State ignorance, the authors examine State responses drawing on interviews with expert stakeholders in the public and private domain, public administration records and newspaper articles.FindingsThrough knowledge creation, boosted social dialogue mechanisms, enhanced enforcement capacity and new housing legislation, the Dutch State focuses on countering gradual institutional change through which existing institutions lost their effectiveness as protectors of EU mobile workers. The organization of work is, nevertheless, not (yet) fundamentally addressed with tighter public legislation.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the role of the State as multifaceted actor in institutional change processes towards increased protection for EU mobile workers.