The Life of a Migrant Worker
By Cameron Walker
Who/What is a migrant worker?
The United Nations defines a migrant worker as a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national’. In simple terms a migrant worker is someone who works in a country in which they’re not a citizen.
An International Labour Organisation (ILO) report stated that many migrant workers “are not looking simply for better work. Propelled by poverty and insecurity, they are looking for any work.” Some travel great distances to find opportunities to earn enough money to make them and their families better off. However, while some find opportunity in their host countries many others find that they’re treated terribly by their bosses, paid low wages, are victims of racism and harassment by the police and immigration authorities, and are treated as invisible by their host country’s people.
Latin American migrant workers tend to move to the US to find work, Africans journey to Europe. Workers from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand tend to leave for richer parts of Asia, such as Hong Kong and Japan, while from those from the nations of the Pacific, such as Tuvalu, Tonga and Samoa come to Aotearoa New Zealand or Australia.
Migrant workers have become extremely important to their home and host countries. According to the Financial Times migrant workers in the United States (US) last year sent home US$62.3 billion to their families in Latin America and the Caribbean, while in their host country, the US, they do unpopular jobs at a price few locals would work for. Worldwide, money sent home by migrant workers is worth about US$232 billion!
Tatik’s Story
I work as a domestic here in Hong Kong to support my family in Indonesia. I am the eighth of nine children and my family depends on me for food, clothing, education — everything. Many of the migrants who come here are from villages where they cannot find work. But even those who have finished university come here because there is no work. We cannot survive and improve our lives at home. That’s why we are here, we do not want to be here.
Some of us are treated well by our employers, many are not. The main problems are low pay and unfair dismissal. But there is physical abuse too. And the working hours can be very long. You go to bed at 1 or 2am and your employer expects you to be up at 6am.
Tatik, President of the Coalition of Migrant Workers in Hong Kong
Source New Internationalist, April 2006, NI388
Why do Migrant Workers leave their home countries to work?
Many Mexican migrant workers have made perilous illegal journeys through the desert — risking thirst, exposure to the elements and harassment and intimidation by border guards and vigilante groups, known as the Minutemen’, across the US border.
Economic conditions in Mexico have been particularly bad for the poor since the country entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the US and Canada in 1994. The agreement forced Mexico to drop all its restrictions on food imports from the US, while in the US agribusiness corporations were (and still are!) highly subsidised by the government and able to dump their produce at a very cheap price in Mexico — so cheap that Mexican farmers could not compete. Many Mexican farmers were forced off their land so they flooded to the cities to find work. The oversupply of workers in the cities drove down wages to a level where many could not afford the basics. This in turn made it so many had to go across the border, either legally or illegally to find work.
Rather than addressing the economic conditions creating large numbers of illegal migrants, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched Operation Return to Sender’, a huge campaign to round up, detain and deport migrant workers from Latin America. Laura Carlsen, an analyst for the International Relations Center, writes that the US state treats migrants as if they’re human junk mail’.
Even in Aotearoa New Zealand migrant workers may not be fairly treated. The Press recently reported about the awful working conditions of Thai labourers employed on Marlborough’s vineyards.
A married Thai couple, Surachet Kannika and Orasa Khambut, both 25, paid $10,000 each to a Thai recruitment agency for an offer of work in New Zealand, flights and expenses. They borrowed the money — enough to buy a good house in Thailand — having been told they could earn $5000 a month between them in New Zealand. However, when they began pruning for Havenleigh a horticultural contracting company, in Seddon last year, they were taking home about $200 a week each, after tax and rent of $96 each was deducted. They were forced to work 60 to 70-hour, seven-day weeks and public holidays, without proper recompense, were bullied by supervisors, and ordered to work in other regions without negotiation. The Labour Department is currently investigating the complaint.
Source: The Press | Saturday, 2 June 2007.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers CIW is a community-based workers organisation. Members are largely Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout Florida. They fight for, among other things, fair wages, more respect, better and cheaper housing, stronger laws and the right to be part of a union. In 2005 in the US, fast food chain, Taco Bell was forced to increase the pay of migrant tomato pickers working for the restaurant’s suppliers, after a four year long boycott campaign by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The campaign was supported by university and high school students all over the country who set up blockades of Taco Bells on their campuses. Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum Brands, has recently announced that this pay agreement will be extended to ALL its fast food chains!
More Info
- The Coalition of Immokalee Workers
- The Rights of Migrant Workers UN Factsheet
- Promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers
- New Internationalist issue 379 dedicated to migrant workers’ stories
Take Action
- Become informed. (see the resources above)
- Challenge racism and bigotry against migrants. If you hear someone going on about how poor immigrants cause New Zealand’s social problems or how migrant workers “are taking our jobs” challenge them.
- Join or volunteer with a union. Solidarity Union is a small union that has been organising Auckland workers in non-unionised factories, including many migrant workers.
- Celebrate International Migrants Day on December 18
A version of this article was originally published in JET magazine.
Tags: borders, migrant workers, poverty, trade, unions