Merchants of Labor: Recruiters and International Labor Migration

Description

Some 10 million migrant workers cross national borders each year and, if they pay an average $1,000 to recruiters, moving workers over borders is a $10 billion a year business. Merchants of Labor examines the businesses that move low-skilled workers over national borders, asking how much they collect from migrant workers and what can be done to reduce worker-paid migration costs. For-profit recruiters are likely to be an enduring feature of international labor migration, which makes developing tools to improve the management of their activities ever more crucial. The UN recognized in the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 the need to measure what workers pay to get jobs in other countries with the goal of reducing worker-paid costs so that workers and their families can benefit more from international labor migration. Using cost data from over 3,000 workers, Merchants of Labor examines the often murky world of labor brokers, travel agents, and others who move low-skilled workers from one country to another in order to explore lower worker-paid migration costs. It explains the three core functions of labor markets-- recruitment, remuneration, and retention-- and shows how national borders increase recruitment costs. New data on what workers pay to get jobs in other countries are presented, and incentives to complement enforcement are explored as a way to induce recruiters to protect migrant workers. Content: Cover Merchants of Labor: Recruiters and International Labor Migration Copyright Foreword Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations Prologue Labor Migration and Labor Markets What do Workers Pay? Rethinking Recruitment Moving Forward Part I: Labor Migration and Labor Markets Introduction 1: International Labor Migration International Migration Patterns Workers and Refugees Why Migration? Inequalities and Revolutions Demographics and Economics Communications, Transportation, and Rights Climate Change Managing Migration Migration and Development2: Labor Markets and Migration Labor Market Rs Asymmetric Information Recruiters and Recruitment Costs Part II: What do Workers Pay? Introduction 3: Migration Costs in Destinations Migrants in Korea Migrants in Kuwait Migrants in Spain Vietnamese in Malaysia 4: Migration Costs of Returning Workers Ethiopians from Saudi Arabia Filipinos from Qatar Indians from Qatar Nepalese from Qatar Pakistanis from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates Pakistanis Returning from Saudi Arabia (2014 US) Pakistanis Returning from United Arab Emirates Migrant Costs and the Gulf Cooperation CouncilPart III: Regulating Recruitment Introduction 5: The Recruiting Business Agents versus Partners Remittance versus Recruitment Costs Recruiters in Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam Indonesia Philippines Vietnam 6: Regulating Recruiters International Standards Remittances and Development Migrants: Numbers versus Rights Closing Regulatory Gaps 7: Recruiter Incentives and Alternatives Inducing Good Behavior Codes of Conduct Economic Incentives Bottom-up Enforcement via Complaints Wicked Problems: Trafficking Recruiters and ContractorsBilateral Agreements Korean Employment Permit System Canada‒Mexico Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program Australia and New Zealand Pacific Island Schemes Other Bilateral Labor Agreements From an Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to an Organization of Labor Exporting Countries? 8: Employers, Recruiters, and Workers Reducing Worker-Paid Costs Moving Forward Appendix: Sustainable Development Goals and Migration Costs Definitions Interviewing Workers Costs, Loans, and Earnings Next Steps Bibliography Index