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1 – 10 of over 10000The effects of the US guest worker program on the home country have not been documented. Jamaica has been a popular source of employees for the hospitality industry. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The effects of the US guest worker program on the home country have not been documented. Jamaica has been a popular source of employees for the hospitality industry. This paper aims to evaluate the effects of the US guest worker program on Jamaica, the Jamaican hotel industry, and Jamaican guest workers.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from structured interviews with key persons in the Jamaican government, hoteliers in Jamaica, and Jamaican guest workers in the USA were analyzed to demonstrate the impact of this program from three viewpoints. Content analysis and frequency were the research methods that were used to analyze the findings.
Findings
Strong support for the workers by the Jamaican government was documented. While the Jamaican hoteliers are affected by a shortage of good workers, they accept the program because of the advantages to the workers and the economy. Advantages of the program from the workers' perspectives were the economic value of the program and the ability to learn about different cultures.
Research limitations/implications
The paper's limitations include the small number of guest workers due to the limited accessibility. The value of the program to a small nation was documented.
Originality/value
This topic is on the minds of lawmakers, employers, and workers yet there is no other documentation of the advantages and disadvantages of the program to the three groups.
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In line with the escapist dimension of hospitality settings, the article investigates how the front office staff of high-end hotels deal with clients' secret sexual encounters.
Abstract
Purpose
In line with the escapist dimension of hospitality settings, the article investigates how the front office staff of high-end hotels deal with clients' secret sexual encounters.
Design/methodology/approach
The article draws on data collected through a participant observation study conducted in two high-end hotels in Milan (Italy), during which the author held the role of front-line receptionist.
Findings
The research illustrates the ways in which workers frame events and conduct operations to guarantee the appropriate conditions for guests' extra-marital adventures and paid sexual encounters. In revealing the role of shared knowledge as well as non-formalised procedures in meeting guests' needs, the article shows how employees seek to protect their own work and the hotel's image.
Originality/value
The article sheds light on the very features of high-end service work by illustrating how workers satisfy clients' secret needs and unexpressed demands.
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Peter B. Dixon and Maureen T. Rimmer
We use simulations from a detailed dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to study three broad policies toward illegal workers in U.S. employment: supply restriction…
Abstract
We use simulations from a detailed dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to study three broad policies toward illegal workers in U.S. employment: supply restriction (tighter border security), demand restriction (prosecution of employers), and legalization through a guest-worker program with a visa tax. From the point of view of the welfare of legal residents, the results strongly favor the third option. In our welfare analysis, we use a six-part decomposition. This identifies effects on the occupational mix of legal employment as a major factor. Throughout the chapter, model results are explained through arguments and diagrams that will be familiar to economists, particularly those working in trade. No familiarity with the underlying CGE model is assumed. Technical details on our labor market assumptions are given in the Appendix.
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My research builds upon masculinity studies as well as migration and gender theory to evaluate emerging strategies of gendered labor control at work sites within temporary worker…
Abstract
My research builds upon masculinity studies as well as migration and gender theory to evaluate emerging strategies of gendered labor control at work sites within temporary worker programs. In particular, my multisite ethnography consisting of 97 interviews with US guest workers, oil industry employers, and Indian labor brokers shifts focus to the recruitment of male workers into the US oil industry. The study evaluated a multi-country recruitment chain from India to the Middle East and into the US Guest Worker Program. Findings identified a relationship between the construction of masculinities and employer strategies for labor control. The article addresses the following question: how is hegemonic masculinity used as a strategy for labor control? The study identifies the double bind of hegemonic masculinity within contingent employment relationships as a means of labor control for curbing male migrant dissent.
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Vanessa Sandra Bernauer, Barbara Sieben and Axel Haunschild
With a focus on service encounters in the luxury segment of hospitality and tourism, the authors analyse how inherent social class distinctions and status differences are…
Abstract
Purpose
With a focus on service encounters in the luxury segment of hospitality and tourism, the authors analyse how inherent social class distinctions and status differences are (re-)produced and which role gender plays in this process of “doing class”.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors combine concepts of class work and inequality regimes with a focus on intersections of class and gender. The empirical study is based on interviews in Germany with first-class flight attendants, five-star hotel employees, and luxury customers on how they perceive and legitimize luxury services, working conditions and status differences.
Findings
The authors identify perceptions and practices of status enhancement and status dissonance among luxury service workers, as well as gender practices and meanings such as specific feminized roles service workers take on. The authors also conceptualize these intersecting patterns of inequality reproduction as “gendered class work”.
Originality/value
The study broadens empirical accounts of labour relations in the service industries. The concept of organizational class work is extended towards worker–customer interactions. With the concept of gendered class work, the authors contribute to research on the intersectionality of class and gender and the reproduction of inequalities.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between perceived dependence on tips and vulnerability to sexual harassment (SH) among hotel employees in Accra…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between perceived dependence on tips and vulnerability to sexual harassment (SH) among hotel employees in Accra Metropolis, Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
Within a cross-sectional research design, 583 employees from 55 hotels completed self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, χ2 test of independence, Kruskal–Wallis test were used to analyse collected data.
Findings
Results of the study reveal that dependence on tips is related to SH vulnerability of food and beverage staff. Furthermore, dependence on tips engenders a perception of SH climate. Compared to guests and co-workers, supervisors were least identified as perpetrators of SH in hotel workspaces. Guests were responsible for unwanted sexual attention, whereas co-workers pose the greatest risk for gender harassment.
Practical implications
Hotel management should invest in the publication of educational materials such as leaflets and posters indicating unacceptability of inappropriate sexual behaviours.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the pioneers to have assessed the relationship between dependence on tips and perceived climate for SH as well as vulnerability to SH in a hotel context.
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The poorly publicised law provides for an entirely new visa system, focused on streamlining guest-worker and skilled worker permits from third countries. It addresses an…
Details
DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB285183
ISSN: 2633-304X
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Geographic
Topical
Dorte Caswell, Kræn Blume Jensen and Helle Bendix Kleif
This paper aims to present new research on family‐supported immigrant women. Throughout the period 1994‐2005, around 11 percent of immigrant women aged 25‐66 from non‐Western…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present new research on family‐supported immigrant women. Throughout the period 1994‐2005, around 11 percent of immigrant women aged 25‐66 from non‐Western countries in Denmark were family‐supported.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applies a mixed methods approach integrating register‐based quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis of interview material.
Findings
The paper finds that family‐supported immigrant women in Denmark can roughly be divided into two sub‐groups. One group of women from the former Eastern bloc who have arrived recently, who have a relatively high‐level of education and who often have a Danish husband; and another group of women from more typical “guest worker” countries, who have a lower level of education and who often have a husband with the same ethnic origin. A second finding is that for some women, being family‐supported is a permanent rather that a temporary state. Third, the paper finds that family‐supported women have a variety of motivating factors pulling them towards a working life, but they experience barriers for employment and education such as non‐recognition of qualifications obtained outside of Denmark and a high demand for Danish linguistic skills.
Practical implications
The practical implications of the research are numerous. One implication is that qualifications depreciate when not used. Being fixed in a job where one's skills are not utilized violates future employment opportunities. The marginal position of these women on the labor market makes them vulnerable, not least in times of recession.
Originality/value
Little research has previously been done about this group of women, even though the size of the group is not negligible.
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