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1 – 10 of over 5000Adam Hege, Quirina M. Vallejos, Yorghos Apostolopoulos and Michael Kenneth Lemke
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature pertaining to occupational health disparities experienced by Latino immigrant workers in the USA and to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature pertaining to occupational health disparities experienced by Latino immigrant workers in the USA and to advance a general framework based on systems science to inform epidemiological and intervention research.
Design/methodology/approach
Using papers and other sources from 2000 to the present, the authors examined the employment conditions and health outcomes of Latino immigrant workers and critically analyzed the pervasive evidence of health disparities, including causal mechanisms and associated intervention programs.
Findings
The occupations, including the work environment and resultant living conditions, frequently performed by Latino immigrants in the USA represent a distinct trigger of increased injury risk and poor health outcomes. Extant intervention programs have had modest results at best and are in need of more comprehensive approaches to address the complex nature of health disparities.
Practical implications
An integrated, systems-based framework concerning occupational health disparities among Latino immigrant workers allows for a holistic approach encompassing innovative methods and can inform high-leverage interventions including public policy.
Originality/value
Reductionist approaches to health disparities have had significant limitations and miss the complete picture of the many influences. The framework the authors have provided elucidates a valuable method for reducing occupational health disparities among Latino immigrant workers as well as other populations.
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Thomas Turner, Daryl D'Art and Michelle O'Sullivan
The paper's purpose is to examine the propensity of recent immigrants to join Irish trade unions compared to Irish workers.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper's purpose is to examine the propensity of recent immigrants to join Irish trade unions compared to Irish workers.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on the 2005 Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS), a quarterly survey carried out by the Central Statistics Office.
Findings
Results show that immigrant workers are less likely to join Irish trade unions than comparable native workers. Length of residency is an important factor in the likelihood of immigrants being unionised but employment in the public or private sector assumes even greater importance than nationality in determining union membership.
Research limitations/implications
While the QNHS is generally a robust representative sample survey of the population, errors may occur in the proportion of non‐Irish nationals surveyed due to difficulties of ensuring their inclusion in the sample population. Language may also be an obstacle, particularly for recently arrived immigrants.
Practical implications
From a trade union perspective the results highlight the need for trade unions to regularly conduct organising campaigns targeted at immigrants. Government policy aimed at integrating immigrants into the Irish labour force and ensuring adequate labour standards would be well served by ensuring greater union availability to immigrant workers.
Originality/value
The paper provides a profile and analysis of the extent to which immigrants are joining trade unions compared to Irish workers.
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Wido G.M. Oerlemans and Maria C.W. Peeters
The paper's aim is to introduce the interactive acculturation model (IAM) of Bourhis et al. to predict how disconcordance in acculturation orientations between host community and…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper's aim is to introduce the interactive acculturation model (IAM) of Bourhis et al. to predict how disconcordance in acculturation orientations between host community and immigrant workers relates to the quality of intergroup work‐relations.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consisted of 141 host community (Dutch) and 41 non‐western immigrant workers of a postal service company who filled out a questionnaire. Methods of analyses include analysis of variance and multiple regression.
Findings
In line with the IAM, results showed that a higher disconcordance in preferred acculturation orientations between host community and immigrant workers related to a poorer quality of intergroup work‐relations. However, intergroup contact moderated this relationship differently for host community and immigrant workers.
Research limitations/implications
Data are cross‐sectional and collected in one organization. Future studies should replicate the findings to other organizational contexts, cultural groups, and collect longitudinal data to determine causal effects.
Practical implications
Organizations should monitor disconcordance in acculturation orientations amongst host community and immigrant workers. A multicultural culture in organizations may reduce disconcordance in acculturation orientations between host community and immigrant workers.
Originality/value
The paper helps to explain the mixed findings in cultural diversity research so far, by demonstrating that disconcordance in acculturation orientations relates negatively to intergroup work‐relations in a multicultural workplace.
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The purpose of this paper is to assess how wages of US native workers with various educational backgrounds are affected by immigration.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess how wages of US native workers with various educational backgrounds are affected by immigration.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper estimates the responses of these workers’ wages to the concentration of immigrants with various educational backgrounds in their local labour markets, using 1980‐2000 US Census data and instrumental variables approach.
Findings
Wages of native high school dropouts fall slightly in the presence of immigrant high school dropouts and high school graduates; wages of native high school graduates fall slightly in the presence of immigrant high school graduates, but rise in the presence of immigrants with higher levels of education; wages of native workers with some college education fall slightly with larger concentrations of immigrant high school graduates but rise slightly with larger concentrations of immigrant college graduates; and there is no evidence that wages of native college graduates are affected by immigration.
Originality/value
No previous studies have considered these possibilities when assessing the impact of immigration on native workers’ wages.
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The purpose of this paper is to seek test for the precondition for labour-market competition between immigrants and natives, which implies that both are willing to accept jobs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to seek test for the precondition for labour-market competition between immigrants and natives, which implies that both are willing to accept jobs that do not differ in quality.
Design/methodology/approach
To test this hypothesis, using Spanish data, the paper analyses whether immigrants and natives exhibit different tastes for working conditions. The paper proceeds as follows. First, the paper estimates job satisfaction equations, where working conditions enter as covariates. Second, the paper tests whether the package of (dis)amenities inherent to their jobs differ. Additionally, the paper also tests for assimilation of immigrant workers in terms of job quality.
Findings
The paper finds that immigrant and native workers tend to exhibit the same taste for most on-the-job amenities. However, immigrants are more tolerant with jobs involving poorer environmental working conditions, more physically demanding tasks and higher exposure to physical damage. The paper also finds that immigrant workers tend to be employed in lower quality jobs. However, some of the bad working conditions tend to improve over time, suggesting some assimilation in terms of job quality.
Originality/value
The type of analysis the authors carry out here allows them to contribute to the literature by moving a step away from the conventional approach used in previous studies. While previous literature mostly analyses the effect of immigration in natives’ labour market outcomes and assimilation of immigrants in terms of wages and employment, this study is one of the few that focus on working conditions and the quality of jobs.
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Michael Rosholm, Marianne Røed and Pål Schøne
– The purpose of this paper is to analyse if introduction of new technologies and work practices are negatively related to the employment opportunities of immigrants.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse if introduction of new technologies and work practices are negatively related to the employment opportunities of immigrants.
Design/methodology/approach
A representative plant-level panel survey merged with register data is used. Random effect regression Tobit models are estimated. The dependent variable is wage costs share of immigrants at the plant. The important explanatory variables are measures of new technologies and work practices.
Findings
The results show that workplaces where employees use personal computers intensively and have broad autonomy hire fewer non-western immigrants who have not been raised in Norway. The negative relationship is especially strong for low-skilled non-western immigrants.
Originality/value
The estimation framework for studying this topic is new. The paper also presents original evidence on the relationship between characteristics of the “new” economy and demand for immigrant workers.
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Solange Barros de Alcantara Hamrin
This study is an inductive exploration of factors that are relevant to the inclusion and integration of immigrant workers in a Swedish workplace. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study is an inductive exploration of factors that are relevant to the inclusion and integration of immigrant workers in a Swedish workplace. The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of immigrant employees with other organisational actors at two senior nursing units in Sweden.
Design/methodology/approach
Results are drawn from the analyses of interviews with six female and three male immigrant nursing assistants living permanently in Sweden.
Findings
Trustful relationships with other organisational actors, during both formal and informal interactions, are considered essential facilitating inclusion of these immigrant workers. Immigrant workers experienced inclusion when they achieved language competence (or felt supported in their attempts to do so) and bridged cultural differences. The results also highlight conditions for interactions and leadership as factors influencing inclusion. In addition, inclusion implied acculturation or awareness of the values of native-born citizens.
Research limitations/implications
The study suggests that immigrants’ relational dynamics with their colleagues are essential to inclusion, despite types of studies that focus mainly on the competences of leaders to manage diversity.
Practical implications
The results have implications for organisations’ development of a more democratic workplace with more inclusiveness and with satisfied employees.
Originality/value
The study gives voice to immigrant workers, which is rare in Swedish and international organisations that deal with the issue of immigrant integration in the workplace.
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Shows how the US economy has witnessed both a massive influx of immigrant workers and a sharp decline in organized labour. Examines the struggles of Latino workers in Los Angeles…
Abstract
Shows how the US economy has witnessed both a massive influx of immigrant workers and a sharp decline in organized labour. Examines the struggles of Latino workers in Los Angeles, USA and shows just how immigrant workers and labour unions have a complicated relationship there. Explains how the problems were eventually eased.
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In this paper, the aim is to present an historical analysis to account for the association between prostitution, disease, and victimization. It also seeks to examine how…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the aim is to present an historical analysis to account for the association between prostitution, disease, and victimization. It also seeks to examine how stigmatization and rejection are currently focused on the immigrant sex worker.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on historical data about regulations in Portugal, in a recent ethnography carried out with street prostitutes and in a current study on immigrant sex workers and health care.
Findings
Sex workers have been recognized as a group “at risk” both because they are associated with sexually transmitted diseases and because they are acknowledged as victims of traffic and sexual exploitation. This label “group at risk” justifies some state policies often expressed in sanitary and social control measures, as regulations. Because migrant sex workers are simultaneously immigrants and sex workers they are perceived as a threat to social order and a sign of moral disorder and, so, they experience processes of rejection and stigmatization more significantly than local sex workers.
Originality/value
The knowledge of the negative consequences experienced by migrant sex workers implies an effort to produce changes in the policies and practices towards them. All those involved in research or intervention with migrant sex workers have the responsibility to be aware of the discrimination, violence, and control they are subjected to and must be committed enough to challenge them. This paper can be a contribution to that.
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Raquel Sebastian and Magdalena Ulceluse
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of an increase in the relative supply of immigrants on natives’ task reallocation, with a focus on Germany. Specifically, it…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of an increase in the relative supply of immigrants on natives’ task reallocation, with a focus on Germany. Specifically, it investigates whether natives, as a response to increased immigration, re-specialise in communication-intensive occupations, where they arguably have a comparative advantage due to language proficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis uses regional data from the German Labour Force Survey between 2002 and 2014. To derive data on job tasks requirements, it employs the US Department of Labor’s O*NET database, the results of which are tested through a sensitivity analysis using the European Working Condition Survey and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies data sets.
Findings
The paper finds that indeed German workers respond to increasing immigration by shifting their task supply and providing more communication relative to manual tasks. Importantly, the decrease in the supply of communication tasks is stronger and more robust than the increase in the supply of manual tasks, pointing to a potential displacement effect taking place between natives and immigrants, alongside task reallocation. This would suggest that countries with relatively more rigid labour markets are less responsive to immigration shocks. Moreover, it suggests that labour market rigidity can minimise the gains from immigration and exacerbate employment effects.
Originality/value
The paper not only investigates task reallocation as a result of immigration in a different institutional context and labour market functioning, but the results feed into broader policy and scholarly discussions on the effects of immigration, including questions about how the institutional context affects labour market adjustment to immigration, worker occupational mobility in a more rigid labour markets and the fine balance needed between flexibility and rigidity.
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