Migrant workers

1
Migrant workers

• Seminarfach EN72
• Marina Zielke Mi Tran

2
Structure

• Migrant worker
• Definition
• National perspectives (Europe, Asia, America)
• Views on migrant workers
• Migrant workers in Asia
• Reasons for migration
• Treatment
• Case study Olympic Games 2008
• Political management
• Migrant workers in America
• American view on Asian migrant workers
• Conclusion
• Sources

3
Definition

• different official meanings and connotations
• someone who migrates within a country in search
  of work
• different national views on the term migrant
  workers

4
National Perspectives

• Europe open borders for European migrant workers
  allow them to work in other EU countries
• America reference to someone who regularly works
  away from home
• doing manual labour for low wages e.g. field
  workers
• immigrants without a valid work visa
• seasonal workers
• Asia China workers from poor regions who work
  in industrialized areas and sent their pay back
  home to their families

5
Views on migrant workers

• conservative politicians (industrial countries)
  legal migrant who is a lawbreaker ? one-way
  ticket home
• immigration advocates fundament of globalized
  economy
• politicial leaders of developing countries
  heroes because of financial supporting of their
  families back home

6
Migrant workers in Asia reasons for migration

• globalization
• environmental disaster
• unemployment
• living conditions
• war after-effects
• religious or political persecution

7
Treatment of migrant workers

•   "If my employers went out, they locked the
  door from the outside and took the key."
• bad working conditions
• low wages
• physical and sexual abuse
• violation of human rights
• no health insurance
• slavery
• ? in our cases

8
Working Conditions
9
Case study Olympic Games 2008

• Olympic projects built with "the blood" of
  migrant workers
• approximately 5,300 migrant workers (90)
• dangerous working conditions
• bad housing condutions
• exploitation by employers
• no access to medical treatment
• often go unpaid
• are not registered as residents of Beijing
•  

10
China Is Getting Ready
11
(No Transcript)
12
Political regulations
13
Asian Migrant workers in America

• The question is no longer,
• How do people become Americans?
• but rather How has America become its people?
• ...Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled
  masses yearning to breath free,The wretched
  refuse of your teeming shore...
• 
  Emma Lazarus

14

• the United States a nation of immigrants
• first immigration of Asians dates back to the
  18th century
• never made up more than 5 of the entire
  immigration
• the detention center at Angel Island was used for
  decades to interrogate Chinese immigrants
• race-conscious immigration and naturalization
  policies
• unequal laws

15

• no other immigrant group had to endure a
  consistent denial of citizenship
• reasons for discriminatory treatment are grounded
  in racist beliefs of white European supremacy
• stereotypes of Asians - yellow peril image
• Asians and Asian Americans are perceived as
  foreigners, forever aliens

16
Conclusion

• Pro
• financial support of families
• experiences of working in a new country
• release of the own country
• better payments
• economical benefit

• Contra
• working and living conditions
• exploitation
• discrimination
• unequal laws

? Improvements on migrant rights and treatment
17
Sources

• http//www.hrw.org/en/news/2004/08/31/asias-migran
  t-workers-need-better-protection
• http//www.asianews.it/index.php?lenart11751
• http//asjournal.zusas.uni-halle.de/15
• http//www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/m_mwc_p1.htm
• http//www.hrw.org/de/news/2008/03/11/china-ausbeu
  tung-von-wanderarbeitern-peking
• http//www.asianews.it/index.php?lenart11751
• Pictures
• http//www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-1997
  3.htmlbackToArticle470899
• http//larevolucioncreativa.blogspot.com/2007/10/d
  rerchos-humanos-olmpicos.html
• http//marionluettig.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/ents
  tehunggeschichte-des-logos-fur-die-olympischen-spi
  ele/

18
(No Transcript)