Who Needs Migrant Workers?: Labour Shortages, Immigration, and Public Policy

Are migrant workers needed to "do the jobs that locals will not do" or are they simply a more exploitable labor force? Do they have a better "work ethic" or are they less able to complain? Is migrant labor the solution to "skills shortages" or actually part of the problem? This book provides a comprehensive framework for analyzing the demand for migrant workers in high-income countries. It demonstrates how a wide range of government policies, often unrelated to migration, contribute to creating a growing demand for migrant labor. This demand can persist even during economic downturns. The book includes quantitative and qualitative analyses of the changing role of migrants in the UK economy. The empirical chapters include in-depth examinations of the nature of staff shortages and the use of migrant workers in six sectors: health; social care; hospitality; food production; construction; and financial services. The book's conceptual framework and empirical findings are of importance to academic and policy debates about labor immigration in all high-income countries. The final chapter presents a comparative analysis of research and policy approaches to assessing labor shortages in the UK and the US. It examines the potential lessons of the UK's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) for current debates about labor shortages and immigration reform in the US. The book will be of significant interest to policy-makers, stakeholders, academics and students.

Business & Money

Anderson, Bridget

Ruhs, Martin

Economics

Oxford University Press

Are migrant workers needed to 'do the jobs that locals will not do' or are they simply a more exploitable labour force? Do they have a better "work ethic" or are they less able to complain? Is migrant labor the solution to 'skills shortages' or actually part of the problem? This book provides a comprehensive framework for analysing the demand for migrant workers in high-income countries. It demonstrates how a wide range of government policies, often unrelated to migration, contribute to creating a growing demand for migrant labor. This demand can persist even during economic downturns. The book includes quantitative and qualitative analyses of the changing role of migrants in the UK economy. The empirical chapters include in-depth examinations of the nature of staff shortages and the use of migrant workers in six sectors: health; social care; hospitality; food production; construction; and financial services.The book's conceptual framework and empirical findings are of importance to academic and policy debates about labour immigration in all high-income countries. The final chapter presents a comparative analysis of research and policy approaches to assessing labor shortages in the UK and the U.S. The book will be of significant interest to policy-makers, stakeholders, academics and students.

Many low-income countries and development organizations are calling for greater liberalization of labor immigration policies in high-income countries. At the same time, human rights organizations and migrant rights advocates demand more equal rights for migrant workers. The Price of Rights shows why you cannot always have both.
 Examining labor immigration policies in over forty countries, as well as policy drivers in major migrant-receiving and migrant-sending states, Martin Ruhs finds that there are trade-offs in the policies of high-income countries between openness to admitting migrant workers and some of the rights granted to migrants after admission. Insisting on greater equality of rights for migrant workers can come at the price of more restrictive admission policies, especially for lower-skilled workers. Ruhs advocates the liberalization of international labor migration through temporary migration programs that protect a universal set of core rights and account for the interests of nation-states by restricting a few specific rights that create net costs for receiving countries.
 The Price of Rights analyzes how high-income countries restrict the rights of migrant workers as part of their labor immigration policies and discusses the implications for global debates about regulating labor migration and protecting migrants. It comprehensively looks at the tensions between human rights and citizenship rights, the agency and interests of migrants and states, and the determinants and ethics of labor immigration policy.

The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration

Princeton University Press

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Books by Ruhs, Martin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ruhs, Martin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Who Needs Migrant Workers?: Labour Shortages, Immigration, and Public Policy

Who Needs Migrant Workers?: Labour Shortages, Immigration, and Public Policy

The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration

The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration