What Is the Meaning of Migrant Worker?
- The term migrant worker is normally used to describe individuals who have traveled to a different country to find work due to the lack of employment opportunities within their own country or to seek higher paying work. These jobs often involve hard labor, such as farm labor. Portions of their wages may be sent back to support family members left in the home country, or be used to bring the remaining family members into the new country.
- Migrant workers are used by employers to quickly fill positions that may be considered less desirable by the native workforce. Jobs that many migrant workers fill include construction work, farmland cultivation and harvest, housekeeping and other manual labor positions. Oftentimes, migrant workers accept positions that are considered to take place in an unsafe working environment.
- Migrant workers can make up a large portion of the workforce for some professions. A 2008 study by the U.S. Department of Labor found that 10.3 million of the immigrants in this country are here illegally. The farming industry uses a large number of immigrants; 24 percent of its workforce are considered migrant workers. According to Take Part, the farming industry lost more than $1 billion in 2004 due to neglected crops as the government began to crack down on illegal immigration.
- Migrant workers can be found in both urban and rural environments. Where these workers settle is often dependent upon where they enter the country. Workers who arrive in the United States from Mexico often settle in states such as Texas, Arizona and Southern California, while workers arriving from European nations can be found in larger cities such as New York. For example, in 2006 The Bureau of the Census reported that New York, Los Angeles and Chicago had the largest number of immigrant workers within the nation.
- The employment of migrant workers is often a controversial topic. Individuals within the migrant worker community may also be in the country illegally. This leads critics to believe that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from legal Americans. However, a 2004 report by the Century Foundation found that the effect of illegal workers was more dependent upon one's job level. Those with lower skilled positions were more affected than workers in more professional positions. Another controversy within the migrant worker community is the employment of underage children. Organizations such as the People's Movement for Human Rights Education work to establish better conditions for migrant workers and their families.
