Foreign worker
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Expand A foreign worker (also: "guest worker" or "migrant worker" or "economic migrant"), is a person who works in a country other than the one of which he or she is a citizen. Foreign workers are distinguished from expatriates in that they have not eschewed citizenship of their nation of origin.
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Types of foreign workers
The term, in its broadest sense, may cover a multitude of cases. Most commonly, it refers to economic migrants, who typically travel (either legally or illegally) to a country with better job prospects than the one in which they hold citizenship. Those that are legal may be either full-fledged immigrants or may be in the host country on a conditional work permit. Sometimes the host country sets up a real advertising program in order to invite foreign workers, as did the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s, when over one million of so-called guest workers (Gastarbeiter) were attracted, mostly from Italy, Spain or Turkey.
Current estimates of the total number of international migrant workers stand at about 25 million, with a comparable number of dependents accompanying them. About 10 million of these, including 4 or 5 million illegal immigrants are working in the United States, which draws most of its immigrants from Mexico. Northwestern Europe has about 5 million migrant workers.
The term can also include international experts working out-of-country (usually, but not always, legally) and any number of cases in between.
Controversy
In recent years in the USA there has been much controversy over whether H-1B visas, intended to bring highly skilled workers to fill gaps in the domestic labor pool, are instead being used to bring in skilled, but otherwise unexceptional, economic migrants as cheap labor to fill jobs that could readily be filled domestically.
On the other hand, less developed countries like India, Pakistan, and the Philippines have long experienced a brain drain of highly skilled workers to developed countries like the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia. While the absolute number of such emigres are not large, the economic implications of such very skilled workers is significant. Over the past 8 years, the number of foreign workers in western nations has incresased dramatically, leaving world leaders to consider how best to manage the influx of migrants leaving third world nations.
In certain less tolerant nations, foreign workers may be abused and treated as second-class citizens by the governments and/or prevailing social mores.
See also
References
Knox, Paul; Agnew, John; McCarthy, Linda (2003). The Geography of the World Economy (4th ed.). London: Hodder Arnold. ISBN 0-340-80712-1.