Employmentweb_low

epilogue: the econoMic crisis
all of which are likely to affect migrant workers due to their weaker
bargaining power. fourthly, newly arrived migrants or precarious
migrant workers are not eligible for many social benefits and
therefore are likely to risk particular hardship upon loss of
employment. fifthly, there are growing instances of discrimination
and xenophobia against migrant workers, who are mistakenly
perceived as “stealing” local workers’ jobs, particularly in lowskilled
sectors of the labour market. sixthly, there is an increase in
the return of unemployed migrants to their countries of origin,
where they are also likely to face high unemployment and poverty,
constituting a potentially disruptive element to economic and social
stability at home. There has been a significant reversal of ruralurban
internal migration in countries like china, where millions of
migrants have returned to their villages because of lay-offs in the
manufacturing sector in urban centres resulting from the steep fall
in export demand. finally, the crisis is expected to impact male and
female migrant workers differently, especially in affected sectors of
the economy dominated by one gender (such as construction, in
which men predominate, and manufacturing, of which one example
is the textile industry, in which women are overrepresented). Job
losses and worse working conditions for migrants are likely to
disproportionately impact migrant women, who are overrepresented
in the informal, low-skilled and unregulated sectors of
the economy (e.g., domestic work and care work). for women, return
could mean losing economic independence and, for families, a
reduction in income due to the end of remittances.
fifth, it is also likely that, as is already the case with the
environmental crisis and climate change, the very same businesses
and associated interest groups and lobbyists that brought about this
debacle will argue that the health inequalities related to
employment conditions and other social determinants of health
cannot be addressed until the global economic crisis is resolved. in
a similar vein, the same neo-liberal interest groups (and neo-liberal
agencies like the World Trade organization (WTo) and the oecD) are
now arguing that maintaining and, indeed, extending “labour market
flexibility” (a euphemism for precarious employment) is essential to
“saving” jobs and re-initiating economic growth. Thus, contrary to
any careful assessment of the evidence, a critical part of the problem
is redefined as the solution.
sixth, the contention that we cannot afford to deal with health
inequalities in the present climate, though it will undoubtedly exert
significant pressure on governments, represents not only a morally
bankrupt position (why should those whose health has been
workers at the top of a skyscraper on a
construction site employing internal
migrant workers from the countryside.
Beijing (China).
source: © ilo/M. crozet (2007)
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