Regulating the Business of Labour Migration Intermediaries

Beate Andrees

• Publisher: tredition
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9783347220003
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

The business of labour migration intermediation has existed as long as people traded and migrated across territories, countries and continents. Recent technological innovations and the global expansion of production and trade have led to an unprecedented increase in international labour migration, providing a fertile ground for labour migration intermediaries.As many recipient countries have created high entry barriers, especially for low-skilled workers, migrants are often at the mercy of informal recruiters. In the worst case, they end up in the clutches of unscrupulous smugglers and traffickers.The growing trend towards informal labour migration intermediation creates regulatory challenges, which are discussed in the book. Which regulatory regimes are best suited to formalize the migration intermediation business, and to protect migrants from exploitation and abuse? Under what conditions will they most likely occur?The study uses a mix of qualitative methods, including a comparative analysis of the regulation of labour migration intermediaries in the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation. In both countries, international standards, particularly on human trafficking and private employment agencies, guided regulatory initiatives. Their outcomes, however, depended on a range of factors, including the creation of alliances between business and workers.

1 Introduction

1.1 Context and problem statement

The global integration of national economies has increased the flow of goods, services, information, and, albeit to a much lesser extent, the flow of people across borders. While many skilled professionals found employment in new production zones and service centres, low skilled migrant workers struggle against entry barriers imposed by destination countries. Labour migration intermediaries (LMIs), such as labour recruiters, employment agencies and a wide range of informal intermediaries, promise jobseekers different ways to overcome these barriers. They have grown in importance by exploiting restrictions on labour mobility and situations of imperfect information between workers and employers in source and destination countries. They offer information about job opportunities abroad, organise transportation, facilitate money transfers and provide loans to finance migration. While informal networks play a crucial role, formal employment agencies are increasingly entering the market, hoping to benefit from the migration bonanza that the global integration of markets has created.

All across the world, however, reports about the abuse of migrant workers by unscrupulous labour recruiters are emerging in disturbing numbers. Almost every day, a listener or reader of global media will hear about cases of severe exploitation: Burmese migrants lured on board Thai fishing vessels against their will, Nepalese workers tricked and trapped on construction sites in Qatar, severely indebted Bangladeshi workers assembling computers in Malaysia, or Romanians working in Germany’s slaughterhouses under precarious conditions.

The tragedies unfolding in the Mediterranean and elsewhere at high Sea also point to the failure of existing migration and asylum regimes to respond to crises and to provide safe migration routes. The depletion of natural resources in many parts of the world, conflict, violence and war will push more people to leave their countries and communities searching for security and employment.

Most of them depend on smugglers who provide crucial information and transportation but may also treat human beings like cargo that can be abandoned and shoved around. Informal LMIs, including criminal networks, facilitate job placement in recipient countries, often illegally as long as refugees are barred from formal access to the labour market during their asylum procedures.

Forced migration as well as the reception and integration of refugees are complex issues to which this study cannot do justice. However, it is important to note that the border between labour migration and forced migration are often blurred, and LMIs play an important role in both migration contexts.

LMIs, whether they are legitimate or not, promise a way out of misery. They flourish in an environment where employment opportunities are scarce, where labour supply beats demand and where legal migration channels are limited. For many families, especially in the Global South, migration has brought relative wealth and higher social status. However, for some, the journey has gone terribly wrong, and where it did, it often started with an abusive labour migration intermediary.

The history books are full of stories about the forced and fraudulent recruitment of people against the backdrop of war, colonialism, and widespread destitution. People were bought and sold as if they were goods under the ancient institution of slavery, under colonial rule and with the emergence of indentured and contract labour under capitalism. Nevertheless, people also resisted their exploitation, and over the course of history, moral consciousness was changing too. The struggle towards the abolition of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade fundamentally altered the perception of what was morally acceptable and what was not. It was only a precursor to the emerging labour movement at the end of the 19^th and early 20^th century which claimed, “Labour was not a commodity”, a principle that later became enshrined in international norms. For a brief period in history, the services relating to the recruitment of workers were considered to benefit the public and profit-making recruitment agencies were banned from most countries. This period ended with the global restructuring of labour markets in recent decades and the introduction of flexible labour arrangements. Yet the protection of workers, in particular migrants, from exploitation and abuse remains a creed in international law and practice.

Considering the progressive strengthening of international norms related to the recruitment of migrant workers, reports of their continued exploitation are puzzling. The question is:

What makes it so difficult to set up a functioning regulatory system for international labour recruitment, which ensures that employers can find the workers they need and that workers are protected from abuse, especially those who are recruited across international borders?

The following research project emerged that seeks to blend theoretical and methodological reflections with empirical evidence and policy-relevant recommendations starting with this catalyst question.

1.2 Identification of research gaps

Labour migration intermediaries (LMIs) connect national labour markets by transporting millions of workers across countries and back again. Their astonishing growth and proliferation across the globe has prompted debates seeking for an explanation. As reports about fraud and abuse continue to surface, the search for regulatory options to limit the excesses of private labour migration intermediaries has also intensified. Yet the understanding of how LMIs operate, how they interact with different models of regulation, and how they are embedded in broader structures of production is still in its infancy.

In the late 1990s, researchers dealing with migration started to look at, what was then coined, the “migration industry”², that is the web of brokers, moneylenders, transporters, smugglers and traffickers that connects employers and migrant workers across source, transit and destination countries. The specific role of LMIs in the labour market, in particular private labour recruiters, however, remained an under-researched subject. As one scholar described it: “if migration is the most under-researched of the global flows, the role of private agents is among the most understudied aspects of international labour migration”.³

A range of detailed empirical studies emerged in recent years, mostly describing recruitment practices in specific migration corridors. The majority of those studies analysed the role of LMIs from the perspective of migrant workers, thereby highlighting both negative and positive aspects of such services. The emphasis is usually on recruitment agencies and their regulation at source instead of destination countries of migration. The majority of those studies have focused on the recruitment of migrant workers from South Asia to the Middle East and from Mexico to the United States. Very little is known about labour recruitment practices and their regulation in other parts of the world.⁴

Despite this wealth of empirical and policy-oriented studies, the theoretical understanding of LMIs is still underdeveloped. There is a need to systematize and assess these empirical studies within a broader theoretical framework, which would explain the emergence of LMIs and their interaction with different regulatory models. While labour market intermediation has received growing attention in the economics literature the specifics of labour migration intermediation and its regulation have been studied less.⁵

Under a different body of research, scholars concerned with labour relations and labour market regulation have analysed the rise of labour market intermediaries and the evolution of employment relationships in industrial and post-industrial societies. Much of this research has focused on the organisation of work and production within vertically and horizontally integrated corporations.⁶ A sub-category of this research is concerned with human resource management, including skills development. Various studies have sought to understand the rationale of firms using temporary labour or outsourcing certain tasks or jobs. Other scholars emphasised the perspective of workers who are placed and employed by private employment agencies, the gendered fragmentation of work and evolving models of labour market governance. While this body of research sometimes makes explicit reference to migrant workers, LMIs are not their primary focus.⁷

This research project is situated at the intersection of migration research on the one hand and research concerned with the evolution of labour markets, employment relations and regulations, on the other. By connecting these different strands of research, this study aims to address several research gaps. First, the lack of a broader research design, which goes beyond the specifics of empirical cases. Second, the gap in empirical understanding with regards to the interaction between LMIs and different models of regulation. Third, the lack of focus on LMIs in destination countries as opposed to LMIs in the source countries of migrant workers.

1.3 Purpose of the study and research questions

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyse the interaction between LMIs operating in different migration corridors, and regulatory regimes that are aimed at limiting abusive and exploitative practices of LMIs. The aim is to draw policy-relevant conclusions from such comparative analysis, which are based on empirical evidence and informed by theoretical reflections on the role of LMIs and their regulation. The assumption is that abusive and exploitative practices are more likely to occur in low-skilled and labour intensive economic sectors. The study will therefore be limited to LMIs operating in those sectors, as opposed to executive search agencies (“head hunters”) or other labour market intermediaries operating within the highly skilled spectrum of the labour market.

The overarching question of this research project is as follows:

Which regulatory regimes are more likely to protect migrant workers against abusive and exploitative LMIs? Under what conditions do such regimes emerge?

This question can be broken down into three sets of sub-questions:

• What are the different types of LMIs and how do they operate within selected migration corridors?
What explain the emergence of LMIs, in particular those operating in lowskilled and labour intensive economic sectors? Which exploitative and abusive practices are used by LMIs?

• Which regulatory regimes exist at national and international levels?
How have international norms aimed at regulating LMIs evolved against the backdrop of growing labour mobility and labour flexibility? What are the main features of regulatory regimes in source and destination countries? To what extent do they conform to international standards?

• Following from the above, which regulatory regimes are more likely to reduce the exploitation and abuse of migrant workers during their recruitment process?
Under which conditions do such regimes emerge in destination countries (at the “demand side” of labour recruitment) and what impact could they have on the “supply side” of labour? What is the role of different interest groups (e.g. government, business, trade unions, non-governmental organisations) in shaping those regulations?

1.4 Concepts and definitions

The central terms and concepts used in this study are ill defined in international law. Various academic disciplines have attempted to define them but their use varies according to context. The purpose of this introductory section is therefore to provide some clarity on the use of the key terms. They are grouped together as appropriate.

Labour migration intermediary: LMIs are private or public entities that facilitate workers’ movement across international borders. There are many types of LMIs, such as individual labour recruiters, public employment services, and private companies offering job matching or financial services, criminal networks or philanthropic organisations. The focus of this study is on profitseeking LMIs who recruit and/or contract workers across borders. LMIs acting as labour recruiters provide specific services based on an agreement or contract established between the provider and the recipient of those services (typically the employer and the worker/job-seeker). They are brokers between demand and supply within international labour markets. Recruitment involves several stages: canvassing, testing, (pre) selection, placement, and in some cases, repatriation of workers. These stages can also involve ancillary services, such as document processing, medical tests, transportation, harbouring and transfer of workers to the premises of the employer.

LMIs can also act as labour contractors who recruit workers and make them temporarily available to a client enterprise, also called temporary work agency. Temporary work agencies or labour contractors are recruiters and employers at the same time. Workers thus find themselves in a triangular employment relationship: employed by a temporary employment agency, but working at the premises of an employer (the “client enterprise”) who contracted the agency. While many agencies can act as both labour recruiter and labour contractor, the focus of this study is on the former.⁸

(Forced) Migration/migrant worker/refugee: Migration refers to the movement of people across borders. According to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Theoretical Perspectives on Lmis and Their Regulation
• 3 Research Design
• 4 Recruitment of a „Borderless Workforce“: Trends and Pattern
• 5 Lmis and Their Regulation: Presentation and Analysis of Cases
• 6 Comparative Case Study: United Kingdom and Russian Federation
• 7 Interpretation of Results
• Appendix
• Bibliography