Protecting Buddhist Women from Muslim Men: “Love Jihad” and the Rise of Islamophobia in Myanmar

Buddhist protectionism in contemporary Myanmar revolves around fears of the decline of Buddhism and deracination of the amyo (group/“race”). Buddhist protectionists and Burmese nationalists have declared Islam and Muslims the greatest threat to race and religion, and Myanmar has witnessed widespread distribution of anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim content, as well as massive violence against Muslim minority communities, the Rohingya in particular. The Indian neologism “Love Jihad” has scarce reference in contemporary Burmese Buddhist discourses, but, importantly, the tropes of aggressive male Muslim sexuality and (forced) conversion through marriage (“love jihad”) have been one of the core issues in Buddhist protectionism in Myanmar. The article shows that such tropes of the threatening foreign male have strong historical legacies in Myanmar, going back to colonial Burma when Burmese concerns over Indian male immigrant workers resulted in both anti-Indian violence and anti-miscegenation laws. Importantly, however, compared to colonial Indophobia and military era xenophobic nationalism, contemporary constructions are informed by new political realities and global forces, which have changed Buddhist protectionist imaginaries of gender and sexuality in important ways. Building on Sara R. Farris’ concept of “femonationalism”, and Roger Brubaker’s concept of civilizationism, the article shows how Global Islamophobia, as well as global discourses on women’s rights and religious freedom, have informed Buddhist protectionism beyond ethnonationalism in the traditional sense.

Regulating domestic and care work in Italy: Assessing the relative influence of the familistic model today

The domestic and care sector continues to display some problematic aspects due to its complexity, especially in terms of regulation. Italy represents a unique and peculiar case, where domestic and care work remains firmly under the purview of family management, and the work itself is entrusted mainly to immigrant workers. This paper aims to investigate, through in-depth interviews with representatives of both unions and employers’ associations, how the key actors involved in regulating domestic and care work intervene, understanding what kind of measures they take and what systems of relations/exchange exist among the different players involved in this process. The research sought to map strategies at a more macro level. While some of the actions undertaken by the social partners seem promising, there is still a lack of full responsibility for care at the public level, with marked asymmetries with respect to both services provided and working conditions.

Inside Jobs: Salary Setting for Immigrants Crossing Establishment, Organizational, and National Boundaries

Using novel US Department of Labor administrative records, the authors test theoretical mechanisms to account for variation in immigrant workers’ starting salaries following key career transitions. Specifically, they examine differences in the base starting salaries and discretionary starting salary increases above these base starting salaries for 1) same-establishment hires, relative to 2) US-based establishment transfers, 3) international establishment transfers, 4) US-based external hires, and 5) international external hires. In support of the “insider premium” account, findings show that same-establishment hires tend to work in jobs with greater requirements, and thus higher base starting salaries. In partial support of the “outsider premium” account, findings show that US-based external hires receive larger starting salary increases than do same-establishment hires, conditional on the jobs they enter. This said, international external hires receive smaller starting salary increases than do same-establishment hires. Findings reveal distinct mechanisms, acting separately or in tandem, during salary-setting processes.

Governing Precarious Immigrant Workers in Rural Localities: Emerging Local Migration Regimes in Portugal

Over the last decades, the globalization of the food and agriculture sector has fueled international labor migration to rural areas in Southern Europe. Portugal is no exception to this trend, as the intensification of foreign investment in agriculture combined with a declining and ageing workforce created a demand for flexible immigrant labor. The Eastern European and Asian immigrant workers who answered the industry’s call were confronted with poor working conditions and lacking access to public services. In this article, we zoom in on the governance challenge that the presence of precarious immigrant workers (PIWs) poses to rural municipalities in the south of Portugal. The burgeoning literature on local integration policies mainly focuses on how cities deal with the challenge posed by international labor migration. This article draws on a detailed case study of the municipality of Odemira to argue that more attention needs to be paid to emerging local migration regimes in non-urban localities. By adopting a regime-theoretical approach, we study how power relations between the local government, civil society, and the private sector play out around the question of immigrant reception. Our study suggests that immigration policies in rural localities are increasingly being developed through cooperation and coproduction between public and private actors. First, we demonstrate how the presence of PIWs is perceived as a policy “problem” by each actor. Second, we outline how a governing coalition formed around the shared concern to improve arrival infrastructures, stimulate integration, mediate socio-cultural impact, and accommodate business interests. We conclude by critically questioning the impact that emerging local migration regimes have on the rights and social position of PIWs in rural contexts.

The contribution of immigration from Ukraine to economic growth in Poland

From 2014 onwards Poland witnessed an unprecedented inflow of immigrant workers from Ukraine. Coupled with strong labour demand, this surge in labour supply provided a major contribution to Poland’s economic growth. However, due to problems with capturing immigration in Labour Force Survey data this contribution has remained hitherto largely unaccounted in official data. This paper uses a range of alternative official data sources to estimate the actual number of immigrants, and survey data on migrant characteristics, collected in four Polish cities, to estimate the effective labour supply of Ukrainian immigrants in terms of productivity-adjusted hours worked. The authors find that the arrival of Ukrainian workers was increasing the effective labour supply in Poland in 2013–2018 by 0.8% per annum. Imputing this additional labour supply in a growth accounting exercise they find that the (previously unaccounted) contribution of Ukrainian workers amounted to about 0.5 pp. per annum, i.e., about 13% of Poland’s GDP growth in 2013–2018. The same figure should be subtracted from the residual contribution of total factor productivity growth, suggesting that recent growth in Poland has been in fact much more labour-intensive than previously interpreted.

THE RIGHTS OF IMMIGRANT WORKERS DURING THE PANDEMIC

International migration characterizes contemporary social and economic life. As governments around the world take on this reality, they face the challenge of developing effective cooperation in this area. Migration is closely linked to the broader global transformations of the economic spheres, social, political and technological problems that affect a wide variety of political problems at a high level, and labor migration responds to the challenges posed by these changes that require presence of foreign workers in industrialized countries. Most migrants respond to employment problems and, in this regard, the International Labor Organization has been particularly concerned about employment prospects and migratory flows.