International Labor Migration Foreign Workers and Public Policy

by Bartram, David

• ISBN13: 9781403946744
• ISBN10: 1403946744
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-22
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Studies of international labour migration typically assume that foreign labour is a universal feature of wealthy economies. However, some wealthy societies do not import workers on a large scale, despite employers' pressures. Using Israel and Japan as empirical cases, this comparative-historical work investigates why some governments allow employers relatively free access to foreign labour, while others require alternative responses to labour shortages.

Author Biography

David Bartram teaches in Sociology at the University of Reading.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	vii
Acknowledgments	viii
Introduction	1	(30)
Specification of the problem	3	(5)
The need for a new approach	8	(3)
The basic argument	11	(13)
Research strategy	24	(5)
Normative interlude	29	(1)
Plan of the book	30	(1)
Labor Migration in the Postwar Period	31	(22)
Concepts: from intuition to greater precision	32	(9)
Empirical applications: implications and difficulties	41	(9)
Foreign workers in wealthy countries	50	(1)
Conclusion	50	(3)
Foreign Workers Policy in Israel	53	(50)
Policymaking in Israel	54	(5)
Palestinians from the occupied territories	59	(7)
Israel's new foreign labor force	66	(8)
The failure to attract Israelis to construction	74	(11)
The decision to import construction labor	85	(8)
Outcomes: Enhanced profits for contractors and others	93	(4)
Foreign workers in agriculture	97	(4)
Conclusion	101	(2)
Alternatives to Foreign Labor in Japan	103	(51)
Japan in the labor migration literature	105	(1)
Before the oil-shock -- Was Japan different?	106	(7)
Official and private perceptions of the problem	113	(5)
Substitutes for foreign labor	118	(15)
Economic policy and state governance	133	(17)
Conclusion	150	(4)
Labor Migration, Social Membership, and Race	154	(12)
Foreign labor and social membership	157	(6)
The perspective of sending countries	163	(3)
Appendix	166	(3)
Notes	169	(8)
References	177	(16)
Index	193