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Migrant worker

The office of the Culinary Workers Union is seen through a car window in Las Vegas, Nov. 9, 2020. The union represents 60,000 people, most of them immigrants, in the Las Vegas area who work in the hospitality industry. 

Undocumented people bring grassroots organizing skills to the labor movement

Jobs

The majority of undocumented immigrants can’t legally work in the US. But some — like those with DACA — have work permits. Despite the uncertainty around their futures as workers in the US, many of them are leading the fight to unionize and get better working conditions for future workers. 

An attendee at the House Homeland Security Committee field hearing at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, holds a sign written in English and Spanish, stating "Let us work," Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019. 

Seasonal workers have long faced gender and pay discrimination. Now there’s a way to file direct complaints.

Business, Economics and Jobs
A farmworker, considered an essential worker under the current COVID-19 pandemic, harvests beans, May 12, 2020, in Homestead, Florida.

Farmworkers are getting coronavirus. They face retaliation for demanding safe conditions.

COVID-19
Migrant farmworkers harvest corn

Migrant farmworkers in US deemed essential — but lack basic protections

Justice
Former dairy farm worker sues

For undocumented workers, demanding better work conditions could mean deportation

Migration
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A man in welder's coveralls stands in a metal workshop.

Many immigrants have years of work experience. ‘Upskilling’ programs are helping them use that knowledge.

Jorge Balcazar already has 10 years of welding experience. A six-month certification course will help him get ahead.

Laborers working on the Qatar 2022 World Cup project arrive at their accommodations in Doha.

Big-money World Cup sponsors may be the last hope for Qatar’s migrant workers

Conflict

Amnesty International says Qatar is failing to act fast enough to improve conditions for migrant workers building its World Cup soccer stadiums. But critics says it’s only when sponsors like Coca-Cola and VISA speak up that soccer’s governing body, FIFA, pays attention.

Farm book

What’s it like to be a migrant farmworker? One anthropologist lived and worked alongside them.

Books

“I’ll never feel the same about berries,” says Seth Holmes. In “Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies,” he describes the bone-crushing work that he and Mexican migrant workers did to put fruit and vegetables on your table.

Laborers work at a construction site in Doha on June 18, 2012.

Foreign workers face exploitation and death while building Qatar’s World Cup sites

Development

As many as 1,000 foreign workers have been killed on construction sites in Qatar since it was awarded the 2022 World Cup four years ago. Poor pay, inhumane conditions, malnutrition and death — all are part of life for the men trying to build the new stadiums and hotels, while supporting their families.

Women walk past buildings as the sun sets in Doha October 19, 2010.

Qatar’s treatment of its migrant workers goes under the microscope

Global Scan

Qatar has been blasted for its treatment of its laborers — and a new report paints an unpleasant picture of what those jobs can be like. Plus Switzerland considers a big increase to its minimum wage and a Beijing student sees smog as a way to put smiles on people’s faces.

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