Invisible but not unlimited: migrant workers and their working and living conditions

With migrant workers now a structural workforce segment in a number of branches, this contribution summarises opinion research among such workers, in particular on their housing, working and living situations. The COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the extent to which migrant workers carry out many essential functions in undertakings, albeit without the respect due to them. Many user firms leave the recruitment of migrant labour to their planning department, resulting in an instrumental approach. Trade unions hardly play a role as an agent. As a result, workers are often invisible and unrepresented, while employers glorify the ‘work ethic’ of migrant labour.
As the majority of migrant workers are recruited as temporary agency workers, with HR departments generally not involved, they are not regarded as ‘own staff’. This status is at odds with the observation made during the pandemic that migrant workers perform vital functions in many firms. It also contradicts local research finding that user firms anticipate a need for migrant workers in the future.