Intercultural Conflict Analysis - Essay Example

Intercultural Conflict Analysis Number: Lecturer: One of the global intercultural crises facing a considerable portion of the population people is migrant labor. In recent years, the topic of migration and labor has emerged in many theoretical academic publications, highlighting the issue as a global concern. In this study, an analysis of migrant labor violations in three countries, United States, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh is conducted. The research will adopt an analytical approach where previous academic journals and publications are reviewed to establish the relationships between immigration, human right violations and global labor markets. Intercultural Conflict Analysis Introduction Millions of immigrants go to foreign nations every year to find work and living. Labor immigration has become an important aspect to discuss in the world today because of the number of people, states and issues surrounding it. Million of foreign workers seek work in foreign countries such as oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Gulf States as well as the United States of America. According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training in Bangladesh, the number of immigrants migrating to Gulf Cooperation Council between 1976 and 2009 are over 5 million. Saudi Arabia and United States are the topmost destinations. International labor market migration has increased in the recent past with countries such as Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius being the newest destination. The rise in international labor market has resulted in an increased complexity with respect to political and human right challenges. As governments struggle in the face of increased political pressure to exercise vigilance in exercising rights and wellbeing of its citizens, conflicts seem to be increasing also. Issues of migrant worker exploitation and increased prejudice against migrant workers, with the later exerting more pressure on the already unpredictable overseas human capital markets. According to International Labor Organization (ILO), the concept of labor exploitation can be understood as rejection of the specific rights pertaining to the immigrant labor in contrast to the guidelines set by National Labor Laws. Labor exploitation includes maltreatment of labor, physical torture & abuse, sexual abuse from employers along with mental and psychological torture among others1. Correspondingly, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and the UN International Convention recognizes exploitation of immigrant labor practices as the calculative efforts for refusing the human rights as well as the employment rights of the immigrant labors. World Vision2 also identifies the approach of forced labor as one of the cruelest form of exploitation, where the employers take benefit of the undue advantages of immigrant labor in the presence of legislative gaps. According to the report published by ILO3, an approximate 12.3 million people face forced labor challenges on a global scale. Moreover, Directorate General ILO forwarded an idea that an increase in force labor is a result of inclusion of deception regarding the type of work and general terms along with restriction on payments made to immigrant labors on a timely basis4. Labor exploitation also revolves around the concept of bonded labor in the foreign countries. According to World Vision, the situation of bonded labor arises when an immigrant is unable to pay his dues to the employer owing to which he/she becomes a permanent worker of the employer5. In similar context HREA, stresses upon the concept of slavery as another important factor stimulating the exploitation of labor in workplace. On an organizational viewpoint, slavery can be stated to occur when an individual’s life is controlled and influenced by another individual, where the former is deprived of his labor and sacrifice6. The same sentiments have been raised by Bales7 who contends that individuals are held and enslaved in a forceful manner against their preferences with the intent of exploitation. The author further adds that the concept of slavery must not be assumed as a past happening, as slavery remains prevalent where situations of gullibility and poverty still exist. According to the statistical data of ILO for the year 2003, around 27 million people globally, remain under slavery, which includes major portions of them as immigrant labors. Apart from the above reviews on various forms of exploitation, UNODC8 encompasses around the issues of sexual exploitation as well as human trafficking as one of the major forms of immigrant labor exploitation. It explains that this form of exploitation revolves around the concept of prostitution and other forms of sexual abuse of others, apart from servitude, forced labor, organ trafficking and slavery among other9. Betty10 revealed the fact that employers in Saudi Arabia are withholding the passports of the immigrant laborers, where hundreds of them are dwelling in substandard locations. A report published in The New York Times, gave an idea of the fact of how immigrant workers belonging from Bangladesh, were arrested and jailed in as majority of them went on strikes. They were employed as immigrant laborers in building universities in New York. These workers never received a salary hike in the past eight years owing to which they had to survive in pathetic conditions and face exploitation from their employers continuously11. This research is initiated with the core objective of defining as well as studying a contemporary cultural conflict, which will address the underlying forms of cultural identity that results in creation of conflicts. The study will focus on the global intercultural crises with special focus upon the exploitation of immigrant labor. The main objective of this research is to study the conflict arising because of exploitation of immigrant labor in nations like Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and United States among others. Labors from across the globe, has been migrating to different places owing to lack of jobs and proper lifestyle in home countries. Most of the immigrants belong to the underdeveloped nations and hence, they have to move across the international borders in search of a better living for themselves. As these workers seek new and better opportunities for fulfilling basic amenities, they are lured away by employers who offer low wages and poor working conditions. These employers take benefit of this need of the migrants and exploit the labor in the form of physical and monetary losses. Apart from exploitation by employers, language barriers, low level of education, absence of documentation and high degree of exposure to intimidation and exploitation also impacts these groups significantly. Method In this research, an analytic approach is used to study the research question. The resources needed in this study incorporate scholastic diaries, articles, distributions, and other exploratory material needed to educate on the degree of harassing abuse and enduring of vagrants in remote nations. Information is sourced from human right lobbyist offices, instructive offices, and reviews led in the US, Saudi Arabia and different parts of the world regarding inter cultural social clashes emerging from vagrant exercises and work markets. Information amassed over a time of numerous years will be broke down to secure if there is a relationship between a few types of overseeing structures and the pervasiveness of human right infringement. Other information will be sourced from assessed scholastic paper and distributions. Data is collected through internet searches and databases having information regarding immigrant exploitation and slavery in Bangladesh, United States and Saudi Arabia. Google Scholar is the main internet source for searching journals, editorials, and other academic publications. The keywords used in the searches include such phrases as “labor exploitations in Saudi Arabia and Middle East”, “Plight of Bangladesh immigrant workers in foreign countries” and “world overview of immigrant labor issues”. The research resulted in journals and publications with surveys and reviews of immigrant exploitations in foreign countries. In addition, websites such as www.GCCHumanRights.org and www.migrationpolicy.org was instrumental with information relating to migrant exploitation and human right violations. Data collected in the study are analyzed according to their defining features. For instance, qualitative and quantitative data was available and required an analytical approach to separate and derive contexts. While the qualitative approach sought to explain the why, where, when and what, the quantitative data informed on the extent of migrant exploitation and conflicts presented in form of numbers. Results This particular section of the study will provide an in-depth knowledge of the research subject by depicting the data collection as well as analyzing the same with a narrative analysis approach. From the views of Tormey12 it has been interpreted that exploitation is a serious issue, where the employers can be said to derive undue advantages from the employees. The employers enjoy influencing authority over the labors and their work. They derive benefits from the immigrant workers by restricting adequate payment to them for the work performed. In such situation, the employers’ gains in contrast to the immigrant labor who have to face significant losses. Furthermore, the views of Tormey13 can be compared with the objective of shedding light upon the issue of exploitation in relation to the immigrant labors. According to his views, exploitations include advantages and gains to someone regardless of its legality and ethicality. It can further be interpreted that exploitation of the immigrant workers is a zero-sum game, where what the employer gains benefit from, the same is lose for the immigrant labor. With the help of the study of Goodin14, it can also be interpreted that the exploitation of the immigrant workers inherits a negative behavior, which violates consideration of the ethical laws that are developed for protecting the immigrant labor. Furthermore, it was also understood that exploitation exists in such situations where there involves the presence of a privileged and an unprivileged party and the former is involved in extracting undue benefits from the latter. It can also be understood from the above review that exploitation disobeys the moral guidelines of defending the immigrant labor which is also illegal at the same time. The review provided an insight about the ethical burden, which is placed on the shoulder of employer, who implements the same for their own benefits. These findings of the study directly correlate with the research objective of understanding of labor exploitation. As per the facts provided by ILO15 regarding labor exploitation in workplace, it can be comprehended that labor exploitation is the rejection of specific rights concerning the immigrant labor as per the standard guidelines of National Labor Laws. Furthermore, with the help of ILO16 and its data relevant to the topic, important information regarding the forms of exploitation was retrieved. It was found that labor exploitation includes physical abusiveness and torture, where employers torture the immigrant labors by ill treatment and ask them to perform certain physical wrongdoings. Apart from torture, the employees are also maltreated with regard to their labor by providing them fewer payments for what they actually deserved and forcing them to perform added work. Sexual abuse was also observed as an important factor affecting the immigrant labors. The employers in exchange of certain benefits sexually abuse the labors in most of the scenario. Hence, the above review helped in gaining a better understanding of the means and types of labor exploitation. Findings were drawn based upon the data gathered from World Vision17 that included the interpretation of review that Forced Labor is one of the worst forms of exploitation faced by immigrant workers in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. The review further helped in finding that forced labor can arise out of situations where the employers are involved in seeking undue advantages from the labor with their understanding of the gaps in the legislative norms. This review further, gave a brief understanding of the importance of framing new legislative norms and the need to revise the old legislations by nations in order to prevent immigrant labors from getting exploited. Apart from these reviews, the articles of HREA18, Bales19 and UNODC20 helped in gaining a better understanding of the various forms of exploitation against immigrant labors and the problems they face in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and the U.S among others. Conclusions From the overall study, it can be comprehended that exploitation is a major factor concerning the immigrant labors, as their employers exploit them in various ways. The research was conducted with the purpose of understanding the various forms of exploitations that the immigrant labor encounters in nations such as Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. The study found that exploitation results in the benefit for the employer as they exercise negative control over the immigrant labors. With the help of articles and scholarly journals, some of the common forms of exploitation were identified, including forced labor, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and trafficking among others. The study was conducted with the help of secondary sources of data collection were information was gathered via journals and newspapers and was further analyzed through narrative analysis and qualitative approach. Finally, the reviews were elaborated in the findings to address the research objectives. The story of migrant workers points to a two-sided problem that needs to be addressed. On one side, migrants need to find employment in the host country to sustain their life and move forward because of the few alternatives in their own country. On the other side, their working conditions are below normal, as in most instances, they are exposed to deplorable working environments, and insufficient wages. Exposing the deplorable conditions is a requirement that will guarantee their overall conditions. In most instances, agencies, media and individuals exposing the bad working conditions leads to worsening of conditions. Situations have been reported where labor camps have been opened or migrants sent home as a result of championing of their rights, losing their jobs and their earnings. Striking the balance between exposing the truths without causing unwarranted harm to workers is a uphill task for human right crusaders and government agencies. From the analysis of the study, it can be recommended that the bodies governing labor legislations must enable certain steps to prohibit exploitation of immigrant labor in future. The bodies must provide the labors with relevant knowledge of host nation situations, share information on labor legislations, setting up information centers for immigrant workers and ensure that quality labor inspection is implemented and maintained within the organizational framework. References (HREA), H. R. (2015). Slavery and Force Labor. Retrieved from http://www.hrea.org/index.php?doc_id=430 Bales, K. (1999). Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. California: University of California Press. Batty, D. (2015, February 12). Conditions for Abu Dhabis migrant workers shame the west. Guardian News and Media Limited, pp. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/22/abu-dhabi-migrant-workers-conditions-shame-west. Dwyer, J. (2015, February 10). Report Details the Worker Complaints That Blurred N.Y.U.’s Emirates Vision. The New York Times Company, pp. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/nyregion/report-details-the-worker-complaints-that-blu. Goodin, R. (1988). Reasons for Welfare. Princeton: : Princeton University Press. ILO. (2015). A global alliance against forced labor. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc93/pdf/rep-i-b.pdf. Kibria, N. (2011, August 9). Working Hard for the Money: Bangladesh Faces Challenges of Large-Scale Labor Migration. Retrieved from Migration Policy Institute: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/working-hard-money-bangladesh-faces-challenges-large-scale-labor-migration Sina, A. (2012, June 25). Immigrant Slavery in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: An Interview with Jay Johnson. Retrieved from Faith Freedom: http://www.faithfreedom.org/immigrant-slavery-in-gulf-cooperation-council-countries-an-interview-with-jay-johnson/ Tormey, J. (2008). Exploitation, Oppression and Self-Sacrifice. Philosophical Forum, 206-221. UNODC. (2015. , February 11). United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime And Protocols Hereto. Retrieved from http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNTOC/Publications/TOC%20Convention/TOCebook-e.pdf Vision, W. ( 2015. , February 11). Fact Sheets: Labor exploitation. Retrieved from World Vision: http://www.worldvision.com.au/Libraries/DTL_fact_sheets/Factsheet_Labour.pdf Read More