Can smartphones empower labour migrants? The case of Kyrgyzstani migrants in Russia

ABSTRACT

In the last two decades, mobile phones and new technologies have transformed migration. Some scholars argue that they help empower migrants, who are otherwise often marginalized in their host country. We discuss the extent to which this is true for Kyrgyz labour migrants in Russia, a relatively large diaspora that suffers from multiple levels of disempowerment, ranging from precarious living and working conditions to a lack of legal support and representation from their home government. Relying on fieldwork conducted in Kyrgyzstan in 2017 and 2018, we explore the extent to which smartphones are enabling Kyrgyz labour migrants in Russia to be informed about migration rules, help each other abroad, connect as a diaspora, and discuss important diaspora topics. Our findings are relevant beyond academia, as many international and governmental agencies are trying to assist migrants through technology; they also point to several missed opportunities for these organizations.     

Pathways to child work in Tajikistan: narratives of child workers and their parents

A recent child-work study by the International Labour Organization reports that 27% of children in Tajikistan ages 5–17 worked in 2013. Although children worked in agriculture or performed household chores in Soviet Tajikistan, child work for pay is a relatively new phenomenon in modern Tajikistan. This study examines the pathways to child work and the families’ perceptions of child work experiences. Some of the main findings of this study are the themes connected to normalization and acceptance of child work in Tajikistan. These are explained by expectations placed on children at the social, family and personal levels that are in turn affected by macroeconomic forces that are by-products of the transitional economy. The study also explores differences in expectations by gender, age and area of residence.     

Labour Unrest in Vietnam and China: Insurgency or Contained Contention?

This article reviews three recent books on labour politics in Vietnam and China: Angie Tran’s Ties That Bind: Cultural Identity, Class and Law in Vietnam’s Labor Resistance; Jeffrey Becker’s Social Ties, Resources and Migrant Labor Contention in Contemporary China: From Peasants to Protesters, and Eli Friedman’s Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Post-Socialist China. These three books capture the changing patterns of labour unrest and labour institutions in Vietnam and China, which are accounted for by the social foundation of resistance as well as the political economy of capitalist development. Their main contribution to the existing literature is that they draw out the new dynamics and new venues within the state that can both enable and constrain labour resistance and struggle in these countries. However, this article also argues that these works have not adequately theorised the nature of change within the state and the role of the law in labour resistance. It therefore suggests that bringing in the law to socio-political institutions is essential to a research agenda that explores continuity and change in labour politics in Vietnam and China as transitional economies.     

我国劳动争议仲裁制度的不足及完善

劳动争议仲裁是解决劳动争议的一条重要途径。随着经济的发展和劳动争议数量的增加,我国现行劳动争议仲裁制度存在着立法规格不高、内容不完善、组织机构不健全等不足。完善现行劳动争议仲裁制度,应该实行裁审脱钩的双轨制,加强劳动争议仲裁机构建设,确定劳动争议案的执行措施和配套措施,真正体现劳动争议仲裁制度公正、经济的价值取向。     

关于续签集体合同工作的实践和思考

按照全国总工会要求 ,要推进平等协商和集体合同制度实现新突破 ,已经建立集体合同制度的企业就要持之以恒的抓好续签集体合同和落实合同条款的工作。在续签集体合同工作中要把握好五个环节 ,要坚持企业党委对签订集体合同工作的指导 ,从实际出发制定合同条款 ,并对新形势下建立集体合同机制中遇到的新问题进行研究和探索。     

State-Owned Enterprises in Less Developed Countries: Privatization and Alternative Reform Strategies

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have typically played a much larger role in the economies of developing countries than developed countries. However, empirical evidence on the economic performance of SOEs generally yields negative results and suggests that SOEs are a major tax on the economies of developing countries reflected in the large operating subsidies required to sustain them. These inefficiencies seem in part attributable to ownership effects and partly to lack of competition effects. Empirical evidence on the effect of privatization of state-owned enterprises in both developed and developing countries suggests that this is often likely to lead to major improvement in economic performance. However, where privatization is not politically feasible, SOE reform alternatives such as management contracts, performance contracts, and greater exposure to competition may, in some contexts, enhance SOE performance, although typically they are second-best policy options to privatization.     

Social Norms and the Feeling of Justice about Unequal Family Practices

After briefly retracing the origins of the present day unbalanced division of family work, this paper article summarizes results from three studies conducted with married adults and unmarried young adults from northern Portugal. The data support the idea that (a) unequal family practices do not change because traditional practices are social norms that orientate individuals’ behavior; (b) individuals do not comply passively to these social norms but consider that the normative practices are fair; (c) normative family practices are considered to be fair because women, as well as men, seem to gain benefits from traditional family organization. The social consequences for women of the maintenance of normative family practices are discussed.

劳动教养制度改革与刑事案件分流

劳动教养制度与刑事案件分流有着密切的关系。刑事案件的分流是劳动教养产生和发展的重要前提 ,它的完善对劳动教养制度有重要作用 ;劳动教养制度的改革和完善是刑事案件分流的客观要求和重要保障。     

新形势下劳动竞赛变化之浅析

新形势下,社会主义劳动竞赛不仅要继续存在,更应该积极地研究其新内容,探索其发展的新途径、新办法,不断创新劳动竞赛形式,提高竞赛运行机制和竞赛质量,实现劳动竞赛质量的提高和飞跃。     

《高校毕业生就业协议书》的法律性质及其完善

《高校毕业生就业协议书》是我国就业体制从计划经济体制向市场经济体制过渡过程中,对高校毕业生就业的一种管理方式,是介于国家分配(派遣)和市场寻找(劳动合同)之间的一种特殊产物。由于对就业协议的法律性质和责任承担尚无立法上的明确规定,导致就业协议在实践中产生诸多问题,因此必须对就业协议进行完善使之与劳动合同合二为一,直至取消就业协议。