Pacific seasonal workers: Learning from the contrasting temporary migration outcomes in Australian and New Zealand horticulture

Abstract

Crowding out" is a widely accepted claim in migration analysis, which posits that the preference of profitmaximising employers for irregular and minimally regulated migrants overregulated alternatives will undermine, if not condemn to failure, well-regulated temporary migration schemes. In this paper, we test the crowding out hypothesis by examining the experience with well-regulated seasonal migrant worker programs in the horticultural sectors of Australia and New Zealand. This experience, which in both countries has involved recruitment of workers from the Pacific Islands, has been divergent, despite the two programs being similar in design. Our findings suggest that the relative attractiveness of regulated and unregulated migrant labour sources depends on a range of factors, including the export orientation of the sector, the costs of collective action and regulation, differences in policy design and implementation, and external factors.Depending on industry and economy-wide characteristics, quality and reputational benefits for employers can offset the cost of regulation.

Bacteriology and Antimicrobial Resistance in Vanuatu: January 2017 to December 2019

“…In other countries in WHO's Western Pacific Region (WPR), Australia [10][11][12][13], New Zealand [14][15][16][17], and China [18], AMR is clearly a problem. Australia, New Zealand, and China have particularly close ties with Vanuatu and other PICTs through trade, investment, international aid, and seasonal workers [19][20][21]. Research into international travel and geographic trends in AMR has found that international mobility facilitates the spread of AMR [22].…”

La creciente dependencia de mano de obra migrante para tareas agrícolas en el centro global. Una perspectiva comparada

“…A diferencia de los casos americanos, y en sintonía con el resto de casos que se presentarán a continuación (tanto de Asia-pacífico, como europeos), la pre- sencia de trabajadores migrantes en la agricultura australiana será tardía, iniciándose principalmente en los años 90 (Underhill et al, 2018). Las razones de la progresiva sustitución de trabajadores nacionales por migrantes estarán vinculadas a la baja remuneración y la temporalidad de un trabajo que, al igual que en Canadá, es eminentemente estacional (Curtain et al, 2018).…”

“…En las últimas décadas, el estudio del trabajo agrícola realizado por migrantes en los países del centro global ha ido atrayendo la atención de una creciente comunidad académica. Si bien existían ya numerosas investigaciones en algunos países con un largo recorrido histórico en la materia, como en Estados Unidos (Calavita, 1992) o Canadá (Boyd et al, 1986), otros, en cambio, como los diversos casos europeos (Corrado et al, 2017;Gertel y Sippel, 2014), del Pacífico (Curtain et al, 2018;Underhill y Rimmer, 2016) o Asia (Ando y Horiguchi, 2013), son más recientes, revelando que se trata de un fenómeno contemporáneo y en expansión a nivel mundial. Por lo general, quienes han analizado estos contextos, han explicado la progresiva sustitución de trabajadores nacionales por migrantes en función de factores productivos tales como los procesos de industrialización del sector agrícola experimentados en determinados enclaves (Molinero-Gerbeau y Avallone, 2018) que requirieron emplear grandes cantidades de trabajadores.…”

Pacific Youth, Local and Global

“…Although these are available only to 'adults' in the Western definition of over 18 years old, many of the workers are still regarded as 'youth' in their home countries. The New Zealand Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme began in 2007 (Gibson & McKenzie 2014;Gibson et al 2008) and the Australian Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) commenced in 2012 after a pilot scheme that ran from 2008 to 2012 (Curtain et al 2018;Reed et al 2012). New schemes continue to be developed; Australia introduced the Pacific Labour Scheme in July 2018 and workers from some Pacific countries can now obtain employment for up to three years in areas such as aged care, as well as non-seasonal farm work.…”

“…Parallels have already been drawn between the new labour schemes and this earlier era (Connell 2010) and, in Australia, the SWP was one form of labour that was discussed at the government's 2017 inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act. There certainly are significant problems with the SWP (Ball et al 2011;Curtain et al 2016;Doyle & Howes 2015); however, these are unlikely to deter Pacific people seeking ways to provide for their families through the remittances that they send while working overseas for higher wages than they can earn at home (Curtain et al 2018). Many children and youth are now growing up at a time when temporary labour migration is regarded as a method for young people to fulfil both their obligations to their families and their own ambitions to save money to start businesses, build homes and achieve the other markers of adulthood in the contemporary Pacific.…”