migrant workers

14 Stories

Children Are Working on Our Roofs—and Falling From Them

The 'New York Times' speaks with migrant children who work as roofers

(Newser) - In the US, you have to be 18 to work as a roofer due to the inherent danger of the job. But as the New York Times reports in a grim investigation, a growing population of children are ending up on our roofs anyway, in some cases without safety gear...

After a 22-Mile Walk, They Sat Down, Were Killed by Train

Authorities in India say workers fell asleep on the tracks

(Newser) - A train in India on Friday plowed through a group of migrant workers who fell asleep on the tracks after walking back home from a coronavirus lockdown, killing 15, the Railways Ministry said. The driver of the cargo train tried but failed to stop in time, the ministry tweeted. The...

Your Gadgets' Dirty Origin Story: Forced Labor

Apple, Samsung, Sony products made at factories in question

(Newser) - Many factory workers behind Apple, Samsung, and other top electronics products are working in Malaysia—where 28% of electronics workers, and 32% of migrant workers in the industry, are stuck in forced labor, a report commissioned by the US government finds. Some 92% of the country's workers from Bangladesh,...

Amnesty: Forced Labor Building World Cup Venues
Forced Labor Building
2022 World Cup Stadiums
amnesty report
Nov 18, 2013 2:09 AM CST

Forced Labor Building 2022 World Cup Stadiums

Qatar migrant workers abused, exploited, Amnesty International report finds

(Newser) - The gleaming new stadiums Qatar plans to host the 2022 World Cup in are being built on the backs of abused migrant workers, a scathing new Amnesty International report finds. The group says it has uncovered an "alarming level of exploitation," with workers being forced to work without...

Hire Local? Farmers Who Seek US Workers Hit Hard

Even with high unemployment, Americans walk off too-hard job

(Newser) - John Harold is trying to do the right thing when it comes to harvesting his 1,000-acre Colorado farm, by hiring only legal foreign workers and, this summer, offering more positions to unemployed locals. But “it didn’t take me six hours to realize I’d made a heck...

Ex-Cons Can't Keep Up With Migrant Farm Workers

Georgia's immigrant worker crackdown gives jobs to unemployed criminals

(Newser) - With farmers complaining that a crackdown on illegal immigrants has scared away their migrant workforce, authorities in Georgia are trying to see whether they can get unemployed ex-cons into the fields. The results so far are mixed at best after about a week. Mexican and Guatemalan workers will generally keep...

Colbert (Briefly) Breaks Character in Testimony

'I like to talk about people who don't have any power'

(Newser) - Stephen Colbert mostly yucked it up during his congressional testimony today, but towards the end, Democrat Judy Chu actually got him to break his faux-pundit facade. After relating the story of a worker overcome by heat stroke, but unable to find medical help, she asked Colbert why he had chosen...

Nanny: Diplomat Made Me a Slave
Nanny: Diplomat Made Me a Slave
Aug 9, 2009 2:33 PM CDT

Nanny: Diplomat Made Me a Slave

Sexually assaulted and beaten, she reveals horrors facing UK's migrant workers

(Newser) - A migrant worker in Britain took what looked like a plush job as a diplomat’s nanny—only to be treated as a sex slave with little recourse to the law, the Independent reports, uncovering a predicament faced by other workers. “I was trapped. I was paid nothing, never...

Mexico Kidnappers Snatched 10K US-Bound Migrants

Human rights commission estimates 10K migrants seized over 6 months

(Newser) - Mexican gangs preying on Central American migrants headed for the US kidnapped almost 10,000 people between September 2008 and February 2009, according to a new report from Mexico's national human rights commission. The average ransom paid was $2,500, according to the report, which said Mexican authorities participated in...

Recession Cools Worldwide Migration
 Recession Cools 
 Worldwide Migration 
ANALYSIS
Jun 6, 2009 2:51 PM CDT

Recession Cools Worldwide Migration

(Newser) - Facing a tough job market, immigrants are returning home around the world, reversing historic migration patterns and giving up on income that once fed their families, the Wall Street Journal reports. With construction workers going back to Mexico and domestic servants to the Philippines, wealthy nations are also bound to...

Tomatoes Bring Fair-Trade Movement Stateside

Meager pay, slavery conditions for pickers prompt boycott threat

(Newser) - With tomato pickers earning 45 cents per 32-pound bucket—the same wage as 30 years ago—fair-labor coalitions have long staged protests and boycotts. Now one of the country's biggest food-services companies is taking up the cause, the Washington Post reports. Bon Appetit says that if growers don't agree to...

US Downturn Cuts Migrants' Payments Home

Mexican families struggle without funds relatives send home

(Newser) - The downturn in the US economy is also hitting Mexico hard, the Washington Post reports. Money sent home from the US, known as remittances, dropped nearly 7% in January compared with the year before, the biggest plunge in 13 years, says the Mexican government. Without that money, the country's No....

54 Burmese Migrant Workers Suffocate in Border Crossing

They screamed an hour before driver halted

(Newser) - Police yesterday discovered the bodies of 54 Burmese migrant workers who suffocated in a truck heading across the border to Thailand. Workers crammed in the 7-by-20-foot space, almost all women, say when they finally managed to alert the driver, he fled. Each worker paid $314 to be smuggled into Thailand,...

Micky D Gives Migrants a Raise
Micky D Gives
Migrants a Raise
Apr 10, 2007 10:50 AM CDT

Micky D Gives Migrants a Raise

Penny-a-pound increase for tomato pickers sets industry standard

(Newser) - The cent-a-pound increase McDonald's agreed to grant their tomato-picking field hands yesterday may sound like, well, pennies, but it represents a more than 70% raise, the Chicago Tribune reports. And the deal was hailed as paving the way for negotiations between migrant workers and other corporate Goliaths across the country.

14 Stories