Who should look after migrant workers affected by the pandemic?
Foreign workers face salary cuts or job losses as coronavirus lockdowns disrupt economies around the world.
Foreign workers are often the backbone of many societies. They are doctors, nurses, shop assistants and managers.
Others perform low-skilled work that citizens of wealthier nations will not do. They have families that depend on the money they send back home.
Keep reading
list of 4 itemsMexico’s teachers seek relief from pandemic-era spike in school robberies
‘A bad chapter’: Tracing the origins of Ecuador’s rise in gang violence
Why is the US economy so resilient?
But millions of migrant workers have seen their livelihoods evaporate as the coronavirus spreads.
Salaries are being cut, or staff fired as economies are disrupted by lockdowns. The World Bank says global remittances will drop by 20 percent this year, the sharpest fall in recent history.
So, will the crisis change the way wealthy countries use foreign labour?
Presenter: Bernard Smith
Guests:
Arun Kumar – professor at the Institute of Social Sciences in New Delhi
Thulsi Narayanasamy – head of labour rights at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
Hasan Youness – business management analyst