Flourishing trade in workers

Many migrant labourers work in construction abroad. Unsplash - Ivan Henao They have jobs as harvest workers in Spain, on building sites in Malaysia or as cleaners in Saudi-Arabia - mostly under precarious living and working conditions and earning low wages. Nevertheless, for most migrant workers it is the only possibility they have to secure a livelihood. At the same time, economic development in many places would be impossible without low-paid foreign workers. In her dissertation at the Institute of Geography, Dr. Hannah Uprety (35) took the example of Nepal to examine the mechanisms and structures behind such forms of labour migration. The conclusion she came to was that in the marketing of Nepalese labour, it is not only the current logic of globalisation that plays a role, but also historical power constellations and colonial infrastructures. The discussion surrounding migrant workers in Qatar shows how conditions in the destination countries are often catastrophic.