Labour migration in the Americas

Concerning employment in the Americas, we find complex interrelationships between formal and informal work, domestic reproductive work and gender-specific relations, old-fashioned company paternalism and ‘modern’ hire-and-fire shareholder capitalism, employment relations of trust and mutualism in cooperatives as well as extended family networks and cronyism. This specific context of employment has to be considered when it comes to study migration as an exit strategy, when decent opportunities of work and employment are lacking at home. In this chapter we sketch out the specific historical and conceptual background of labour market conditions in Latin America and the long history of labour migration inside and outside of Latin America, as well as present structures and dynamics of Labor Migration in the Americas as a whole. The chapter concludes with current trends, shifting policies and emerging topics, especially in the context of globalization, re-nationalization and transnational social spaces.