Migrant Labour in the Workforce

We compared immigrant workers with native workers on several factors related to their perception of their work identity anchored in their psychosocial work environment, and the result of these factors on work stress and subjective health. Migrant labour may represent a different human capital in the contemporary workforce and their values connected to work and their commitment to the firm they work in should therefore be investigated. The data for this study came from a survey among migrant labourers in the construction and cleaning business (N=125) and was compared to a native sample (N=654) we used in an earlier study where we compared a sample of immigrants from the food and beverage industry with natives. The present study showed that the migrant workers perceived more over-commitment and higher job stress than native workers. This finding was similar to the first study in relation to these two factors. In this study, however, the construction workers and cleaners did not have significant higher levels of mental health problems than native workers. The personal ambitions of the immigrants, measured as a higher level of over-commitment was seen as a driving force behind the patterns we found. In the first study we discussed that this could have been a possible threat to an increased level of stress leading to mental health problems, but commitment to the firm they worked in was seen as a compensating factor in the final path analysis for the immigrant food and beverage workers. In this new study, the construction workers and cleaners showed significantly lower commitment than the natives, but still a path from over-commitment to commitment was found and may function as a barrier from developing even more stress and mental health reactions over time. A prerequisite then is that commitment has to be strengthened for these immigrant workers and the differing human capital they bring with them as a group has to be recognized and included in the organizational learning of the firm.