Home > Archive > Volume 59, No. 4 > This paper
Integration of International Labor Migrants: Comparison between South Africa and Latvia
Beatrice Samson Umubyeyi, Joseph Rudigi Rukema and Māris Čapkēvičs
Published: 2019/06/01
Abstract
The paper evaluates existing policies on labor immigration and social integration, and offers a critical analysis of existing Latvian and South African policies of integration. In order to achieve the above objectives, this study focuses on secondary sources which provide subjective analysis and interpretation of the problem under study. The authors approach questions of immigration history and recent labor immigration statistics in South Africa and Latvia and investigate existing policies of integration in those countries. The most important finding is that in both countries there are different attitudes towards labor migrants who are highly skilled, those groups being welcome and facing minimal legal obstacles, while legal immigration of unskilled workers has been made impossible both in South Africa and in Latvia. Thus, these two very different countries exemplify how we are creating a world in which those with sufficient skills or money are free to live and work in the country of their choice while unskilled workers are confined to the country of their birth.
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