Navigating Migration and Employment: Opportunities for Inclusive Futures

This event explores challenges and opportunities raised by migration, with a focus on employment issues.

Today's world is characterised by an unprecedented mobility where “portions of the planet are literally moving more quickly and more unevenly—around axes of gender, race, and class” (Nail, 2019: 375). The International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2024) states that more than the 3.6% of the world population is composed by international migrants. Employment remains one of the strongest motivations for migrating and according to the International Labour Organization (ILO, 2024), there were 168 million labour migrants worldwide in 2022.

In this scenario, the rising numbers of people moving across borders remains a highly debated topic, often driven by misconceptions about its impact on the economy and the job market, as well as on the wellbeing of local communities and wider society. The media contributes to this discussion by portraying migrants as a threat to native workers and host countries, while governments continue to focus their efforts on managing migration by restricting arrivals and disciplining individual mobility.

Recent reports from the ILO (2024) and the OECD (2024) highlight migrants’ pivotal role in global and local economies, noting that their contributions to host countries’ income exceed governments’ expenditure on their assistance and training. But despite research demonstrating that migrants contribute positively to their new countries, bringing skills, knowledges, and worldviews that enrich host communities, increasingly harsh migration policies hinder migrants’ experiences, leading to exploitative work relations, unemployment and marginalisation. Moreover, interlinked social issues such as wealth inequality, cost-of-living and housing crises, gender disparities, racism, and precarisation of work further exacerbate the barriers faced by migrants. In our post-global world, with poverty and inequality on the rise, such dynamics create fertile grounds for the uncontrolled proliferation of unethical and exclusionary social and organisational practices.

As we navigate these complex issues, we believe it is crucial to promote informed discussions and develop strategies to tackle one of the most pressing issues in our world. Driven by this idea, REEF seeks to craft equitable futures for work and societies in a changing world. Its research aims to contribute to a better understanding of advances and practices that re-imagine just organisations for the future.

This REEF event will feature expert academic speakers who will present their research exploring the challenges and opportunities presented by migration, with a specific focus on its relation to employment issues. Their talks will cover topics such as migrant entrepreneurship, supporting migrant motherhoods for work inclusion, and migrant labour exploitation.

The online event will be hosted by REEF co-directors Marco Distinto and Caroline Clarke, The Open University Business School (DPO), UK.

Attendees are invited to join the discussion and contribute with their insights. The aim is to initiate a productive debate and inspire new ideas on creating inclusive workplaces and societies in our ever-evolving world.

Register to attend