How the European Union handles posted workers is a growing issue for a region with borders that really are just lines on a map. A 2008 story, dissected in Ines Wagner’s Workers without Borders, about the troubling working conditions of migrant meat and construction workers, exposed a distressing dichotomy: how could a country with such strong employers’ associations and trade unions allow for the establishment and maintenance of such a precarious labor market segment? Wagner introduces an overlooked piece of the puzzle: re-regulatory politics at the workplace level. She interrogates the position of the posted worker in contemporary European labour markets and the implications of and regulations for this position in industrial relations, social policy and justice in Europe. Workers without Borders concentrates on how local actors implement European rules and opportunities to analyze the balance of power induced by the EU around policy issues. Wagner examines the particularities of posted worker dynamics at the workplace level, in German meatpacking facilities and on construction sites, to reveal the problems and promises of European Union governance as regulating social justice. Using a bottom-up approach through in-depth interviews with posted migrant workers and administrators involved in the posting process, Workers without Borders shows that strong labor-market regulation via independent collective bargaining institutions at the workplace level is crucial to effective labor rights in marginal workplaces. Wagner identifies structures of access and denial to labor rights for temporary intra-EU migrant workers and the problems contained within this system for the EU more broadly.

This book examines Yugoslavia's efforts to build and maintain a relationship with its migrant workers in Western Europe through cultural and educational programs.

After living in El Salvador and witnessing the cost of the political violence and economic hardship there, Mark and Louise Zwick founded Casa Juan Diego. Mercy Without Borders tells the story of the beginnings of the Catholic Worker in Houston, a city that has become a destination for waves of refugees from Mexico and Central America. Over the years, they have received the poor, the weary, and the destitute, seeing only the face of Christ regardless of immigration status. In addition to sharing their stories of Casa Juan Diego and many of its guests, the Zwicks analyze some of the causes of the economic imbalances that result in destitution south of the U.S. border, in countries where people toil in factories for little or nothing, only to see the fruits of their labor shipped to the affluent north. Why would these victims of injustice not seek a better life for themselves and their children? Book jacket.

Edited collection on migration and civil society

This analysis for the International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva, Switzerland, studies how globalization affects the mobility of workers and whether existing labor institutions can safety-net their rights. After examining globalization in a socioeconomic context and modern migration patterns, the author concludes that present trends augur even greater migration pressures due to the disruptive impact of differential capitalist development and media's lubrication of the flow. Tables and figures show demographic and economic aspects of emigration and immigration. Includes a foreword by an ILO director. Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Global social work: crossing borders, blurring boundaries is a collection of ideas, debates and reflections on key issues concerning social work as a global profession, such as its theory, its curricula, its practice, its professional identity; its concern with human rights and social activism, and its future directions. Apart from emphasising the complexities of working and talking about social work across borders and cultures, the volume focuses on the curricula of social work programs from as many regions as possible to showcase what is being taught in various cultural, sociopolitical and regional contexts. Exploring the similarities and differences in social work education across many countries of the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Pacific, the book provides a reference point for moving the current social work discourse towards understanding the local and global context in its broader significance.

Now in a comprehensively updated edition, this indispensable handbook analyzes how international humanitarian law has evolved in the face of these many new challenges. Central concerns include the war on terror, new forms of armed conflict and humanitarian action, the emergence of international criminal justice, and the reshaping of fundamental rules and consensus in a multipolar world. ThePractical Guide to Humanitarian Law provides the precise meaning and content for over 200 terms such as terrorism, refugee, genocide, armed conflict, protection, peacekeeping, torture, and private military companies—words that the media has introduced into everyday conversation, yet whose legal and political meanings are often obscure. The Guide definitively explains the terms, concepts, and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader-friendly alphabetical entries. Written from the perspective of victims and those who provide assistance to them, the Guide outlines the dangers, spells out the law, and points the way toward dealing with violations of the law. Entries are complemented by analysis of the decisions of relevant courts; detailed bibliographic references; addresses, phone numbers, and Internet links to the organizations presented; a thematic index; and an up-to-date list of the status of ratification of more than thirty international conventions and treaties concerning humanitarian law, human rights, refugee law, and international criminal law. This unprecedented work is an invaluable reference for policy makers and opinion leaders, students, relief workers, and members of humanitarian organizations. Published in cooperation with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.