THE ROLE OF WORKERS, MIGRANT WORKERS, EXPATRIATES

Through the years the number of migrants worldwide has increased. There are many factors that explain this phenomenon, one of them is money; this type of migration is known as migrant labor that “involves the movement of people from one country (or region) to another primarily for employment related reasons. (IPPR2004).

Other reasons to go away are explained by “The Hierarchy of Needs” that includes: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization.

Expatriate assignments: it transcends organizational memberships and consists of sequences of experiences across both organizations and jobs. It implies:

·         Expatriates undergo a socialization and acculturation process that affects their career identities (Mezias and Scandura2005).

·         The expatriate assignment (pre-departure, expatriation, and repatriation) requires cycles of reskilling for the expatriate to make necessary adjustments to the host country, and home-country readjustments upon return (ibid).

The integration process requires adaptation on the part of newcomers but also by the host society. The “Creative Class” is a class of workers whose job is to create meaningful new forms (2002). Florida argues that members of the Creative Class value meritocracy, diversity and individuality, and look for these characteristics when they relocate (2002).

The management of expatriate workers depends on their ability to handle different cultures, languages and customs.

Mentoring: the international manager must treat the development of a mentoring network as a creative task and be open to learning from a variety of sources (Scandura and Von Glinow , 1997). Its functions are mentoring coaching and social support.

Explain how easy is it for Colombian companies to employ expatriates locally? Give examples, or suggest what could be done.

For Colombian companies it is relative easy to employ expatriates locally, but first they have to accomplish some legal requirements such as: the proportionality between national and international employees that is given by the Ministry of Social Protection. Also it is important to mention that the international employees that come into Colombia must be highly qualified. The expatriates employed locally have the same rights and duties that Colombian employees have; also they have the same employment conditions and remunerations.  All the Colombian laws apply for them and they also can have social security and are allowed to inscribe themselves in programs of pension benefits. Expatriates are generally contracted by Multinational Companies to take the position of managers; also they can be employed in different industries such as education and mining. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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