Hidden Inequalities Amongst the International Workforce

Abstract

This chapter focuses on low-status expatriates who have been largely hidden from managerial scholarship. They are hidden because they are ignored by the migrant literature which looks at people trying to remain in their new society and gain citizenship and ignored by the expatriation literature which is mainly concerned with high-status ‘top’ talent. These hidden expatriates are typically maids, drivers, security guards, and construction workers—low status and low paid, unable to obtain citizenship, and liable to be sent home, unemployed, at the whim of their employer. If we, as scholars, are to contribute to the betterment of society by elevating the health and well-being of those who live in it, then we must recognise the existence of and address management issues and concerns of those at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. We use the Organisational Justice theory and draw on examples from Turkey, Singapore, and the Middle East to examine the position, the concerns, and the issues of such workers and their often-unequal place in the workforce.