Labor migration and worker organization, global North and global South

Abstract

This essay takes up both the challenges and the opportunities that labor migration poses for the organized labor movement. Labor has been dramatically restructured over the last quarter of a century but there are no signs of labor recomposition as trade unions seek different paths toward revitalization. Increasingly, the movement of workers across national boundaries might create divisions and can be deployed to undermine existing labor standards. However, we pose the possibility that it might also be a source of trade union revitalization, bringing in new members with new ideas but also creating a dynamic for raising labor standards rather than lowering them. In brief, internationalism begins at home.