Search

Temporary migrant workers constitute an important component, not only of the United States economy, but of many developed economies around the world. The working conditions of these workers are often difficult, and their political and legal rights often highly curtailed. Much of the scholarship on temporary migrant workers has understandably focused on the poor working conditions and limited rights that they are afforded. This Article asks a different question, namely how might the relegation of certain kinds of work to temporary migrant workers affect the bonds and grounds of citizenship in the countries that utilize these regimes of temporary migrant work? It argues that regimes of temporary work are problematic for the countries and its citizens that rely on them, because reliance by a political community on temporary migrant workers is potentially detrimental to the political health of a nation, to democracy, and to the bonds of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]