Legal Definitions - migrant worker

Migrant worker

A migrant worker is an individual who moves, either within their own country or across international borders, to take up temporary or seasonal employment. This type of work is often found in industries with fluctuating labor demands, such as agriculture, construction, or hospitality, and the worker typically returns to their place of origin once the work is completed or the season ends.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of a migrant worker:

• Imagine a group of workers from a village in Guatemala who travel to farms in the southern United States each year to pick strawberries during the harvest season. They live near the farms for several months, send money back to their families, and then return to Guatemala once the harvest is complete, only to potentially repeat the journey the following year.

  This illustrates a migrant worker because these individuals cross an international border specifically for seasonal agricultural work, returning home after the temporary employment concludes.

• Consider construction laborers from a rural province in China who relocate to a rapidly developing coastal city for eight to ten months to work on a large infrastructure project. They live in temporary housing near the construction site and return to their home province during the Lunar New Year holiday, often staying there until the next phase of the project begins or a new opportunity arises.

  This demonstrates a migrant worker as these individuals move within their own country for temporary, project-based labor, returning to their original homes during periods of inactivity.

• Think of hospitality staff, such as chefs or hotel managers, from various European Union countries who take up positions in popular tourist destinations in Spain or Greece during the peak summer vacation months. They work intensely for the season, providing services to tourists, and then return to their home countries or seek other seasonal work elsewhere once the tourist season ends.

  This example shows migrant workers who cross international borders within a common economic area for seasonal employment in the service industry, returning to their home countries after the temporary work period.