EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL
Issues Related to International Recruitment In reflecting the need to regulate international labour recruitment practices, Pittman describes the challenge this way: The structural problem is the enormous asymmetry in information and power between the aspiring migrant, on the one hand, who, when coming from low income sending countries, are often desperate to leave their countries, and the employer, on the other, who holds the keys to migration. Labour brokers form “hiring chains” and at each level have the opportunity to misrepresent the process, extract fees and loans, and promote unfair labour practices at the expense of migrants.134 Martin concurs, noting that the chain of actors in the recruitment process increases overall costs by adding layers of fees. In this imperfect market, recruiters hold vital information about job and visa requirements, as well as available positions. Particularly when there is a high wage differential between source and destination country, much of the regulatory challenge relates to how what Martin calls the “wage wedge” will be apportioned between stakeholders.135 When a position abroad promises to substantially increase a teacher’s earnings, then recruiters often feel that they can charge higher fees, employers may be tempted to pay lower wages that will still be comparatively attractive, and source countries hope for returns in the form of increased remittances. Unfortunately, examples of real efforts to regulate the international recruitment industry are rare. In too much of the world, recruiters are free to conduct business on whatever terms they can sell to employers and migrants. Predictably, this can lead to abuse. Recruiters have a financial interest in making the “pull” factors seem as tempting as possible and too often mislead teachers by encouraging inflated and inaccurate expectations about life abroad. An analysis of the websites of 43 U.K.-based agencies that were recruiting teachers from South Africa found that online teacher recruitment agencies “overall are selling schools a low-cost, low-hassle ‘solution’ to their teacher shortage problems while, in many cases, encouraging teachers to see registration as a first step to a fun-filled life of travel and adventure”.136 The sites were notably absent in frank discussions of the real challenges of working abroad, such as classroom management or pupils with English as a second language. In another example, while on a site visit to Delhi, an AFT researcher attempted to visit the bricks and mortar offices listed as the headquarters of a recruitment agency with
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Pittman, “Alternative Approaches”, 2013. Martin, “Managing Labour Migration”, 2005. deVilliers, “South African Teachers as Mobile Knowledge Workers”, 2011.