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61INTERNATIONAL LABOR MIGRATION PROCESSES IN THE CONTEXT
OF DIGITALIZATION
Kadirova Zulaykho Abduhalimovna
Tashkent state university of oriental studies Phd, Head of the Department of Foreign Economic Activity and Tourism [email protected] Gazieva Sulkhiya Saidmashrafovna Tashkent state university of oriental studies, Phd student
sulya @mail.ru
Annotation: The growing impact of globalization on international labor migration, the study of its theoretical foundations is becoming increasingly important for many scientists. In this regard, the concept of virtual migration, which does not require movement in physical space, is also gaining importance in the digital economy.
The purpose of the study is to find opportunities for the globalization of today's information space to involve labor resources in international exchange, and on this basis to justify the expediency of new directions of labor migration and new types of labor migration.
Key words: Intellectual migration, international labor migration, digitilization, virtual migrant, online labor, virtual platforms, crowdworking, online labor index, blockchain technology.
Introduction. Today, the information revolution is shaping the new world economy, and the competition for intellectual potential through telecommunications systems is intensifying. The global information technology infrastructure is creating unprecedented opportunities to increase the material well-being of mankind. Such information integration is the basis for new directions of labor migration. Thus, the structural transformation has opened up unprecedented opportunities for countries to enter the international labor market, which in turn creates demands for new labor resources. In particular, the global Internet is increasingly encouraging countries to participate in the new virtual world.
Although labor migration has always been a process, it can also take a virtual form, changing not only the process of labor migration, but also the life of society as a whole. Thus, not only the form of labor migration in the context of digitalization, but also the approaches to its theoretical foundations have been enriched with new interpretations. To date, theoretical approaches to the concept of labor migrants have been explained by the condition of crossing a certain area boundary in order to earn income, while the emergence of the concept of virtual labor migration has shown that labor migration can take place without crossing the border.
Material and Methods. According to Nahorny and Naumov, the process of digitization accelerated economic processes just like a revolution [1].
According to Muhaylova, the opportunities for migrant workers have expanded, and they have the right to work at a higher level, not only in the country, but also in foreign companies.
Study and analysis of international virtual migration of highly skilled workers by foreign scholars, Aneesh A. (Aneesh, 2006), McCarthy J. (Mc Carthy, 2011), Xiang B. (Xiang, 2014), Kassi O. (Kassi, 2016) has attracted a lot of attention. In particular, Aneesh proposed the concept of "virtual migration" for the first time, conceptually challenging local and foreign research and theories as a cross-border practice of labor migration [3], [4]. As Xiang points out, the study of the term "labor migrant" is an invention of modern researchers designed primarily to understand it from the perspective of states, especially host countries [5]. According to Cassie, a British researcher, changes in the labor market not only create opportunities, but also pose serious risks. In response, it is necessary to develop skills in various fields, to improve social policy [6].
Belgian scientist De Stefano suggested 3 types of labor. Digitalization has radically changed labor relations, while at the same time giving rise to new forms of mobility. The concept of virtual labor migration has complicated the definition of labor migration as the physical movement of labor across borders. The emergence of conceptually and legally new forms of digital mobility has challenged the definition of concepts related to labor migration, regulation, and borders. De Stefano singled out three types of work: working with capital platforms, working with applications, and teamwork or crowdworking.
The International Labor Organization's 2018 Digital Labor Platforms package also describes virtual labor migration. Virtual labor migration can be defined as work that crosses national borders through online capital, labor, and information flows. It is, in fact, an offshore workforce that combines local, national and global contexts [8].
In the article, we used theoretical and empirical methods of research. The article provides an analysis of recent research publications, compares the results with statistical data, and provides practical recommendations based on the survey results. The author's methodology uses a systematic approach, observation, comparison, abstraction, idealization and grouping methods. A graphical method was used to visualize the results of the study.
Results and discussion. In a globalized world, the problem of labor migration and changes in its direction is the subject of research by scientists (economists, demographers, sociologists) and is in the focus of attention of government agencies, NGOs. Labor migration is actively discussed in the media and in the scientific literature. Intellectual migration or migration of highly qualified personnel has become a topic of discussion only on the basis of the approach of "brain drain", "migration of minds". In fact, the problem is more complicated. Although the scientific achievements of local and foreign experts are devoted to the study of socioeconomic problems related to employment, many scientific publications do not pay enough attention to the opportunities created by the information society. The issue is
to transfer the process of labor migration to the Internet. This is because the use of electronic databases and electronic labor exchanges significantly expands the opportunities for economically developed countries to require specialists in the relevant search engine.
According to the theoretical approaches known to us, labor migration is a process of movement of labor resources for employment in more favorable conditions than the country of origin or permanent residence, determined by the ratio of supply and demand in the labor market. are classified according to duration, legal status and purpose.
Naturally, with the development of labor migration processes, new species emerge and there is a need to supplement and improve the classification accordingly.
The advent of the Internet has led to a technological revolution in all spheres of social life. That's why the Internet has created a social innovation like the virtual labor market.
This has allowed more and more virtual migrants to work without leaving the country. Virtual labor migration has become important for labor migrants, regardless of the geographical location of the employers. Virtual labor migration does not cancel out the physical labor migration of workers. Both of them are part of labor migration in the world economy. The essence of the world economy in the process of virtual labor migration is that the world economy is moving from the physical space to the information space.
There are some challenges in studying the virtual migration of highly skilled workers with higher education and computer literacy. In particular, there are no accurate statistics on the transfer of highly skilled labor to the virtual space. Typically, virtual migrants are service workers, such as scientists, teachers, doctors, engineers, programmers, and others. Until now, the process of international labor migration has largely required the outflow of labor migrants from low-income countries to high-income countries.
Digitalization processes are changing the division of labor and the mobility of labor resources. Given the proliferation of digital technologies around the world, the mobility of goods and services, but also labor, is undergoing major changes. Digitization is an important factor in the modern transformation of labor and its mobilization. It is digital technologies and infrastructure that are changing the quantity and quality of existing jobs, resulting in the reduction of some jobs and the creation of new ones, which will intensify labor mobility.
In the context of digitalization, the labor force does not leave their homeland, but provides services in such areas as programming, mortgage lending, pharmaceuticals in a foreign company located in another country. Naturally, it would be appropriate to call this process virtual labor migration, not physical labor migration. Today, virtual labor migration keeps workers in a permanent place of physical residence, leading to the virtual migration of their labor and skills to another country. And this process is replacing real labor migration.
Most corporations have developed a model called the 75-25. About 75% of the employees of these corpoorations work in offices located in the country, and about 25% of them serve the corporation from abroad. As a result, sometimes it's hard to determine what's going on: data, work, or both? Aneesh called the process of working an employee in a company outside his country "migration without migration".
In the current era of economic development, there is a dynamic change in the geography of virtual labor on a global scale. For example, the growing importance of digital workforce through electronic platforms and mobile phone applications is allowing the workforce to be outsourced globally at a high rate. Naturally, if the movement of labor does not correspond to the actual movement of migrant workers across the border, the principle of labor migration will change. Thus, given the changes in migration processes, the concept of border should not be understood only as a separate dividing line between the two countries.
In a transnational virtual space, labor and large amounts of data cross national borders online, but the workers themselves are left behind. Analyzing the work of computer programmers working for the US Software Corporation in India, Aneesh, an Indian researcher, argues that the "programming code" that connects employees around servers and computers around the world is driving virtual reality migration. He sees this "code rule" as a crucial and unstudied aspect of globalization [3]. Virtual migration reflects the expansion of transnational space. In this regard, globalization is done through computer programming code.
Globalization will liberalize capital migration more than labor migration. That is, unlike capital migration mobility, labor migration mobility is limited by the level of market development. The low-skilled workforce suffers the most. Typically, when labor in high-income countries moves to another country to earn a living, working and living conditions do not adapt to conditions lower than in their own country. Labor migrants from developing countries, on the other hand, migrate to higher-income countries for higher incomes. On its basis, they create capital migration.
The digitalization process, while expanding the logic of migration, encourages the growth of human capital accumulated in developing countries through the virtual labor migration of highly skilled workers. Thus, there has been an unprecedented increase in capital migration and competition in the global labor market. now this has led to a sharp increase in demand for knowledge. The demand for highly skilled workers has created a global situation, which, unlike unskilled workers, has led to a further increase in demand for them at the expense of virtual space and a sharpening of the competitiveness of such skilled workers. It is the creation of technologies that has reduced the demand for low-skilled workers. Unskilled workers do not create the global economy, they simply take advantage of its transparent state borders. Thus, the highly skilled labor migrants mobilized by the digital revolution will create a "knowledge economy". Thus, the global economy, the digital revolution, and the "knowledge economy" are closely intertwined and act as a single process.
As a result, workers with secondary or higher education are less likely to be fired than workers without higher education. When Kupets analyzes the duration of unemployment, he believes that a higher education level significantly increases the chances of finding a job, while other levels of education do not significantly affect this probability [10].
In the environment of highly skilled labor migrants, the virtual migration regime is subject to the "code rule". Virtual migration does not cancel out the physical migration of workers, both of which are part of international labor migration. At the same time, virtual migration not only "fills" the global economy, but also takes its "knowledge economy" to a qualitatively new level and l ays the foundation for the direct construction of its higher sectors.
Virtual migration is a process that once again explains the competitiveness of national economies, showing what "knowledge economists" they are. Virtual migration, in a sense, reveals the level of economic development of the country due to the mobility of migrants. In particular, the development of modern means of communication, primarily the Internet, will allow the development of its online format, ie the form of virtual labor migration, along with the traditional forms of use of foreign labor in the host country.
Digitalization can increase job turnover and thus help distribute labor more efficiently in the economy. According to the principle of substitution, professions that use new technologies, graphic designers can take over functions previously performed by other professions, such as printing. Technological changes can lead to the replenishment of capital and staff skills or the polarization of such skills [11].
In the context of virtual labor migration, there is an increase in demand for highly skilled workers performing creative tasks, and low-skilled workers are more likely to lose their jobs.
In particular, online employment provides additional opportunities for a new generation of workers to learn, work and change their specialties in a short period of time without having to connect to one of their chosen professions. Adopting such a trend in the future will allow an employee to be paid not only for his or her actual position in the workplace, but also for his or her skills.
Belgian scientist De Stefano suggested 3 types of labor:
❖ work with capital platforms;
❖ work with applications;
❖ teamwork or crowdwork.
Working with capital platforms (Airbnb, Etsy) involves the use of digital platforms to sell goods or lease assets. In this context, the function of the digital platform is to connect customers with assets that belong to an individual. The term "sharing economy", often used interchangeably with "gig economy", is closely related to the operation of capital platforms. This activity has more in common with e-commerce or business. It is also sometimes referred to as a small business form, because the activities of these "workers" are more like running a small business than running a company. Work with applications (Deliveroo, Foodora, Lyft, Uber, etc.) is
carried out by intermediary organizations that provide services on a digital platform (or "applications") locally, for example, in the field of transportation and food delivery. Applications are directly involved in setting minimum service quality standards and in the selection and management of workers [12]. Location-based digital work platforms direct workers to local services, including transportation (Uber, Lyft), food delivery (Foodora, Deliveroo), home repair (Task Rabbit), and household services (Care.com). Deliveroo, a food supplier, employs more than 35,000 riders in 200 cities, but only about 2,000 of them work directly. Workers are generally classified as independent contractors, and the number of legally employed is significantly less. Uber, for example, currently employs about 40 million drivers in more than 700 cities around the world, but only 22,000 are officially registered. A distinctive feature of digital work platforms is the algorithmic management of the workforce, in which "the appointment, optimization and evaluation of employees is carried out using algorithms and constantly monitored data" [14]. Algorithmic organization of work allows employees of the organization to connect with customers to sell their services. At the same time, employees are closely monitored and wages are linked to productivity [15].
Crowdwork (Amazon, Mechanical Turk, Fiver). - are platforms for public use, representing a completely new form of mobility, regardless of location. Companies can cover a large workforce around the world without changing their physical location. Platforms allow for different levels of job search for digital work, which means that you can find low-paying jobs for simple jobs and high-paying jobs for complex and time-consuming jobs.
Crowdworking refers to mediation platforms for digital labor where workers perform tasks remotely. In some cases, there is a clear relationship between the client and the employee: they perform the task independently and receive payment from the client. In others, on the contrary, the platforms assume the obligation to pay for the work performed and then present the result to the customer. Crowd work is popular with both employees and clients. For example, Amazon Mechanical Turk announces 10,000 new tasks per hour, of which 7,500 are completed.
In crowdworking, the labor process is done using flexible contract forms. A new form of remote work is emerging: working from anywhere, where employees can live and work in the same way. With a reliable internet connection, you can be anywhere in the world. While many companies are just considering allowing employees to "work from anywhere" WFA programs can be found in companies like Akamai and SAP. Working from home also helps increase employee productivity. A 2015 study by the Chinese Tourism Agency found that when call center staff were transferred from home to work, their productivity increased by an average of 13% [17].
Platforms play an important role in crowdfunding. Digital platforms are a central element that allows for virtual migration in the form of crowdfunding. However, it is now necessary to consider labor migration not only in terms of human physical movement, but also virtual flows [8].
Online workflows are growing rapidly. In order to fill the data gap, the Oxford Internet Institute created the Online Labor Index (OLI), one of the first economic indicators for the economy of online giants. The index shows how the use of the online workforce changes over time by country and occupation. The average daily number of new projects is taken as 100 index points on the Y axis. According to OLI, from May to September 2016, the index grew by about 9%, which means that the annual growth rate will be 25%. Significant growth was observed in trade and professional services. During this period, the growth of the economy of online giants was ensured by the labor of skilled professionals.
According to the online labor index, the majority of customers are located in the US (44%), the UK (8%), Australia (6%) and India (5%). European countries together provide about 23 percent of customers. Workers are typically in low-income countries, reflecting traditional models of the outsourcing industry. Most of them work in India (26%), Bangladesh (21%) and the Philippines (5%). In the U.S., these workers make up 12 percent. According to the geographical distribution of industries, the market for software and technology development is dominated by Indian workers (55%), while the UK is dominated by accounting, legal services and business consulting services [18].
The peculiarity of the recruitment of labor force through the Internet can be explained by the demand for labor in the leading recipient countries. The international demand for online labor, i.e. the need for online labor migrants, is related to the similarity of national profiles. In general, the online demand for a workforce with experience in software development and technology in various fields in the recipient countries is very high.
In the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, the importance of online labor, virtual labor migration, is growing. The closure of quarantines and borders has turned an important part of the work into a "virtual plane". Recommendations for adapting to working remotely from home were suggested. Restrictions on movement have prevented the admission of international labor migrants, even highly skilled workers. This, in turn, has led to the development of virtual online labor migration.
Conclusion. Digitization of the world economy, technologicalization, standardization of education and similar processes are the main factors influencing the change in the international labor market. The result of digitalization processes is the proliferation of Industrialization 4.0, which is reflected in the accelerated data exchange in global manufacturing processes, including cyberphysical systems, the Internet, cloud technologies, and more. The advent of the Internet has created a social innovation called the virtual labor market. This allowed more virtual labor migrants to work. No matter where their employers were literally located, migrant workers were able to work without crossing their country's borders. Mobilized by the digital revolution, highly skilled labor migrants have created an environment for themselves - a global economy, a "knowledge economy".
Virtual migration does not cancel out the physical labor migration of workers. Both are an integral part of labor migration in the world economy. Virtual labor migration shows that the essence of the world economy is not limited to transnational corporations and transparent borders, the world economy is moving from the physical space to the information space.
The impact of digitalization on employment can be both positive and negative. Companies that take advantage of the potential of digital technology are squeezing out competitors who can't take full advantage of it. Human needs are endless, and in the evolution of goods and services, unlimited and digital technologies should be considered as an advantage. Because they are an important source of future efficiency. All this will minimize the risk of mass unemployment in the international labor market in the short and medium term, while creating an opportunity for technological reconstruction of the international labor migration market.
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