Migrant workers and expatriate assignments

let´s start with a simple exercise...

what do you think when you read the following paragraph, who am I speaking of: an expat or a migrant worker?
´´I have been living in a new country for two months now, adapting to this new culture has not been easy but I know that this experience will bring many positive results for the company and my career. My company is planning to open a production plant here next year and I´ll be encharged of hiring local workers. I´ve been asisting to a special training program in the mornings and enjoying this beautiful city during the nights´´

I guess most of you imagined an expatriate sent by the company in which he works to live in a new city, but none of you associated those lines with a migrant worker. But if both definitions are almost the same, what is the difference between an expatriate an a migrant worker?
I have found that the difference between them is kind of prejudicial, expatriates are described as professionals with skills that live in another country, while inmigrants are people that have moved to another country to work in crops or other labor intensive jobs.

Why do people move to another country?

• Quality of jobs, higher wages and job opportunities.($)
• wars
• political reasons
• natural disasters
• learn a new language

The creative class by Richard Florida
Class of workers whose job is to create new meaningful forms (Florida, Richard,2002).
In the following link you´ll be able to observe the author of the book explaining the impact of the creative class.

Managing expatriate assignments...

• Training programs that allow expats to adapt better to the new culture are essential
• Recognize their contributions to the firm
• Meticulous selection processes to choose which employees will likely succeed as expats

Question for the blog…

Explain how easy is it for Colombian companies to employ expatriates locally? Give examples.

According to the resolution 00000977 (april 1st 2009)  there are some requirements that colombian companies should follow to employ expatriates locally:

El código sustantivo del trabajo stablishes a certain proportion between local and foreigners employees that companies should always respect. If companies want to employ an expat they must fill in a form and send it to el director general de  la promocion del trabajo del ministerio de proteccion social.

In the form the company should specify the number of colombian workers, their position in the company and their respective wages, also the number of foreign workers with the same information.

Expatriates in the colombian laboral market should be highly qualified.

The employment of expatriates by Colombian companies is very relative depending on the capacity and knowledge of the employee and the task they would develop inside the company. But generally if in a company there is a task that could be completed by a Colombian employee for sure the company would prefer him instead of the expatriate employee because Colombian companies have difference awareness.

For example in the language institute Confucio, they usually employ expatriate teachers, instead of local ones, because with this they want to assure the quality of the service being offered. But in the moment that they found a Colombian teacher with the same skills the institute will inmediately employ him/her. That is the case of a close friend of mine, who was recently hired as the new monitor of the institute after demonstrating great listening and writing skills.  


References

Florida, R. (2002) The rise of the creative class. The Washington Monthly, 34(5), 15.

Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213679959?accountid=45662

Resolucion 0000977 de 01-04.2009.  Retrieved from: http://www.actualicese.com/normatividad/2009/04/01/resolucion-000977-de-01-04-2009/

The economic impact of the creative class. (youtube video). Retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIytjqnLvK0