Abstract
Migration has had a significant impact on employment and the labour market in South Africa. Migrants relocate in search of better jobs with good working conditions. However, work arrangements have increasingly shifted from standard work arrangements in which an employee’s job is permanent with a fixed work schedule. Relatively, there is a growth of precarious employment whereby jobs are more precarious because numerous recent work arrangements are non-standard. These non-standard work arrangements are characterised by short-term employment tenure where work schedules are based on shifts or a few hours per week, rotational work, and pay based on aspects such as piece-rate, commission, job rate, training experience, and wages. Several scholars in South Africa have engaged with the precarious work experiences of migrant workers and deduced that there has been a growth of precarious employment amongst migrant workers. Therefore, this paper engages with the working conditions of migrant teachers and their extent of access to decent work. This paper looks at, firstly, precarity and its contribution to the migrant labour market. Secondly, Migrant labour, which looks at push and pull factors as well as the experiences and challenges faced by migrants. Lastly, discussed decent work through the theoretical lens to observe and understand the experiences of migrant teachers.
The data was collected through the in-depth interviews. A total of nine migrant teachers were interviewed. Seven participants were from Zimbabwe; one participant was from the DRC, whereas the last one was from Ghana. The findings of this study were that, despite having proper ID and Permanent residence, working conditions and employment conditions are negotiated with migrant teachers because of their citizenship status. The study argues that the temporary measure by the South African government to regulate the stay of migrants creates a workforce that is precarious. The ILO’s Decent Work Framework utilized in this study supports this latter by highlighting that the work conditions of migrant teachers of this study indeed are negotiated by their citizenship, and decent work is partly achieved.