Book Review : 'Temporary Labour Migration in the Global Era: The Regulatory Challenges'

"Labor Migration in the Global Era" comes just two years after the publication of a similar volume. Both collections contain the work of contributors who bring multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary analyses to bear on the problems engendered by labor migration. However, in at least two respects, "Labor Migration in the Global Era" demonstrates an evolution in thinking about labor migration since the earlier volume. First, there is greater attention paid to the regulation of labor migration more broadly; several of the chapters in the Howe and Owens volume take up the governance of temporary labor migration programs themselves (see chapters 5, 6, 14, 15, and 17). The new volume is also concerned with the broader regulatory environment; for example, the enforcement of the rights of temporary migrants by regulators is given some consideration (see chapter 18). In addition, there is an attempt to look beyond state actors to consider the contribution of non-state parties, such as collectives of workers (see chapters 15 and 16). Framing the issue as regulatory in nature, rather than predominantly legal, allows for a richer discussion that draws attention to related policy domains, the entire institutional context, and the diversity of state and non-state actors involved. "Second, Labor Migration in the Global Era" takes more seriously the international and transnational dimensions of the issue. One of the chapters explores the issue of recruitment abuses suffered by workers before they have even departed their home countries (chapter 15), and another considers the problem of migration fees incurred by workers at various phases of the labor migration process (chapter 17). The importance of thinking about labor migration as having a transnational regulatory architecture is readily apparent