Half of migrant workers in Australia feel unsafe at work, survey finds

 Half of all migrant workers in Australia feel unsafe at work, experiencing discrimination, bullying and verbal abuse, while 58% experienced wage theft, new research has found.

The Migrant Workers Centre surveyed more than 1,000 workers in Australia about their experiences in the job market and migration system, and found many migrants experienced discrimination in job application processes because of their visa status, despite having work rights, which pushed them towards insecure work and exploitative employers.

He described the “perverse outcome” of the “dual market” created by Australia’s visa system whereby skilled migrants need to obtain a permanent job to get a permanent visa, but find they are discriminated against for permanent jobs when they do not have a permanent visa.

“We see engineers mowing lawns and doctors driving Ubers. That’s a huge disadvantage not only to the workers themselves but to society that really needs the skills and experience that migrant workers bring to this country.”

https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/20/half-of-migrant-workers-in-australia-feel-unsafe-at-work-survey-finds

Migration and the precarious workforce

 Robert came to the UK in 2008 with a law degree and speaking three languages.

• He has worked for 10 years in Britain's precarious workforce
• He and his wife split a few months ago, he says, when the family’s money ran out. 
• What’s left now is a bank account in almost permanent overdraft and a 38-year-old man tearing himself apart over his broken life here. “I’m an idiot,” he says. “I’ve wasted myself.”
• What keeps Robert here now are the weekend visits with his daughter. 

But after 10 years in Britain he’s learned something else too, about the reality of a country that claims to welcome foreigners, even as they punish them. An economy that promises a better life to those it then sucks dry. A society that kids itself that it’s a soft touch when really, it is as cold and hard as any interminable overnight shift.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/12/myths-migration-stereotypes-insecure-low-paid-work

George Carlin's drug use

In a 2008 interview, Carlin stated that using cannabis, LSD, and mescaline had helped him cope with events in his personal life

He also stated several times that he had battled addictions to alcohol, Vicodin, and cocaine, and spent some time in a rehab facility in late 2004.