Background The exploitation of migrant workers ranks high on global political agendas including the Sustainable Development Goals. Research on exploited workers, using assessment tools where exploitation is defined by professional experts, indicates serious health concerns and needs. Yet, migrant workers are rarely asked about their understanding of a phenomenon they may experience. Our study aimed to conceptualise ‘labour exploitation’ from the perspective of migrant workers employed in manual low-skilled jobs. Methods Twenty-seven Latin Americans working in London (UK) participated in Group Concept Mapping; a participatory mixed-method where qualitative data are collected to define a concept’s content and then analysed using quantitative methods to generate a structured conceptual framework. Participants generated statements describing the concept content during brainstorming sessions, and structured them during sorting-rating exercises. Multi-Dimensional Scaling and Cluster Analysis were performed, generating a conceptual framework that clarified the dimensions, subdimensions and constituent statements of the concept of labour exploitation from migrant workers’ perspectives. Results Three key dimensions were identified: ‘poor employment conditions and lack of protection’, covering contractual arrangements and employment relations; ‘disposability and abuse of power’ (or ‘dehumanisation’) covering mechanisms or means which make migrant workers feel disposable and abused; and ‘health and safety and psychosocial hazards’ encompassing issues from physical and psychosocial hazards to a lack of health and social protection. ‘Dehumanisation’ has not been included in mainstream tools assessing exploitation, despite its importance for study participants who also described harsh situations at work including sexual, physical and verbal abuse. Conclusion Our study provides a conceptual framework of labour exploitation that gives voice to migrant workers and can be operationalised into a measure of migrant labour exploitation. It also calls for the dimension ‘dehumanisation’ and structural forms of coercion to be integrated into mainstream conceptualisations, and their workplace hazards to be urgently addressed. Data are available on reasonable request.

中文翻译：

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“他们像对待机器一样对待我们”：移民工人用于卫生研究和政策的劳动力剥削概念框架

背景 对移徙工人的剥削在包括可持续发展目标在内的全球政治议程中名列前茅。使用由专业专家定义剥削的评估工具对受剥削工人进行研究，表明存在严重的健康问题和需求。然而，农民工很少被问及他们对他们可能经历的现象的理解。我们的研究旨在从从事低技能体力工作的农民工的角度来概念化“劳动力剥削”。方法 在伦敦（英国）工作的 27 名拉丁美洲人参加了小组概念图绘制；一种参与式混合方法，收集定性数据来定义概念的内容，然后使用定量方法进行分析以生成结构化概念框架。参与者在头脑风暴会议中生成描述概念内容的陈述，并在排序评级练习中构建它们。通过多维度尺度分析和聚类分析，生成了一个概念框架，从农民工的角度阐明了劳动力剥削概念的维度、子维度和构成陈述。结果确定了三个关键维度：“恶劣的就业条件和缺乏保护”，涵盖合同安排和雇佣关系； “可处置和滥用权力”（或“非人化”）涵盖使移民工人感到可处置和受到虐待的机制或手段； “健康和安全以及社会心理危害”涵盖从身体和心理社会危害到缺乏健康和社会保护的问题。 “非人化”尚未被纳入评估剥削的主流工具中，尽管它对研究参与者很重要，他们也描述了工作中的恶劣情况，包括性虐待、身体虐待和言语虐待。结论 我们的研究提供了一个劳动力剥削的概念框架，为农民工提供了发言权，并且可以将其转化为农民工剥削的衡量标准。它还呼吁将“非人化”维度和胁迫的结构形式纳入主流概念，并紧急解决其工作场所危害。可根据合理要求提供数据。