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.
METHODS: This was an exploratory qualitative study conducted via semi-structured interviews with twenty-two women who were married when they were younger than 18 years old in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. Participants were recruited through purposive and convenient sampling with the use of data from a reproductive health clinic and recruitment in villages. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis.
RESULTS: Four overarching themes were identified: health risk behaviour, family poverty, early marriage as fate, and family disharmony.
CONCLUSIONS: In-depth understanding of the unique factors leading to child marriage locally will facilitate the introduction of new approaches to interventions to eradicate child marriage in Sarawak state, Malaysia.