Labor Department debuts website for migrant workers in 6 new languages
Migrant workers on the job at a farm in Homestead, Florida in May 2023. The U.S. Department of Labor is rolling out new, multilingual resources for migrant workers online. CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images
By
Natalie Alms
“Our mandate includes protecting the rights of all workers,” a department official told reporters this week.
The Labor Department is expanding its online, one-stop-shop about the rights of migrant workers, like the right to a safe workplace free of discrimination or to form a union, as well as information on how to file complaints.
This week, the department launched an expanded version of the site, MigrantWorker.gov, and the Spanish version, TrabajadorMigrante.gov, with content in six additional languages: Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
“Our goal is to get valuable information into the hands of migrant workers in this country about their rights and protections under U.S. law,” Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Thea Lee told reporters during a briefing this week. “Our mandate includes protecting the rights of all workers, particularly those vulnerable to exploitation, who might be hesitant to come forward if their rights are violated.”
The website dates to August 2023 and is meant to serve as a repository for commonly asked questions and useful links. The website now has a toggle option at the top for users to switch to one of the newly added languages.
The website includes information about recruitment, migrant worker rights, wages and hours, workplace safety and health, organizing rights, discrimination and harassment, retaliation and trafficking, among other things, including how to file claims when things do go wrong.
That website was the result of cross-agency collaboration within the Labor Department and with other agencies, said Bureau of International Labor Affairs Special Assistant Elizabeth Peña.
The department wanted to be able to link across the various jurisdictions a migrant worker might go through, she said, noting that the website also includes information about cross-agency efforts to protect worker rights and collaborations with other government partners and civil society organizations.
“When migrant workers cross borders for work, they also cross multiple legal, policy and geographic jurisdictions. Understanding who does what and where they should go for help can be confusing for anyone, but particularly for migrant workers who sometimes do not speak English, likely do not understand how these systems work and are often afraid to come forward with questions or concerns,” said Lee. “This is why we created MigrantWorker.gov.”
Other agencies have also added new links to their own materials on MigrantWorker.gov as well, said Peña, and the department is working with foreign embassies and consulates in the U.S. to disseminate the new resources via the department’s Consular Partnership Program.
The new language materials and the choice of languages was informed by migrant workers themselves, advocacy groups and data analytics about immigrant workers in the U.S., Lee said.
The Labor Department also tried to use plain language that’s easily understandable on the website, said Peña.
The agency also added new videos to the Spanish-language site with information about issues like illegal recruitment fees. There are English videos as well, and the department plans to release more resources for migrant workers from now up until the end of August, when labor rights week occurs, including videos on migrant rights in Indigenous languages, said Peña.