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This study aims to empirically investigate and extend the diversity-meritocracy paradox outlined by Konrad et al. (2021) using skilled immigrants in Canada as a case study. Despite their significance in knowledge-based economies, immigrant voices are often marginalized in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) literature and management research. By focusing on skilled immigrants, who embody both diversity and meritocratic principles, this research addresses this gap. Through semi-structured interviews, we examine whether diversity and meritocracy are perceived as contradictory or complementary for skilled immigrants. Our findings not only contribute to theoretical understanding but also offer practical insights into the complexities of diversity and meritocracy in contemporary organizations.

This study utilizes qualitative, semi-structured, interviews and focus groups to gather data from both employers and skilled immigrants. Thematic analysis, guided by Braun and Clarke (2006), is employed to analyze the data. Participants include skilled immigrants and human resource (HR) professionals/managers. Data are collected through interviews and focus groups conducted between December 2018 and February 2020 in person and via video-conferencing.

This study unveils a discrepancy in perceptions between employers and skilled immigrants on DEI in Canada’s labor market. While employers prioritize meritocracy, emphasizing Canadian qualifications and experience, immigrants feel undervalued, encountering barriers due to cultural differences. Employers focus on past work experience over credentials, using behavioral interviews and proficiency tests for assessment. However, immigrants often perceive the selection process as opaque, and encounter explicit preferences for Canadian education and experience, which they view as discriminatory. Challenges in onboarding, training and workplace culture further exacerbate their experiences. These findings highlight the nuanced dynamics between meritocracy and diversity, underscoring the need for systemic change.

Despite employers’ claims of valuing diversity, our findings reveal a preference for “Canadian-ness” over immigrants' international expertise, perpetuating systemic barriers. Employers prioritize meritocracy but often conflate it with cultural conformity, hindering immigrant integration. Our analysis underscores the disconnection between organizational rhetoric and practices, urging a reconceptualization of diversity and inclusion policies. To foster truly inclusive workplaces, both surface-level and deep-level diversity must be considered. Policy interventions and enhanced intercultural competence are essential for leveraging the talents of skilled immigrants and promoting equitable employment practices.

The purpose of this paper is to check the impact of financial inclusion on economic development of marginalized communities through the mediation of socio-economic empowerment.

In order to fulfil the objectives of the study, primary data were collected from 382 bank customers belonging to marginalized communities breathing in Jammu district of J and K by using purposive sampling technique. The data were collected during the month of April–August 2020. Multivariate statistical techniques such as EFA, CFA and SEM were used for data analysis and scale purification.

The study’s results reveal that financial inclusion has a direct and significant impact on economic development of marginalized communities through the mediation of social and economic empowerment. The study highlights that despite various initiatives taken by the government towards financial inclusion, there is a denial from the financial institutions to extend the credit to the marginalized communities due to lack of education, illiteracy, lack of awareness, attitude of bankers and policy directions to the banking sector, which confine these communities to feel proud, dignified, confident and self-reliant to face any financial crisis.

First the in-depth analysis of the study is restricted to Jammu district only that restricts the generalization of the results to the whole population of J and K. Second, the data were collected from respondents belonging to marginalized communities only. Third, comparative study of marginalized households who are covered under the financial inclusion drive and those who are still financially excluded has not been done yet. Fourth, the questionnaire approach was the only way to gather primary data and thus, the results might have a common-method bias.

The study makes contribution in the direction of financial inclusion narrative relating to socio-economic empowerment and economic development of marginalized communities. It looks into how for the socio-economic aspects of marginalized communities influence their exclusion from the financial system of the country. The study also provides valuable insights for the policymakers, researchers and academicians both at the countrywide and intercontinental level to devise and put into practice programmes that will widen right to use financial products and services leading to cutback of poverty incidence, income parity, social and economic empowerment, economic development and reduction in caste and gender based discrimination.

Various forms of precarious employment create barriers to the integration and inclusion of migrant workers in receiving countries. The purpose of this paper is to review extant research in employment relations and management to identify key factors that contribute to migrant workers' precarious employment and highlight potential avenues for future research.

The authors conducted a narrative literature review drawing on 38 academic journal articles published between 2005 and 2020.

The authors’ review suggests that macro- and meso-level factors contribute to the precarious employment conditions of migrant workers. However, there is a limited articulation of successful practices and potential solutions to reduce migrant work precarity and exclusion. The literature on migrant workers' precarious employment experience is primarily focused on low-skilled sector (e.g. agriculture, hospitality, domestic care) jobs. In addition, few studies have explored the role of worker characteristics, such as gender, class, ethnicity, race and migration status, in shaping the experience of migrant workers in precarious employment.

The results of this research highlight the importance of engaging multilevel actors in addressing migrant employment precarity, including policymakers, employers and employment agencies.

This research contributes to a growing conversation of migrant employment precarity by highlighting the heterogeneity of migrant groups and calling for the use of intersectional lenses to understand migrant workers' experiences of precarious employment.

This paper introduces the concept of transracial aesthetic labour to understand why and how an international teaching assistant (ITA) vocally changes meanings of his racial identity.

The paper uses a narrative analysis to detail instances of transracial aesthetic labour.

For the ITA, this labour involved orally distancing from or aligning with particular Indian stereotypes for specific contexts.

Transracial aesthetic labour may occur in other industries that deem race an integral part of sounding right or looking good for the job.

The findings highlight the need for ITAs and universities to rethink the meaning of transracial to combat racist perceptions of ITAs' speech.

The paper advances the aesthetic labour literature by exploring how race is vocally performed for this labour and introducing ITAs as aesthetic labourers.

Migrants have been posed with less familiarity in their new environment during COVID times, faced with various social, psychological and emotional traumas. Research indicates that they may have been originating from apprehension of being abandoned by their neighbours. Most of them were precarious with little wages, competing for their basic need fulfilment, putting them under more mental stress. Looking forward to the ancient principle, ‘Athithi Devo Bhavah’ (Visitors are Gods), and immediate response, measures were taken to promote community shelters and kitchens, maintaining social distancing and ensuring physical safety. The governments of different countries took proactive initiatives to study and assess their needs. The study here includes the cases being evaluated regarding migrants' need for surveillance and psycho-social support given by the government and non-profit associations during the pandemic at the global level. Remarkably, certain countries proved the working of their sustainable poverty reduction model by evaluating various factors. The study started by introducing who migrants were, diagnosing their problems faced during the pandemic, how Sustainable Development Goals can be implemented and various measures taken at government and institutional levels to protect the migrant workforce.

The tea plantation industry is characterized by the large-scale deployment of cheap women laborers and gender-blind practices that make the social positions of women workers vulnerable. This paper considers women temporary workers in tea gardens to study the exacerbated impact of Covid-19 on their lives. The impact of the pandemic on marginal tea garden women laborers has not received enough attention from researchers; hence, the authors have studied the gendered implications of the pandemic on Adivasi temporary women workers in tea gardens in India. “Adivasi” is an umbrella term to refer to all indigenous tribes in India.

The authors conducted a qualitative study with 26 in-depth interviews with women temporary workers who identify themselves as Adivasis. For the discussion, the authors have mainly borrowed from intersectionality and subalternity literature.

The analysis explored the intersectional experiences of the women temporary workers (1) as members of Tea Tribes who are compelled to continue working at tea gardens as wage laborers, (2) job insecurities at work due to their temporary worker status, (3) disadvantages faced by women workers for their gender identity and (4) the gendered impact of the pandemic on their lives.

This study has explored the gendered impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the lives of temporary women workers who belong to ethnic minority groups in the global south. The exploitation of labor rights in the tea industry during the pandemic has not been discussed enough by researchers earlier.

This paper aims to show that the experience of workers on the margins of international business is akin to the funeralesque. The funeralesque is understood as the appropriation of the value generated by workers across the production networks of international business.

Drawing from the engagement with crematorium workers, the narratives of workers are articulated, describing the insecurities and injustices experienced by them. The authors draw from six-month-long qualitative engagement with seven workers in a crematorium in Ahmedabad, India.

The experience of marginal subjects provides important insights into how international business, in conjunction with states, structures inequality for marginal subjects. Precariousness, social exclusion, low wages and subjectivities of humiliation are the experiences of marginal subjects. The reproduction of marginality in globalising cities is an important element of the funeralesque through which extraction and re-distribution of value across international networks is legitimised.

In understanding international business as the funeralesque, the authors demystify the power relations constituted by it. The authors provide a metaphor for dethroning the legitimacy of international business and indicate that its modern practices are similar to the practices of value appropriation that occur in a funeral.

The authors develop the metaphor of the funeralesque to gain insights into the experiences of workers on the margins of international business. The authors are, thus, able to theorise the underbelly of globalising cities in a poetic, subversive way.

The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in property institutions in the USA and India and their effects on agricultural productivity.

This paper undertakes a case study of industrial organization of agriculture, comparing agricultural development in the USA and India, with a focus on changes in farm size over time.

In the USA, unlimited individual land ownership has enabled the gradual, long-term development of scale economies in agriculture through the application of capital and technology. In contrast, land reforms in India, especially land ceilings that limit farm size, have stunted productivity growth in agriculture by limiting achievement of scale economies and capital formation.

The finding that India’s consistently meager agricultural productivity stems largely from legal limitations on land ownership indicates that reforms that create a US-style open-ended land ownership structure would greatly increase farm productivity and total crop output in India.

This paper presents a side-by-side analysis of the USA and India and their radically different paths of agricultural development over time, and connects these divergent outcomes directly to the underlying institutional framework of property rights. Moreover, the paper analyzes the prospects for pro-market reform in light of public choice political economy, specifically applying Tullock’s insights regarding the “transitional gains trap.”

Green practices are essential for sustainability. However, it is challenging due to the socioeconomic and environmental concerns. Similarly, after the induced SDG-12 and SDG-13 by United Nations, the pressure groups forced manufacturers to consider sustainability. Therefore, this research aims to examine the sustainability through multifaceted green functions in manufacturing is examined.

Data were collected from 293 supply chain professionals of manufacturers from a developing economy. Hypotheses were tested through a quantitative method using partial least squares-structural equation modeling with the help of SmartPLS version 4 to validate the measurement model.

The findings revealed that all six direct hypotheses were supported. However, out of four hypotheses of mediation, one was not supported. Besides, a sequential mediation of green supply chain environmental cooperation and green human resource management was supported. The findings illustrated that green supply chain practices positively influence all used variables.

This research provides practical insight to practitioners to implement green practices in their supply chain networks for social, economic and environmental sustainability and compliance with SDG-12 and SDG-13. The sustainability was validated in a higher-order construct (HOC) (formative), including sequential mediation in the model with the support of resource dependency theory. Therefore, this study adds substantial literature to the existing body of knowledge.

This research provides an interdisciplinary framework by adding knowledge to the Resource Dependency Theory to address Sustainable Development Goals-12 (SDGs) and SDG-13. Likewise, this research provides an extension towards the body of knowledge on the issue, which can be used in future research and critical examinations for cleaner and sustainable production. So far, in Pakistan, no research has looked at the function of these integrated variables in the manufacturing industry with a diligent focus on sustainability as it was validated in a higher-order construct (formative) with one sequential mediation, which makes this research unique.