Journal

Minimum wage and migration and refugee crises are some of the leading problems and hot topics that have dominated the society at local and international levels. Every day, debates on minimum wage continue to dominate national discourses, partly because policymakers are looking to find a long-lasting solution to perpetual poverty and inequality in the distribution of income. In the same way, millions of people continue to flee from what they had initially called home in order to save their lives. Political instability and human rights violation by different regimes are increasing the number of asylum-seekers. However, refugees often get cold reception in the host countries that they escape to.

Thesis Statement: The right policy interventions are required in order to arrive to end migrant

crisis and determine the right minimum wage for businesses and laborers.

Hill, H. D., & Romich, J. (2017). How Will Higher Minimum Wages Affect Family Life and

Children's Well‐Being? Child Development Perspectives, 12 (2), 109-114.

In a journal article titled How Will Higher Minimum Wages Affect Family Life and

Children's Well‐Being, Hill and Romich (2017) observe that the last five years have seen an international shift towards new minimum wage legislations, particularly in industrialized economies such as the United States. These laws are built ion the presumption that benefits stream in not just to laborers themselves, but also to their children and family members. In particular, teenage laborers are expected to be directly impacted by these new trends, considering their focus on low-paying jobs. However, Hill and Romich (2017) argue that younger children might be affected indirectly by changes in their parents’ working conditions, family level of income, and the quality of non-parental childcare. Studies on minimum wage show the existence of modest and mixed economic impacts. For instance, minimum wage has resulted in significant decline in employment and modest decrease in poverty rates over time. In an effort to investigate this pattern, Hill and Romich (2017) utilize theoretical model and empirical evidence regarding the impacts on children on parental work and family income to suggest hypotheses relating to the impacts of minimum wage increment ion families and their children’s’ wellbeing. He researchers reveal that the effects of minimum wage increases are often mainly felt by children in female-headed, immigrant, and racial-minority families.

Mărginean, S., & Chenic, A. Ş. (2013). Effects of Raising Minimum Wage: Theory,

Evidence and Future Challenges. Procedia Economics and Finance, 6, 96-102.

In this scholarly work, Mărginean and Chenic (2013) note that minimum wage is one of the most explored issues in economics. In response to that, the researchers investigate some of the most significant matters associated with the impacts of minimum wage, based on latest contributions in theoretical and empirical studies since 2008. To determine explanations for the recent increment in minimum wage in Europe and the United States, and the potential impacts of these patterns, Mărginean and Chenic (2013) reveal that most scholars point out little or no employment to modest increment in minimum wage. However, Mărginean and Chenic (2013) assert that there are other effects that have not yet been taken into consideration. According to these researchers, the controversies of minimum wage has for a long time emphasized on the impacts of introducing and increasing minimum wage on labor market. Critics of minimum wage stress on its potential adverse impacts on employment. Following years of empirical studies, scholars appear to point uniformly to the presence of small negative effects of high minimum wages on employment and unemployment. Three decades ago, the Minimum Wage Study Commission from the United States conducted an assessment of the current studies on US and Canada. Their evaluation report revealed that high minimum wage might result in unemployment, but it also has the effect of raising the standards of living of millions of people.

Baskar, E., & Khan, M. T. (2016). Does the Minimum Wage Bite into Fast-Food?

Prices. Journal of Labor Research, 37(2), 129-148.

Although minimum wage is a hot topic that is often discussed mainly in fast food companies, there exists a dearth in literature about their impacts on these firms. One of the few studies conducted about the potential effects of minimum wage on fast food firms was contributed by Basker and Khan (2016) in their scholarly article titled Does the Minimum Wage Bite into Fast Food Prices? In it, the researchers investigate the impacts if increasing state minimum wages in the prices of various fast-food products. Using a quarterly city-level information from 1993 to 2012, a time when the federal minimum wage significantly reduced in real value while state-level laws flourished, the researchers examine the changes in pricing patterns for pizza and burgers, the results show that there was a major elasticity of 0.09 with regard to the minimum wage, in line with a competitive labor market. The estimates from the third product, chicken, suggest that the price effects are driven by increments in restaurant wages and fast-food outlets. There are two major factors that encouraged the researchers to explore the potential effects of minimum wage increments on fast food pricing strategies. First, the federal minimum wage drastically eroded by a significant margin in 2000s, reducing by more than 25 percent in real terms from September 1997 to July 2007. The researchers sought to understand if these erosions reduced the bite of the minimum wage and to what extent. The second factor was motivated by statistical issues. Earlier researches were often restricted by few levels of minimum wages laws between 1993 and 2012.

Parker, S. (2015). 'Unwanted invaders': The representation of refugees and asylum seekers

in the UK and Australian print media. sharp, 23.

Refugees are some of the most alienated and vulnerable groups of people in the world. This is especially true when they are victims of war, instability, and poverty in their home countries. In this article, Parker (2015) explores the ways in which refuges and migrants are perceived by citizens of their respective host countries. According to Parker (2015), asylum seekers are increasingly attracting negative media publicity in many British and Australian newspapers. After conducting a content analysis of 40 articles using a discursive psychological approach Parker revealed that the principle repertoires commonly utilized was that of the ‘unwanted invader’. This narrative is attained through the utilization of metaphors of criminals and water. Nonetheless, such repertoires were found to be used in varying ways by different media houses. For instance, the Australian media emphasized on the border protection and keeping of ‘these’ people out of the country. The UK media, on the other hand, mainly utilized the repertoire predominantly to influence the readers to agree that asylum seekers should be deported out of the country. Considering that there are approximately 16 million refugees and 1.2 million asylum seekers internationally, Parker calls for the need to understand the challenge that these people undergo in their effort to seek greener pastures in host countries.

Allen, W., Anderson, B., Van Hear, N., Sumption, M., Düvell, F., Hough, J., & Walker,

S. (2018). Who counts in crises? The new geopolitics of international migration and

refugee governance. Geopolitics, 23(1), 217-243.

The migration crisis that continues to affect New Zealand and other parts of the world raises fundamental questions. According to Allen et al. (2018), one of these questions relate to who a migrant really is in contemporary political and social discourses. Allen et al. (2018) suggest that the answers to these fundamental questions continue to change every day. In order to understand these questions, the researchers explore the present saliency of migration by evaluating the manner in which groups of migration hold geopolitical importance not just in the way that they are constructed, but by who and how they are challenged and subverted. The researchers stress on the importance of categorization as a tool to govern refugees, whether through formal or informal mechanisms and channels. The writers argue that not only do categories make people visible while making others invisible, but also establish standards and normalize practices of how migrants are perceived.

References

Allen, W., Anderson, B., Van Hear, N., Sumption, M., Düvell, F., Hough, J., & Walker,

S. (2018). Who counts in crises? The new geopolitics of international migration and

refugee governance. Geopolitics, 23(1), 217-243.

Basker, E., & Khan, M. T. (2016). Does the Minimum Wage Bite into Fast-Food

Prices?. Journal of Labor Research, 37(2), 129-148.

Hill, H. D., & Romich, J. (2017). How Will Higher Minimum Wages Affect Family Life and

Children's Well‐Being? Child Development Perspectives, 12 (2), 109-114.

Mărginean, S., & Chenic, A. Ş. (2013). Effects of Raising Minimum Wage: Theory,

Evidence and Future Challenges. Procedia Economics and Finance, 6, 96-102.

Parker, S. (2015). 'Unwanted invaders': The representation of refugees and asylum seekers

in the UK and Australian print media. eSharp, 23.