Speaker
Prof.
Tapiwa Chagonda
(University of Johannesburg)
Description
Debates on the 4IR are raging within the academy, as scholars endeavor to grapple with the pros and cons of this revolution. Within the labour market, fears have been expressed by scholars on how the 4IR might disrupt the traditional work environment as we have known it, as some of the semi-skilled and even skilled office workers might end up being made redundant by technology and robots. It is the contention of this paper that in the midst of all these fears of retrenchments within the labour market, as a consequence of 4IR, the ‘illegal’ and deportable migrants who work in the lower rungs of the labour market are more likely to remain unscathed and to be retained within South Africa’s labour market, as compared to semi-skilled and skilled migrant workers who might be properly documented.
Primary author
Prof.
Tapiwa Chagonda
(University of Johannesburg)
