guest worker

Definition of Guest Worker

(noun) An individual with temporary permission to live and work in another country.

Example of Guest Worker

• Domestic helpers such as house keepers and au pairs or migrant farm workers.
  

Guest Worker Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: guest work·er

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /gɛst ˈwɜrkər/
• British English – /gɛst ˈwɜːkə/

Usage Notes

• Plural: guest workers
• The term guest worker is typically applied to people who have a temporary visa granted by a legal authority, not someone who is in a country illegally.
• A type of individual.
• Also called migrant worker.

Additional Information

• Word origin of “guest” and “worker” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Kendall, Gavin, Ian Woodward, and Zlatko Skrbiš. 2009. The Sociology of Cosmopolitanism: Globalization, Identity, Culture and Government. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Martell, Luke. 2010. The Sociology of Globalization. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
• Nash, Kate. 2010. Contemporary Political Sociology: Globalization, Politics, and Power. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
• Robertson, Roland, and Kathleen E. White, eds. 2003. Globalization: Critical Concepts in Sociology. London: Routledge.
• Sassen, Saskia. 2007. A Sociology of Globalization. New York: Norton.
• Savage, Michael, Gaynor Bagnall, and Brian Longhurst. 2005. Globalization and Belonging. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

Related Terms

• culture
• cultural diffusion
• global perspective
• globalization
• group
• individual
• material culture
• nonmaterial culture
• society
• tourism

---

Works Consulted

Marsh, Ian, and Mike Keating, eds. 2006. Sociology: Making Sense of Society. 3rd ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).

Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).

Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).

Cite the Definition of Guest Worker

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “guest worker.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 18, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/guest-worker/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

guest worker. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/guest-worker/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “guest worker.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 18, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/guest-worker/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“guest worker.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/guest-worker/>.