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
Syllabification: guest work·er
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /gEst wUHR-kuhr/
- British English – /gEst wUHR-kuh/
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 November 29, 2023 (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 November 29, 2023. https://sociologydictionary.org/guest-worker/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“guest worker.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 29 Nov. 2023. <https://sociologydictionary.org/guest-worker/>.