Professor Sarkar Co-Writes Op-Ed about Migrant Workers in Israel
Professor Shayak Sarkar and Josh Rosenthal, a civil and workers’ rights attorney, wrote a Nov. 8 opinion piece on Israel’s migrant workers for the Forward, a nonprofit media outlet focused on news of potential interest to Jewish Americans.
Dozens of caregivers and agricultural workers from India, Nepal, Thailand and other Asian countries were killed, injured or taken hostage as part of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, “but the plight of migrant workers who fell victim to Hamas’ attack has been treated as secondary," Sarkar and Rosenthal write. "Families of Thai hostages recently said they had received no communications from Israel’s government in the month since their loved ones were kidnapped.”
Even before the Hamas attack, “these workers were weaponized by an Israeli right wing to reinforce a narrow national identity,” Sarkar and Rosenthal continue. “The current war’s migrant casualties have made these workers’ need for greater legal protection even starker.”
Shayak Sarkar's scholarship addresses the structure and legal regulation of inequality. His substantive interests lie in financial regulation, employment law, immigration, and taxation.