Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest workers are often either sent or invited to work outside their home country or have acquired a job before leaving their home country, whereas migrant workers often leave their home country without a specific job in prospect.
Tens of millions of people around the world operate as foreign workers. As of 2018, according to reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is an estimated 28 million foreign-born workers in the United States, which draws most of its immigrants from Mexico, including 4 or 5 million undocumented workers. In 2016, over 15 million foreign workers lived in the European Union, half a million in Japan, and around 5 million in Saudi Arabia. Between January and June in 2019, 2.4 million foreigners arrived to work in Russia.In some cases, large numbers of dependents accompany international workers, though this tendency varies with ethnicity – for instance, Arab non-nationals are more likely than Asian ones to bring their families to the Gulf States.
