Employment Precarity and Psychosocial Well-Being Among İnterstate Migrant Workers in India: The Mediating Role of Social Protection

Abstract

Background: Employment precarity has become a defining feature of informal labor markets, particularly among interstate migrant workers in developing economies like India. Although a growing body of evidence demonstrates the adverse effects of precarious employment on mental health, the mechanisms through which these effects operate remain unclear. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional survey design with a purposive sample of 428 interstate migrant workers from Kerala. Data were collected using structured scales for employment precarity, social protection, psychosocial well-being, social exclusion, and adaptive coping. Pearson’s correlation and linear regression analyses were performed, and mediation and moderation effects were tested using the PROCESS macro (Models 4 and 1). Results: Employment precarity was significantly associated with lower psychosocial wellbeing. Social protection demonstrated a statistically significant indirect effect within this association, suggesting that access to institutional resources may be a partial factor. However, social exclusion and adaptive coping did not moderate this relationship. These findings suggest that the association between employment precarity and psychosocial wellbeing remained relatively consistent across the social and individual factors examined in this study. Conclusion: The findings underscore the comparatively strong association between employment precarity and migrant well-being while suggesting that the buffering roles of social and individual factors may be contextually limited within the present sample. However, given its cross-sectional design, these findings should be interpreted as associations rather than causal relationships. The psychosocial health of migrant workers can be improved by developing accessible and portable social protection systems, alongside structural labor market reforms.