“Your health and safety is of utmost importance to us”: A review of research on the occupational health and safety of international employees

Organizations cannot function without healthy and safe employees, a stark reality evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019-20: when lives are threatened, everything else becomes secondary. Few would question that there is a critical need to build HR-relevant knowledge of how to manage the health and safety of employees. Despite the duty of care carried by organizations and the fact that those who work across national borders are a particularly vulnerable group, there is surprisingly little discussion about their health and safety. We examined the literature relevant to the health and safety of international employees across four research disciplines. Our review of 180 papers found a growing yet fragmented field offering important insights with implications for HRM. Our paper is intended as both a review and a call for future advancement. We bring together disparate but related research streams in order to understand what is known about occupational health and safety related to working across national borders and to outline a roadmap for future research and practice. •There is a critical need to build HR-relevant knowledge of how to manage the health and safety of international employees.•The literature is fragmented across four broad research disciplines with little cross-pollination of knowledge.•International work has negative consequences, for one’s psychological, physical, and physiological health and safety.•Organizations play a vital role in protecting the health and safety of people working across national borders.