Search

For nearly half a century, the Middle East and, in particular, the Arabian Peninsula has become a major migration corridor for domestic workers from Asia and Africa. The large-scale employment of migrant domestic workers began following the oil boom in 1973. As a result of rapidly growing oil revenues, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states financed development projects in infrastructure, industry, and agriculture, which attracted migrants from neighboring Arab countries and other parts of the world. Initially, the majority of migrants were single men, with women migrating for family reunification. The increasing demand for paid domestic labor led to an increase in the number of autonomous women migrants (Castles and Miller, 2003; Moukarbel, 2009). Domestic workers came predominantly from South and Southeast Asia (e.g., the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Indonesia), yet in the past decade, an increasing number of African women have also migrated to the Middle East. Most of them come from Ethiopia and Eritrea, but there are also women from Nigeria, Cameroon, Madagascar, Benin, and other African countries who work as domestics. In addition, while the majority of migrant domestic workers can be found on the Arabian Peninsula, they are also present in Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Syria (before the civil war), and Yemen (e.g., Jureidini, 2009; Moukarbel, 2009; Liebelt, 2011; Frantz, 2008; de Regt, 2008).

Introduction Worldwide, there are between 50–67 million migrant domestic workers, the majority of whom are women. In many countries, provisions are not in place to protect female migrant domestic workers. These women may be at risk of occupational and social stressors, including exploitation and abuse, which may negatively impact on their quality of life, including psychological health. Research examining the occupational, social, and psychological needs of FMDWs from a public health perspective is critical to guide the development of policies which ensure wellbeing, prevent abuse, and align with international priorities to improve population health. Though there have been a number of high-profile incidents of exploitation and abuse, there has been limited research on the stressors experienced by these communities, their perceived impact, or coping mechanisms. Materials and methods Thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative free-text written responses collected as part of a cross-sectional survey on the relationship between social and occupational stressors and the health and quality of life of FMDWs in Singapore. Responses correspond to open-ended questions in the qualitative component of the survey examining three domains: causes of stress, coping strategies, and what people can do to help with stress. Results Responses from 182 FMDWs were analysed. Key themes were identified around causes of stress (including ‘work and agency’, ‘the pervasiveness of financial need’, and ‘family and obligation’), coping strategies, and social support. Each theme describes key factors which contribute to the occupational and social stressors experienced and reported by FMDWs. Discussion This research highlights the stressors FMDWs in Singapore experience, as well as key coping mechanisms. There is a clear need for policies which facilitate FMDWs’ ability to utilise these coping resources, and which protect against coercive or exploitative employment conditions. Strategies are also needed to monitor and evaluate policies intended to protect FMDWs, and to strengthen the implementation of global frameworks targeted at improving workplace conditions and workers’ rights.

Since women began mobilizing more than 40 years ago to transform the labour movement, unions have made significant changes to increase women’s participation, leadership and interest representation. Yet, there are limitations to this progress. Unionized women are concentrated in the public sector amongst full-time employees. Moreover, women’s interests have tended to be added onto existing union agenda; women are therefore encouraged to adjust to existing union structures and practices rather than unions undertaking transformational organizational change. Unions tend to socially construct the collective interests and identities of women workers in gender-neutral ways that end up limiting union capacities to make bigger organizing breakthroughs amongst women. The article develops an argument that women’s relationship to work is distinct from men’s. Women are more likely to experience a blurring of the boundaries between work, home and community, which leads many women workers to be less responsive to union appeals that focus strictly on the job and workplace. These ideas are explored using a case study of a province-wide organizing drive amongst child care providers by the B.C. Government Employees Union (BCGEU). The BCGEU used methods of community unionism to build a sense of collective identity and capacity for collective action amongst a diverse group of child care providers, including those who work in child care centres, in-home providers and migrant domestic workers. The union built its campaign around shared relationships of caring and love, and by rejecting the devaluation of child care as unskilled, women’s work. The article concludes with an evaluation of whether this approach to organizing women opens new possibilities for reaching out to non-union women., Depuis que les femmes ont commencé à se mobiliser il y a plus de 40 ans pour transformer le mouvement ouvrier, les syndicats ont entrepris des changements significatifs afin de permettre une plus grande participation des femmes, d’augmenter leur représentation dans les instances et de mieux représenter leurs intérêts. Cependant, il y a des limites à ces progrès. Les femmes syndiquées sont surtout concentrées dans le secteur public parmi les employés à temps plein. De plus, les intérêts des femmes ont eu tendance à se superposer à l’ordre du jour syndical existant ; les femmes sont donc encouragées à s’ajuster aux structures et pratiques syndicales existantes plutôt que de voir les syndicats transformer leur organisation. Les syndicats tendent à construire socialement les intérêts et identités collectives des travailleuses de manière asexuée ou sans aborder les questions de genre, ce qui finit par limiter leur capacité à faire une plus grande percée dans l’organisation collective des femmes. L’article développe l’argument selon lequel le rapport des femmes au travail est distinct de celui des hommes. Les femmes font bien plus face au brouillage des frontières entre le travail, le foyer familial et la communauté, ce qui conduit beaucoup de travailleuses être moins sensibles aux appels des syndicats qui se concentrent strictement sur le travail et le milieu de travail. Ces idées sont explorées en utilisant une étude de cas sur une campagne de syndicalisation des travailleuses en services de garde à travers une province canadienne menée par l’Union des employés du gouvernement de la Colombie-Britannique (BCGEU). Le BCGEU a employé des méthodes misant sur l’aspect communautaire du syndicalisme afin de créer un sentiment d’identité collective et de construire les aptitudes menant à l’action collective parmi un groupe diversifié de travailleuses en services de garde d’enfants, comprenant celles qui travaillent dans des centres de la petite enfance, à domicile ou encore les travailleuses domestiques immigrées. Le syndicat a établi sa campagne autour des notions et rapports communs à toutes ces travailleuses, la responsabilité des soins et l’amour qu’elles apportent, tout en rejetant l’image et l’argument négatifs selon lesquels la garde des enfants est une activité non qualifiée réservée aux femmes. L’article conclut avec une évaluation de cette approche de la syndicalisation des femmes qui ouvre de nouvelles possibilités pour atteindre les femmes non syndiquées., Dado que las mujeres empezaron a movilizar hace más de 40 años para transformar el movimiento sindical, los sindicatos han realizado cambios significativos para aumentar la participación, el liderazgo de las mujeres y la representación de sus intereses. Existen sin embargo limitaciones a este progreso. Las mujeres sindicalizadas están concentradas en el sector público, en las empleadas a tiempo completo. Además, la tendencia ha sido de añadir las reivindicaciones de las mujeres a la agenda existente del sindicato; las mujeres son por lo tanto, invitadas a adaptarse a las estructuras sindicales y las prácticas ya existentes en lugar que los sindicatos se impliquen en un cambio para transformar la organización. Los sindicatos tienden a construir socialmente los intereses colectivos y las identidades de las mujeres trabajadoras en una forma neutra de género que terminan por limitar la capacidad sindical de hacer avances más importantes en la organización de las mujeres.El artículo desarrolla un argumento en el sentido que la relación de las mujeres al trabajo, es distinta de los hombres. Las mujeres son más propensas a experimentar una confusión de las fronteras entre trabajo, hogar y comunidad, lo que lleva a muchas trabajadoras a ser menos sensibles a la convocatoria del sindicato que se centra estrictamente en el trabajo y el lugar de trabajo. Estas ideas se exploran mediante un estudio de caso de una organización provincial de proveedores de cuidado de niños del Sindicato de empleados del Gobierno de Colombia-Británica (BCGEU).El BCGEU utiliza los métodos del sindicalismo comunitario para construir un sentido de identidad colectiva y la capacidad de acción colectiva entre un grupo diverso de proveedores de cuidado infantil, incluyendo los que trabajan en centros de cuidado infantil, en el hogar y los proveedores de las trabajadoras domésticas inmigrantes. El sindicato ha construido su campaña en torno a las relaciones compartidas de cuidado y amor, y rechazando la devaluación del cuidado de los niños cuando es considerado como trabajo no calificado, un trabajo de mujer. El artículo concluye con una evaluación a saber si este enfoque de la organización de las mujeres abre nuevas posibilidades para acercarse de las mujeres no sindicalizadas.

This paper looks at the incorporation and marginalization of female migrant domestic workers in Taiwan. The first part sketches the political geography of foreign workers by examining how the government regulates, marginalizes, and disciplines foreign contract workers. The second part portrays the social geography of migrant domestic workers in Taiwan by discussing how they establish multiple forms of communities and networks. I also compare Filipina and Indonesian migrant domestic workers in terms of how they are discursively constructed by employment agencies and how they gather in different spatial patterns on Sundays.

This article explores dominant discourses on ‘illegal’ migrants in the context of contemporary Indonesian labour migration to Malaysia. By focusing on the particular case of migrant domestic workers, it discusses recent political moves undertaken by both nation-states to regularise migratory movements. These state-induced efforts at regularising transnational migration have been promoted as combating trafficking and ‘illegal’ migration, but they have led to the legitimisation of a migration scheme that has much in common with colonial indentured labour. Hence, the paper argues that this ‘legal,’ state-sanctioned migration scheme gradually leads domestic workers into ‘legal’ — but bonded — labour arrangements and that the labour contract, as such, needs to be analysed as an instrument of subordination. Through the counter-narrative of Arum, an Indonesian domestic worker performing her work ‘illegally’ in Malaysia, the paper then goes on to argue that to migrate through ‘illegal’ migration channels can be interpreted as an act of voluntarily circumventing the ‘legal,’ state-sanctioned migration scheme. Thus, ‘illegal’ migration can be equated with deliberately resisting a coercive system.

This chapter revisits the concept of partial citizenship for migrant domestic workers, meaning their stunted incorporation as members of host and home societies. It further qualifies the experience of partial citizenship by focusing on the dynamic engendered by their conditional membership based on employer sponsorship. Host societies often limit the citizenship of migrant domestic workers by binding them to work only for their sponsors. At the same time, the experience of sponsored migrants varies across the diaspora between domestic workers who can transition out of employer sponsorship to permanent residency and those who are perpetually bound to temporary status. Illustrating variations of partial citizenship establishes differences in citizenship for migrant domestic workers across destinations.