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By the early 1990s, the migrant domestic worker had emerged as a prominent figure in Greek households and a key player in the service economy. Female migrant domestic workers became indispensable for personal care and family prestige, and they were recognized by the public not so much by the duties they performed but rather by their employment opportunities, personal relations, and social identities. This paper traces the ways and the means used to secure their consent to deference by examining their past and present conditions of work, the labor market, and their social status situation.

This article provides an overview of the legal status of migrant domestic workers in key destinations that grant employment visas to such workers. While the passage of the International Labour Organization Domestic Workers Convention in 2011 suggests the increasing recognition of paid domestic work as "real work," this article examines the terms of employment and residency for migrant domestic workers and establishes the minimal recognition of their labor. Migrant domestic workers are caught legally "at sea," as they do not have full juridical protection from sending states and are exempt from labor protection in most receiving states, resulting in their relationship of indenture vis-a-vis their employers.

Lebanon, a country of around 6 million, plays host to almost 250,000 registered migrant domestic workers according to official statistics. obtained this July. Estimates of the number of unregistered workers—those who have not received residency permits or work visas, and are thus in the country illegally—vary drastically, but could reach a hundred thousand or more. the sector is made up overwhelmingly of foreign labor (the number of Lebanese nationals willing to take such jobs is vanishingly low) and these women undoubtedly make up the country's largest female labor force. The hiring of domestic workers for live-in, full-time help is so common that their presence has altered residential architecture.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries together host among the largest global contingents of migrant domestic workers. Much of this labour force is composed of women migrating from South and Southeast Asia. This chapter details a number of distinctive characteristics and challenges of Asian domestic work migration and their implications for governance and protection. The first section examines the over-reliance on Asian female domestics across the Gulf states, pointing to entrenched social norms that sustain the demand for and division of labour along ethnic and gender lines. The second section considers ambiguities in legislative frameworks of labour-sending and receiving countries, tracing conflicting policy rhetoric and uneven outcomes. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for transnational policy coordination that builds on local partnerships and regional collaboration to enhance inclusive, gender-sensitive labour migration infrastructure.

Indian women are recruited to work as domestic workers in the Middle East in an opaque regulatory environment. Recent policy measures by the Indian government have made the legal route of mobility for women much more difficult. Legal barriers speak directly to dominant patriarchal and nationalist logics that represent control over women’s bodies as normative. Being poor and unorganized, emigrant domestic workers have little voice in public policy debates that concerns them. This chapter argues that intensification of controls in the recent past alongside tacit accommodation of irregular mobility has given impetus to clandestine recruitment practices and has served to criminalize women while providing impunity to unauthorized recruiters.

Adopting a structural violence approach, this article examines how the failure to implement protective rights-based migration policies by the governments in the Philippines and Sri Lanka creates the conditions for the systematic exploitation of women migrant domestic workers by recruitment agencies and employers. Fieldwork conducted in 2018 with advocacy groups, government agencies, and international organizations in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong illustrates how both countries are prioritizing the promotion of overseas employment and commodification of labor above the protection of the rights of their women domestic workers under domestic and international law.

This chapter examines the agency of Ethiopian migrant women within the context of their employment. I begin by describing the institution of the kafala in the Middle East, the system of migrant-sponsorship designed to manage a large population of migrant workers in these countries by binding migrants’ residency rights to employment. I go on to situate Ethiopian women within the racialised hierarchy of migrant workers that prevails in these countries and to discuss the historical context for their position. At the core of the chapter is the analysis of women’s responses to their working conditions in three types of situations: as domestic workers who ‘live in’ with their employers, as women who ‘run away’ from employers and become irregular, and as ‘freelancers.’ I explore the difficulties these women endure due to constraints on their labour, freedom of movement, free time, and access to personal documents. I show how women exercise agency in these situations despite these constraints, through overt conflict, subversive tactics and other ‘weapons of the weak,’ agentic silence, or by pursuing the ‘exit options’ of leaving the country or running away to become ‘freelancers’ or irregular migrants.

This chapter introduces the ‘will to change’ of the Ethiopian women who migrate to the Middle East in large numbers each year, to take up jobs as migrant domestic workers. Their primary aim is to change their own lives and those of their families. This chapter describes the aspirations that contribute to the women’s decisions to work abroad and then goes on to lay out a theoretical framework for understanding their agency, drawing from migration studies and feminist scholarship. The chapter argues that we should move beyond the dominant depictions in media and policy discourses of migrant women as victims of abuse, exploitation, and trafficking. Instead, I outline how this book proposes to interpret the actions and inactions, the words and silences, of these women as multiple dimensions of their agency, even though such agency may often be heavily constrained by their employment circumstances. Further, I use the concept of social reproduction to understand the transformations their migration brings about in their own lives, the lives of their families, and at a broader level of social change.

The precarious position and poor working conditions of au pairs in the Nordic and other western labor markets are well documented. Furthermore, research on au pairs and migrant domestic workers emphasizes many obstacles to their organizing (e.g., in trade unions) and negotiation to improve their working conditions. Using an ethnographic study of Filipino au pairs in Denmark as an illustrative case, we supplement this previous research by presenting an analytical approach inspired by governmentality studies. This approach highlights the complex transnational interplay of migration policies and practices affecting Filipino au pairs’ positioning in the Danish labor market and contributes to exploring how this positioning relates to their prospects for negotiating and organizing. We suggest that with a close examination of the often contradictory and multifaceted positioning of migrant workers in transnational policy fields, not only obstacles but also possibilities for negotiation and organizing to improve working conditions will become visible

Une controverse judiciaire internationale s’est consolidée en 2011 lorsqu’une faible majorité de la Cour Constitutionnelle de la République de Corée contredit un arrêt de 2006 de la Cour Suprême d’Israël. À l’unanimité, les juges israéliens ont conclu que même combinée avec une procédure de changement d’employeur, le système de permis de travail liés à un employeur spécifique crée une forme moderne d’esclavage et constitue une violation étatique injustifiable des droits fondamentaux à la liberté et à la dignité des travailleurs (im)migrants. Ainsi, certaines questions juridiques clés demeurent: d’autres politiques ont un impact similaire sur les droits fondamentaux à l’émission de permis de travail liés à un employeur? Les données empiriques confirment-elles que certaines mesures additionnelles de protection sont en mesure de réduire l’effet négatif des politiques liant le travailleur à son employeur? Si non, comment devraient être modifiés les programmes d’admission de travailleurs (im)migrants afin d’assurer, en particulier, le respect leurs droits fondamentaux à la liberté, à la sécurité et à l’accès à la justice? Le cadre légal de l’immigration au Canada intègre tous les types de politiques liant le travailleur à un employeur spécifique, soit la reconnaissance de privilèges pour certains (A) de parrainer ou de « blacklister » un travailleur (im)migrant, (B) d’imposer d’une obligation de travail auprès d’un employeur/agent au pays, (C) d’imposer au pays un transfert vers un autre employeur spécifique ou (D) de déclencher le processus de rapatriement dans son pays d’origine d’un travailleur (im)migrant. Le Programme des Travailleurs Agricoles Saisonniers canadien est, de plus, caractérisé spécifiquement par les trois types de mesures spéciales de « réduction des abus » discutées par les juges israéliens et sud-coréens. Or, l’analyse des données empiriques -en fonction du cadre conceptuel des ‘atteintes étatiques au droit à la liberté/sécurité/accès à la justice’ développé par la Cour suprême du Canada-révèle que, même en cas de mise en oeuvre des trois mesures spéciales de « réduction des abus », les travailleurs (im)migrants sous politique liant à l’employeur font face (1) à des contraintes étatiques à leur liberté physique, (2) à des risques accrus de préjudice induits par l’État, (3) à un stress psychologique majeur induit par l’État, (4) à une restriction étatique de leur droit de ne pas être tenu en servitude, et plus précisément de leur liberté à faire les choix fondamentaux de quitter son employeur, son occupation, et son lieu de résidence ou travail, (5) à des obstacles étatiques à l’accès à la justice au pays et (6) à un déni étatique en matière d’équité procédurale. Dans ce contexte, pour que soit possible notamment l’exercide de leurs droits à la liberté, sécurité et justice, les autorités doivent émettre des autorisations de travail non-restrictives, et assurer bilatéralement une administration et un préfinancement du recrutement, parrainage, placement et intégration au pays des (im)migrants, ainsi qu’un processus de déportation respectant les principes d’équité procédurale. Aussi, vu que la séparation familiale induite par l’État restreint notamment le droit à l’intégrité psychologique et qu’une exclusion de l’accès au statut permanent restreint l’exercice du droit d’accéder à la justice au pays, une analyse plus approfondie sera nécessaire afin de comprendre les liens entre le respect des droits fondamentaux et l’accès à l’arrivée au pays à des procédures de réunification familiale et de statut permanent., An international judicial controversy began in 2011 when a slight majority of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Korea reached a conclusion contradicting a 2006 unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of Israel. In the 2006 ruling, Israeli justices held that employer-tied work permit systems, even if incorporating a “change of employers” procedure, create a “modern form of slavery” and, more specifically, constitute unjustifiable state violations of migrant workers’ fundamental rights to liberty and dignity. Thus, key judicial issues remain unsettled: could policies other than employer-tied work permit systems similarly impact (im)migrant workers’ fundamental rights? Does empirical evidence confirm that “harm reduction” measures, including ‘change of employers’ procedures, may significantly reduce an employer-tying policy’s impact on individuals’ right to liberty (and/or to security of the person and access to justice)? If not, which labour (im)migration policies would be compatible with the respect of workers’ fundamental rights? Canada’s immigration law incorporates all types of employer-tying measures: (A) ‘worker sponsorship/blacklisting’ privileges, (B) ‘worker binding’ privileges, (C) ‘worker transfer’ privileges, and (D) ‘worker repatriation’ privileges. By reproducing legal mechanisms characteristic of past state practices which tied indentured workers, slaves and/or former slaves to employers, contemporary immigration frameworks, including various Canada programs such as the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, rely on employer-tying policies compelling (im)migrant workers in the country to, at all times, “obey and comply with all rules set down by the employer.” The Canadian SAWP also specifically incorporates the three “harm reduction” measures discussed by Israeli and South Korean highest court justices. When analyzed using the Supreme Court of Canada’s “liberty/security/access to justice harms” framework, empirical evidence shows however that, despite the enforcement of such “harm reduction” directives, employer-tied (im)migrant workers face (1) state restrictions to their physical liberty, (2) state-induced increased risks of harm, (3) restriction of their freedom from state interference with psychological integrity, (4) state restriction of their right not to be held under servitude, and more precisely of their freedom to make the fundamental choices to quit one’s employer, to quit one’s occupation, and to quit one’s place of residence or work, (5) state obstacles to access justice in the country, and (6) state denial of procedural fairness. In this context, to allow (im)migrant workers’ exercise of their fundamental rights, open work authorizations must replace (directly or indirectly) employer-tied ones, and co-governmental management and pre-financing of (im)migrant workers’ international recruitment, sponsoring, placement, integration, and deportation processes respecting procedural fairness, must replace the current recognition of employers/agents’ ‘worker acquisition’ and ‘worker removal’ privileges. Since empirical evidence also confirms that state-induced family separation restricts individuals’ right to psychological integrity, and that exclusions to permanent status procedures restrict individuals’ right to access to justice in the country, further analysis are necessary to better understand the link between the respect of fundamental rights and the recognition of family reunification and permanent legal status procedures upon arrival.

Transnational migrant workers are known to be at high risk for HIV/STIs. This study estimated the point prevalence of HIV/syphilis and examined correlates of HIV/syphilis testing uptake among female migrant domestic workers in Macao, China. Data was obtained from 1363 female Filipino domestic workers who were offered free rapid HIV and syphilis testing. A mixed methods analysis was undertaken to examine correlates of testing and themes about reasons for not testing. Among 1164 women tested, there were no cases of HIV/syphilis observed and 199 (14.6%) refused HIV/syphilis testing. Greater social integration (aOR 1.12; 95% CI 1.02–1.24), having more than one sexual partner (aOR 1.65; 95% CI 1.02–2.65), and longer working hours on the testing day (aOR 0.97; 95% CI 0.94–1.00), were associated with testing uptake. Among those who tested, the majority (> 70%) had never tested before, suggesting the need to improve testing outreach. Qualitative themes about reasons for not testing included low perceived need and insufficient time. Individual and structural testing barriers should be reduced to optimize HIV/STI testing in migrant populations.

Background Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) comprise one of the largest populations of migrant workers globally. Within China, they represent the largest group of imported domestic workers. Little is known about their working conditions or how this might affect their health and wellbeing. Methods This qualitative study explored the working conditions and risk factors for poor health in a sample of temporary female Filipino domestic workers in Macao, China. Focus group discussions with female domestic workers (n = 22) and in-depth interviews with key informants (n = 7) were conducted. Results Domestic workers reported physical (e.g., hypertension, chronic pain, diabetes, poor sleep), and mental health problems (depression, anxiety), and addictive behaviors (gambling, alcohol misuse), along with significant structural, linguistic, financial, and cultural barriers to healthcare access to address these concerns. Adverse working conditions including poor treatment and abuse by employers, lack of privacy and inadequate sleeping areas in employers’ homes or in crowded boarding houses, language barriers, inadequate and poor enforcement of labor protections, and discrimination. Domestic workers also cited exorbitant agency fees and remittances causing significant financial stress. Kinship network ties with family members back home were fraught with infidelity, difficulty parenting, misuse of remittances, and family misconceptions of domestic workers’ situation abroad. Lack of quality social support and peer social networks exacerbated these conditions. Conclusions In this sample of Filipino migrant domestic workers, stressors experienced within the host country were commonly reported. Indebtedness and low salaries limits social mobility. Psychosocial and policy-level interventions are needed to improve the health and wellbeing of this population of migrant women.

This article analyses the migration of a religious ‘minority’ that is largely invisible within migration studies, namely Muslim Filipina domestic workers. More specifically, this research shows that the category of ‘minority’ is not fixed and is always negotiated through transnational spaces and boundary work. In doing so, the article highlights how religious belonging, the status of minority and migration intersect and are negotiated during the period prior to these women leaving their country, during their time in the country of destination, and when they return to the Philippines. How boundary work affects the religious belonging of this Muslim ‘minority’ is underlined by presenting the Middle East as an opportunity to perform norms of ‘Muslimness’. The performance of these norms as an opportunity for these women to challenge the status of being a ‘minority’ in the Philippines is also examined. Finally, this article shows how these Muslim ‘minorities’ gain access to a certain symbolic capital by becoming hajji and balikbayan (returnees) when they return home.

The chapter provides a brief overview of labour migration of women from the Philippines to Lebanon, beginning with nurses in the 1980s (during the civil war), followed by live-in domestic workers from the 1990s (post-civil war) and their evacuation during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006. The importance of labour emigration for the Philippines economy and the particularly entrepreneurial policy of maximizing labour remittances are shown as a countervailing pressure against periods of restrictions and bans on deploying Filipinas to Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries due to abuse and exploitation. The role of the government of the Philippines in regulating the deployment of Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is given more prominence in this analysis compared with other accounts of the topic. Of particular importance are the ways in which the stringent protective regulations in the recruitment of domestic workers, such as the minimum wage requirement, are circumvented. The chapter concludes with an account of the unresolved deaths of four domestic workers from the Philippines in 2004 that involved the Philippines embassy in Beirut and resulted in the recalling of their ambassador back to Manila.

Migration is a gendered experience. Who moves and who does not, the resources that can be allocated for an individual’s movement, the networks that can be tapped to facilitate mobility, the sectors of the economy where there are possibilities of employment, the conditions of work, family support required and the usage of remittances and so on are issues that impact men and women differently. Moreover, the impact of migration on personal relationships is said to be more significant for women migrants than men. While structuralist, neoliberal or network theorists explain migration in a gender-neutral manner, feminist theorists draw out the contexts and challenges specific to women’s migration. Moreover, they give equal importance to the question of what happens after migration. They prefer to study the migration through personal narratives that help explain the nuances of experiences. This chapter draws upon some extant anthropological studies on the migration experience of women from Kerala who work as nurses and domestic workers in the Middle East and critically analyses them through the feminist lens. The section Feminist Lens of Migration Research presents the essence of the feminist framework. Using this analytical frame, the section Deconstructing the Narratives of Migrant Nurses revisits the narratives of nurse migration. In a similar manner, the section Deconstructing the Narratives of Migrant Domestic Workers explores the narratives of domestic worker migration. Finally, the section Comparing the Two Migration Streams compares the experiences of the two migration streams.

This chapter examines the empowerment of Muslim Filipina domestic workers (MFDWs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with reference to the analytical framework of Naila Kabeer. Her definition of empowerment highlights ‘choice’ as its central concept—the processes by which ‘those who have been denied the capacity for choice gain this capacity’. I refer to three of Kabeer’s distinctions relating to the consequences of choices: (1) trivial choices we make on a mundane basis, every day of our lives; (2) significant or more strategic life choices that have profound consequences for both the overall quality and direction of the lives; and (3) choices to negotiate with the broader structure of inequality. Based on interviews and dialogue with the MFDWs, the discussion examines their empowerment in the social context of inclusion in the UAE labour market as a result of exclusion from the local labour market in the Philippines, as well as both inclusion and exclusion in the UAE host society and opportunities that arise from being excluded from both Philippine society and the host society. MFDWs are at the lowest layer of the UAE’s labour market given the hierarchical structure that divides its society by nationality, gender and class. On the other hand, social safety nets exist among low-skilled labourers on this bottom layer, as well as among loosely formed Filipino communities. By accumulating a wealth of experience living and working in the UAE for prolonged periods, these MFDWs acquire survival strategies in how to access these safety nets. However, their increased scope of choice is yet to negotiate the broader structure of inequality.

The National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) has been entrusted with a wide mandate in relation to safeguarding the basic human rights of people in India under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. The Commission’s mandate covers, among other groups, the rights of domestic workers. Its strategy, over the last two decades, has primarily focused on addressing bonded labour, child labour, exploitation of migrant domestic workers, etc. Rights of domestic workers in India bring into sharp focus India’s obligations under the Indian Constitution and international conventions and other commitments. This chapter seeks to outline some of the challenges with regard to the protection of the rights of domestic workers and also undertake a critical appraisal of how the NHRC acquitted itself in protecting their rights in the last 23 years or so.

This paper proposes digital arbitration as a possible dispute resolution mechanism for providing better access to justice and rule of law for women migrant domestic workers, in the context of enforcing their employment contracts. It is thought best that the proposed mechanism should be made operative within the framework of an international digital platform of justice, established under the auspices of an internationally recognized body, and for the particular purpose of administering justice for women migrant domestic workers and their employers. Modern technology and telecommunication networks are able to increase the speed of operations and reduce costs. Given that women migrant domestic workers lack the finances to pursue international arbitration, it is thought that the use of technology would be of assistance in cutting costs of litigation and making arbitration an affordable means of dispute resolution. It must be noted however, that digital arbitration is only viewed as a single possibility for providing better access to justice and rule of law for women migrant domestic workers and therefore it cannot be considered as a total solution for resolving problems on access to justice and rule of law.

Within diverse global populations, validated tools are needed to assess common mental disorders. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is one of the most commonly used depression screeners. However, the PHQ-9 has not been structurally validated among female migrant domestic workers (MDWs). Female MDWs constitute a population numbering 11.5 million, and commonly report depression. This study aimed to structurally validate the PHQ-9 among Filipina and Indonesian female MDWs in Macao Special Administrative Region of China. Participants were recruited using respondent driven sampling. Participants were adult female MDWs from The Philippines (N=1375) or Indonesia (N=367) and legally working in Macao. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test five structural models of depression using all PHQ-9 items with the Filipina and Indonesian samples. We applied multi-group CFA to test measurement invariance across samples. A two-factor (cognitive/affective, somatic) model yielded the best fit within both samples, and the multi-group CFA demonstrated invariance across samples. The two-factor model best represents the factor structure of the PHQ-9 among Filipina and Indonesian female MDWs.

While there has been much debate on Singapore’s migration policies, a ‘black box’ continues to surround policymaking decisions. This article examines the dynamics of migration policy reforms in Singapore, using the case study of the mandatory weekly day off policy for migrant domestic workers. Designing our analysis around the three ‘Is’ – ideas, interests and institutions – we argue that the inclusion and formalisation of migrant rights in the policy sphere entails the framing of migrant rights in a manner that appeals to Singapore’s institutional logics and cultural repertoire; prioritising the needs and interests of citizens in the policy calculus; and institutional readiness and conviction to the cause.

This article explores contemporary photography and film works that highlight same-sex intimacy among female Southeast Asian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. My discussion expands upon feminist migration scholarship by examining how these projects document new migrant socialities and, further, how they invite reflection on the often transient intimacies they depict. As I show, the works render legible and validate sexual and romantic affiliations among migrant women that are commonly elided from their public representation. Yet the visual narratives move notions of intimacy beyond the frameworks of permanence, domesticity, and heteronormativity to interrogate how such framings intersect with concepts of good citizenship and market logics of privacy that foreclose the visibility of non-normative migrant socialities. What is more, by circulating “improper” images of migrant women's same-sex intimacies, the photography and film works mobilize alternative value economies through which the women's experiences are rendered legible without being made appropriable.

Dubai’s Kafala system regulates the lives, labors, and mobility of migrant domestic workers who have seen no new rights with reforms. this is how they resist.

Paid reproductive work, especially in the case of cleaning and home-care for elderly people, is an important sector for foreign women in Italy. For this reason, since the beginning of the current economic crisis, scholars have wondered about the impact of the recession on migrant domestic workers. They have looked particularly at possible competition with Italian women entering the sector for lack of better alternatives. Our paper takes this discussion a step further by assessing the overall changes affecting migrant women in the Italian labour market, 2007-2012. We will look at how their position has been transformed, by taking both an ethnic perspective, in relation to Italian women, and a gender perspective, in relation to migrant men. By way of a conclusion, the argument will be made that there is a substantial lack of competition between Italian and foreign women in the care and domestic sector due to differences in their earnings, hours of work and activities. El trabajo reproductivo remunerado, especialmente por lo que hace a la limpieza y a los cuidados en el hogar de las personas mayores, constituye un sector importante para las mujeres extranjeras en Italia. Por esta razón, desde el comienzo de la actual crisis económica, los investigadores se han preguntado por el impacto de la recesión en las trabajadoras domésticas migrantes. Se han interesado, sobre todo, por la posible competencia con las mujeres italianas que se incorporan a este sector debido a la carencia de alternativas más atractivas. Nuestro artículo va un paso más allá de este debate evaluando el conjunto de los cambios que han afectado a las mujeres en el mercado de trabajo italiano desde 2007 a 2012. Analizamos cómo se ha transformado su posición, adoptando tanto una perspectiva étnica, en relación con las mujeres italianas, como una perspectiva de género, por lo que se refiere a los varones migrantes. A modo de conclusión, se plantea que no se constata una competencia relevante entre las mujeres italianas y extranjeras en el sector doméstico y de cuidados, debido a las diferencias existentes en las ganancias, las horas trabajadas y las actividades laborales desempeñadas.

Recent studies indicate that many migrants are engaged mainly in the informal sector in low-paid, short-term, and insecure occupations in cities. Using a qualitative research approach, this paper examines the gendered experiences, livelihood strategies and wellbeing of migrants engaged in domestic work in Accra, Ghana. Employing structure-agency theoretical perspectives, the paper also discusses how migrant domestic workers employ their own agency to counter exploitation. The findings show clear gendered patterns of employment in domestic work, with men having stronger agency to negotiate better conditions of work and remuneration. The paper argues that despite the heterogeneity and diversity of the work conditions and experiences of domestic workers in Accra, the importance of gender as a crucial factor mediating the experiences of both male and female domestic workers and their impacts on their wellbeing must be recognised in policies to address and regulate domestic work in Ghana.

This article argues that a movement of domestic workers has developed internationally that through its struggles is promoting elements of a feminist agenda, revalorizing the work of reproduction, forcing a new generation of feminists to again confront the housework question, and in this process generating new forms of subjectivities and new models of gender relations.1

This article examines the social and historical conditions of negotiations for expanding migrant domestic workers partial citizenship under neoliberal policies. It uses a case study of Filipino domestic workers struggling for regularization in the Parisian region, 2008–2012. Under Sarkozy's neoliberal immigration policy called chosen immigration, Hortefeux, the then Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Cooperative Development, authorized case-by-case “regularization based on work” in his circular of 7 January 2008. Consequently, led by a coalition of trade unions, sans papiers (undocumented) collectives and migrant support groups, large-scale mobilizations occurred demanding rights-based regularization. Although undocumented Filipino domestic workers remained socially invisible during this campaign, a quiet, small-scale but unprecedented mobilization took place among Filipino sans papieres. Based on 10 months of fieldwork, this article shows how the neoliberal tendency in the two policy areas of immigration and personal services opened up the opportunity for Filipino migrant women to have access to the institutional resources of the Private Household Workers (PHW) trade union and to break the deadlock of “double irregularity”, that is, the dispossession of both their residential permit and labor contract. This case depended on the activism of a trade unionist of Filipino origin, a trailblazer who filled the structural hole between Filipino ethnic networks and the local domestic workers’ movement. Among the outcomes are the rising consciousness among Filipinos of the usefulness of learning French, as well as a new narrative that incorporates the struggles of Filipino domestic workers in the PHW trade union history.

Care work, once a sanctioned labor of love, is increasingly commodified in transnational contexts. The picture of migrant women shouldering the housework and child care of local professonal women may seem like a mutually beneficial arrangement—matching the “needs” of the haves and have-nots—, but the global care chain ultimately works to maintain the traditional gendered division of labor as well as global inequality. To this trend of globalization of care work, Japan has been an exception; however, how much longer it will be so is now in a question, as the government paves the way for importing domestic labor from abroad. This article focuses on Japanese expat wives in Hong Kong in order to locate Japanese women vis-a-vis the global care chain. The narrative analysis on how they decide whether to hire a domestic worker in their home away from home highlights the sociopolitical nature of their supposedly private choices. Some drew on cultural ideal of wifehood and motherhood to rationalize their choice while others referred to racialized or even overtly racist and classist images of foreign domestic workers. A few women spoke against the system itself, showing awareness of its inherent social injustice. All such narratives are never purely personal; their decisions and the rationalization behind them sustain the prevailing discourses of gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and class, which, in turn, envelop their attempts at global householding.

The collective mobilization of migrant workers is an important issue for analysis. Three key barriers to the mobilization of migrant workers have been identified – employment conditions, which tend to prevent migrant workers coming together; the framings held by migrant workers, which marginalize an understanding of their position as that of exploited workers; and the issue of the sustainability of any mobilization. The article examines migrant domestic workers as a case in which collective mobilization appears highly unlikely. The article uses the social movement approach as a meta-theoretical framing to explore the collective mobilization of migrant domestic workers in London. As such, it analyses how the ‘unorganizable’ organize. We show that mobilization changed the framing of migrant domestic workers from ‘labourers of love’ to workers with rights. It was able to do this because it addressed the three barriers to mobilization: by creating a space for the development of communities of coping among migrant workers; by using politicized learning; and by using participative democracy and collective leadership development, tied to links with formal organizations. The article argues for the importance of social scientists examining the creative processes by which migrant workers move towards collective mobilization, and for the utility of a social movement approach in this process.

Domestic work represents a significant share of global wage employment, but domestic workers – the majority of whom are women – remain to a large extent excluded from the scope of labour laws and, consequently, from the legal protection enjoyed by other workers. Since they work behind the closed doors of private homes, domestic workers are also shielded from public attention and are often hard to mobilise. In Hong Kong, women’s activism involving local and migrant domestic workers illuminates points of connection and distance as they are simultaneously privileged and marginalised along the hierarchies of class, ethnicity and nationality. Building on feminist and social movement scholarship, I illustrate how global frames facilitate our understanding of feminist solidarity among local and migrant domestic workers. I argue that the meanings of solidarity that dominate at any particular moment are not stable and enduring, but rather formed out of negotiation and struggle within and across domestic wo...

This paper focuses on the Indonesian strategies in fighting human trafficking. Indonesian migrant domestic workers are one of the highest rates of undocumented labor migration. Moreover, they also do not have skill. Therefore they are vulnerable to labor exploitation and human rights abuses. The type of work of Indonesian workers that were trafficked such as domestic service, sex work, shop keeping, waitressing, dancing and factory work. Trafficking in person both domestically and transnationally in Indonesia is an issue of concern across Indonesia???s 33 provinces. South Sulawesi province also has been identified as a trafficking issue within Indonesia. Research questions namely 1) what can average person do to help to fight this crime?, 2) how can we better educate potential victims of human trafficking?. This research uses qualitative method. This method is to analysis and collects data to support the content of analysis. This research conducted in Jeneponto district, South Sulawesi Province. In beating human traffickers, education and knowledge of trafficking in person among all members of society is one of strategy. As a researcher, we try to raise awareness about the nature, causes and damage to victims. Therefore, cooperation between government, civil society, the press, and private companies in promoting knowledge of countering human trafficking are needed.

This article attempts to throw light on the ways migrant domestic workers negotiate with their employers and their states, both in their host countries and countries of origin, regarding their rights as workers, and the dynamic socio-political challenges that emerge from their intersectionalities of being women, migrants and domestic workers. Traversing through narratives and accounts of several transnational networks, the article seeks to understand how the domestic workers attempt to engage in political mobilisation and form networks that cut across territorial boundaries. In this article I delineate the nuances of the emergent forms of the politics that emanate from the intersectionalities of being women, migrants and domestic workers, and the implications these have for the larger political projects of citizenship and nationalism.

This article examinees how vulnerability operates within the intimate economy in Hong Kong’s prominent entertainment district of Wanchai. Best known in its portrayal of The World of Suzie Wong, Wanchai’s historicity is anchored in a legacy of colonialism, orientalist imagination, and Western militarization. Presently, the area continues to cater to Western expatriate men, foreign travellers and the US Navy. An influx of Southeast Asian migrant domestic workers to Hong Kong in recent decades has led to the rise of new intimate relationships fostered in the bar district. While Wanchai is renowned as a red-light district celebrating white Western masculinity, a complex portrait emerged after a year of ethnographic fieldwork observing the intimate exchanges between Western expatriate men and Southeast Asian migrant domestic workers, as two groups who are positioned on opposite ends of the city’s socioeconomic spectrum. Contrary to recurrent portrayals of female victimhood in commercialized sex industries, this article illustrates how other experiences of vulnerability, particularly those of the Western male expatriate partner, also deserve critical attention. By exploring the decommercialized transactions within Wanchai’s intimate economy, this piece demonstrates how the intimate relations forged between Western expatriates and Southeast Asian migrants can help negotiate longstanding gendered relations of power and shared senses of structural precarity.

China is party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 2000 UN Trafficking Protocol, but has not extended coverage of either of the treaties to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China (Hong Kong). Hong Kong does however offer non-refoulement protection on the basis of risks of torture or persecution. Further, Hong Kong legislation defines human trafficking, albeit only in terms of cross-border sex work. Victim identification also remains inadequate. The limited extant protection systems for refugees and victims of human trafficking operate separately and assume that such people are distinct with respect to their experiences and needs. These practices are often mirrored in the approaches of NGOs working in the city. Based on research undertaken by Justice Centre Hong Kong, this paper argues instead that boundaries between the two categories are blurry. The paper focuses on migrant domestic workers who may have claims to asylum and may be at the same time victims of human trafficking. It explores some of the implications for NGOs trying to secure better protections for such groups in Hong Kong. The paper concludes that siloing the refugee and the human trafficking frameworks creates a protection gap, particularly for people who enter Hong Kong as migrant domestic workers and cannot return home because they face a risk of persecution or torture.

Social movements, including the women’s movements, operate in social, economic, political, and cultural contexts. While these contexts may constrain movement actors, they also create opportunities for collective action that can shape their politics of resistance toward a more just society. Neoliberal globalization has created contexts of contention on a global scale as its economic project of expanding and maintaining capitalism globally has been gendered, classed, and racialized. It has spurred the growth of transnational women’s movements anchored on nation states while forging alliances on a transnational scale in order to confront the conditions of exploitation and oppression and the neoliberal structures and policies that create them. The dialectical dynamics of exploitation/oppression and resistance become the crucible for change. This chapter examines examples of transnational women’s movements, their dynamics of resistance and strategies of action, as they confront various issues of injustice, human rights, sustainability, and violence under neoliberal regimes.

This thesis deals with the effects of migration on the occupational and social status of domestic workers and the resulting new relationships of subordination that are analyzed at the intersection of gender, class and ‘race’ relations. The purpose of this research is to address the hierarchical order of these different relationships and to analyze the structural causes of subordination. The Chaoxianzu women migrant workers belonged to the class symbolically in power in socialist China, as industrial and agricultural workers. By examining their work experience in five cities in three countries - France, South Korea and China - we analyze how the working conditions of each immigration society affect their status as women workers. The participants in our research live and perceive their work experience in light of their professional habitus of socialist China, based on pride as women workers. According to their perception, in migrating they do not change for a lower hierarchical and professional level, but collectively suffer from the subordinate position of undocumented domestic workers typical for capitalist society’s hierarchical order. Rather than perceiving their job as trivial, they see it as a sum of noble, physical and emotional tasks. They are part of the global chain of care. But, in questioning their subordinate status, they undermine the logic inherent to the reproduction of social hierarchies.; Cette thèse traite des effets de la migration sur le statut professionnel et social des travailleuses domestiques et des nouveaux rapports de subordination qui en découlent, analysés à l'intersection des rapports de genre, de classe et de « race ». Le but de cette recherche est d'aborder l'ordre hiérarchique de ces différents rapports et d'analyser les causes structurelles de la subordination. Les travailleuses migrantes chaoxianzu appartenaient à la classe symboliquement au pouvoir dans la Chine socialiste, en tant qu’ouvrières industrielles et agricoles. En examinant leur expérience de travail dans cinq villes de trois pays - France, Corée du Sud et Chine - nous analysons comment les conditions de travail de chaque société d’immigration affectent leur statut en tant que travailleuses. Les participantes à notre recherche vivent et perçoivent leur expérience de travail à la lumière de l’habitus professionnel de la Chine socialiste, basé sur la fierté en tant que travailleuses. Selon leur perception, dans la migration, elles ne changent pas pour un niveau hiérarchique et professionnel inférieur, mais souffrent, collectivement, de la position subalterne des travailleurs domestiques sans-papiers dans le référentiel de l’ordre hiérarchique de la société capitaliste. Plutôt qu'un travail trivial, elles perçoivent leur métier comme une somme de tâches nobles, physiques et émotionnelles. Elles s’inscrivent dans la chaîne globalisée du care. Mais, en s'interrogeant sur leur statut subalterne, elles remettent en cause la logique de reproduction de la hiérarchie sociale.

This thesis deals with the effects of migration on the occupational and social status of domestic workers and the resulting new relationships of subordination that are analyzed at the intersection of gender, class and ‘race’ relations. The purpose of this research is to address the hierarchical order of these different relationships and to analyze the structural causes of subordination. The Chaoxianzu women migrant workers belonged to the class symbolically in power in socialist China, as industrial and agricultural workers. By examining their work experience in five cities in three countries - France, South Korea and China - we analyze how the working conditions of each immigration society affect their status as women workers. The participants in our research live and perceive their work experience in light of their professional habitus of socialist China, based on pride as women workers. According to their perception, in migrating they do not change for a lower hierarchical and professional level, but collectively suffer from the subordinate position of undocumented domestic workers typical for capitalist society’s hierarchical order. Rather than perceiving their job as trivial, they see it as a sum of noble, physical and emotional tasks. They are part of the global chain of care. But, in questioning their subordinate status, they undermine the logic inherent to the reproduction of social hierarchies.; Cette thèse traite des effets de la migration sur le statut professionnel et social des travailleuses domestiques et des nouveaux rapports de subordination qui en découlent, analysés à l'intersection des rapports de genre, de classe et de « race ». Le but de cette recherche est d'aborder l'ordre hiérarchique de ces différents rapports et d'analyser les causes structurelles de la subordination. Les travailleuses migrantes chaoxianzu appartenaient à la classe symboliquement au pouvoir dans la Chine socialiste, en tant qu’ouvrières industrielles et agricoles. En examinant leur expérience de travail dans cinq villes de trois pays - France, Corée du Sud et Chine - nous analysons comment les conditions de travail de chaque société d’immigration affectent leur statut en tant que travailleuses. Les participantes à notre recherche vivent et perçoivent leur expérience de travail à la lumière de l’habitus professionnel de la Chine socialiste, basé sur la fierté en tant que travailleuses. Selon leur perception, dans la migration, elles ne changent pas pour un niveau hiérarchique et professionnel inférieur, mais souffrent, collectivement, de la position subalterne des travailleurs domestiques sans-papiers dans le référentiel de l’ordre hiérarchique de la société capitaliste. Plutôt qu'un travail trivial, elles perçoivent leur métier comme une somme de tâches nobles, physiques et émotionnelles. Elles s’inscrivent dans la chaîne globalisée du care. Mais, en s'interrogeant sur leur statut subalterne, elles remettent en cause la logique de reproduction de la hiérarchie sociale.

This chapter will focus upon labour migration to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, since the massive incomes to these countries, particularly from the oil price increase in the 1970s, resulted in one of the great migration stories of the twentieth century. Still significant, today labour migration to the GCC accounts for over 10 per cent of all migrants globally. The GCC states are also the site of a great deal of interactions with global organizations, international institutions, NGOs and individual activists around human rights and labour rights that have led to the beginnings of reforms and changes in practices. It will be argued that global governance of migration is an unachievable ambition, but one that does not deter various actors from pursuing.

À travers la mise en place d’une multitude de programmes destinés à faciliter le recrutement de travailleurs étrangers, le Canada s’inscrit en plein cœur de l’ère de la migration globale. Or, bien qu’il jouisse d’une solide réputation en tant que chef de file mondial en matière de gestion des migrations, particulièrement quant à la question de la gérance de la migration temporaire du travail, le Canada fait partie des pays qui édictent des règlements sur l’immigration qui assortissent le droit d’entrée et de séjour au pays des travailleurs étrangers temporaires, particulièrement de ceux considérés comme étant peu qualifiés, à des conditions limitatives de liberté liées à l’emploi. Parmi ces conditions, il est loisible de mentionner celle qui oblige, de jure ou de facto, les travailleurs agricoles et domestiques migrants à résider chez leur employeur. Pourtant, bien que l’illégalité de l’obligation de résidence ait été consacrée internationalement, il reste qu’en droit interne canadien, sa constitutionnalité continue toujours de susciter de vifs débats jurisprudentiels et doctrinaux. À travers l’articulation des différents programmes de migration temporaire imposant une obligation de résidence, cette recherche expose la manière dont cette obligation dérogatoire au droit commun contribue à la violation des droits du travail et des droits fondamentaux des travailleurs agricoles et domestiques migrants qui y sont assujettis, et à exacerber ainsi la vulnérabilité de base à laquelle sont déjà confrontés ces travailleurs. Ce survol effectué, cette étude propose ensuite d’analyser la manière dont l’obligation de résidence chez l’employeur porte illégalement atteinte au droit à la liberté des travailleurs agricoles et domestiques migrants, qui leur est constitutionnellement garanti par le biais de l’article 7 de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés., Through the implementation of an array of programs designed to facilitate the recruitment of foreign workers, Canada is considered to be at the core of the global age of migration. With a strong reputation of being a world leader in migration management, particularly with respect to temporary migration, Canada is nevertheless one of many countries to limit the labour mobility of temporary foreign workers, especially of those who are considered to be low-skilled, through different conditions, often restrictive of liberty. Among these conditions is the de jure or de facto requirement that migrant agricultural and domestic workers reside with their employers. Although the unlawfulness of such obligation has been internationally established, the fact remains that in Canadian domestic law, its constitutionality continues to be subject of intense judicial and doctrinal debate. Through the presentation of the various programs of admission of foreign temporary workers requiring of them to reside at their place of employment, this research explores the consequences of such restriction on migrant agricultural and domestic workers’ labour and fundamental rights, which ultimately contribute to exacerbate the basic vulnerability already experienced by these workers. This study then offers a deeper analysis on how the obligation to reside at one’s place of employment imposed upon migrant agricultural and domestic workers specifically violates their right to liberty under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Introduction Domestic workers form an important group of migrant workers throughout the world. They offer vital services to the receiving countries. In Argentina legal framework exists to employ domestic workers, but migrants from another country need to obtain a legal residency status. The aim of this study was to compare working and employment conditions of migrant domestic workers without residency status to domestic workers with an Argentinian passport or with a residency status. Additionally, risk factors for poor health should be identified. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 201 female domestic workers (response 94%) answered a written questionnaire. The European Working Conditions Survey was adapted to the specific work situation. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and one general health item were used to assess health. Results Countries of origin included Paraguay (87%), Peru (8%) and Bolivia (5%). Migrant workers without residency status (35%) were younger, had lower education and a shorter length of service than migrants with residency status. They were more likely to work informally (94% vs 65%; p Discussion Domestic workers as an important pull factor in international migration may result in precarious employment especially for workers without a legal residency status. Violence or mobbing was the main predictor for poor health.

This chapter provides a transnational analysis of the ways in which migrant workers are placed at the sharp end of migration control based on gendered and racialized notions of domestic labour. Migrant women from the Philippines to Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia are routinely subjected to an extensive and diffuse process of surveillance and social sorting beyond the geographic border and criminal justice system. In their country of origin, women’s mobilities are conditioned by their willingness to produce a documented identity as good women and disciplined workers. In their countries of destination, they are subjected to a range of state and non-state monitoring processes that seek to racially assign and keep different sorts of migrant women in their place as foreign residents and disposable workers. Ultimately, differential inclusion remains underpinned by a criminal justice system that can bear down heavily on migrants through the threat of criminalization, detention, and deportation.

Foreign migrant domestic workers experience an increased burden of mental disorders. Discrimination contributes to this burden. Social resources may buffer migrants from the effects of this discrimination. The present study explored the relationship between discrimination and common mental disorder (CMD) symptoms, anxiety and depression, and examined whether social capital (cognitive and structural) modified this association. A total of 131 female migrant Filipina domestic workers in Macao, China (Mage = 39.7) were sampled using snowball methods. Self-report data were obtained using tablet devices. Correlation analyses demonstrated that discrimination was significantly associated with depression (rs = 0.43) and anxiety (rs = 0.42). Mulitvariable regressions showed that cognitive, but not structural, social capital was significantly negatively associated with depression (β = −0.30) and anxiety (β = −0.32). Cognitive social capital modified the association between discrimination and depression (β = 0.39) and anxiety (β = 0.53). Contrary to predictions, as discrimination increased, compared to those with no cognitive social capital, those with moderate or high levels of cognitive social capital experienced worsening CMD symptoms. This finding provides greater nuance to our understanding of how and under what circumstances social resources are protective for mental health for migrant workers.

OBJECTIVE: Gender-based violence against women migrant domestic workers (WMDW) is a serious public health concern in the Middle East region. The current study is the first to explore abuse of WMDW as perceived by recruitment agency managers. METHOD: A qualitative study was conducted using 42 personal semi-structural interviews with agency managers in Lebanon. The interview guidelines were designed based on the standards set by the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 189. The information was transcribed in Arabic, and data was analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The interviewees believe that WMDW are subject to abusive practices that represent various violations of the ILO Convention No. 189, including harassment and violence, compulsory labour, misinformation about conditions of employment, denial of periods of rest and restriction of movement and travel documents. In many situations, the interviewees justified some of these practices as being necessary to protect their business and to protect the workers. CONCLUSION: The results of this study have several policy implications for the protection of WMDW against abuse. [Justificación del abuso de las trabajadoras domésticas inmigrantes en Líbano: la opinión de las agencias de contratación] OBJETIVO : La violencia basada en el género contra las trabajadoras domésticas inmigrantes es un problema serio de salud pública en Medio Oriente. El presente estudio es el primero que explora el abuso de trabajadoras domésticas inmigrantes tal como lo perciben los/las gerentes de empresas de contratación de trabajo doméstico. MÉTODO : Se realizó un estudio cualitativo basado en 42 entrevistas personales semiestructuradas con gerentes de agencias en Líbano. El guion de la entrevista se basó en los estándares establecidos por el Convenio N.° 189 de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT). La información se transcribió en árabe y los datos se analizaron utilizando un análisis temático. RESULTADOS : Las personas participantes creen que las trabajadoras domésticas inmigrantes están sujetas a prácticas abusivas que representan diversas violaciones del Convenio N.° 189 de la OIT, incluidos el acoso y la violencia, el trabajo forzado, la desinformación sobre las condiciones de trabajo, la negación de periodos de descanso, el encierro y el confinamiento del pasaporte. En muchas situaciones se justifican algunas de estas prácticas como necesarias para proteger sus negocios y proteger a las trabajadoras. DISCUSIÓN :Los resultados de este estudio tienen varias implicaciones de política para la protección de las trabajadoras domésticas inmigrantes contra el abuso.