Migrant domestic workers
"[2] Domestic work itself encompasses an array of tasks and services that vary depending on country, age, gender, ethnic background and migration status of the workers involved.
[3] Prominent discussions on the topic include the status of workers, reasons behind the pursue in this labour, recruitment and employment practices in the field, and various measures being undertaken to change the conditions of domestic work among migrants.
"[4] Due to their embeddedness in what can be considered the "private sphere", some analysts have gone so far as to equate domestic laborers with members of the employers’ families, a dynamic made all the more complex by these workers' status as migrants.
[13] Additionally, migrant domestic workers often have to face the stress of leaving family members behind in their home countries while they take up work abroad.
[citation needed] However, on June 17, 2011, after 70 years of lobbying by civil society groups, the ILO adopted a convention with the aim of protecting and empowering domestic workers.
[21] Such advocates assert that the ratification and enforcement of ILO C189 would mean that migrant domestic workers would enjoy the same labour rights as other more 'masculine' fields as well as the citizens of their destination countries.
An incomplete list of basic rights guaranteed by ILO C189 under Article 7 includes: maximum working hours; fixed minimum wages; paid leave; provision of food and accommodation; and weekly rest periods.
[22] The fact that domestic work is often relegated to the private sphere, coupled with the sometimes-illegal status of these migrants, has created a sparse regulatory environment.
Starting in the mid-19th century, the employment of a domestic worker became a status symbol for bourgeois households and a civilizing mission to young female servants coming from the countryside in search for education, lodging and income.
The character of this migration changed around the start of the 20th century, when maids were recruited to work overseas as part of racial purity policies, which involved providing suitable brides for the male settlers.
[26] From an economic perspective, freeing these middle and upper-class women from household chores allowed them to engage in more productive activities; families’ real income thus increases along with their general welfare.
[31] Nevertheless, the insufficiency of state-supported care facilities under the auspices of the welfare state and an increasingly aging population created a demand for domestic work, particularly in OECD countries.
[39] Additionally, research has shown that the perception exists on the part of the workers that they are being afforded some form of protection by their employers, which, thus, demands a projection of gratitude and courtesy in their attitude.
[41] The pressure to send remittances from abroad to the source country is felt more strongly by these women, who tend to remit a greater proportion of their income than their male counterparts.
[42] Their wages are also used to pay back recruitment agencies and cover basic costs of family members in their home communities, including their health care and education.
[44] Many individual employers reportedly express a preference for domestic workers with (assumed or real) behavioural, cultural, linguistic or religious traits thought to influence the quality of service provided.
In the United Arab Emirates, for instance, a college-educated domestic worker from the Philippines is seen as more of a status symbol and earns significantly more than her equally skilled counterpart from India; this disparity is attributed in the literature to racial and socioeconomic assumptions on the part of employers.
[48] Local recruiters trawl through villages and portray pictures of promising working environment, success and profitable income in urban centers or rich countries abroad.
They provide information, financial and logistical support; however, migrant domestic workers’ dependence on private agencies for so many services create many opportunities for exploitation and abuse.
[50] For example, in Singapore and Hong Kong, Indonesian migrant domestic workers often spend up to 10 months out of a two-year contract without a salary, since they must turn over these wages to repay their recruitment fees.
This system binds domestic workers’ visa and legal status directly to a kafl (or sponsor), who maintains control over her mobility for the duration of her stay in the host country.
The kafala system over the years has been credited with the "privatization of regional migration", creating unequal working conditions and violations of rights of migrant domestic workers.
Recruitment agencies and other intermediaries often do not inform migrant domestic workers about their rights in their future employment and about the mechanisms available to them in order to report abuse.
[79] Due to poor – in many cases none – regulation, migrant domestic workers face "excessive hours, physical and sexual abuse, forced labor and confinement.
[80] Bonded labor occurs when the migrant domestic worker is required to pay off transportation and recruitment costs, as well as agent commission fees.
These have included conventional means of mobilizing, such as rallies,[111] protests[112] and public campaigns to raise awareness or improve migrant domestic workers’ conditions.
[113][114][115] Lobbying, at both the national and supranational levels to modify laws [d][116] or by trade unions attempting to change the irregular status of migrant domestic workers[117] has been used as a tactic.
These strategies have included providing support and services to these workers,[141][142][143] with groups offering shelter, food, clothing, legal advice[97] and assistance,[144] as well as counselling.
[m][115] These groups have additionally been required to tailor their human resources and materials in order to ensure accessibility by communicating in a language understood by these foreign employees.
[113][97] Despite the challenges to collective action and advocacy, some works have shown that migrant domestic workers do communicate with and inform each other as well as engage in forms of resistance against their employers.
