Migrant Domestic Workers in Egypt: A Case Study of the Economic Family in Global Context

Abstract

id=1349163. There is an emerging body of scholarship on law and development. See, e.g., THE NEW LAW AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL (David M. Trubek & Alvaro Santos eds., 2006). 31. Martha Alter Chen, Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment, in LINKING THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL ECONOMY, supra note 11, at 75, 81. 32. James Heintz & Robert Pollin, Informalization, Economic Growth and the Challenge of Creating Viable Labor Standards in Developing Countries 1 (Political Economy Research Institute [PERI], Working Paper No. 60, 2003) (Over recent decades, conditions for working people in developing countries have undergone a major transformation. This has been the substantial rise in the proportion of people engaged in what is termed 'informal' employment, generating a broad trend toward 'informalization' of labor market conditions in developing countries. Current estimates suggest that informal employment comprises about one-half to three-quarters of non-agricultural employment in developing countries. Moreover, and perhaps even more significantly, these proportions appear to be rising even when economic growth is proceeding in developing countries, contrary to what a previous generation of researchers and policymakers had anticipated.). 33. Keith Hart, Bureaucratic Form and the Informal Economy, in LINKING THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL ECONOMY, supra note 11, at 21, 23, 27. 34. Id. at 26. 35. Dzodzi Tsikata, Towards a Gender Equitable Decent Work Regime for Informal Employment in Ghana: Some Preliminary Considerations, CAN. LAB. & EMP. L. 20101 995 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW At a policy level, informalization is viewed approvingly in some sectors as a necessary adjustment to overly rigid and statist economic strategies. 36 In the area of labor law, the deregulatory argument is phrased in terms of the need for labor flexibilization. 37 Amongst critics of deregulation, however, the growth of as a strategy for labor law reform has raised widespread concerns about its contribution to work: decline of the standard employment relationship and the increase in precarious work-work that is insecure, badly remunerated, unprotected, and largely beyond the control of employees-is one of the most worrying problems of the new economy.38 Flexibilization is of concern everywhere, but in the developmental context it has the distinctive feature of having been part of a coherent reform agenda proposed by the international financial institutions. 39 Of what significance is economic informalization and labor market flexibilization to the issue of domestic work, for which such characteristics are neither new nor exceptional? These dynamics form an important component of the background conditions within which domestic labor markets work. They shape not only bargaining (forthcoming); Marilyn Carr & Martha Alter Chen, Globalization and the Informal Economy: How Global Trade and Investment Impact on the Working Poor 2 (Women in Informal Employment Globalizing & Organizing [WIEGO], Working Paper No. 1, 2002) (the informal economy [has] continued to expand and grow). 36. Martha Alter Chen provides a comprehensive analysis of the literature: Over the years, the debates on the informal economy crystallized into three dominant schools of thought: dualism, structuralism and legalism. The dualists argue that informal... activities have few (if any) linkages to the formal economy... and that informal workers comprise the less-advantaged sector of the informal market. Unlike the dualists, structuralists see the informal and formal economies as intrinsically linked ... capitalist firms ... are seen to reduce their . . . labor costs, by promoting informal production .. .both informal enterprises and informal wage workers are subordinated to the interests of capitalist development ... The legalists focus on the relationship between informal entrepreneurs/enterprises and the formal regulatory environment, not formal firms. Chen, supra note 31, at 84; see also Carr & Chen, supra note 35, at 6 (what distinguishes each of these schools is their underlying model of power or power relationships. The dualists subscribe to the notion that there are few (if any) power relationships between.., the informal and formal economies. The structuralists subscribe to the notion that the formal economy exerts a dominant power relationship over the informal economy in its own interests. The legalists subscribe to the notion that informal entrepreneurs exercise their own power.). 37. Dzodzi Tsikata criticizes this literature, arguing that, in terms of labor issues, there has not been a focus on development or sustainability, or livelihood security. See Tsikata, supra note 35, at 5 (Dominated by the international financial institutions ... and economists, policy discussions have stressed the importance of flexibility of labor markets for economic growth. ); see also Anne Trebilcock, Using Development Approaches to Address the Challenge of the Informal Economy for Labor Law, in BOUNDARIES AND FRONTIERS OF LABOR LAw 63 (Guy Davidov & Brian Langille eds., 2006). 38. Rittich, supra note *, at 31. 39. Id. at 35. [Vol. 58 MIGRANT DOMESTIC WORKERS IN EGYPT amongst particular contracting parties but also the possible directions of change in a broader context. Against a backdrop of increasing informality, the likelihood of domestic workers to be able to demand better terms and conditions, either individually or collectively, is greatly challenged. Moreover, the decline of formal, public sector opportunities in developing countries is affected by these trends. With economic informality more prevalent, livelihood alternatives may