Migrant Domestic Workers Research Articles

Indonesian domestic workers: Hong Kong migrants’ activism, value creation, and post-migration entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT Hong Kong has become a center of migrant domestic workers’ (MDWs) social activism, but its longer-term effects are still understudied. Therefore, we researched Indonesian MDW return migrants and found that they obtained extensive social capital through their overseas group engagement. Many women started businesses in Indonesia by utilizing the networks and knowledge nurtured during their Hong Kong activism, in a way that is different from typical local businesses. These women’s businesses reveal their unique social awareness and goals of making their home society better. Nonetheless, the women also struggled to balance their entrepreneur identity with that as wives and mothers, and this negotiation has helped transform local village gender norms, which otherwise would limit women’s agency in choosing paid work. By framing this type of enterprise as a form of ‘value creation’ through entrepreneurship, the authors point out the critical importance of developing social capital overseas for return migrants’ successful re-integration into their communities of origin.

“But on Sunday, They Are Free”

This article examines the site of the home in Baby Ruth Villarama's 2016 documentary Sunday Beauty Queen to better understand how tomboy migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong mess up and queer domesticity. By focusing on the appearances in the film of the home of Leo Selomenio, a tomboy Filipino migrant domestic helper and organizer of Sunday beauty pageants, the author explores alternative modes of care performed by tomboys that refuse respectability politics as they operate within transnational migrant labor structures. Despite the regulatory and confining modes of racialized and gendered care that structure global care work, Selomenio reconfigures and reshapes his home to operate as a site of refuge, an archive, a gathering space, and a site of resistance. Engaging in what the author terms “tomboy domesticity,” Selomenio utilizes his control over home space and time as a result of his exemption from the live-in requirement of his work to ensure collective survival in the face of labor precarity. Selomenio's performance of care ethics that refuse the state's neglect of domestic helpers articulates tomboy and diasporic Filipino life as valuable outside of its capacity to labor.

Understanding the Cultural Politics Experience of Indonesian Male Domestic Helpers in Malaysia

This research explores the cultural-politics dynamics of Indonesian male domestic workers in Malaysia as they confront and challenge societal prejudices while taking on fatherhood-associated responsibilities. It delves into the obstacles these men face due to ingrained gender stereotypes that question their suitability for domestic roles, particularly in a foreign cultural context. The primary objective is to understand how these men redefine their identities and assert their roles as nurturers and providers, challenging traditional masculine ideals. This study uses a qualitative research design and a narrativization approach to explore the experiences of Indonesian male domestic helpers. Through in-depth interviews and personal narratives, the research reveals how these men navigate their roles as caregivers and fathers, challenging traditional gender norms and gaining recognition within their households and communities. The study also highlights the importance of upholding cultural ties and personal resilience in their experiences as migrant domestic workers.

The sacrificed lives of the caring class: crises of social reproduction, unequal Europe, and modern forms of slavery

AbstractThere have been plenty of interpretations regarding the meaning and function of sacrifice within the discipline of anthropology. Going beyond sacrifice as a ritual and exploring a wide range of its manifestations and functions as contemporary cultural practices, discourses, and underlying logics, we reveal its role in the social organization of social care provision within the framework of neoliberal capitalism. Our analysis supports the theory that sacrifice can have the function of social control, and of preserving hierarchies. The forgoing of a minority of migrant domestic workers to provide intensive social care becomes the (no) solution to the ongoing care crisis. It thus becomes the way to hide structural violence and dilute responsibilities for society, which benefits from the servile conditions under which the labour is performed. The ethnographic material (observations, informal conversations, and interviews) that is part of our analysis originated from fieldwork in Castellón de la Plana, Spain (2018/19). This analysis, however, goes beyond that case, being valid for reflecting on the position of care for elderly and dependent people in our societies, care in general, the current global trend in social care provision, and the new social reproduction regime in which sacrificial logics play an increasing role.

Analysis and mapping of global research publications on migrant domestic workers

Recognizing the importance of evidence-based research in informing migration policies and empowering migrant domestic workers (MDWs), this study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of MDW research patterns and trends. Using a descriptive cross-sectional study design, research articles on MDWs were retrieved from the Scopus database. The findings reveal a substantial increase in research output in recent years, with notable contributions from journals in the fields of social sciences and humanities. Key contributors include scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, and institutions such as the National University of Singapore and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Journals in the field of migration have prominent role in publishing research on MDWs. At the author level, Yeoh, B.S.A, at the National University of Singapore was the most prolific author. Academic activities were the main driver of research and that funding was suboptimal in this field. Highly cited articles focused on topics such as transnational motherhood, the international division of reproductive labor, and the negotiation of citizenship rights. Major research hotspots in the retrieved articles included mental health aspects, caregiving especially of the elderly, and struggles for legal rights. Specific nationalities, such as Filipina/o and Indonesian MDWs, have been the focus of numerous studies, shedding light on their narratives, challenges, and agency within transnational contexts. Overall, this study underscores the urgency of addressing the needs and rights of MDWs, advocate for human rights, and enhance understanding of occupational health and safety in the unique context of domestic work.

Perceived discrimination and mental health among female migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong: A sequential explanatory mixed-methods study.

Female migrant domestic workers (MDW), often unemployed in their home country, are household workers that migrate abroad for better wages. Although poor employment conditions have shown detrimental effects on MDWs health, the mental health effect of perceived discrimination remains understudied among MDWs. This mixed-methods study seeks to (a) assess the association between perceived discrimination and mental health among female MDWs and (b) explore in-depth the common ways MDWs experience discrimination. A cross-sectional self-administered survey (n = 1965) was conducted among Filipino and Indonesian MDWs from August 2020 to August 2021 in Hong Kong. A multivariable logistic regression model, controlling for background characteristics, assessed associations between perceived discrimination with anxiety and depression. Qualitative semistructured interviews were then conducted (n = 20) to provide in-depth information about perceived discrimination. Thematic analysis was used to identify the contexts and types of discrimination experienced. Among survey respondents, 60.4% reported ever experiencing discrimination, and 10.5% reported often/always feeling discriminated against. Of MDWs, 18.1% and 31.5% were classified with anxiety and depression, respectively. MDWs reporting higher frequency of discrimination were at increased risk of anxiety (ORadj: 2.30-6.60) and depression (ORadj: 2.06-5.91). In-depth interviews revealed that perceived discrimination inside the workplace (from overwork, lack of autonomy, and employer-imposed restrictions) and outside the workplace (from MDW policies) had strong effects on MDWs' mental health. Increased availability to mental health services should be considered. To improve MDW mental health, policymakers may also regulate maximum weekly working hours and ensure minimum standards for living environments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A Private Solution to a Public Problem: Domestic Migrant Workers

A Private Solution to a Public Problem: Domestic Migrant Workers

Kilómetro 0: inicio de las trayectorias migratorias de trabajadoras domésticas en Chile

This study aims to describe how the migratory trajectories of migrant domestic workers begin in Chile and the role of migratory networks and emotional factors in their decisions. A qualitative analysis of six biographical narratives is employed to examine the complexities of their labor and migratory trajectories, influenced by intersecting factors such as gender, class, and ethnicity, within the context of global care chains. The results reveal five central moments when making the decision to migrate. The first moment is characterized by the fact that none of the cases had worked as domestic workersin their home countries. In the second moment, the need to change their circumstances in their home countries arises, often due to political crises, economic challenges, or gender-based violence. The third moment involves the existence of a migratory network of friends and family who assist in their journey.In the fourth moment, a significant emotional factor plays a central role in the decision to migrate, influencing the timing of the decision. Finally, in the fifth moment, the decision to migrate to Chile is made.

Supplemental Material for Perceived Discrimination and Mental Health Among Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed-Methods Study

Supplemental Material for Perceived Discrimination and Mental Health Among Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed-Methods Study

Burmese migrant domestic workers’ foodwork and biopedagogies in pandemic Singapore

COVID-19 not only increased food insecurity across the globe but has also given rise to pandemic-induced “biopedagogies,” a concept premised on conflating health with instructions on the “bios,” including how to live healthily, what to eat, and how much. Based on 24 qualitative interviews with low-waged migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore hailing from Myanmar, we explore how migrant women articulate and develop their own biopedagogical practices under pandemic-constrained circumstances. While live-in MDWs are invariably involved in preparing food for employers’ families as part of their care duties, and despite originating from historically food-producing regions, they are vulnerable to urban and cultural food insecurities at destination sites of migration given their diminished rights and subordinate positions in the household. Yet, these migrant women express agency in enacting counter-practices through their foodwork in at least two ways. First, MDWs cultivate self-care through cooking and consuming home foods during the pandemic and negotiating enough fortifying food for themselves while living in employers’ households. Secondly, through remittance-sending to left-behind families and children, they enact long-distance maternal carework through foodwork for health. We uncover how MDWs’ foodwork achieve a measure of food security despite language barriers, limited economic resources, lack of access to culturally appropriate foods at destination, and distance from their families. Experiencing vulnerability in terms of their occupational position, their plate, and the pandemic, this paper uncovers the stressors in achieving food security and health for themselves and families’ while working in Singapore.

The realities of return migration: Reintegrating women migrant domestic workers in Sri Lanka

This paper critically analyzes the Sri Lankan government’s management of return migration. Adopting an intersectional lens, it examines how exclusionary policies and programs fail to protect the rights and welfare of returnee women migrant domestic workers, resulting in poor reintegration outcomes. The paper focuses on three interconnecting issues that disproportionately impact upon their rights, as revealed by empirical fieldwork carried out in Colombo in 2018. Research findings from interviews and focus group discussions with civil society organizations (9), government agencies (3) and international organizations (3) highlight the need for an inclusive policy approach. Such an approach would involve a holistic response guided by inter-agency coordination and comprehensive data that would better tailor services to the specific skillsets and diverse circumstances of returnee women domestic workers.

The Hopeful and Resilient Maids: Assessing the Life Satisfaction of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Abu Dhabi

The Hopeful and Resilient Maids: Assessing the Life Satisfaction of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Abu Dhabi

Wails Inside Arab Homes: Examining the lived experiences and exploitation of returnee Ugandan migrant domestic workers from Saudi Arabia

The study aimed to investigate the experiences and exploitation of Ugandan migrant domestic workers who returned from Saudi Arabia. The study followed a constructivist paradigm, an interpretive framework that focuses on individuals' understanding of the world and their creation of unique meanings. A qualitative approach was utilised, specifically employing a phenomenological case study design. Data was gathered through unstructured interviews with twenty-eight (28) migrant domestic workers. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data. The findings regarding the lived experiences and exploitation of returnee Ugandan migrant domestic workers were visualised through concept maps created using NVivo version 10.0. The study discovered that the returnee workers' experiences were primarily related to their interactions with various individuals in their employers' households, including dealing with abusive employers, inconsiderate children and relatives, and challenging working conditions. Other experiences involved working in an unfriendly environment, carrying out difficult tasks, facing heavy workloads, experiencing occupational health difficulties, enduring physical abuse, inadequate rest, food deprivation, sexual advances, and false allegations. Consequently, providing legal protection for domestic workers in Saudi Arabia is crucial. Although progress has been made in addressing legal gaps, particularly regarding weekly rest days, more work remains. This includes implementing or expanding minimum wages and aligning working hour restrictions with those applicable to other workers. It is therefore recommended that Uganda and Saudi Arabia revise labour export laws to ensure that the rights of migrant domestic workers are respected.

A Study on Ways to Introduce Foreign Domestic Workers : Focusing on the Case of Sending Overseas Domestic Workers from the Philippines

A Study on Ways to Introduce Foreign Domestic Workers : Focusing on the Case of Sending Overseas Domestic Workers from the Philippines

What Influences Someone to have Compulsive Buying Behavior? A Case of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Taiwan

Aims: This research aims to investigate the impact of job burnout on compulsive buying behavior among a group of 210 Indonesian domestic migrant workers in Taiwan. Additionally, it explores the mediating role of ego depletion in this relationship and the moderating effect of consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence. The study employed a quantitative approach to examine the relationship between job burnout, ego depletion, consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence, and compulsive buying behavior among Indonesian domestic migrant workers in Taiwan. The data was analyzed by SEM-PLS. The findings indicate that job burnout significantly increases compulsive buying tendencies among Indonesian domestic migrant workers in Taiwan. However, ego depletion does not act as a mediating factor in this relationship. Conversely, consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence moderates the relationship between ego depletion and compulsive buying behavior significantly, suggesting that greater susceptibility weakens the impact of ego depletion on compulsive buying behavior. These results emphasize the importance of addressing job burnout and considering interpersonal influences in interventions aimed at mitigating compulsive buying behaviors among Indonesian domestic migrant workers in Taiwan. Such interventions have the potential to improve the mental and financial well-being of this population.

Migrant domestic workers and transnational foodcare chains in pandemic times

AbstractIn view of heightened food security issues in COVID‐19 times, we employ a transnational lens to give bifocal attention to migrant women’s experiences during the pandemic, as they sought to secure access to food for themselves and for left‐behind children and family members in Indonesia and the Philippines. In conjunction with the classic idea of global care chains and the notion of foodwork, we propose the idea of transnational foodcare chains. This distinctly agentic, migrant, and maternal food labour came to the fore under exceptional times of pandemic‐induced social distancing, economic precarity, and limited travel. First, we argue that these foodcare chains are multi‐relational, involving interdependence and reciprocity among a web of caregivers to secure food gaps. Second, we suggest that foodcare chains also extend to friendship networks forged among fellow migrant domestic workers in Singapore. Third, under pandemic conditions, we argue that foodcare chains enter the domain of well‐being and healthcare as food becomes evoked as medicine and cures. Drawing on findings from 40 qualitative interviews with Indonesian and Filipino migrant domestic workers in Singapore, we focus on developing, within studies of food (in)security, the idea of foodcare chains by foregrounding the maternal, relational, and often invisible labour of achieving food security for migrant women and their left‐behind families.

Struggle, Exit, “Resilience”—or How Precarious Workers Cope with Late Neoliberalism. Individual and Collective Agency of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain

Abstract This article inquires the individual and collective agency of female migrant domestic workers in Spain. I use fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2023 to examine the interplay between the migrant workers’ individual coping strategies, the claims-making strategies of the domestic workers’ trade union Sindihogar, and the structures they operate within and attempt to challenge. Drawing on contemporary research about precarious workers’ movements, I aim to explore to what extent this social movement union has the potential to reduce the power of structural constraints and increase the power of agency. Implicit is a broader, more provocative question: To what extent is substantial change possible within the current political-economic order, here defined as late neoliberalism? I found that while the movement’s community-building approach may empower activists at an individual level, there are significant structural barriers to its potential to accomplish change in terms of better job conditions for this highly precarious workforce. In addition, I suggest that an increasing focus on precarious workers’ “resilience” risks undermining narratives of structural transformation.

Illegal Sri Lankan Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Gulf Countries: An Analysis on Push and Pull Factors

The implementation of new restrictions by the Government of Sri Lanka to discourage unskilled female labour migration through the mandatory ‘Family Background Report’ has resulted in an increase in the number of female illegal migrations. This study efforts to uncover the reasons that motivate women to migrate as domestic workers disregarding the government’s strong discouragement. I argue that gendered push factors coupled with financial motivations trigger illegal and circular migration among women. This explorative research utilizes primary data collected through structured interviews from a sample of sixty-five migrant women which is complemented by secondary data collected from statistics and reports published by the Government of Sri Lanka. The research concludes that government’s inability to address strong push factors that motivates unskilled female labour migration, and its effort to use blanket solutions such as restricting movements through laws have forced women to migrate using illegal measures which makes their situation more vulnerable. It also suggests that affirmative action such as to create more occupational opportunities and the equal distribution of resources to rural areas to address this issue is needed.

Exhaustion: Migrant mental health, gendered migration and workplace regime

AbstractThis article focuses on the mental health of female migrant workers in Italy. The multi‐method study involved a survey of 157 Moldovan migrant women employed in different jobs and 30 semi‐structured interviews with Moldovan female migrant domestic workers. Quantitative analysis demonstrated that Moldovan domestic workers are affected by poor mental health to a greater extent than Moldovan women employed in other jobs, and that the factors most associated with it were non‐standard working times and having migrated primarily for work reasons. Qualitative data showed how the strain resulting from demanding schedules was intertwined with being a single female labour migrant, whose experience was strongly marked by the gendered dimension of transnational motherhood and a loss of social status. The article concludes that the gendered migration regime and the gendered workplace regime constitute two intertwined and mutually reinforcing determinants of health.

‘I can’t bear giving my baby away’: Negotiation of reproductive rights of migrant domestic workers and implications for social work

‘I can’t bear giving my baby away’: Negotiation of reproductive rights of migrant domestic workers and implications for social work