Migrant Domestic Workers Research Articles

The gender dimensions of sexual violence against migrant domestic workers in post-2019 Lebanon.

In December 2020, the Lebanese Parliament passed the landmark Law 205 against sexual harassment that could see perpetrators spend up to four years in prison and pay fines up to fifty times the minimum wage. The law additionally affords protection to both the victims and any witnesses who testify against the accused. While the law was applauded as a step forward for sexual harassment victims, it excludes an important faction of the community-migrant domestic workers. The law falls short of international standards by addressing sexual harassment solely as a crime and neglecting to complement this law with labor law reforms, monitoring, and civil remedies. This research focuses on the various forms of sexual violence either protected or enabled under the Kafala system. It aims to depict the incessant violations this type of system has produced. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 913 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. A variety of multifaceted, mixed design methods were used to collect information during the write up of this report, all of which are participatory, inclusive and target group sensitive where needed. These methods ensured that the findings were derived from a collective contribution from a wide range of target groups, triangulated and validated, and that gender considerations were integrated into the data collection and analysis methods. Primarily, these methods included: (1) Desk/Policy Review; and (2) in-depth Key Informant Interviews. Whilst asked about whether or not they had survived at least one incident of sexual harassment during their employment or stay in Lebanon, 68% of respondents informed the study that they had. According to respondents, various forms of sexual harassment included: (1) inappropriate staring or leering in a sexual manner; (2) sexually suggestive comments/jokes/name-calling; (3) intrusive questions about your sex life/physical appearance that were offensive; (4) someone showing his/her private parts/half or fully-naked body offensively; (5) unwelcome touching, hugging, kissing or other inappropriate physical contact; (6) sexually explicit calls or messages; (7) repeated or inappropriate invitations to dates; (8) sexually explicit pictures, posters or other material; (9) actual or attempted rape or sexual assault; (10) video/photo taking of survivors of a sexual nature; (11) requests or pressure for sex or other sexual acts; and/or (12) other forms of sexual harassment. 56.2% of the sample (513 women) insisted that they had experienced at least one of the aforementioned forms of sexual assault, while 11.7% (107 women) confirmed that they had experienced sexual assault, but weren't willing to describe their experiences in detail. The variety in nationality and race across the sample presented important findings pertaining to ill-treatment, fetishization, and violence each group of women faced. In addition to an overall sense of racism experienced by black MDWs, hierarchy within the MDWs' community presents itself in various forms-even at the early stages of recruitment at the agency. Undocumented MDWs are left powerless in terms of reporting sexual abuse and therefore, are at the mercy of the aggressor. Navigating the country's legal, cultural and social landscapes without documentation or a legal residency permit has become increasingly difficult in recent years, as this has laid the foundation for exploitation and abuse in the areas of: (1) paying less than what MDWs deserve; (2) taking advantage of their legal standing to make them work longer hours; (3) threatening to report them to the authorities if they object; and (4) sexual harassment in all forms.

Situating platform gig economy in the formal subsumption of reproductive labor: Transnational migrant domestic workers and the continuum of exploitation and precarity

In conversation with critical platform and labor studies, which tend to focus on drivers and food delivery workers, this article seeks to expand our understanding of the platform gig economy from the perspective of reproductive labor and migrant domestic workers. The exploitation of women’s unpaid and low-paid reproductive work has persisted throughout various stages of capitalist development. Migrant domestic workers’ underpaid reproductive labor becomes an essential site for primitive capital accumulation and the production of the labor force in the contemporary neoliberal global economy. Building upon analyses of the historical and contemporary circumstances of transnational migrant domestic workers in Canada, I argue that digital labor platforms become a technology-enabled, capital-driven force in the larger commodification and exploitation process of migrant workers’ reproductive labor, and such processes are underpinned by entangled structural and institutional forces of the uneven capitalist development, racism, patriarchy, and the state’s discriminatory (im)migration and labor policies. The article suggests that understanding the seeming prevalence of platform work should be situated in the continuous formal subsumption of reproductive labor and the class immobility of migrant domestic workers, and labor activism and movements should contest the entwined power dominations beyond merely demanding regulations over platforms.

Assessing the Labor Conditions of Migrant Domestic Workers in the Arab Gulf States

Millions of migrant domestic workers—the vast majority of whom are women—are employed in households across Arab Gulf societies. Despite the ubiquitous presence of these foreign workers in Gulf households, little systematic information exists regarding the working conditions and treatment of this population. Findings from a survey of Filipino and Indonesian women who were previously employed as migrant domestic workers in the Arab Gulf states suggest that more than half of households subjected workers to at least one form of mistreatment. The most common forms included excessive working hours, late payment of salary, and denial of one day off per week. A smaller percentage of women reported limited access to food and medical care, mistreatment that is correlated with physical and emotional abuse. Understanding more about the extent of mistreatment—and the correlates of abuse—assists in the development of remedies aimed at improving workplace conditions.

Review of “Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States”

Rhacel Salazar Parrenas has been working in the area of migrant domestic workers and is considered to be one of the leading scholars in the area. In this book, with reference to the Kafala system in the UAE, Parrenas asks an important question, “how domestic workers themselves see their relationship of inequality with employers?” (p.5) The question is directly relevant to migrant domestic workers working in other countries, though they may not face the same “strict” system. The study is based on in-depth interviews of eighty-five Filipina domestic workers and thirty-five employers under the Kafala system in the UAE. The author also draws from her participant observation of pre-departure orientation seminars for workers in the Philippines that are required by the Philippine government. According to Parrenas, the Kafala system “legally infantilizes domestic workers.” (p.45) As employers have legal responsibility for any misbehavior or misdeeds by their migrant domestic workers, this assigned responsibility encourages “the dehumanization of domestic workers.” (p.45)

‘C’mon, let’s talk: a pilot study of mental health literacy program for Filipino migrant domestic workers in the United Kingdom

PurposeThis pilot study of a culturally adapted online mental health literacy (MHL) program called ‘Tara, Usap Tayo!’ (C’mon, Let’s Talk) aims to assess the acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, and potential effectiveness in improving the help-seeking behavior of Filipino migrant domestic workers in the United Kingdom (UK).MethodsUsing mixed methods, we conducted a non-randomized single-group study of the online MHL program with 21 participants. The development of this intervention was guided by the Medical Research Council Framework for developing complex interventions and utilized Heim & Kohrt’s (2019) framework for cultural adaptation. Content materials from the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Program (mhGAP), WHO Problem Management Plus (PM +) and Adult Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) were modified and translated into the Filipino language. The MHL program was delivered online in three sessions for two hours each session. Data were collected at three time points: (T1) pretest; (T2) posttest; and (3) follow-up test. Quantitative data on participants’ attitudes towards help-seeking and level of mental health literacy as outcome measures of potential intervention effectiveness were collected at T1, T2 and T3, while focus group discussions (FGDs) to assess participants’ feedback on the acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness of the online MHL program were conducted immediately at T2. Data analysis was done using a thematic approach for qualitative data from the FGDs and descriptive statistics and repeated-measures ANOVA were used to assess the difference in the T1, T2, and T3 tests. Both quantitative and qualitative results were then integrated and triangulated to answer the research questions.ResultsThe online MHL program is generally acceptable, appropriate, and feasible for use among Filipino migrant domestic workers. Preliminary findings lend support for its possible effectiveness in improving mental health literacy and help-seeking propensity. The cultural adaptation made in the content, form, and delivery methods of the intervention was acceptable and feasible for this target subcultural group.ConclusionBy improving their mental health literacy and help-seeking propensity, this online MHL program has the potential to provide support to the mental health and well-being of Filipino migrant domestic workers in the UK. Further feasibility study or large-scale randomized controlled trial is needed to confirm the preliminary findings of this study.

Problems of Unorganized Workers

Despite their significant contribution to the economy, only 6 % of unorganized workers avail any type of social security support. The growth of real wages of casual workers has also been relatively slow in the post-reform period. The workers of the unorganized sectors are the worst affected in the event of any kind of crisis. The fundamental socio-economic rights of domestic migrant workers were adversely affected during the lockdown, but the state response was not up to the expectation. Despite expansion in policy and programmes, India`s wage and social security system is quite vulnerable to unorganized workers. The people of our country know how to arrange the means of subsistence on their own, but if they get adequate government sponsored social assistance easily at the right time, then the difficulties related to their life will be greatly reduced.

The Psychological, Social, and Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on Nepali Migrant Workers

The global pandemic impacted Asian migrant workers disproportionately. During the first COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, Nepali migrant workers faced many challenges due to widespread misconceptions of them being vectors of COVID-19. This research examines COVID-19 impacts on international and internal Nepali migrant workers. A national survey on the social, economic, and psychological challenges of returning Nepali migrant workers was administered online from 10 May to 20 July 2020. A total of 672 responses were received. Using a binary logistic regression model, the research finds that the domestic migrant workers were less likely to get economic support, expect to borrow money during COVID-19, experience negative changes in their personal lives, and expect the COVID-19 contraction. In contrast, international migrant workers were less likely to return to their pre-pandemic employment. The research exposed long-standing vulnerabilities of migrant workers and identified immediate actions from Nepalese Central, Provincial, and Local governments to address their needs.

‘They'd beat us with whatever is available to them’: Exploitation and abuse of Ghanaian domestic workers in the Middle East

AbstractGeneric accounts of pervasive cases of exploitation and abuse against migrant domestic workers in the Middle East exist in the extant literature. However, very little is known about the breadth, depth and gendered nature of abuses experienced by female migrants from especially the sub‐Saharan African region. Abuses of the rights of sub‐Saharan Africans are under‐represented and under‐theorised. This paper interrogates the question what is the nature, extent and severity of exploitation and abuse against female Ghanaian domestic workers in the Middle East? Using data from mixed‐methods research, this paper adopts the framework of structural, symbolic and interpersonal violence to examine the range of abuses against domestic workers and the context within which these abuses take place.

(Re)chronotopizing the pandemic

Abstract In this article I apply the notions of chronotope and (re)chronotopization to the case of grassroots, migrant domestic worker (MDW) led activism during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. I compare the chronotopes that are produced by the Hong Kong government with those produced by migrant-led organizations to understand how migrants are marginalized and how they resist this marginalization. More specifically, I show how the spatiotemporal configurations of “home,” “days off,” and “the time of COVID-19 in Hong Kong” are rechronotopized – that is, reimagined, remoralized and rematerialized – through the discourses and actions of these grassroots organizations. I use this data and analysis to reflect on how the notion of rechronotopization can account for the social processes involved in activism more broadly; and to draw attention to the dialectic relationship between differently scaled chronotopic materialities and morally loaded chronotopic imaginaries.

Social support and coping among female foreign domestic helpers experiencing abuse and exploitation in Hong Kong

IntroductionIn Hong Kong, female foreign domestic workers are hired to assist with household chores and care. This study examined the coping and support-seeking strategies that the workers use to tackle workplace abuse and exploitation within the structural confines of their employment.MethodsA mixed-method design that incorporated a face-to-face survey with 106 migrant domestic workers and 21 in-depth interviews was adopted.Results and discussionThe results showed that most participants experienced some form of abuse or exploitation. Verbal threats and time exploitation were the most common forms of abuse and exploitation, respectively. Participants' marginalized group status muted their voices when workplace hazards occurred. Accordingly, they preferred emotion-based coping over problem-based coping when encountering abuse and exploitation. Their focus on emotional management was reflected in their acceptance of workplace conflicts as taken-for-granted norms, their avoidance of communicating with employers, and their nonconfrontational endurance of adverse working conditions. Aligned with participants' focus on emotion management, they also reported a stronger need for emotional support than other support functions. Their major sources of emotional support were religious beliefs and other migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. Employers had the potential to fulfill the workers' support needs, but they must take the initiative due to imbalanced power relations.

Unfree Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States, by Rhacel SalazarParreñas. Stanford University Press, October 2021, 232 pp. ISBN: 9781503629653, Price £17.99, p/b.

Unfree Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States, by Rhacel SalazarParreñas. Stanford University Press, October 2021, 232 pp. ISBN: 9781503629653, Price £17.99, p/b.

VeraPavlou, Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Law and the Construction of Vulnerability, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2021, 166pp, hb £76.50

VeraPavlou, Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Law and the Construction of Vulnerability, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2021, 166pp, hb £76.50

The politics of truth at LGBTQ+ Pride: contesting corporate Pride and revealing marginalized lives at Hong Kong Migrants Pride

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the articulation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) identities, lives, and rights at Pride events in Hong Kong. I argue that analyzing Pride as a Foucauldian “regime of truth” reveals how it is embedded in and reproduces broader ideological effects and structures of global capitalism. Focusing specifically on the corporate Out Leadership Asia Summit and Hong Kong Migrants Pride, organized by migrant domestic worker (MDW) unions and LGBTQ+ activists, the article explores transnational discourses of “global homocapitalism” that frame LGBTQ+ identities in individual and economically productive terms. By contrast, Migrants Pride highlights the exploitation of work and the precarity of MDWs and forges intersectional alliances with the feminist social justice movement. These differing conceptions of LGBTQ+ lives and needs form a contested “politics of truth” that exposes the tense and incongruous relationships between local and global, neo-liberal and collective, and rich and poor that underpin the dynamics of privilege and marginality of LGBTQ+ subjects in Hong Kong. The article argues that Pride’s co-option is an uneven and shifting process across global contexts. Migrants Pride, by enacting queer resistance to discourses of “corporate Pride,” offers a case study of how Pride can be a platform for social justice activism.

Fertility of Female Filipino and Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong

The relationship between migrant workers’ migratory moves and their fertility is complex. The literature on international migration contains three main explanations of the relationship—the disruption hypothesis, the adaptation hypothesis, and the selectivity hypothesis. The research reported in the literature has so far focused on international migrants, many of whom have the prospect of becoming legal immigrants, while there is little research on the relation between migration and fertility for Southeast Asian labor migrants who are on employment contracts and cannot gain permanent residency. Of the three hypotheses, only the disruption hypothesis is relevant for temporary migrant workers, yet its findings have been mixed. This research note aims to fill in the gap by focusing on the disruption hypothesis in an examination of Filipina and Indonesian migrant domestic workers’ migration and fertility trajectories, using the 2017 survey of Filipina and Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. The findings from the analysis suggest a disruptive effect of migration on fertility for the women in their earlier reproductive years from both Indonesia and the Philippines but not for the women in their later childbearing ages, thus shedding light on the divergent disruptive mechanism of migration on fertility.

“Second-class citizens”: framing domestic migrant workers in Vietnamese news media during the fourth wave of COVID-19

This study investigates how domestic migrant workers were framed in Vietnamese news media during the country’s fourth wave of COVID-19. Although the experience of domestic migrant workers in urban settings has been a relevant issue of studies among domestic and international academia, few papers have looked at migrant workers from the perspective of communication and media study. In an attempt to fill this knowledge gap, 239 news articles about migrant workers taken from three major Vietnamese online newspapers from April 27 to December 31, 2021, were content analyzed to understand how migrant workers were portrayed in the news media. Five generic news frames, (i) Economic consequences, (ii) Conflict, (iii) Human interest, (iv) Morality, and (v) Attribution of responsibility, were used for coding. It is found that migrant workers were multidimensionally depicted in the media as both pitiful, vulnerable, and helpless victims of the pandemic and objects of blame for new outbreaks, but the “victim” portrayal was more prevalent. Such findings align with previous studies on the framing of outgroups, i.e., immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, especially during medical crises.

Whose Voice Matters? Chronotopic Position(ing)s and the Dialogic Inclusion of Marginalized Stakeholders in Critical Applied Linguistics

Abstract In this paper, we argue that critical applied linguists must work towards the materially transformative, dialogic inclusion of marginalized voices in order to create more just social relations. We show how a spatiotemporal theorization of voice as materially situated and discursively imaginative can enable a more holistic approach to including such voices. Illustrative data come from the experiences of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong and includes their discourses, those of their employers, and those of domestic worker-led grassroots organizations. We use these data to demonstrate how different stakeholders have unequal abilities to materialize the spatiotemporal imaginaries they voice out, how academic (re)theorizations of language may not always bring about changes to the material spatiotemporal conditions of marginalized stakeholders, and why the collective voices of marginalized groups should be taken into account alongside individual voices. Implications are discussed in terms of action-oriented work that critical applied linguists can engage in to support the inclusion of migrant domestic workers’ voices in particular, and the voices of marginalized stakeholders in our field more generally.

POLITICAL ECONOMY OF REMITTANCES OF INDONESIAN MIGRANT DOMESTIC WORKERS IN HONG KONG DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed all aspects of people’s lives around the world, including remittances. Interestingly, Bank Indonesia in 2020 stated that remittances, the majority of which came from migrant domestic workers, from Hong Kong tended to be stable. This study uses a political economy approach to see how several economic and political factors affect the stability of the remittances of Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. This study uses the theory from Dilip Ratha (2003) regarding the stability of remittances during the economic crisis, where there are two factors, namely (1) the presence of automatic stabilizers in migrant worker receiving countries and (2) the ease of remittance financial infrastructure. This study uses qualitative data collection methods to reveal the empirical reality experienced by domestic workers from Indonesia in Hong Kong. As a result, there is a relevance of the financial infrastructure factor for remittances to the experience in Hong Kong during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study found several other factors that were not proposed by Ratha, namely the struggle of migrant workers unions in Hong Kong to respond to the crisis period and the existence of politics of surviving. This politics of surviving is similar to the concept of ‘double movement’ from Karl Polanyi (2001). This factor together with two other factors is cause of the stability of remittances to Indonesia. Comparison with other countries will also show other factors that cause remittances remain stable during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Support or burden? Mental health and transnational family contact among female migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong

AbstractA large and increasing number of female migrant domestic workers has been recorded within the Asia‐Pacific region. Thanks to the development of communication technologies, these migrant women can maintain intimate relations with their family back home despite the distances separating them. However, there have been concerns recently about the effect of preserving close family contact on female migrant domestic workers' mental health. Using recently collected survey data on female migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, our study finds that daily family communication with parents or partners brings a psychological burden, rather than support, for migrant domestic workers. In addition, the findings show the importance of the workplace environment in moderating the effect of regular family contact. Implications of our findings are discussed.

Understanding Health Information Behaviors of Migrant Domestic Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Hong Kong remain vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Obtaining accurate information is essential for MDWs as it helps them understand their predicament and protect themselves. Therefore, this study delves into the MDWs’ health literacy by scrutinizing how they acquire, verify, and respond to pandemic-related information. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 Indonesian MDWs, recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. The data were examined using a constant comparative approach in grounded theory. The findings reveal that the participants engaged in information seeking and scanning to obtain health crisis information, mainly through their friends, family members, and community organizations. The participants also verified the information using their judgment or by consulting other actors, such as local organizations and media outlets. The messages they obtained informed the means to protect themselves, which motivated them to adopt preventive measures. However, some also engaged in maladaptive coping, such as taking ineffective preventive actions. The participants also disseminated health crisis information throughout their social circle. This study concluded that MDWs performed four health information behaviors during the pandemic, namely information acquisition, authentication, sharing, and adoption of preventive measures. However, their information practices may change at different stages of the pandemic.

Hegemony of Saudi Arabia's Kafala System in The Relationship Between Employer and Indonesian Female Domestic Migrant Workers 2018-2020

This study describes the hegemony produced by the Saudi Arabian state through the kafala system in the relationship between employers and female migrant domestic workers from Indonesia. The kafala system creates many problems due to the structural dependence between domestic migrant workers and their employers, ranging from heavy workloads and irregular wages to restrictions on access to mobility. Employers as individual sponsors have a large dominance of power so that the working conditions for domestic migrant workers become unbalanced. This study is analyzed using Antonio Gramsci's hegemonic perspective with three indicators of understanding, namely the ruling class, defense of the domination of the ruling class, and the crisis of ruling class hegemony. This study was dissected using a qualitative critical approach. This study indicates that the hegemony in this research phenomenon belongs to a declining level of hegemony characterized by the potential for disintegration hidden beneath the surface. Various restrictive Saudi Arabian regulations hamper the awareness of civil society, which has been gradually awakened. The limitations of civil society on access to participatory democracy have resulted in mass resistance to the Kafala system not coming to the surface.