Domestic Workers and Migration

Gender and Migration: Care workers at the interface of migration and Development

Sponsored by UN Women and International Labor Organization

On Thursday I attended a meeting on domestic workers and migration, sponsored by UN Women and the International Labor Organization. This meeting was a good follow-up to other events I attended at the UN this past year. The event was facilitated by Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile and now executive director of UN Women.

The migration of care workers and their rights is an issue that is very inter-related with the LDCs. Many of the workers migrate from LDCs to find employment in wealthier countries. A domestic worker or care worker is usually someone employed in a home, providing elderly care, cleaning, cooking or child care services. More often then not it is a woman, working in a country that is not her own and sending a large portion of her earning back home to her family.

We heard from an expert in the field, Prof. Judy Fudge from the University of Victoria in Canada. She explained that immigrant women lack many rights within host countries and are often restricted to care work.

Many of the women lack any labor standards or protection from abuse. It is difficult to impose any employment regulations when workers are living and working in their employers’ home. Dr. Fudge empathized that it is important to have international labor standards in order to recognize the importance of domestic work. If these labor standards are passed by the UN and internationalized organizations will be able to better regulate working conditions and workers’ unions will receive international protection.

One of the solutions Prof. Fudge and the other speakers mentioned is the convention on Decent Work for Domestic workers. Currently the ILO is trying to pass a draft convention at the United Nations. The convention is very comprehensive and essential to giving domestic worker the respect and protection they deserve.

Overall the meeting was interesting and relevant to current conventions that are being drafted at the UN. But I was incredibly disappointed in the lack of diversity, specifically class diversity. Several times through the event the speakers would mention how “domestic workers help us” and “workers are essential in our households”. I feel as if so many of theses meetings are incredibly classist and egotistical. How can you have a meeting about domestic workers in the LDCs without having workers present to talking about their struggles and what they want?

In many ways none of these ideas and conventions can not be implemented or actualized while neo-liberal policies are being enforced by global governing bodies. Without a looking for alternatives to our current capitalist system the disparity between the rich and poor will continue to grow and low-wage workers will continue to be exploited.

The following quote from Paulo Freire, author of the outstanding book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed exemplifies many of my thoughts about this meeting and others that I have attended in recent months; "Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress".