Forced returnee Bangladeshi female migrant domestic workers and their social reintegration experiences

2021 ◽  
pp. 001139212110485
Author(s):  
Muhammad Tareq Chy ◽  
Md. Kamal Uddin ◽  
Helal Uddin Ahmmed
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
Social Reintegration ◽  
Female Migration ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intimate Partnerships ◽  
Female Migrant ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Bangladeshi female migrant domestic workers are often forcefully repatriated from the Middle East before concluding their working tenure due to the various difficulties and challenges they face while working there. However, they face many new challenges in reintegrating with family and society after returning home. This article explores the experiences and challenges faced by forced returnee Bangladeshi female migrant domestic workers during social reintegration. It also examines the experiences of those returned migrant women who were not returned forcibly to provide a better idea of the reintegration. The questions of how and why forced returnee Bangladeshi female migrant domestic workers face challenges and problems in their social reintegration are addressed in this study. This article uses the qualitative techniques of data collection and the analysis is based on an in-depth interview of 28 respondents among different categories of participants. This article finds that the social reintegration experiences of forced returnee female migrant domestic workers are often stressful and difficult due to the issues of changed social perceptions towards them, psychological changes in the returnees themselves, challenges in intimate partnerships, and economic factors in the case of relationship rebuilding with friends, family and society. Finally, the article outlines some policy implications regarding the female migration of Bangladesh.

scholarly journals Political and Social Geography of Marginal Insiders: Migrant Domestic Workers in Taiwan

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 99-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Chia Lan
Keyword(s):  
Social Geography ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Contract Workers ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Female Migrant ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

This paper looks at the incorporation and marginalization of female migrant domestic workers in Taiwan. The first part sketches the political geography of foreign workers by examining how the government regulates, marginalizes, and disciplines foreign contract workers. The second part portrays the social geography of migrant domestic workers in Taiwan by discussing how they establish multiple forms of communities and networks. I also compare Filipina and Indonesian migrant domestic workers in terms of how they are discursively constructed by employment agencies and how they gather in different spatial patterns on Sundays.

scholarly journals Differential OER Impacts of Formal and Informal ICTs: Employability of Female Migrant Workers

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arul Chib ◽  
Reidinar Juliane Wardoyo
Keyword(s):  
Skills Training ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Functional Literacy ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Perceived Employability ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Female Migrant ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Information and communication technologies aid marginalized groups in seeking social support, building proximate networks, and improving employment opportunities. However, one key factor that is understudied in the literature is the impact of open education resources (OER) on the employability of marginalized groups. This study focuses on open and distance learning in the context of low-income female migrant domestic workers as a marginalized community. Specifically, we assessed the differential effects of two types of communication: informal OER resources (e.g., social media, mobile calling, texting) and formal OER resources (e.g., classroom prescribed learning tools and lectures) on specific development outcomes of functional literacy and perceived employability. A survey was conducted amongst female migrant domestic workers (n=100) enrolled in the Indonesian Open University in Singapore. Results indicate that access to OER resources via computers in the formal context of institutional learning, when combined with employability awareness, had a significant influence on livelihood outcomes, i.e., perceived employability. However, this did not lead to actual improvements in learning – functional literacy. Instead, actual learning improvement was influenced by digitals skills enabled by mobile phones and computers. The study concludes with a discussion on the policy implications for digital skills training via mobile devices for marginalized populations to bolster the positive effects of OER on livelihood outcomes.

scholarly journals Women and their Journey to Self-Empowerment: A Case Study of Six Indonesian Female Migrant Domestic Workers

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Safira Prabawidya Pusparani ◽  
Ani Widyani Soetjipto
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Migration Process ◽  
Migration Decisions ◽  
Female Migrant ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

<p>In Indonesia, female migrant domestic workers’ representations tend to contain negative meanings. Although they are named as “heroes of development”, but their position is nothing more than a commodity for the country. Such treatment makes female migrant domestic workers becomes vulnerable to violence and exploitation by employers, agents, andgovernment staff. Nevertheless, there is an alternative narrative that is rarely highlighted in literature or media, namely the representation of female migrant domestic workers as powerful actors. This paper seeks to fill in that alternative narrative by highlighting the agencies did by these six female migrant domestic workers. The author believes that by using the standpoint feminism perspective to analyze the struggle of these six female migrant domestic workers in empowering themselves after the oppression, it can be seen that agency has been manifested by female migrant domestic workers during the migration process. This study reveals the efforts of female migrant domestic workers to manifest their empowerment through migration decisions in the middle of patriarchal structures, their ability to resist structures with activism, and become agents of development and change for their communities.</p>

Islam and Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Qatar

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 179-199
Author(s):  
Jawad Syed
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Islamic Ethics ◽  
Intersectionality Theory ◽  
Multiple Identity ◽  
Female Migrants ◽  
Analyse Power ◽  
Female Migrant ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

This paper offers an Islamic perspective on the issues of female migrants, mainly in domestic work, and the Islamic ethics that pertain to their contemporary circumstances in Qatar. It uses intersectionality theory to argue that multiple identity categories of migration, ethnicity and class are important along with gender to better analyse power relations and discrimination facing female migrant domestic workers. It refers to Islamic egalitarian and humanitarian teachings as an ethical framework for legislative and cultural reforms. The paper also offers some real-life examples to illustrate the issues and challenges facing migrant domestic workers in Qatar. In the end, some recommendations and implications are offered.

Intimate Counter‐Spaces of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon1

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 780-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amrita Pande
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Paradoxical Effects ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Politics Of Resistance ◽  
And Gender ◽  
State Restrictions ◽  
Female Migrant ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

This article examines new nodes of migrants' desire to disrupt the heteronormative focus on married mothers in the literature on migration and gender and the reification of normative notions of both gender and sexuality. It demonstrates that in the presence of intense raced and gendered surveillance of both private and public spaces in Lebanon, migrant domestic workers (MDWs) use public “counter‐spaces” to forge intimate and sexual ties. It offers the frame of intimate counter‐spaces to understand the wider politics of resistance mobilized by MDWs in their everyday lives. Intimate counter‐spaces complicate debates around public/private, sacred/sexual, and confront state restrictions on migrant workers' sexuality. Despite their subversive power, such spaces can also reinforce the hypersexualization of the female migrant and highlight the paradoxical effects of everyday subversive practices used by migrant workers, not just in Middle East and Asia, but also across the world.

scholarly journals The Case of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Human Rights Violations and Forward Looking Strategies

2017 ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Veronica Pavlou
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Life Issues ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Female Migrant ◽  
Forward Looking ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

<p>Female migrant domestic workers constitute one of the most vulnerable groups of workers in the international labour market as they are frequently found working and living in conditions that put their human rights at stake. They can be subjected to multiple and intersecting discriminations deriving from their gender, their status as migrants and their occupation. The aim of this article is to explore the issue of female migrant domestic workers through its human rights dimension. It first analyses the phenomenon by discussing aspects such as gender, ethnicity and migration. Secondly, it provides for an account of the International and European framework for the human rights protection of this group of migrant women. Then, some of the most important human rights concerns that the issue of female migrant domestic workers entails, such as the exploitative terms of work, the problematic living conditions and private life issues, are discussed. Finally, the article, examines suggestions that could improve the living and working conditions and the general status of female migrant domestic workers. The forward looking strategies presented are grouped in three core categories; how to prepare female migrant domestic workers for their entry to the destination country, how to protect them through migration policies and labour regulations and finally, how to empower them allowing them to develop skills and capacities for better civic participation.</p><p><strong>Published online</strong>: 11 December 2017</p>

scholarly journals Improving the Life of Former Female Migrant Domestic Workers

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 42-50
Author(s):  
Rosita Tandos
Keyword(s):  
Economic Condition ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Female Migrant ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Some studies exploring the life of migrant domestic workers found that the main factor that push Indonesian migrant domestic workers is experiencing severe economic condition (Raharto, 2000; Silvey, 2004; Pitoyo, 2007). The poor economic condition forces women and girls to be domestic workers. Additionally, cultural value of patriarchy puts a responsibility for women at domestic area influencing the women’s ability to fill the demand of the domestic workers in overseas. This paper addresses the main topic of enhancing protection and empowerment for Indonesian female migrant domestic workers by specifically exploring the issues after working in overseas. The study exploring the life of former migrant domestic workers from Bondan village of Indramayu district using qualitative method. The informants of the study were the workers who just finished their work contract, staying at the moment in the village waiting for the next call or deciding to stop working in overseas. The number of participants was 40 women (n=40), joining focus-group discussions and in-depth interviews. The theoretical frameworks used in the study consist of human capabilities approach, feminist perspective, and social work theories of empowering individual, family, and community. Then, the discussion covers three main points: first, discussion of the theories applied in the study; second, the life of transnational domestic workers of examining abusive conditions; third, developing future practices to empowering the workers; and fourth, a part of the paper provides conclusion to whole points discussed.

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