State-Sanctioned Structural Violence: Women Migrant Domestic Workers in the Philippines and Sri Lanka

Adopting a structural violence approach, this article examines how the failure to implement protective rights-based migration policies by the governments in the Philippines and Sri Lanka creates the conditions for the systematic exploitation of women migrant domestic workers by recruitment agencies and employers. Fieldwork conducted in 2018 with advocacy groups, government agencies, and international organizations in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong illustrates how both countries are prioritizing the promotion of overseas employment and commodification of labor above the protection of the rights of their women domestic workers under domestic and international law.

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Abuse and Violence Against Foreign Domestic Workers. A Case from Hong Kong

International Journal of Area Studies ◽

10.1515/ijas-2015-0010 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 221-238 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Akm Ahsan Ullah

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Hong Kong ◽

Sri Lanka ◽

Coping Strategies ◽

Psychological Abuse ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

The Philippines ◽

Foreign Domestic Workers ◽

Decision To Stay ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

Abstract This paper explores various abuses Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs) or migrant domestic workers (MDW) in Hong Kong suffer and the strategies they take up to cope with this abuse. Data were collected from 215 domestic helpers (135 from the Philippines, 30 from Thailand, 41 from Indonesia, and 9 from Sri Lanka) all of whom had been in residence for at least six months. Selected by snow-balling technique, respondents were interviewed with structured and non-structured questionnaires. Research shows that sexual abuse is the most common form of abuse against MDWs followed by psychological and physical abuses. Female employers are the main perpetuators of psychological abuse while the male employers are culpable for sexual abuses. Coping strategies varied widely among the MDWs. Many of them endure the violence to keep the job; some quit the job and others struggle with the decision to stay or quit.

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The legal protection of women migrant domestic workers from the Philippines and Sri Lanka: an intersectional rights-based approach

International Journal of Care and Caring ◽

10.1332/239788220x15976836167721 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sophie Henderson

Keyword(s):

Sri Lanka ◽

Labour Market ◽

Domestic Work ◽

Legal Protection ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

The Philippines ◽

Women Migrants ◽

Economic Class ◽

Race Ethnicity ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

Women migrants’ position in the global labour market is constrained by gender and racial divisions of labour, and the work they are offered is often insecure, low-paid and concentrated in feminised sectors of the economy, such as domestic work. It is not only women who predominantly perform domestic work, but also women of a certain race, ethnicity, socio-economic class and nationality. This article adopts an intersectional rights-based lens to examine how selected policies and regulations in the Philippines and Sri Lanka are discriminating against, and creating conditions for the systematic exploitation of, women migrant domestic workers positioned at the intersection of multiple converging identities.

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Structural Violence and Human Trafficking: Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon

Al-Raida Journal ◽

10.32380/alrj.v0i0.41 ◽

1970 ◽

pp. 55-62

Author(s):

Kathleen Hamill

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

Human Trafficking ◽

Structural Violence ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Primary Objective ◽

Human Beings ◽

Key Factors ◽

Arab Region ◽

Labor Exploitation ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

Human trafficking and its link to migrant domestic labor in the Arab region is acomplex, sensitive, and challenging issue. It raises numerous questions and demands further exploration. Under international law human trafficking consists of the recruitment, transfer, or receipt of human beings by coercive or deceptive means for purposes of exploitation. This legal definition is relevant to migrant domestic workers, and the present analysis seeks to address human trafficking for labor exploitation in particular. The primary objective is to identify and analyze the key factors that make migrant domestic workers vulnerable to human trafficking within the specific context of Lebanon. These key factors include the sponsorship system, the recruitment process, and the lack of labor protection and legal redress; each one will be addressed in turn.In the process, the present analysis will also highlight structural violence that subjects migrant women to systemic oppression and increases their vulnerability to human trafficking.

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Thinking Policy Through Migrant Domestic Workers’ Itineraries

American Behavioral Scientist ◽

10.1177/0002764220910253 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 64 (6) ◽

pp. 859-877 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rachel Silvey ◽

Rhacel Parreñas

Keyword(s):

United Arab Emirates ◽

International Organizations ◽

Migrant Workers ◽

Large Body ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Social World ◽

The Philippines ◽

Policy Context ◽

Per Se ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

This article summarizes key findings from our research on Indonesian and Filipino migrant domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates to reflect on their implications for policy. To illustrate the patterns we have observed, the article traces the migration biographies of two women, one from West Java and one from the Philippines, and it then asks what their experiences reveal about the policy landscape. We find, in concert with a large body of literature on social policy for migrants, that in many cases the policies that currently exist—and the gaps in these policies—are themselves central to producing the problems that migrant domestic workers face. Thus, we focus not on what states or international organizations can do in terms of policy improvements per se, but more generally on how the policy context is part and parcel of the broader social world that affects migrant workers’ welfare over the course of their migration biographies.

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Bordering domesticity: Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong’s contemporary art

Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art ◽

10.1386/jcca_00036_1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 33-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Junting Huang

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Contemporary Art ◽

Cultural Landscape ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

The Philippines ◽

Care Work ◽

Art Practice ◽

Migratory Experience ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

Since the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of migrant domestic workers from the Philippines have moved to Hong Kong. As they filled the city’s growing demand for care work, they also altered the city’s art practice and cultural landscape. In this article, I propose to consider a double meaning of ‘domesticity’ – in both the language of motherhood and motherland – as a productive framework to investigate the migratory experience of Filipina domestic workers. Focusing on Cedric Maridet’s Filipina Heterotopia and Xyza Cruz Bacani’s We Are Like Air, I examine how ‘domesticity’ has become particularly pertinent to understanding the ‘border’ through the movement of bodies and the global transferral of care labour.

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Better a Friend Nearby Than a Brother Far Away? The Health Implications of Foreign Domestic Workers’ Family and Friendship Networks

American Behavioral Scientist ◽

10.1177/0002764220910220 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 64 (6) ◽

pp. 765-783

Author(s):

Jing Ye ◽

Feinian Chen

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Local Community ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Protective Effects ◽

Personal Network ◽

Potential Health ◽

Daily Contact ◽

Foreign Domestic Workers ◽

Reported Health ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

Migrant domestic workers provide essential services to the families they live with, but they are not considered a part of the family. As a group, they are not well-integrated into the society and often suffer from social isolation. In this article, we explore the potential health buffering effects of their personal network, in terms of family and friendship ties in both the local community and their home country. Existing literature provides inconsistent evidence on who and what matters more, with regard to the nature, strength, and geographic locations of individual personal networks. Using data from the Survey of Migrant domestic Workers in Hong Kong (2017), we find that family ties are extremely important. The presence of family members in Hong Kong as well as daily contact with family, regardless of location, are associated with better self-reported health. Only daily contact with friends in Hong Kong, not with friends in other countries, promotes better health. We also find evidence that the protective effects of family and friends networks depend on each other. Those foreign domestic workers with families in Hong Kong but also maintain daily contact with friends have the best self-reported health among all.

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THE ENDURING VULNERABILITY OF MIGRANT DOMESTIC WORKERS IN EUROPE

International and Comparative Law Quarterly ◽

10.1017/s0020589313000195 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 599-627 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Clíodhna Murphy

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

Migrant Workers ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Employment Law ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Regulatory Frameworks ◽

Labour Standards ◽

And Migration ◽

Migration Law ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

AbstractWhile the rights of domestic workers are expanding in international law, including through the adoption of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention in 2011, migrant domestic workers remain particularly vulnerable to employment-related abuse and exploitation. This article explores the intersection of the employment law and migration law regimes applicable to migrant domestic workers in the United Kingdom, France and Ireland. The article suggests that the precarious immigration status of many migrant domestic workers renders employment protections, such as they exist in each jurisdiction, largely illusory in practice for this group of workers. The labour standards contained in the Domestic Workers Convention, together with the recommendations of the UN Committee on Migrant Workers on the features of an appropriate immigration regime for migrant domestic workers, are identified as providing an alternative normative model for national regulatory frameworks.

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