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

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.

scholarly journals PERLINDUNGAN HUKUM PEKERJA MIGRAN PENATA LAKSANA RUMAH TANGGA (PLRT) DI LUAR NEGERI OLEH NEGARA DITINJAU DARI KONSEP TANGGUNG JAWAB NEGARA

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Koesrianti
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Vulnerable Group ◽  
Unfair Treatment ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
The Government ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

<p align="center"><strong><em>Abstract</em></strong></p><p><em>This research discusses the legal protection of migrant workers, especially, women migrant domestic workers. Due to the nature and characteristic of domestic work, the migrant domestic workers are subject to violence, abuses, discrimination and unfair treatment when they are in destination countries. The most vulnerable group among migrant workers is women migrant domestic workers because they are women. Accordingly, the government and the stakeholders should give protection to the women migrant domestic workers regardless their status (legal or illegal) as they are stay beyond national jurisdiction of sending state.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong><em>legal protection, Migrant workers, domestic, state responsibility.</em></p><p align="center"><strong>Abstrak</strong></p><p>Penelitian ini mengkaji bentuk-bentuk perlindungan hukum yang diberikan kepada pekerja migran PLRT di luar negeri. Pekerja migran PLRT karena karakteristiknya merupakan kelompok yang sangat rentan terhadap perlakuan <em>abuse</em>, diskriminatif, dan ketidak-adilan ketika bekerja di luar negeri. Kelompok paling rentan diantara pekerja migrant adalah TKW PLRT karena keperempuannya. Konsep tanggung jawab Negara mengharuskan pemerintah memberikan perlindungan kepada TKI terlepas dari status mereka, baik legal atau illegal karena mereka berada diluar yurisdiksi Negara pengirim</p><p><strong>Kata Kunci: </strong>Perlindungan hukum, TKI, PLRT, Tanggung Jawab Negara.</p>

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (12-13) ◽  
pp. 1598-1615
Author(s):  
Sophie Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Advocacy Groups ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

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.

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

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-238 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals PERLINDUNGAN HUKUM PEKERJA MIGRAN PENATA LAKSANA RUMAH TANGGA (PLRT) DI LUAR NEGERI OLEH NEGARA DITINJAU DARI KONSEP TANGGUNG JAWAB NEGARA

2015 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koesrianti ,
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Vulnerable Group ◽  
Unfair Treatment ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
The Government ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

<h4>Abstract</h4> <p><strong><em> </em></strong></p> <p><em>This research discusses the legal protection of migrant workers, especially, women migrant domestic workers. Due to the nature and characteristic of domestic work, the migrant domestic workers are subject to violence, abuses, discrimination and unfair treatment when they are in destination countries. The most vulnerable group among migrant workers is women migrant domestic workers because they are women. Accordingly, the government and the stakeholders should give protection to the women migrant domestic workers regardless their status (legal or illegal) as they are stay beyond national jurisdiction of sending state.</em><em> </em></p> <p><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong><em>legal protection, Migrant workers, domestic, state responsibility.</em><em> </em></p> <p><em> </em></p> <p><em> </em></p> <h3>Abstrak</h3> <p>Penelitian ini mengkaji bentuk-bentuk perlindungan hukum yang diberikan kepada pekerja migran PLRT di luar negeri. Pekerja migran PLRT karena karakteristiknya merupakan kelompok yang sangat rentan terhadap perlakuan <em>abuse</em>, diskriminatif, dan ketidak-adilan ketika bekerja di luar negeri. Kelompok paling rentan diantara pekerja migrant adalah TKW PLRT karena keperempuannya. Konsep tanggung jawab Negara mengharuskan pemerintah memberikan perlindungan kepada TKI terlepas dari status mereka, baik legal atau illegal karena mereka berada diluar yurisdiksi Negara pengirim</p> <p><strong>Kata Kunci: </strong>Perlindungan hukum, TKI, PLRT, Tanggung Jawab Negara.</p>

scholarly journals The Entrapment of Migrant Workers in Servile Labour: The Case of Live-in Domestic Workers from Ukraine in Greece

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikos Xypolitas
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Subjective Element ◽  
Emotional Demands

<p>The article presents an effort to analyze the entrapment of migrant domestic workers in their low-status jobs. This will be done by looking at the consequences of live-in domestic work on migrant women from Ukraine working as servants in Athens. The study utilizes a Marxo-Weberian framework that focuses on both working conditions and perceptions of migrant workers. It is argued that the emotional demands of domestic work result in migrants perceiving their tasks as an extension of familial relationships and obligations. These employment relationships are defined as ‘pseudo-familial’ and form the basis of deference in domestic work. Combined with the structural barriers in the labour market, deference represents the subjective element of the entrapment of migrants in their job.</p>

Going beyond the State: Political Mobilisation of Domestic Workers in Asia - A Critical Appraisal of the Literature

Politeia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sreejita Dey
Keyword(s):  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The State ◽  
Transnational Networks ◽  
Women Migrants ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Territorial Boundaries ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

This article attempts to throw light on the ways migrant domestic workers negotiate with their employers and their states, both in their host countries and countries of origin, regarding their rights as workers, and the dynamic socio-political challenges that emerge from their intersectionalities of being women, migrants and domestic workers. Traversing through narratives and accounts of several transnational networks, the article seeks to understand how the domestic workers attempt to engage in political mobilisation and form networks that cut across territorial boundaries. In this article I delineate the nuances of the emergent forms of the politics that emanate from the intersectionalities of being women, migrants and domestic workers, and the implications these have for the larger political projects of citizenship and nationalism.

“Doing Ô Sin”

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 32-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyễn Thị Nguyệt Minh
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Cultural Discourse ◽  
Urban Labor ◽  
And Control ◽  
Urban Labor Market ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

This article discusses the negotiations of migrant domestic workers in Hà Nội with the urban labor market, the conditions and relations of paid domestic work, and their life away from home. These negotiations indicate constraining structures of the labor market and the challenging conditions of urban life and work. They shape and are shaped by the power relations that the domestic workers simultaneously resist and legitimize through an active investment in the cultural discourse of reciprocal affection and harmony. The negotiations, however, demonstrate the diverse ways in which domestic workers actively carve out niches of autonomy and control over their life and work.

The limits of sending-state power: The Philippines, Sri Lanka, and female migrant domestic workers

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick R Ireland
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equity ◽  
Similar Case ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Case Comparison ◽  
Research Interviews ◽  
Female Migrant ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Sending states have taken various measures to protect their female nationals serving abroad as domestics. A most-similar case comparison is constructed between the Sri Lankan and Philippine states’ defenses of ‘their’ female migrant domestic workers (FMDWs), employing process tracing and relying on data from archival research, interviews, policies, and official statements. Existing explanations for sending-state actions stress dependence on remittances, receiving-country conditions, and the democratic incorporation of emigrants. Here, however, a stock of FMDWs with more highly valued human capital attributes, combined with a stronger civil society and greater gender equity, is shown to compel and enable the Philippine state to adopt a more assertive approach than its Sri Lankan counterpart in defending those migrants.‘

scholarly journals A Qualitative Study of Female Migrant Domestic Workers’ Experiences of and Responses to Work-Based Sexual Violence in Cyprus

Sexes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-330
Author(s):  
Christiana Kouta ◽  
Christalla Pithara ◽  
Zoe Apostolidou ◽  
Anna Zobnina ◽  
Josie Christodoulou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Increase Risk ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Analyse Data ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Republic Of Cyprus ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Domestic workers face increased risk for sexual harassment and assault in the workplace but are often reluctant to disclose abuse or seek retribution. We report on a study looking at migrant domestic workers’ responses to sexual violence, reasons behind their responses, and factors enhancing or diminishing vulnerability to abuse. We carried out qualitative, in-depth, individual and group interviews with 15 female domestic workers from the Philippines and Sri Lanka working in the Republic of Cyprus. Descriptive thematic analysis was used to analyse data using QSR NVivo 10.0. Sexual violence against migrant domestic workers was reported to be rampant, particularly among women living with their employer. Perpetrators took advantage of women’s precarious legal, social, and economic circumstances to coerce women into a sexual relationship. All participants reported taking action to stop attacks despite the significant barriers they faced: racism and discrimination, social isolation, and hostile legal, labour, and immigration systems. Fear of losing their job, being deported, and facing racism and discrimination from the police were the biggest barriers to seeking retribution. Access to informational, e.g., legal, practical, and emotional support, facilitated positive outcomes following abuse, such as finding a new employer. Systemic racism, hostile labour and immigration systems, and lack of support increase risk of sexual violence and place barriers against accessing safe working spaces, protection, and justice. Women need to be informed of the risks involved in domestic work and empowered to identify abuse and access help and support when needed.

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