scholarly journals Maternal Health and Access to Healthcare among Migrant Workers Engaged in Informal Construction Work, Ahmedabad, India

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Divya Ravindranath ◽  
Lora Iannotti
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Health ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Postpartum Care ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Informal Work ◽  
Primary Sample

Abstract Background:A large proportion of migrant women in India are employed in the urban informal economy, which is often characterized by low wages, precarious work conditions, poor living conditions and lack of social security. Circumstances such as these have deep implications for the health and overall wellbeing of workers. Our paper focuses on the intersection of migration, informal work and maternal health among female workers in the construction sector. We specifically seek to understand women’s perception and experience of morbidity and examine their ability to seek and access maternal healthcare during pregnancy, childbirth and during the postpartum period.Methods:The field work for this study was undertaken in Ahmedabad, India. We recorded anthropometric measurements and conducted in depth interviews with our primary sample of female migrant workers. We also conducted two focus group discussions (FGDs) with male workers and reached out to other stakeholders.Results:Anthropometric measurements (N=55) suggested that a significant proportion of women (47%) suffered from low BMI (M= 18.36, SD= 1.7). Participants reported that physical ailments, diseases and illnesses were a constant feature of their lives. Women associated morbidity with poor work and living conditions, exposure to pollution and lack of safety measures during work. Women reported working until the last month of pregnancy and returned to work within few weeks of childbirth. Only 32% of the women (N=50) in our study sample had received two or more antenatal care check-ups, 64% had had an institutional delivery and 62% had received postpartum care within two days of childbirth. Women suggested that their access to seek healthcare services in the city was limited due to time constraints, inability to take break from work, irregular wage patterns and lack of familiarity with urban health systems. Pregnant women expressed desire to go to the village for childbirth and postpartum care as there was likely to be familial support for care. Conclusion: Our study finds that informal work conditions and migration have diverse and complex implications for women in need of maternal health care. Future policy needs to take into account particular and peculiar needs of migrant women to address their health needs.

Javne biblioteke kao prostori integracije i osnaživanja migrantica

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-105
Author(s):  
Ajla Demiragić ◽  
Lejla Hajdarpašić ◽  
Džejla Khattab
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Residence Permit ◽  
European Area ◽  
Women And Girls

The Council of Europe’s Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023, without neglecting the important issue of voluntary and forced migration in the European area and the particular “vulnerability” of migrant women and girls, addresses the protection of the rights of migrant, refugees and asylum-seeking women and girls in the ffth strategic objective by stressing out that “measures need to be taken to ensure that migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women have access to their human and social rights in relation to individual freedom, employment, housing, health, education, social protection and welfare where applicable; and access to information about their rights and the services available.” In this regard, European experiences after the great migration wave from 2015 have already shown that the full and successful integration of migrant women and girls into European society requires the collaborative work of numerous national and international bodies, governmental and non-governmental sectors, and other relevant institutions and organizations, including libraries that should address special attention “to groups which are often marginalized in culturally diverse societies: minorities, asylum seekers and refugees, residents with a temporary residence permit, migrant workers, and indigenous communities.” (IFLA / UNESCO Multicultural Library Manifesto 2008). In this context, this paper will provide an overview of selected programs and services targeted at migrant women in public libraries in the European area. In conclusion, paper highlights the important role of public libraries in the processes of linguistic and social integration of migrant women, and points out the need for continuous improvement of programs and services designed for migrant women, which should be an integral part of diversifed public library services.

scholarly journals ‘I decided to go back to work so I can afford to buy her formula’: a longitudinal mixed-methods study to explore how women in informal work balance the competing demands of infant feeding and working to provide for their family

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silondile Luthuli ◽  
Lyn Haskins ◽  
Sphindile Mapumulo ◽  
Nigel Rollins ◽  
Christiane Horwood
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Infant Feeding ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Child Support ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Antenatal Visit ◽  
Framework Analysis ◽  
Informal Work ◽  
Informal Workers

Abstract Background In South Africa almost 2 million women work informally. Informal work is characterised by poor job security, low earnings, and unsafe working conditions, with high rates of poverty and food insecurity. The peripartum period is a vulnerable time for many working women. This study explored how mothers navigate the tension between the need to work and the need to take care of a newborn baby, and how this affects their feeding plans and practices. Methods A mixed methods longitudinal cohort method was employed. Informal workers were recruited in the last trimester of pregnancy during an antenatal visit at two clinics in Durban, South Africa. Data were collected using in-depth interviews and quantitative questionnaires at three time points: pre-delivery, post-delivery and after returning to work. Framework analysis was used to analyse qualitative data in NVIVO v12.4. Quantitative analysis used SPSSv26. Results Twenty-four participants were enrolled and followed-up for a period of up to 1 year. Informal occupations included domestic work, home-based work, informal trading, and hairdressing, and most women earned <R3000 (US$175) per month. Participants had good knowledge of the importance of breastfeeding for child health. Most women planned to take time off work after the birth of their babies, supporting themselves during this time with the child support grant (CSG) received for older children, their savings, and support from the baby’s father and other family members. However, financial pressures forced many mothers to return to work earlier than planned, resulting in changes to infant feeding practices. Several mothers tried expressing breastmilk, but only one was able to sustain this while away from the baby. Most participants introduced formula, other foods and fluids to their babies when they returned to work or stopped breastfeeding entirely, but some were able to change their work or adapt their working hours to accommodate breastfeeding. Conclusions Interventions are needed within the social and work environment to support mothers with breastfeeding while they continue earning an income in the informal economy. The extension of the CSG to the antenatal period could assist mothers to stay at home longer post-delivery to breastfeed their babies.

Migration and the Family: The Female Perspective

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 253-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hania Zlotnik
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Family Reunification ◽  
Family Migration ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Female Migration ◽  
Family Perspective ◽  
The Family

This article shows that a family perspective is especially important for the analysis of female migration because: (1) women are major participants in “family migration” as defined by governments and, although they benefit from family reunification provisions, they are also constrained by them; (2) migrant women are important economic actors and their participation in economic activity is closely related to the needs of their families, so that the choices that migrant women make regarding work cannot be understood without taking into account the situation of their families and women's roles within them; (3) women are increasingly becoming migrant workers in order to improve the economic status of their families; and (4) women rely on their families to provide various types of support that both make migration possible and condition its outcome. A review of the literature provides evidence supporting each of these observations.

Economic Vulnerability and Partisanship in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (03) ◽  
pp. 80-103
Author(s):  
Melina Altamirano
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Economic Vulnerability ◽  
Social Security Benefits ◽  
Cross National

ABSTRACTA significant proportion of the population in Latin America depends on the informal economy and lacks adequate protection against a variety of economic risks. This article suggests that economic vulnerability affects the way individuals relate to political parties. Given the truncated structure of welfare states in the region, citizens in the informal sector receive lower levels of social security benefits and face higher economic uncertainty. This vulnerability makes it difficult for voters to establish strong programmatic linkages with political parties because partisan platforms and policies do not necessarily represent their interests and needs. Using cross-national microlevel data, this study shows that individuals living in informality are skeptical about state social policy efforts and exhibit weaker partisan attachments. The findings suggest that effective political representation of disadvantaged groups remains a challenge in Latin American democracies.

Jiagongchang Household Workshops as Marginal Hubs of Women's Subcontracted Labour in Guangzhou, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 800-821
Author(s):  
NELLIE CHU
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Urban Villages

AbstractThis article introduces South China's jiagongchang household workshops as marginal hubs of affective and industrial labour, which are produced by migrant women's yearnings for people and places far away. Temporary sites and precarious forms of low-wage production serve as fragmented and provisional resources of sociality and labour as migrant workers and urban villages gradually become incorporated within the urban fabric. The unrequited longings of migrant women who work in factories and as caretakers demonstrate how marginal hubs are created through disjunctures of emplacement and mobility, which are intensified as these women attempt to bridge the contradictions entailed in care work and industrial labour across the supply chains.

Visible Bodies, Invisible Work: State Practices toward Migrant Women Domestic Workers in Malaysia

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 49-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine B.N. Chin
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Labor Migration ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Migrant Labor ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Invisible Work ◽  
State Involvement

The changing characteristics of labor migration in Asia today elicit an important question regarding the nature and consequences of state involvement in the entry and employment of low wage migrant workers. This paper offers an analysis of the labor-receiving state's practices toward migrant women domestic workers in Malaysia. I ascertain that the exercise of a particular kind of state power as evinced from policies and legislation, consistently make visible migrant womens' presence in society even as their labor in households is rendered invisible. A key consequence of this is the fragmentation of public support for migrant workers, and the contraction of what can be considered legitimate space for Malaysian NGO advocacy on migrant labor rights. To counteract this, some NGOs have adopted alternative strategies and targets that begin to reveal the possibility for constructing alternative forms of governance.

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