Women migrant workers from developing countries

Statistics

Although "South-South migration" (migration between developing countries) is generally more substantial than migration from developing to high-income countries, the World Bank estimates that there are about 73 million migrants from developing countries living in high-income OECD countries; about half being female and half being male.

According to censuses carried out in 1990, the United Nations Population Division estimated that women constitute 48% of all migrants. In 2000, 52% of the 56 million migrants in Europe were female. The number of immigrants in Europe has continually increased, due to a higher demand for care work for multi-income families, among other things. The major sites for female labor include GCC countries in Western Asia as well as Pacific Rim countries in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. By 2000, there were 5 million female migrants compared to 4.9 million male migrants in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. In Western Asia, female migrants constituted 48% of all migrants in the region.

Women migrants work in domestic occupations that are considered part of the informal sector and lack a degree of government regulation and protection. Lourdes Beneria, a feminist economist, argues that the demand for care work in Europe in the 1990s and 2000s has brought young Latinas to countries like Spain, in order to provide care work for the aging population. The demand for these workers has risen due to an increasing number of European women moving toward the formal sector of work, leaving their domestic duties for hire.

Women leaving their country of origin are often considered to be temporary migrants. They leave for an uncertain amount of time, with the intent to return to their homeland after they have earned enough money. Given that women are statistically better at saving their capital gains, they are becoming increasingly economically significant to the capital gains of their country of origin. This can be measured through remittances and how much is sent back to the country of origin. Documentaries, such as Letters from the Other Side, illustrate that after some time, remittances may cease due to new responsibilities or new circumstances that migrant workers face.

Economic impacts and the impact of women working abroad have both negative and positive impacts upon traditional family roles, children, and gender roles. In addition to diversifying the domestic workforce, women migrant workers also impact the global economy. Remittances by women migrant workers help bolster the GDPs of their countries of origin.

Feminization of migration

The term "feminization of migration" was used by the United Nations in a 2007 working paper. It refers to an increase in the proportion of female migrant workers.

For a long time, females have constituted a high proportion of all international migrants. In 1960, females constituted 47 out of every 100 migrants residing in a foreign country. In 2000, women made up almost 49% of all international migrants. Despite the fact that these statistics illustrate a "feminization of migration", a high level of feminization already existed in 1960.

Female laborers are mostly found in low-status and unskilled occupations. In addition to this, "women migrants are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, a multimillion-dollar business."

Many women in Latin America respond to demands created in Europe, especially Spain, for jobs as care workers for dual-income houses. This demand is created by the increase in European women moving from their traditional household labors to market work, where they can contribute to a company's bottom line.

Limited education can force those with a lack of skills to move to a foreign country to help support their family, but these situations often promote exploitation.

The increase in feminization of migration has lead to an increase in concerns regarding females security in the locations in which they are moving to such as human rights issues and security. The controversy surrounding migration has lead to challenges for international analysts as they look to change implications. Assumptions have been made regarding the reason women migrate, which causes popular debate among developing countries in considering implication changes.

Women in China (aka rural to urban migration)

Young Chinese girls are sent to cities to work in factories, where they work for low wages, and often go unpaid for a large length of time. The documentary China Blue provides insight into the treatment of these young Chinese women and the conditions under which they live. Many of the laborers are migrant workers that travel from the countryside to the city to find work, and as seen in China Blue, these workers are often underpaid, and face strict regulations in the city. The city provides legislation and/or policies stating that the factories must house them. By having dormitories onsite, the factory works like a small city. It provides food and shelter, and because the factory controls every part of the laborer's life, laborers can be forced to work late, and can be penalized for bad behavior, or not meeting their quotas.

According to Ngai, the dormitory system is also stressful on these migrant workers as it removes them from their families. Isolation and maltreatment in the form of cheap labor is how China competes globally. China forces its workers to work long hours, subsidizes their living expenses, while keeping their wages low.

Burmese in Thailand

Ruth Pearson discusses the millions of Burmese women who migrate to Thailand each year. These women almost entirely make up the agricultural and manufacturing workforce. The Burmese who migrate are typically undocumented, and there is very little regulation of the migration. The workers, more than half of which are women, are considered disposable, and face aggression from the Thai government and police force. The Thai manufacturing and agricultural businesses are far more dependent upon the Burmese migrants due to their low pay, and the amount of work that they can demand from them.

Care workers

The most common work found by women migrant workers is in domestic care. In Spain, 70% of all women migrants find jobs in this sector. The increase in women migrants from Latin America is illustrated by the fact that 70% of Brazilian and Dominican migrant workers going to Spain in 2001 were women. Domestic workers are employed by private households as nannies to care for the elderly or sick family members, or as maids that provide household services. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that care workers are 8% more prevalent in developing countries than developed countries. Many of these positions require that women remain with the families that hire them, which makes exploitation and abuse highly likely in these situations, given that the work is often unregulated, and there is no real way to track payment or living conditions. Furthering the issue, some of these care workers are illegally living in the United States and are undocumented.

De Parle shows through anecdote that a man from Manila was gone for twenty years to provide for his family. This man's family followed his example, and all five of his children became migrant workers. Migrant workers make about 10 times the amount of domestic wages. There is often a dramatic need that motivates these workers to move abroad. 1 in every 7 Filipinos is a migrant worker, and migrant workers are viewed as heroes as a result of their willingness to leave their families and send remittances from their pay. However, these remittances do not cover the social costs and familial costs that these workers face. For example, many children don’t recognize their parents, and grow up not knowing their closest family members. Though there are some protections for families, there is still the propensity for remittances and migrant work to have more of a negative impact on family dynamics. Though situations for children in terms of growth have improved, money is still not a replacement for their parent(s).

Consequences and aid

Cheng states that there is an isolation of women who work abroad even within their own social circles. This discourages support systems, and often puts these women in hightened vulnerable positions, placing more dependency on the family structure and household where they are employed. The first year's wages are used to secure their place in their new job, and from then onward the isolation in the household keeps the women obedient.

Authors Tonya Basok and Nicola Piper discuss the global governance of international migration efforts undertaken by the non-governmental organizations trying to protect the rights of Latin Americans and those from the Caribbean, moving to Europe. They argue that although the management of trafficking the women to and from their country of origin has improved, the management of labor rights abroad is difficult due to the lack of rights promotions as opposed to management efforts.

Women who leave their homes in search of work abroad often leave their duties to another member of the family, or even their children. It is often female children or another woman who assume responsibility for maternal duties, thereby further strengthening a gendered role of domestic work, and perpetuating traditional gender roles.

UNIFEM (now UN Women) is a branch of the United Nations dedicated to the support and defense of women workers. As the advent of migrant work has become more prevalent among women, UNIFEM has had to help keep their rights protected. This includes establishing a human rights standard, timely payment, rest days, medical care, and housing investigation. UNIFEM has promoted several laws similar to the law on the Protection of Migrant Women in Indonesia. Their goal is to make a universal code of ethics and treatment for all those engaging in migration for work or other reasons.

Gender protections in migrant work have become a necessity, given the exploitation of migrant women and the propensity of sex trafficking once they arrive in their destination country. As many women in these positions are either involved in the sex trade or domestic care, they are prone to abuse.

Remittances

Economically, women enter the market to help support their family and their home in their native country. Women migrant laborers are often only skilled to work in factory or care work positions. The effect these migrant workers have on domestic and foreign economies varies, and there is too little data to make any conclusive argument regarding economic impact. However, impact can be seen through continued globalization, monetary exchange, and remittances by women. "Remittances have had significant macro economic effects in several countries of origin in coping with trade deficits, reducing pressure on local currency, reducing external debt, etc." This means that a major source of capital for developing countries are the wages earned and sent home by these women. "Formal remittance transfers of some $150 billion were reported in 2004. Possibly twice this amount was transferred informally. These financial transfers are growing in significance. In many countries, they are larger than either development assistance or foreign direct investment."

Rosewarne argues that the lack of temporary migrant laws is a hindrance to the continual flow of remittances. As well as the families that receive them, countries' GDPs are becoming dependent on the flow of these remittances. However, there are various limitations. Women traditionally have a more difficult time finding temporary employment due to their lack of education and job availability, as well as laws to support them abroad.

Changing gender roles

Throughout history, women have taken on the role of a caregiver, someone who stays at home to care for the children while maintaining housework. This role while still popular among many households, has begun to change across the globe as women are taking on more male positions in the home and workforce.This change in roles has been incredibly difficult for women. They have needed to adapt to a more male physical appearance and take on the characteristics of the opposite sex, as to be taken seriously in the workforce. This change in the appearance and attitude of women has caused a shift in the way women present themselves both at work and at home. Although recently, women have chosen to adopt an assertive lifestyle rather than taking on the appearance of males in attempt to keep their femininity while maintaining seriousness in the workforce.

Some women migrate in order to escape oppressive gender roles, leaving their home and obtaining increased economic independence and freedom, which challenge traditional gender roles. This can strengthen a woman's position in the family by improving her relative bargaining position. Women have more leverage in controlling the household because they have control over a degree of economic assets, depending on their economic situation. Gender roles often follow women from their rural or domestic environment to the labor they are allowed to participate in. It can have a stratifying effect on their work and social life. Jie-Yu Lui states that social roles follow migrant workers in their new environments. There is a strong connection between a woman's role in her rural life to her new life in an urban city or foreign country. Women accept the treatment they receive because it is normalized by their traditional and domestic roles, e.g. their roles at home as homemaker and houseworker.

Beneria says that gender roles are ever-changing as women from Latin America are leaving their families there, and moving to be domestic care workers in Western Europe. Europeans create demand as they are focused on providing income, and have to balance their domestic duties with their market work. She uses the argument that a woman's choice to leave and provide remittances for her family initiates a role reversal for the family as a whole, in addition to a new gender category. Given that most migrant workers work in the care field, their traditional familial role is reinforced. Their absence from their homes may elicit resentful feelings from their children, but this is dependent on the presence of family. She closes by saying that the reconciliation policy is affected by the availability of migrant care workers who help balance the domestic and market work in more developed countries. If there are solutions that don't require policy changes, governments are prone to use these examples as reasons against such policy change. Additionally, there is a risk for infidelity abroad, which also erodes the family structure.

Extortion and abuse experienced by migrant workers

Mistreatment of women migrant workers is primarily due to the fact that they tend to seek employment in the informal sector, and are therefore either not covered or partially covered by the labor legislation, social security, and welfare provisions of the host country. Exploitation of women migrant workers is less identifiable than exploitation of male migrant workers because exploitation occurs at a premature stage of the migration process or in situations with weak labor inspection services. Examples of maltreatment include: not getting paid, restricted movement, removal of personal identity documents, long shifts, working for a whole week without days-off, sexual exploitation, and poor living conditions with inadequate food, water, and accommodation. Women migrant workers are often mistreated and isolated by their employers, particularly in the Middle East. Domestic workers experience this isolation, and become dependent upon their employers. They can be physically as well as psychologically abused. Dependency and work insecurity make extortion possible. Women are also raped and sexually harassed while abroad, and are vulnerable to sex trafficking.

Care work deficit in country of origin

With the trend of women migrant labor, the absence of women, mothers in particular, leaves a deficit in family life. When women leave to provide for their families, the role of mother or caretaker is left to the other female family members. These can be the eldest daughter, aunts, or even further extended family members. These kin help with domestic duties and child-rearing for the parent(s) abroad, but the absence of the parents sparks a trend and cycle within the family.

Children's education falters due to a lack of supervision and parental support. "Despite parents’ effort of remaining in touch via telephone, contact may be irregular and sometimes falls short of meaningful exchange between parent and child." The reunion of these families leaves children isolated from their parents, and makes the women strangers to their children.

Measures to improve experiences of migrant workers

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has provided a list of ameliorative measures that should be implemented by governments and organizations in donor, transit, and destination countries in order to improve the experiences of female and male migrant workers alike. Some of these measures include the following: