"I Already Bought You"

Author: Rothna Begum
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781623131586
Category : Forced labor
Languages : en
Pages : 79

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Book Description
At least 146,000 female migrant workers - perhaps many more - are employed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Female domestic workers from the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Ethiopia, and elsewhere face severe abuse and exploitation by employers and labor recruitment agencies. "I Already Bought You" : Abuse and Exploitation of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in the United Arab Emirates documents how the UAE's visa sponsorship system (known as kafala) ties migrant workers to employers and how the exclusion of domestic workers from labor law protections leaves migrant domestic workers at risk of abuse. The report exposes barriers preventing abused domestic workers from obtaining remedy, including lack of shelters, penalties for "absconding" workers, and justice system failings. Based on interviews with 99 female domestic workers, recruitment agets, employers, and others in the UAE, the report documents abuses that domestic workers face - passport confiscation, non-payment of wages, lack of rest periods and time off, confinement to households, excessive work and working hours, food deprivation, and psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. In some cases the abuses amounted to forced labor or trafficking. The UAE has an increasingly influential role in the international labor arena. In 2014, it joined the governing body of the International Labor Organization. At home, however, it maintains the exploitative kafala system, has failed to adopt a bill pending since 2012 on domestic workers' rights, and has yet to ratify key international treaties on migrants' and domestic workers' rights. Human Rights Watch calls for the reform of the kafala system and the introduction of labor law protections and other measures to fully protect domestic workers' rights. -- back cover.

"I Already Bought You"

Author: Rothna Begum
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781623131586
Category : Forced labor
Languages : en
Pages : 79

Get Book Here

Book Description
At least 146,000 female migrant workers - perhaps many more - are employed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Female domestic workers from the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Ethiopia, and elsewhere face severe abuse and exploitation by employers and labor recruitment agencies. "I Already Bought You" : Abuse and Exploitation of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in the United Arab Emirates documents how the UAE's visa sponsorship system (known as kafala) ties migrant workers to employers and how the exclusion of domestic workers from labor law protections leaves migrant domestic workers at risk of abuse. The report exposes barriers preventing abused domestic workers from obtaining remedy, including lack of shelters, penalties for "absconding" workers, and justice system failings. Based on interviews with 99 female domestic workers, recruitment agets, employers, and others in the UAE, the report documents abuses that domestic workers face - passport confiscation, non-payment of wages, lack of rest periods and time off, confinement to households, excessive work and working hours, food deprivation, and psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. In some cases the abuses amounted to forced labor or trafficking. The UAE has an increasingly influential role in the international labor arena. In 2014, it joined the governing body of the International Labor Organization. At home, however, it maintains the exploitative kafala system, has failed to adopt a bill pending since 2012 on domestic workers' rights, and has yet to ratify key international treaties on migrants' and domestic workers' rights. Human Rights Watch calls for the reform of the kafala system and the introduction of labor law protections and other measures to fully protect domestic workers' rights. -- back cover.

Domestic Workers Across the World

Domestic Workers Across the World PDF Author: Malte Luebker
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789221252733
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This publication sheds light on the magnitude of domestic work, a sector often "invisible" behind the doors of private households and unprotected by national legislation.The adoption of new international labour standards on domestic work (Convention No. 189 and its accompanying Recommendation No. 201) by the ILO at its 100th International Labour Conference in June 2011 represents a key milestone on the path to the realisation of decent work for domestic workers. This volume presents national statistics and new global and regional estimates on the number of domestic workers. It shows that domestic workers represent a significant share of the labour force worldwide and that domestic work is an important source of wage employment for women, especially in Latin America and Asia. It also examines the extent of inclusion or exclusion of domestic workers from key working conditions laws. In particular, it analyses how many domestic workers are covered by working time provisions, minimum wage legislation and maternity protection. The results demonstrate that under current national laws, substantial gaps in protection still remain. The volume concludes with a summary of the main findings and a reflection on the relevance of the newly adopted international standards to extend legal protection to domestic workers.

Migration and Development

Migration and Development PDF Author: Ronald Skeldon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317891597
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The first text that specifically links both international and internal migration with development at a global level. The world is divided into a series of functionally integrated development zones which are identified, not simply on the basis of their level of development, but also through their spatial patterns and historical experience of migration. Migration and Development stresses the importance of migration in discussing regional, rather than simply country, differences. These variations in mobility are placed within the context of a global hierarchy, although regional, national and local cultural and social conditions are certainly not ignored in this wide-ranging work.

"I was Sold"

Author: Rothna Begum
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781623133764
Category : Forced labor
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
"The report, "'I Was Sold': Abuse and Exploitation of Migrant Domestic Workers in Oman," documents how Oman's kafala(sponsorship) immigrant labor system and lack of labor law protections leaves migrant domestic workers exposed to abuse and exploitation by employers, whose consent they need to change jobs. Those who flee abuse--including beatings, sexual abuse, unpaid wages, and excessive working hours--have little avenue for redress and can face legal penalties for "absconding." Families rely on migrant domestic workers to care for their children, cook their meals, and clean their homes. Yet many migrant domestic workers, who rely on their salaries to support their own families and children at home, face cruel and exploitative conditions"--Publisher's description.

Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates

Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates PDF Author: Antoinette Vlieger
Publisher: Quid Pro Books
ISBN: 1610271297
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Page 1 opens with a jarring turn: "Filipina domestic worker, employed in Riyadh: 'Really they are good to me. If I say I need rest, they give me rest.' [And if they were not so good to you, if you would have some problem with your employer, where would you go?] 'Madam, I cannot go anywhere, I am not allowed to go outside. I cannot go to the embassy. I will just cry in my room and pray.'" This book explores the duality and conflicts faced by the desperate employee far from home, having signed a contract written in Arabic, her passport held by her employer, and with limited power as a woman to be a witness in court against a man. DOMESTIC WORKERS IN SAUDI ARABIA AND THE EMIRATES is a new socio-legal study of pressing questions of human rights, contractual freedom, transnational markets, and social policy: Which factors influence the emergence and character of conflicts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates between domestic workers and their employers, the social and legal norms both parties refer to, and the related imbalance of power? In what way and to what extent do domestic workers and their employers refer to Islamic, customary, contractual, and formal legal norms? Do conflicts concern disagreement over norms or disputes regarding behavior contrary to the norms upon which both parties agree? Which factors influence the norms that both parties refer to in conflicts? Which party is able to enforce its own norms or to act contrary to norms on which both parties agree and which factors influences the balance of power? Using a grounded-theory methodology involving extensive field research and revealing interviews of workers, employers, employment agencies, human rights organizations, and governmental officials, Vlieger exposes the multifacets and dilemmas of the people and institutions involved. Finally, she proposes pragmatic solutions to prevent the most excessive vulnerabilities and imbalances. This is an upsetting and candid introduction to another world, supported with scholarly research but accessible to the general reader, as well as academics and human rights activists. Part of the Human Rights and Culture Series from Quid Pro Books.

Ethiopians in an Age of Migration

Ethiopians in an Age of Migration PDF Author: Fassil Demissie
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351985590
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
The migration of Ethiopians across international borders is a recent phenomenon because of the limited integration of the country and society to the global economy. Since it was never colonized – aside from the Italian occupation of 1936-1941 – Ethiopia’s economy and society were not directly impacted by the ebb and flow of the global economy, and thus never generated international migration. Beginning in the 1970s, due to factors such as famine, rural poverty, civil war, and political repression, an unprecedented number of Ethiopian migrants began to leave their country in search of better, more secure lives. Today, this diaspora constitutes a distinctive community dispersed across the world, but bound by a common feeling of collectiveness and a shared history of the homeland. The contributors to this volume draw their work from a wide variety of interdisciplinary fields and provide new critical insight on Ethiopian migrants and their diaspora communities. What has emerged from these scholarly works is the recognition that the Ethiopian diaspora – although separated by oceans and nations, by politics, ethnicity, class, gender and age – are carving out a social and material world born out of their particular circumstances both "here" and "there". This book was originally published as a special issue of African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal.

Sexuality in the Arab World

Sexuality in the Arab World PDF Author: Samir Khalaf
Publisher: Saqi
ISBN: 0863564879
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Arab cultural discourse has been slow to respond to changing sexual behaviour. The contributors to this collection pick up the slack, ranging across such disciplines as literature, history, sociology and psychology. Is Damascus the 'chastity capital' of the Middle East, where perceptions of wealth and class fuel female rivalries? How do gay men cruise in Beirut? How do young women in Tunis cope with both social pressures to become thin and family pressures to gain weight? What do Lebanese creative-writing students write about sexual practices versus public behaviour? The fresh, compelling research topi covered include masculinity and migration; colonialism and sexual health; fantasy and violence; and domestic workers and sexual tensions. 'Other people's sex lives have always been a source of fascination, and nowhere more so than in the Middle East ... Ground-breaking.' New Statesman

Doing the Dirty Work?

Doing the Dirty Work? PDF Author: Bridget Anderson
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781856497619
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
There has been a tendency amongst feminists to see domestic work as the great leveller, a common burden imposed on all women equally by patriarchy. This unique study of migrant domestic workers in the North uncovers some uncomfortable facts about the race and class aspects of domestic oppression. Based on original research, it looks at the racialisation of paid domestic labour in the North - a phenomenon which challenges feminsim and political theory at a fundamental level. The book opens with an exploration of the public/private divide and an overview of the debates on women and power. The author goes on to provide a map of employment patterns of migrant women in domestic work in the North; she describes the work they perform, their living and working conditions and their employment relations. A chapter on the US explores the connections between slavery and contemporary domestic service while a section on commodification examines the extent to which migrant domestic workers are not selling their labour but their whole personhood. The book also looks at the role of the Other in managing dirt, death and pollution and the effects of the feminisation of the labour market - as middle class white women have greater presence in the public sphere, they are more likely to push responsibility for domestic work onto other women. In its depiction of the treatment of women from the South by women in the North, the book asks some difficult questions about the common bond of womanhood. Packed with information on the numbers of migrant women working as domestics, the racism, immigration or employment legislation that constrains their lives, and testimonies from the workers themselves, this is the most comprehensive study of migrant domestic workers available.

Gridlock

Gridlock PDF Author: Pardis Mahdavi
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804777500
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
The images of human trafficking are all too often reduced to media tales of helpless young women taken by heavily accented, dark-skinned captors—but the reality is a far cry from this stereotype. In the Middle East, Dubai has been accused of being a hotbed of trafficking. Pardis Mahdavi, however, draws a more complicated and more personal picture of this city filled with migrants. Not all migrant workers are trapped, tricked, and abused. Like anyone else, they make choices to better their lives, though the risk of ending up in bad situations is high. Legislators hoping to combat human trafficking focus heavily on women and sex work, but there is real potential for abuse of both male and female migrants in a variety of areas of employment—whether on the street, in a field, at a restaurant, or at someone's house. Gridlock explores how migrants' actual experiences in Dubai contrast with the typical discussions—and global moral panic—about human trafficking. Mahdavi powerfully contrasts migrants' own stories with interviews with U.S. policy makers, revealing the gaping disconnect between policies on human trafficking and the realities of forced labor and migration in the Persian Gulf. To work toward solving this global problem, we need to be honest about what trafficking is—and is not—and to finally get past the stereotypes about trafficked persons so we can really understand the challenges migrant workers are living through every day.

Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East

Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East PDF Author: B. Fernandez
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137482117
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
For over half a century, the Middle East has been major migration corridor for domestic workers from Asia and Africa. This book Illuminates the multidimensionality of these workers' lives as they engage in finding a balance between acting and being acted upon, struggle and accommodation, and movement and stasis.