Care Work at a Cost: The Plight of Migrant Domestic Workers

Amaira (name changed), a 25-year-old woman from Nepal, travelled to the Gulf States with dreams of earning money to pay for her younger brother’s education and a good life for her aging parents. Her dreams suffocated under the weight of a broken promise as she became entangled in the Kafala system. Amaira’s passport was confiscated upon her arrival and she was forced to work as a domestic worker for a wealthy family in the city for a wage that was far below what had been promised to her by the recruiter. She is now confined to her employers’ home without any freedom of movement, long working hours without proper rest and care, with verbal and emotional mistreatment, and a threat of sexual exploitation.

This is one of the many real-life stories that brought together women and gender diverse migrants, migrant activists, and organisations working on gender and migration around the world at the Feminist Forum on Migration and Displacement  in Bangkok on 30th November and 1st December, 2024. The forum aimed to shape an intersectional feminist migration policy by addressing causes of migration, realities, as well as the challenges faced by women and gender diverse people in migration in all their diversity. During the forum, one of the thematic clusters focused on care work (both paid and unpaid) and temporary labour contracts (including the Kafala system), with the goal of identifying core issues, exploring the power dynamics, and shaping demands for moving forward together.
 

The plight of migrant domestic care workers

Migrant workers from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, and other parts of Asia and beyond travel to Gulf Countries with the hope of better earning and living a decent life. However, most of them end up as victims of exploitation in destination countries, often falling into debt bondage, domestic servitude, forced prostitution, forced labour, forced marriage, and human trafficking.

Domestic work is a highly feminized sector and a sizeable portion of them are women migrants. Many migrant women, mostly driven by poverty, find themselves forced to accept working under violent living conditions that violate their fundamental human rights. They are recruited as domestic care workers under temporary labour contracts like the Kafala system.

Often, domestic work is not regarded as “real work”. It is made invisible by the patriarchal notion of labour and reinforces economic and societal inequalities. The economic system exacerbates these inequalities, often exploiting women’s labour as domestic workers. Women make up 32.4 per cent of domestic workers in the Arab States. The plight of domestic care workers starts with this – the invisibility of their work. Moreover, employers mostly determine the wages based on their subjective assessment of work and workers’ abilities which often leads to unfair compensation. Minimum wage is not guaranteed, although, most of the them are initially promised a good salary package.

The Kafala system and temporary contracts make women domestic workers more vulnerable. The system ties workers to their employers, restricting their mobility and rights. Like in the case of Amaira, their passports are confiscated upon arrival hence eliminating the freedom to transfer jobs, end employment, or enter and exit the host country. Furthermore, since the workers’ employment and residency visas are linked and only employers (or sponsors) can renew or terminate them, the system gives employers –private citizens rather than the state –the control over workers’ legal statuses, creating a power imbalance between the employer and the worker. This power imbalance provides employers space for exploitation, depriving domestic care workers of basic rights like rest days, access to quality and affordable health care, decent working hours, occupational health and safety, and freedom of movement. In addition, since most of the domestic workers are live-in workers, they endure poor living conditions without proper bedding and nutrition. Moreover, the system usually falls under the jurisdiction of interior ministers, rather than labour ministries, depriving domestic workers of any protection under the labour law of the host countries. Hence, they are denied rights to social security, gratuity and retirement fund, the right to organize and unionize, the right to access information in their native language, and also the right to access justice without any discrimination. In addition, domestic workers usually face gender-based discrimination and sexual violence. However, victims usually do not choose to report due to fear of retaliation.

In addition to the temporary contracts, lack of legal protections and enforcement has also been a concern for migrant domestic workers. Undoubtedly, there are some laws and regulations that have been in place in various countries, but domestic workers have often shared that these laws come from an employers’ perspective rather than being representative of workers. Furthermore, existing laws are either insufficient or not enforced. In the case of domestic workers, the sector is excluded from inspections, thereby, allowing exploitative practices to persist. Since domestic workers have limited to no power of unionization, they often struggle to advocate for their rights due these systemic barriers.
 

Gendered nature of migration and its centrality in global realities

Transforming the migration system to ensure decent work and social justice require strong, organized, and informed movements that build power to demand change. For that, it is important to understand the gendered nature of migration and its centrality in global realities and shifting geopolitics.

The migration of women for domestic work is shaped by the gendered expectations and global economic inequalities. Women are often seen as “natural caregivers” reinforcing stereotypes that demand for their labour in private households as invisible work. In addition, shifting geopolitical realities also shape the feminization of migration. As economies in wealthier nations rely on care labour, migration policies increasingly target women from poorer countries, creating a power imbalance between the host and destination countries. This dependency creates a global care chain, where women from developing economies leave their families to care for others’ household, perpetuating inequalities.
 

Feminist efforts on collective action

Given the deeply embedded gender norms that shape migration, a more comprehensive, intersectional approach is necessary to address the systemic abuses migrant domestic workers face. This involves not only strengthening legal protections but also fostering collective action to shift both societal and political structures.

Civil society organisations have been collectively supporting domestic workers in their fight for social protections and freedom of association, including access to justice and the right to form and to join labour unions. Feminist alliances have been pushing for national laws and policies that protect the rights of domestic workers as well as joining calls for countries to ratify and implement the ILO Convention 189 on decent work and domestic workers and ILO Convention 190 on ending violence and harassment in the world of work. In addition, civil society organisations can partner with local law firms and legal aid clinics to provide free or low-cost legal aid services that help workers understand their rights, file complaints, and pursue justice.

Moreover, migrant workers’ organisations in both sending and receiving countries have been and should continue creating transnational solidarity networks that facilitate in sharing information, strategies, and resources to support migrant workers in their struggles. Regional networks and advocacy platforms can amplify voices and advocate for regional conventions and agreements that addresses the plight of domestic workers and outline concrete measures such as the establishment of migrant workers’ help desks and complaint channels, clear legal pathways for workers to change employers without fear of retaliation.

It is also important to bring together migrant workers’ activists, policy makers, and government actors in the same platform to advocate bilateral agreements that focus on protecting migrant workers’ rights, prioritize rights-based frameworks and are representative of the voices of migrant domestic workers.

Further, governments and policy makers should also collaborate with civil society organisations to ensure migrant workers’ rights are protected. On a macro level, rights of domestic workers could be safeguarded with better coordination between embassies, labour departments, and other institutions. It is important to have strong government to government agreements between host countries and destination countries. Additionally, established structures need to be at least gender sensitive and understand the nuances of intersectionality, power, and vulnerabilities. Gender sensitization trainings for diplomatic and government officials can ensure that they fully grasp the complex and layered vulnerabilities of domestic workers.

The struggles of migrant domestic workers are immense. However, collective action, gender just policies, and international cooperation can provide an avenue for meaningful change. While civil society activism is important to ensure migrant workers are not only seen but also protected and empowered, it is equally important that government of both host and destination countries assume more responsibility and accountability for safeguarding migrant workers’ rights and fostering decent work for all.

Read more on the statement from the Feminist Forum on Migration and Displacement here