#migrant domestic workers

[rapeculturerealities]

Revealed: allegations of abuse and captivity without pay at UAE’s lucrative recruitment agencies | Women's rights and gender equality | The Guardian

Abuse within the UAE’s kafala system, which ties low-paid migrant workers’ legal status to their employers, has been well-documented. Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to abuse within their employers’ home, and those who do leave without their employers’ permission face criminal charges for “absconding”, punishable by fines, arrest, detention and deportation. Less well known are the conditions within the recruitment centres where women are kept, sometimes for months, until an employer is found.

[menalez]

can you say whether or not having those moral lessons from the quran lax the antigay stuff ofc could be applied to your everyday life?

or do you find having the knowledge from within it to be a burden of sorts?

erm honestly a lot are just like.. common sense? like oh murder is bad. respect ur parents. don’t steal. don’t lie, unless ur life is at risk then it’s ok to lie. u can fight back to defend urself. don’t eat where u shit. wash urself. don’t waste food. be generous to people. treat animals well. dont torture and harm animals that u will eventually eat. don’t harm the earth. don’t force religion on people. harming ur body via drugs like nicotine isnt ok. that kinda stuff i find relatively reasonable. but islam in general has a lot of contradictory ideas and misogynistic ideas too, we were even taught antisemitic stuff in islamic studies. so while ofc it isn’t all bad and there’s stuff of value in there, which i believe is probably the case for every religion really, the bad stuff rly overshadows it for me, and unfortunately a lot of muslims don’t even follow most of those rules i listed.

[srother]

Chapter out now: "Multi-Level #Migrant Civil Society Activism in Southeast Asia" - Full handbook open access

The “Routledge Handbook of Civil and Uncivil Society” in #SoutheastAsia has just been published. These handbooks usually provide a very comprehensive overview of the field – but on the downside tend to be very pricey (175 pounds for the printed version in this case). Therefore it is great, that the whole book can be downloaded for free, including my article on “Multi-Level Migrant Civil Society…

[reportwire]

India on track for record $100 billion in remittances, says World Bank | CNN Business

India on track for record $100 billion in remittances, says World Bank | CNN Business

New Delhi CNN Business  —  The extensive Indian diaspora will help the South Asian country reach a special milestone this year. Asia’s third largest economy is on track to receive more than $100 billion in yearly remittances in 2022, according to a World Bank report published Wednesday. This will be the first time a country will reach that milestone figure, it said. Remittances, or money…

[migrantsday]

Crossing Boundaries: Protecting the Rights of Migrant Women Domestic Workers.

DPI-NGO briefing: "Crossing Boundaries: Protecting the Rights of Migrant Women Domestic Workers" (in observance of International Migrants Day 2010)

[slaveryabolitionday]

Eradicate forced labour!

Alongside traditional forms of forced labour, such as bonded labour and debt bondage there now exist more contemporary forms of forced labour, such as migrant workers, who have been trafficked for economic exploitation of every kind in the world economy: work in domestic servitude, the construction industry, the food and garment industry, the agricultural sector and in forced prostitution.

[handweavers]

this shit makes me so angry because i deal with assholes like this all the time in ASIA where i live as an ASIAN (not a US AMERICAN!!) who treat their maids and domestic workers like absolute garbage, the amount of abuse that happens is insane and you think you're somehow exempt from fucked up class relations and being clueless about how poor people in your own country are treated because you're not a Yankee? are you seriously stupid? i despise people like you more than anything, people who should know better and don't because you have Zero class awareness and you think that you know everything simply due to your nationality when you know damn well you are not treated the same as others in your own country let alone elsewhere in the world due to your economic status.

I've seen Indian women Related to me abuse their Indonesian maids in Malaysia as though it was their God given right and lost my shit at them, reported them to local orgs that help abused maids find safer work, told everyone what I saw, cut them out of my life, made clear to them that they are absolute scum of the earth and that the only thing separating them from their maid is the Money they have. You are probably no better than those women, treating human beings like property and thinking yourself the most oppressed person alive simply because you're from the global majority and that any critique of your Lifestyle is simply because the person Doesn't Get It because they're American. "This is US centric I am an expat when I am a Malaysian and live in Dubai" I'm from your country and I know exactly the context of this Lifestyle and I am telling you that you are a cunt. Your Class status shields you from the greatest harm the global south faces, you will never face the danger those labelled "migrant workers" face but you parade yourself online like you are the expert because you hold an Asian passport and you have travelled everywhere. all that money and no brain or compassion and a biggest victim complex. and you will continue to play victim because the westerners are watching but i see you and I know your heart is rotten. fuck all of you for real

[gatheringbones]

[“Though Seattle has its own ugly history of redlining, which deserves far more attention than it currently receives, the process of segregation started much earlier, with the founding of the city itself in the mid-nineteenth century, and did not involve the federal government. At that time, white settlers removed the Duwamish people and segregated them in the southern fringes of the city, eager to take their lands but also to make them available as workers. Settlers even blocked efforts by the federal government to create a reservation for the Duwamish on their ancestral homelands because it would interfere with the city’s access to a steady labor supply. Seattle did not have reliable land-based transportation until the late nineteenth century, and even then water remained a primary mode of transportation, making the Duwamish and other Coast Salish peoples a valuable source of labor.

Marked as a disorderly slum, the south end became a container for all of the city’s racialized and marginalized populations, which, in turn, served to further mark them as undesirable and unworthy for inclusion into urban society. This included Asian migrants, who were also restricted south of Yesler Way, and single male laborers, whose deviation from normative family life also made them racially suspect in the eyes of the settler elites. Seattle’s urban landscape developed around this north-south orientation, with the north as a “residence district” for white families and the south as a stigmatized slum district for the city’s heterogeneous workforce.

This example reveals the colonial roots of racial segregation, as well as the function of racial segregation in forming the urban and regional economy. The south end was not a stable district with a racially defined population, but one that constantly changed according to the needs of the broader economy and the kinds of workers available at that particular moment. In this way, Seattle shares historical commonalities with Vancouver, Melbourne, and other cities across the Anglophone Pacific world that developed in the mid-nineteenth century around resource-based economies reliant upon Indigenous lands and the mass influx of Asian and European labor. In these contexts, segregation occurred as part of a colonial project to remove the Indigenous inhabitants and establish the city as a pure space of white domestic life.

As Asian and European migrants, many of them single men, arrived to work in extractive economies, spaces such as reserves and slums served to contain Indigenous and racially mixed populations and mark them as unruly, troublesome, and antithetical to modern urban life. As sociologist Renisa Mawani has discussed in the case of Vancouver, settlers relied upon a racially mixed workforce to build the economy but also feared the possibility of the interracial solidarities and alliances this mixing could generate. She calls this the “deep paradox” of a colonial society rooted in both capitalist accumulation and racial purity. In Seattle, the north-south spatial orientation served to smooth over this tension between, on one hand, racial heterogeneity as demanded by capitalist accumulation and the ever-expanding search for labor and, on the other, racial purity as envisioned by white settlers. It allowed settlers to maintain an exclusionary white district while also accommodating an Indigenous and racially mixed labor force.”]

megan asaka, from seattle from the margins: exclusion, erasure, and the making of a pacific coast city, 2022

[phoenixyfriend]

I've only recently become something that could be considered an actual political blogger, but I've been talking econ for a while and I think this video is a good, fairly quick breakdown of the economic impact on Israel:

They touch on:

Shrinking workforce due to calling up reservists

Shrinking construction sector as that workforce is largely West Bank Palestinians who commute into Israel for work

Attempting to shore up the construction sector with migrant workers from India

The impact of adjusted investment credit ratings and debt outlooks from Moody's

Domestic POVs on the economy and right wing government

International impact on the tourism industry and diamond trade

I think a lot of people underestimate or don't quite understand all the various factors that go into 'pressuring Israel' in this situation, and it's sometimes hard to explain how things like BDS work, or why economic aid from the US that is earmarked for Non-Military but doesn't come with consequences for military actions would still be a bad idea: they could just move the budget around.

I'm not sure exactly how this might help people with arguing to their representatives or protesting, but I still believe it's important to be aware of the macroeconomics of a war. Knowing the direct impacts like death and destruction in Gaza is important on a humanitarian level, but knowing the indirect impacts on the economy helps with figuring out how to enforce a change.

[nenelonomh]

human resource management pt.2

i've begun posting my notes in tumblr post format to revise for my exam tomorrow (this was written on 27-05-24, i'm probably going to schedule though to avoid spamming). here's the second hrm topics post!

part 1 | part 3 | part 4

in the last post, we looked at demographic change, employee welfare, and flexi-time. this time we will focus on the gig economy and immigration.

the gig economy is characterised by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. for example, freelance, delivery drivers, taxi services, contract services, and other flexible work opportunities. a huge example of this is uber - which is an app that offers various 'rides' to assist people to reach their destinations.

businesses can use gig workers by hiring them as independent contractors, in the place of full-time employees. this is a cheaper alternative for the business, as it saves on employee benefits and rids the need for training employees.

however, gig work limits workers' potential for career development, lacks job security and secure income, and the worker misses out on employee benefits.

compliance with labour laws and regulations can be complex when managing gig workers. companies must understand legal requirements and adapt their hrm policies to address gig workforce management.

immigration refers to the action of moving to live in a different location with intentions to stay in the area. this is not the same as labour mobility, since immigration is the movement of people for non-work-related reasons.

one advantage of immigration on businesses includes the filling of job positions that domestic workers cannot be placed in. also, the company may benefit from new points of view - and gain a niche marketing opportunity.

negatives of this topic are that migrant workers may be unfamiliar with federal laws and regulations, and the workers may be more unproductive than the local employees. therefore, a business may need to invest more time into the foreign employee.

///

again, hope this post was fun to read! it's definitely more fun to post than read over my notes.

❤️ nene

image source: pinterest

[dailyanarchistposts]

If we stop, the world stops

Millions of women around the world participated in events for International Women’s Day (IWD) on March the 8th. The most militant action was in the growth of the ‘Women’s Strike’, with 5.3 million people on strike in Spain. In Britain, the interest in the tactics of the strike on IWD is relatively new, yet still 7,000 women pledged to strike. In addition, links were made to grass roots unions such as the Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union (CAIUW) with support for their pickets for a Living Wage. Sex workers also co-ordinated their own actions for decriminalisation and trans women held an action over the problems of access to NHS services.

The organisers in Britain made it clear that the strike should focus on demands for working class women, including those who often face the most exploitation and discrimination, like migrants, sex workers, trans women. It is not just a strike about traditional work but also about ‘invisible labour’, such as care, domestic and emotional labour, and against male violence. The historical origins of the day make it clear that the purpose is not to have more women politicians or company directors (see box). Instead it is focused on the majority of women who are at the bottom of the pile, both in the workplace and in the home. According to one organiser of the Women’s Strike in Britain: “We are instead taking action – action against our exploitation under capitalism, where the domestic and emotional work we do for little or no pay is made invisible, while austerity measures force us into a more and more vulnerable position. This is feminism for the 99%”.

It was in Spain, however, that the strike was the most successful. This was partially because of the support it got from the mainstream unions. However, it is clear that they were forced into support as a result of the massive upsurge from the grass roots organisations. According to one source (thefreeonline.wordpress.com): “An important feature of this strike is that it has been promoted and organised from the bottom up, and not the other way around. That is to say, the initiative of the strike has been born first in the streets, in the neighbourhoods and districts and has developed in open assemblies. It has not been a proposal of the unions, but of the feminist movement.” The mainstream unions only called for a 2 hour strike whereas unions such as the CGT and the anarchist CNT called for 24 hour stoppages.

Despite calls for the strike to be based on working class women, it is uncertain to what extent many women could actually participate, given that they are the ones in the most precarious position. In Spain, headlines were given to women in media and other professional jobs. In Britain, the strike was most successful in the universities, with 61 universities taking part. However, the link to CAIWU and sex workers showed that there certainly was support outside the universities.

If women are to truly win all the demands put forward on the day then we must go beyond demands for equality in the system and call for both the end of capitalism and patriarchy. So how is this going to happen? The strike in Spain may have been very successful in terms of numbers on the streets but what will it achieve in terms of winning demands? Politicians and even bosses may pay lip service to the aims of IWD but they are unlikely to do anything about it. In the end, using the success of March the 8th, women and men must continue to organise at the grass roots level and build up a movement that lasts much longer than a day. The linking up of a number of groups on the 8th provides a good basis on which to move forward.

Origins of International Women’s Day

March 8 is International Women’s Day. This date commemorates March 8, 1909, when 129 employees of a cotton textile factory in New York were killed when their own owner set fire to the factory while all of them were inside making a protest demanding labour rights. In addition, the colour of feminism is violet because, it is said, the smoke that came from that fire was violet, like the fabrics that were there that day. At an International Congress of Socialist Women in 1910, Clara Zetkin proposed this date as the International Women’s Day in honour of the cotton workers.

[humanrightsupdates]

Bangladeshi Protesters in Maldives Face Arrest, Deportation

Government Should Respect Migrant Workers’ Right to Peaceful Protest

Maldivian authorities say they plan to arrest and deport Bangladeshi nationals involved in organizing a peaceful protest in the southern atoll of G.Dh. Thinadhoo.

The July 25 protest was held, like many others across the region, after a recent crackdown by security forces on student protests in Bangladesh, with more than 200 people killed and thousands injured in the clashes that followed.

Minister of Homeland Security and Technology Ali Ihusaan accused the protesters of breaching a visa condition prohibiting migrants from engaging in any “political activities.” This condition violates the right to peaceful assembly under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Maldives is a party. The Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that provides authoritative interpretations of the covenant, has stated: “Everyone has the right of peaceful assembly: citizens and non-citizens alike,” including foreign nationals, documented and undocumented migrants, and asylum seekers.

Rights groups have called on the Maldives’ government to revoke the decision to arrest and deport Bangladeshi nationals involved in the protest and “uphold constitutional and international human rights conventions.”

The Maldives has the highest proportion of foreign migrant laborers in South Asia, primarily from Bangladesh and India, including tens of thousands of undocumented migrants. Migrant workers in the Maldives face a range of entrenched abuses from employers, including deceptive recruitment practices, wage theft, passport confiscation, unsafe living and working conditions, and excessive work demands, which may amount to forced labor and violate domestic and international law.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Responsibility for public health was now understood to be a task for government, not just for working-class women who – until then – had been the only ones concerned with the cleanliness of slum houses, the only ones asking for clean water and working drains.

One such working-class woman was Kitty Wilkinson, an Irish migrant in Liverpool who had been a cotton mill worker and a domestic servant. She opened up her laundry business to her poor neighbours for a penny a week, allowing them to use her boiler and bleach to disinfect their clothes during the 1832 cholera epidemic. She became known as the 'saint of the slums' and campaigned for public bathhouses for the poor.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[newhistorybooks]

"Focusing on a range of marginalised groups, including the poor, migrants, ethnic minorities, indentured workers and women, the contributors to this book explore what it was like to live at the boundaries of social acceptability, what mechanisms were involved in policing the divide between "mainstream" and "marginal", and what opportunities existed for personal or collective fulfilment. The result is a fresh perspective on early modern Scotland, one that not only recovers the stories of people long excluded from historical discussion, but also offers a deeper understanding of the ordering assumptions of society more generally. Specific topics addressed range from the marginalisation of people with disabilities in the domestic sphere to female sex workers, and the place of executioners in society."