Gendered Migration Bans on Women Migrant Domestic Workers: A Comparative Analysis of Labour-Sending States in Asia.
Speaker: Sophie Henderson, visiting scholar at the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement
Discussant: Prof. Kyoko Kusakabe, Professor of Gender and Development Studies; conducts gender analysis of labour migration and women in the informal economy
Date: Tuesday 9 June 2020, 1-2pm
Location: Google Meet (contact the Migration Society for the link)
Abstract
Increasing numbers of women in Asia are independently migrating abroad for work, particularly in the domestic work sector. While this offers new economic opportunities, it also exposes them to situations of disadvantage and exploitation. As a knee-jerk response to highly publicised cases of abuse, many labour-sending states in Asia are actively enforcing gendered migration policies that ban women domestic workers from migrating abroad. My research analyses migration bans and restrictive policies on domestic workers in four country case studies: Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nepal and Indonesia, and compares the embedded gender norms and paternalistic politics underlying the bans in each country. I use a model of circular policy making to contend that the four sending governments are continuing to implement migration bans despite knowing their lack of effectiveness in protecting women from abuse. Rather, the discriminatory restrictions heighten the vulnerability of domestic workers to trafficking and violence by pushing prospective workers into irregular pathways fraught with risk. I propose alternative measures to the migration bans on women domestic workers, which address the causes and sources of exploitation without restricting their freedom of movement and right to work.
Biography
Sophie has recently completed her PhD in International Migration Law at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, where she worked as a doctoral fellow and lecturer in Criminal Law. She was awarded both her Bachelors of Laws LL.B and Masters of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice LL.M from the University of Leeds. Her doctoral research examines the legal protection of women migrant domestic workers from the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Sophie’s main research interests include international labour migration with a focus on labour-sending states in Asia, gendered migration policies and the human and labour rights of women migrant workers.