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ETUC14 April 2005

Domestic Work and (Irregular) Migration

Bridget Anderson

Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)Oxford University

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PREFACE:Irregular Immigration vs Irregular

Employment• Irregular immigration:

– Exploitation of migrants– Criminal activity (contravention of immigration controls)– Combination of both (trafficking)

• Problems:– Limited focus on employers/consumers/agencies– Lack of attention to economic/social considerations and

labour markets– Tendency to focus on immigration laws and practise as sole

solutions– Diversion from common ground with indigenous informal/low

wage labour forceNB importance therefore of linking issues with gendered

division of labour and gendered employment patterns and relations

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Domestic Work and Immigration: Policy Conundrum

Migration policies economically driven. • But how to measure demand and value of domestic

services?– Freeing up of indigenous labour– Demographic and reproductive requirements

• The relation between the economic and the social, and in particular the social nature of labour markets– Care of the elderly– Cleaning, ironing

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UK Five Year Strategy for Asylum and Immigration

“the UK needs migration for economic reasons. There are gaps in our labour market that cannot be filled by the domestic workforce”

Controlling Our Borders: Making migration work for Britain

• Focus on “Skilled” labour • Overseas domestic workers and au pairs Tier 4:

“This tier is for categories that raise no labour market issues”

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Domestic Work and Employment: Policy Conundrum

Paid domestic work may be• Specifically excluded from employment legislation;• Omitted from employment legislation;• Subject to discriminatory provision

Problems of• Definition• Regulation• Implementation

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Social Care and the Rise of Independent Budgets

• State responses to: ageing population, increase in numbers of elderly people living alone, empowerment of elderly and disabled people = personal care budgets

• Rise in unregulated market for care and demand for labour

• No training as employers• No proper immigration system.

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Private Homes: Theoretical Considerations

Public/private divide (culturally specific)Elides

a) home as refuge from marketb) home as refuge from state

Imagines the home as governed by “natural” relations

State and public bodies have limited access to the homes of people of a certain class

Sexism of the private explored – but less attention paid so far to racism

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Racism and Hierarchies of Employment

“It’s very risky to say this…I think that white people look cleaner, maybe it’s silly to say that just because they are black, it doesn’t mean they are dirty, but it seems to me that in many ways they are more untidy. Dark people, right, not just black people, dark people are not so clean, not so careful with things and it makes me feel if I had a chance to employ white people or dark skin, I will employ white people, and I trust them more as well”

48 year old former PA now housewife

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Agencies and Racial stereotypes

• “When I interview, I smell (sniffs). I smell them as well. Don’t worry. It’s the Indians and the ones from Nepal that smell because of their spicy food … So when I interview I do it like that, and sniff, sniff, sniff. Employers like that. It’s a highly personalised service.”

• Albanians and Rumanians don’t have the same standards of behaviour as the rest of us. They behave strangely. They seem to be hiding something. The Indians…..I hope I’m not being racist but they have a different culture.

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Immigration and domestic work: practicalities

• Range of legal possibilities for entering as a domestic worker in different European states

• Systems where domestic workers are not constructed as “workers” but in practise may be performing the same tasks as migrant domestic workers above (and living in). UK examples:– Au pair visas– Working holidaymaker visas– Volunteer visas

• Emphasis on the familial/emotional relations and the “not work” status of domestic work. Not tied to the employer.

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“Spectrum of irregularity”

• No straightforward division between “regular” and “irregular” migrants– Residency and employment (e.g. spouses, asylum

seekers)– Types of work (work permit holders)– Hours of work (students)– Payment for work (au pairs)

• Slippage from regularity to irregularity rather than transition

• But there are many straightforwardly irregular migrants in the sector

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Advantages to migrants of working in private households

• Accessibility– Word of mouth and informal networks

• “Home” as refuge– From state and authorities – From individuals and groups

• “Home” as accommodation (live-in only)– Crucial importance of accommodation to understanding demand and supply of

migrant labour in many sectors.

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Why Do You Employ a Migrant?

Reason % Respondents

They are prepared to work more flexible hours 54

They are more hardworking than citizens 67

They are more willing and co-operative 56

They cost less than citizens 46

They need the opportunity 54

They have greater incentives to work 46

They are more suited to domestic work 46

They are the only ones available 31

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The Management of Live-In Workers

Complex and difficult relationship. Many employers commented that, for a range of reasons, this is much easier to manage if the worker is a “foreigner”.

You can keep yourself to yourself. If somebody is from the same background as you… it’s difficult having somebody working for you…sounding racist isn’t it…it’s difficult having someone working for you from the same race because we have this idea of social class in our minds don’t we. And that would be uncomfortable in your house. Whereas when it’s somebody from you know… a different country, you don’t have all that baggage that goes with it you know it’s just …. There’s none of that middle-class, working-class, upper-class thing …laughs… it’s nothing you know it’s just a different race.

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Prima Facie Coincidence of Interests Between Migrants and Employers

• Avoidance of state control• Cash and informality• Flexibility vs accommodation• Overlapping networks

A win-win situation? Stats and Stories

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EXPERIENCES OF 755 WORKERSKalayaan statistics

Psychological abuse (threats, name calling, shouting, insults) 88Physical abuse (hitting, spitting, beating, kicking) 38Sexual assault or rape (including attempted or threatened) 11No regular food (left-overs or otherwise regularly denied food) 61No bedroom (forced to sleep in hallway, kitchen, bathroom) 51No bed 43Denied free movement (forced to stay in house, or allowed out only if

accompanied) 34Passport withheld (and not obtainable on departure from employment)

63Not paid regularly and/or paid less than agreed in contract 82Denial of time off from duties 91Average number of hours worked in a day 17.2

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Stories

• “They’re foreign, illegal and very, very small. They’re absolutely terrified”.

• “And if they are going to come over here, they know the score. I mean I’m not saying it’s right that they should be exploited, but you know, I think they would know what they would be letting themselves in for”

• “they have a greater incentive to work because they desperately need the money…she’s dependent for money, so I think it’s a circle that works well so that I can keep her”

• “when they’re poor it’s better because they need to work… it’s flexible hours and they need the money and it’s cash in hand”

• “the whole idea of getting a migrant worker is that you’re not getting into paid maternity leave and that stuff”

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Power in the Private Household

• Imagined as space of moral and reciprocal relations, unsullied by the self-interest of the market

• Imagined as a space that must be protected from intrusion by the state

Impact on (live-in) domestic workers• Power over persons – not captured

adequately in employment relation• Power unacknowledged• Power not regulated

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Impact on Migrant Domestic Workers

• Hyper-dependence on employers– For accommodation– For possibility/right to stay– For “protection”– For enforcement of rights– For social interaction and relations

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Points to bear in mind

• Many organisers, parliamentarians and supporters are employers of migrant domestic workers – the importance of transparency

• Internationalism – hierarchies of employment may enable certain nationalities to organise more easily than others

• Male migrants work as domestic workers too• Respect and recognition for self-organised

groups.

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Centre on Migration, Policy and Society

University of Oxford58 Banbury RoadOxfordOX2 6QS