Statement by Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women on International Women’s Day 2022
GAATW stands in solidarity with all women workers – paid and unpaid, local and migrant. We salute their courage to organise, form collectives, and support each other in this difficult time. We are inspired by their creative and innovative organising strategies.
We also applaud the steps taken by some states to provide migrants, including undocumented migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, with various forms of emergency support. Initiatives to extend visa and work permits and to create firewalls between access to services and immigration authorities are stepping stones to creating inclusive societies. More recently, we have been touched by the generosity of neighbouring countries towards people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
In Agenda 2030, states made commitments to promote the socioeconomic and political inclusion of all, ensure decent work, and end violence against women, among others. As signatories to the Global Compact on Migration, states have also agreed to ensure empowerment and inclusion of migrants and work towards social cohesion. Yet, the exclusion and othering that we have seen in the last two years and, most recently, towards non-Europeans fleeing Ukraine, tell us that reality is very different. Sadly, our states and we as people have many excuses to justify exclusion and rejection of our fellow human beings. Gender, race, class, caste, religion, and ethnicity are invoked in different contexts, both within countries and across borders, to justify exclusion.
Our recent research in Southeast and South Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America shows that migrant and trafficked women continue to face violence, exclusion, and poor working conditions in destination countries as well as upon return.
In destination countries, migrant women reported racism and discrimination based on their nationality, ethnicity, or race, which meant that they were offered only work in ‘3D’ jobs (dirty, dangerous, and difficult). Chinese and Latin American women in Canada, and Bolivian women in Brazil reported being denied customer service jobs, such as bartenders or shop assistants, because of their appearance. South Asian women in the Middle East reported hearing racial slurs at work. Thai and Vietnamese women in Europe are denied access to class mobility, and even the second generations remain stuck by a glass ceiling.
Many women told us they took up jobs that were below their education and experience because their qualifications were not recognised in the destination countries. Despite having university degrees and years of experience in professional settings, Chinese women in Canada and Venezuelan women in Brazil and Peru had to accept jobs on construction sites and farms, or as domestic workers.
Language was another barrier preventing migrant women from obtaining decent jobs, including jobs that match their qualifications, and participating in the social life of their new countries. Filipina women in Germany and France, and Chinese women in Canada reported difficulties with finding jobs, negotiating working conditions with employers, or knowing where to complain in case of problems at work. Even when women had taken state-provided language classes, these were not sufficient for meaningful inclusion and participation in society. In many cases, migrant women relied only on other migrants from their home countries for work, housing, and socialisation.
All this contributed to situations where migrant women were subjected to various exploitative conditions, including working without contracts, being underpaid or not paid at all, not receiving social security contributions, being dismissed without a cause, or being given tasks that they had not agreed to. One undocumented woman in the UK said she felt forced to continue working despite the risk of COVID infection.
Upon return to their home countries, women often found the same dire socioeconomic situation that had prompted their migration in the first place. In Bangladesh, Colombia, India, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam, returnee migrant women told us that they were struggling to find work that would enable them to support themselves and their families. Those who could not remit money during their migration (for various reasons, including because they were trafficked) were blamed for their ‘failed migration’ and for the loans their family had taken to finance their work abroad.
Women in South Asia, in particular, often spoke about the stigma they felt from their family and community. Many were seen as ‘bad women’ for having left their families to work in another country - despite the fact that they had migrated precisely for their families’ wellbeing. Some were suspected of having engaged in ‘immoral work’, which caused tensions in the marriage. Single women felt that they had fewer marriage prospects.
Many of the women who returned during the COVID-19 pandemic, usually because their contracts were terminated, had not received any support from their embassy or government. They had to cover their own flight tickets, COVID tests, and quarantine upon return, which depleted their savings and worsened their financial precarity.
While some governments, notably in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Philippines, have various programmes and loan schemes to support migrants' reintegration, many women did not know about these programmes, found them burdensome to access, or did not feel they meet their needs.
In both destination and origin countries, women bear disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work such as cooking, cleaning, and care for the children and elderly. They shared that they have little time for rest, professional development, or participation in community activities or support groups.
Given these challenges, GAATW makes the following recommendations to states to promote the social and economic inclusion of women migrant workers in destination countries and upon return:
- Invest in the creation of jobs that pay a living wage
- Promote the self-organisation and unionisation of all workers, including migrants. Denounce and combat union-busting
- Promote a positive image of migrants and combat xenophobia, racism, and stigma so that migrants can work and live free of discrimination and fear of exclusion
- Recognise migrants’ diplomas, certificates, and other qualifications from their origin countries. Recognise and make use of migrants’ skills obtained in destination countries.
- Provide free and long-term language courses for migrants
- Introduce programmes for the sustainable reintegration of returnee migrants. Where such programmes exist, ensure that they correspond to returnees’ needs and are accessible to all, including those who migrated irregularly
- Promote the valuation, reduction, and redistribution of unpaid care work
- Support newly arriving or newly returning migrants with practicalities as they settle, such as creche, vouchers, tickets for public transport, etc.
If the ongoing pandemic teaches us one thing, it is that we must not try to build back on the edifice of discrimination and exclusion. Let the unifying messages of millions of women workers across the world inspire and guide us to realise a new social contract.