"Do you have a boyfriend here?”: Exploring the Impact of Stereotypes and Prejudices in Decision-Making on Access to Justice for Migrant Women
Over the past two decades, GAATW has consistently explored issues related to access to justice for migrant and trafficked women who have struggled with judicial processes due to discriminatory practices that prevent them from claiming their rights. This new report highlights the stereotypes and prejudices of decision-makers that continue to affect the ability of migrant women to access justice.
Drawing on insights from a range of previous work including consultations with women migrant workers across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, this report explores the subjectivity of decision-makers — from officials to non-traditional spokespersons. The key findings highlight that stereotypes related to migrant women’s backgrounds, work, and personal choices directly impact their access to justice.
Migration, Human Trafficking and Organised Crime in the Americas: A gender perspective
The Latin American and Caribbean Network (REDLAC) of the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women is made up of 14 civil society organisations operating from nine countries in the region. Its areas of work include prevention and direct assistance to victims of trafficking, addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, defending the human rights of migrant women and sex workers, and the labour rights of workers in different sectors. As a whole, REDLAC carries out information campaigns and participates in political advocacy actions at the national and regional levels.
The current socio-political context in which organisations operate is highly complex and multifaceted, characterised by institutional crises, social inequalities and the growing influence of organised crime – all of which have a direct impact on the lives of millions of people. The region continues to face structural challenges, such as corruption, violence and economic instability, exacerbating social vulnerabilities in countries such as Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. With frequent changes of government, these countries have faced acute political instability that has eroded democratic institutions and led to a decline in human rights and civil liberties.
Heroes, Victims, or Slaves? Workers! Strengthening migrant and trafficked women’s rights to inclusive re/integration in Southeast Asia and Europe
In the past two decades, the migration and trafficking of women from Southeast Asia to Europe has received relatively little attention from donors, policymakers, and NGOs, compared to other migration routes. Yet Southeast Asian women continue going to Europe for work or marriage. What is their journey? Do they settle in Europe and how do they live there? Do they return to their home countries and how do they resume the life they had left behind? How do communities, societies, and governments view migrant and trafficked women?
Our new report explores these questions not only to find their answers but also to challenge what we know and how we think about women, migration, labour, and trafficking today. It describes the main challenges that migrant and trafficked women from Southeast Asia face in their socioeconomic inclusion (or re/integration) in Europe and upon return to their country of origin. It highlights examples of government and NGO programmes to support women’s socioeconomic inclusion or re/integration, as well as the women’s own understanding of the meaning of these words. It concludes with a number of broad recommendations to governments in countries of origin and destination to ensure that women’s migration benefits not only governments, businesses, and brokers, but, most of all, the women themselves.
Building Communities of Resistance: Reflections from grassroots organisations around the world
This report is the result of a collective effort to pause, look inwards, and reflect on the process of transformative change. It collates a series of insights, challenges, and lessons learnt by and with ten grassroots organisations from Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. These organisations work closely with different communities – refugees, LGBTIQ+ people, farmers, domestic workers, girls, and adolescents – and engage in movement-building work.
The report summarises their approaches to co-creating knowledge with communities and their principles and strategies of storytelling, meaningful participation and active listening, and building the collective power of communities and movements. It highlights our shared commitment to support marginalised groups towards realising their change agendas in a participatory, equitable, and democratic manner.
‘I spent many days on the road but I made it here’: Socioeconomic inclusion of migrant and trafficked women in South America
This report highlights how migrant women's experiences of social inclusion and access to the labour market are shaped by their gender, ethnicity, and migration status.
After difficult migration journeys, including spending days on the road, sleeping on the streets, going without food, facing racist or xenophobic behaviours, and fear of sexual attacks, many women found themselves employed in occupations that were below their skill levels and therefore turned to employment in the informal economy which was often gendered work in the domestic, care and cleaning sectors. In these working conditions, women were often subjected to limited or no access to social protections and labour rights, abuse, exploitation, and mistreatment.
Furthermore, women were still expected to perform responsibilities of unpaid care work of care giving and household work for their families in addition to being breadwinners which can affect their physical, mental, and emotional health and cause “time poverty” where the very idea of free time does not exist. Oftentimes, even if women were given the opportunity to access government social programmes there were often barriers such as complex paperwork and procedures, lack of information about them among migrants, language barriers, and racist attitudes.
‘Of Course People Will Hire the White Person’: Social and economic inclusion of migrant women in Vancouver, Canada
This report presents the findings of a research into the experiences of migrant women in Vancouver, Canada, with accessing the labour market and integrating into Canadian society. Women shared that their limited ability to speak English and the fact that their education and work experience from their home countries were not recognised in Canada were major obstacles to finding good employment. Several also shared experiences of racism or discrimination, including for seemingly minor reasons such as being unaccustomed to having small talk with customers. All this meant that migrant women often could rely only on their co-nationals for work, accommodation, and socialisation, which increased the risks of being subjected to exploitative working conditions. Overall, however, women tended to perceive Canadian society as just and fair and blame themselves for any difficult situations they faced.
The research was conducted in 2020-2021 by GAATW member SWAN, a community organisation for im/migrant sex workers in Vancouver. It involved thirty women from China, Chinese Taipei (the island of Taiwan), Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, India, and Iran.
Read the report here.
Sustainable Reintegration – What Do Women Migrant Workers in the South Asia-Middle East Corridor Say?
The aim of this report is to highlight the challenges that women migrant workers from South Asia who returned from the Middle East experience when trying to resume their lives upon return. It highlights gaps in the implementation of policies and programmes for sustainable reintegration of migrants. It identifies opportunities for improvement based on migrant women’s own desires and ambitions, as well as the work of civil society organisations working with them.
The report is based on research conducted between July 2020 and March 2021 with 486 returnee migrant women from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Most had worked as domestic workers in Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon for between several months and several decades. The research employed participatory methods and explored women’s experiences with return, work and income upon return, access to government programmes, and relationships within the family and community.
Read the report here.
Read Policy Briefing: Women migrant workers are building our countries’ futures
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Empowering domestic workers by unpacking the forces that disempower their everyday life
Critical literacy is fundamental in the fight for social justice. In mapping the education tools available for women in low wage and informal work, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, Asia Floor Wage Alliance, and International Domestic Workers Federation identified a gap in linking women’s work at home and in the workplace with the larger (and rising) global inequities. While there are many trainings on collective bargaining, worker organising, and gender-based violence in the workplace, women’s struggles for labour rights require deeper exploration. There is a need to ask how capitalism and patriarchy control women’s bodies and agency throughout their lifetime. There is a need to connect the socioeconomic invisibility of women’s work to the bigger goal of securing rights for ALL workers.
Narrative for Domestic Workers (written and developed by Self Employed Women's Association, India) and Buku Pegangan Pendidikan Politik Pekerja Rumah Tangga (written and developed by JALA PRT, Indonesia) aim to contribute to the political education of women domestic workers from India and Indonesia. The country-specific training tools are designed to be taken up by the women’s groups one at a time, with emphasis on learning through discussions and reflection. The handbooks tackle a range of obstacles to women’s advancement and participation in public life: gendered division of labour; reproductive labour and unpaid care work; domestic violence; discrimination on the basis of gender, class, caste, and ethnicity; and exploitation.