Seeking a new paradigm, cooperation for female migrants<\/p>\n
More than half of some 20 million Asian migrant workers are
\nwomen. The Jakarta Post's Kanis Dursin interviewed
\nJean D' Cunha, Regional Program Manager\/Technical Advisor of the
\nUnited Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), during a
\nregional conference on women's migrant worker protection in
\nJakarta recently. The following are the highlights of that
\ninterview:<\/p>\n
Question: What are the common problems faced by Asia's women
\nmigrant workers?<\/p>\n
Answer: At the recruitment stage, women always have less
\nassets to migrate. So, they have to borrow, resulting in debt
\nbondage. They also have less access to information on migration
\nrealities and procedures. In training centers, women are
\nconfined, locked up, and abused sexually and physically. At the
\ncountry of employment, there is a kind of racist, prejudicial
\nattitude against women migrant workers. Women are seen as
\nsexually available and morally depraved. On return, in some
\ncountries they stigmatize women returnees because they feel as if
\nthey have \"gone out\", that means they have been morally tainted
\nin some way or another.
\nSome of the problems arise because of the absence of bilateral
\nagreements between countries of origin and employment. What
\nshould be done?<\/p>\n
One important strategy could be to draw on those receiving
\ncountries that have a range of good practices such as Jordan,
\nHong Kong and the like to share these good practices ... so that
\nthese can be replicated in other receiving countries. Then
\nsustained dialog and pressure has to be put by the international
\ncommunity and sending countries on destination countries to
\nimprove their rights record.
\nWould banning migration of female workers be an option?<\/p>\n
Restrictions or bans by certain countries have been placed to
\nprotect migrant workers from trafficking and other rights
\nviolations. But what the evidence is showing is that it is
\nincreasing the vulnerability to trafficking because women who
\nneed to migrate for survival will use dangerous options and
\navenues to move anyway.<\/p>\n
Secondly, it is definitely a discriminatory measure. It
\nindicates disproportionate discrimination against women. Thirdly,
\nit construes women as dependent, as weak and it violates the
\nrights to mobility. And fourthly, it doesn't build women's
\ncapacity to deal with potential exploitation to pre-departure
\ntrainings and seminars and the like. In all senses, it is
\ndisempowering for women.
\nWhat is then the best solution?<\/p>\n
We need to provide them with protective provisions such as
\naccess to information on migration realities, the costs and
\nbenefits of migration. We need to provide them with information
\nand access to economic resources so that they need not migrate.<\/p>\n
If they are migrating anyway, we need to have pre-departure
\norientation training for them with the whole focus on protection
\nand how they can best protect themselves and how they can avail
\nof and invoke entitlements and rights as well as knowledge of the
\nculture of the countries. We need to link them up with NGOs and
\ndiplomatic missions in the host countries so they can have access
\nto assistance.<\/p>\n
Migrant worker issues are no longer a bilateral problem but a
\nregional issue that requires multilateral responses. What sort of
\nmultilateral responses would be appropriate?<\/p>\n
Countries of origin would have greater power if they bonded
\ntogether and came out with some common minimum standards of
\ntreatment for migrant workers, contracts, welfare provisions for
\nmigrant workers rather than negotiating individually and
\nindependently; because they will be beaten down and they should
\nhave some kind of cooperation and not beat down one another for
\nthe market share. We need to promote and sustain dialog between
\ncountries of origin and countries of destination to protect
\nmigrant workers.
\nHow do you assess the responses of governments to the rights of
\nwomen migrant workers?<\/p>\n
It's a very mixed and varied picture. Very slowly, migration
\nis emerging as a concern on the development agenda and you have
\ngovernments of countries of origin which have come out with
\nextremely supportive policies and programs.<\/p>\n
There is always a gap between the policy and the
\nimplementation of the policy. But at least there is political
\nwillingness to introduce these policies.<\/p>\n
In countries of destination also, we do have examples of
\ncountries which are slowly introducing protections for migrant
\nworkers ... We have a very long way to go in terms of protective
\npolicies both in sending and in destination countries.
\nHow can the problem of undocumented migrant workers be solved?<\/p>\n
We need to really lift restrictions and bans on migration and
\nimmigration policies need to be liberalized because if they are
\nnot liberalized that creates a lucrative ground for traffickers
\nand irregular migration. Also we need to have regulations for
\nrecruiting agencies. We need to place bans on government
\nofficials as well as people implementing the law from running,
\nrecruiting businesses. We need to have regulations for recruiting
\nagencies which are marked by both incentives and disincentives
\nbecause they need to be drawn within the purview of law and they
\nneed incentives to provide good rights provisions, welfare
\nprovisions for workers. And lastly, we need to mandatorily
\nregister outgoing workers and provide them with incentives so
\nthat they will register as it has been done in Sri Lanka.
\nWhat are the new trends of migration?<\/p>\n
The new trend is the feminization of migration which means
\nthat there is an increasing number of women migrating for work.
\nThe number of women migrating for work is really outstripping men
\nin certain countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Philippines.<\/p>\n
Secondly, women are migrating independently. Thirdly, they are
\nconcentrated in the formal and informal sector, in women's
\nspecific skilled and unskilled jobs. The highest concentration is
\nin domestic work and prostitution wherein they are really abused.<\/p>\n
Fourth, they are really using facilitative channels of
\nmigration either informal or formal channel because they lack
\naccess to information and to migration know-how and procedures.
\nFifth, they really contribute substantively to development both
\nin countries of employment and countries of origin.<\/p>\n
Sixth, trade and capital flows are liberalized but labor
\nmigration flows are restricted through restrictive immigration
\npolicies which ban women from migrating and this is resulting in
\nvulnerability to trafficking. Finally, we are seeing an increase
\nin irregular migration and trafficking.
\nHow do you evaluate Indonesia's response to problems faced by
\nmigrant workers?<\/p>\n
I believe that no country has a perfect rights record on
\nmigrant workers ... We are very happy that the Indonesian
\ngovernment is showing a political willingness to address the
\nconcerns of migrant workers; this is being reflected in the bill.<\/p>",
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