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Drivers for demand and supply for migrant domestic workers

Supply

From the mid-XIX century, the employment of a domestic worker became a symbol of status for the bourgeois households and a civilizing mission to young female servants coming from the countryside in search for education, lodging and income. The character of this migration changed around the start of the XX century, when maids were recruited to work overseas as part of racial purity policies, which involved providing suitable brides for the male settlers.

Changes in roles and social aspirations of middle-class women are perceived to have intensified the admission of women into waged work. From an economic perspective, freeing these middle and upper-class women from household chores allowed them to engage in more productive activities; families’ real income thus increases along with their general welfare.

Escaping hardship

Women migrating into private households thousands of miles away from their country of origin are motivated to do so by the search for better salaries and also that their prospects will improve in the destination countries. These women are frequently escaping violence, war, corruption, natural disasters and long-term economic instabilities or poverty in general.

Remittances

Because these workers' remittances are a source of revenues for their countries of origin, some countries actively encourage their female workers to migrate abroad for domestic work as a key development strategy, offsetting unemployment problems, while growing the economy through accumulating foreign-exchange reserves. Migrant domestic workers tend to replace the native peers of the host country, and displace them towards other (usually more productive) activities.

Brain waste

Migrant domestic workers are, on average, better educated than their domestically sourced counterparts. Undocumented migrants can become domestic workers, not only due to demand but also to a lack of access to the formal labor market, language barriers, a lack of social capital (networks), or technical barriers that impede their labor market integration. Some of these workers even hold advanced degrees, but, as their educational credentials are not accepted in the host country, or they are not legally qualified to work in their field, they are not able to find work that would comply with their level of education. The status afforded to highly educated migrants, however, is often more sought after, especially in the field of child care, as both an asset and a symbol of status for the employer.

Nevertheless, the insufficiency of state-supported care facilities under the auspices of the welfare state and an increasingly aging population created a demand for domestic work, particularly in OECD countries. This so-called ‘care crisis’ has been one of the motors of the feminization of migration , as it has opened up labor opportunities for women in the area of care work.

Demand

Cost and flexibility

Institutional arrangements contribute to making migrant domestic workers cost less to employers than their native counterparts. Due to the largely undocumented or informal nature of their employment, migrants are not automatically entitled to [[social benefits[[ (health care, etc.), reproductive, and family rights (e.g., family unification). In countries such as Malaysia, even through formal employment arrangements, employers are not required to pay minimum wages to migrant workers. This legal vulnerability found in the case of undocumented immigrants is also often cited as a reason for non-payment for services provided. In terms of working conditions, research on the perception of employers in the UK found that migrants were seen to be more likely to live in and perceived as more ‘flexible’ both in terms of tasks performed and of working hours, another motive for hiring this type of worker. Additionally, in case of formal, legal arrangements, some immigration law gives the employers control over workers’ mobility during the period of the contract; this is seen as an offset to the fact that domestic workers in that labor market typically experience high turnover.

Discipline and “loyalty”

Migrant domestic workers tend to shy away from authorities and social services, due in some part to their status as undocumented and mostly women. Additionally, research has shown that the perception exists on the part of the workers that they are being afforded some form of protection by their employers, which, thus, demands a projection of gratitude and courtesy in their attitude. This is exemplified by the fact that, in some cases, domestic work may be considered a viable alternative to sex work for a female illegal immigrant. The pressure to send remittances from abroad to the source country is felt more strongly by these women, who tend to remit a greater proportion of their income than their male counterparts. Their wages are also used to pay back recruitment agencies and cover basic costs of family members in their home communities, including their health care and education. This, in a way, binds them to their jobs and is a disincentive to repatriate or quit. When they are required to be officially sponsored, such as in the Kafala system of some Middle Eastern countries, the migrant domestic worker becomes legally and economically bound to their sponsor, creating an environment in which these particular workers are encouraged to be more loyal and more under the control of their employer.

Racial stereotypes of “ideal” domestic workers

Many individual employers reportedly express a preference for domestic workers with (assumed or real) behavioural, cultural, linguistic or religious traits thought to influence the quality of service provided. Research of the perceptions of employers have shown that racial stereotypes identify certain nationalities as ideal domestic workers. In the United States, for instance, Mexican maids and Peruvian nannies are seen as ‘submissive’ workers and ‘natural mothers’ respectively. These perceptions play out in the levels of compensation for these workers. In the United Arab Emirates, for instance, a college-educated domestic worker from the Philippines is seen as more of a status symbol and earns significantly more than her equally-skilled counterpart from India; this disparity is attributed in the literature to racial and socioeconomic assumptions on the part of employers.