Internationalization of the economy, on the one hand, and the uneven development of the countries on the other, led to the fact that labor migration has gained an unprecedented economic and political significance. The economic gap between the countries and the need to balance the geopolitical interests has influenced the migration flows in the developed countries. Over the past few decades, a steady labor migration has led to a new segmentation of the labor market and the allocation of jobs that are taken mainly by migrants.
Global economic development is associated with marginalization of female caregivers, namely the tendency to include women in the labor market on unequal terms. The fate of migrant women who are separated from their families demonstrates a change of gender roles in patriarchal societies. It should be noted that labor migration of women is often fraught with negative consequences, and even high risks. On the one hand, there is the outflow of valuable human resources, while on the other hand illegal forms of migration can exacerbate social conflicts. Migrant live-in caregivers are exposed to such risks as racial, religious, and gender discrimination, harsh work conditions and low wages and in some cases even sexual harassment. However, Stiell and England admit that not all employer-employee relations are abusive or exploitative (1997, 343).
Demonstrating the case of Filipina nurses, Chang (2001) explores the consequences of the global forces that have made women trapped in appalling work conditions. The government policies along with globalization processes make Filipino women migrate to America and Canada. In her article, Chang argues that such women are low-paid but normally highly skilled workers. The author is adamant that globalization has not offered new jobs in the Third World countries (Chang, 2001). The concept of globalization has fundamentally shaped the world economies, and as the result, women have been forced to migrate to developed countries in search of work. Thousands of trained nurses from Philippines migrate to the United States where they are forced into low-paid live-in care work, and thus, are excluded from nursing. The Philippine government receives financial benefit from the exportation of Filipinas through the remittances that overseas workers send home to their families (Chang, 2001, 465). America and Canada benefit as well, since Filipinas provide middle- and upper-class families with low-cost care work.
In their article, Stiell & England (1997) explore the employer-employee relations through the relational system of difference called “interlocking”, taking into account gender, language, ethnicity. It is worth noting that “migrant or immigrant women, especially ‘third world’ women of colour” are predisposed to live-in paid domestic work in Toronto (Stiell & England, 1997, 340). Having observed several cases, Stiell and England (1997) state that living-in is prone to trigger the feeling of being trapped along with loneliness. Domestic work tends to impinge on their private life and independence. Interestingly, the authors highlight the concept of being “like one of the family” that can be interpreted in different ways. Some women really become friends with their employees, however some caregivers mentioned “false kinship ties”, pointing out that respect and caring could be taken mistakenly for familial relationships. Besides, some domestic workers referred to the gift-giving experience as “the form of benevolent materialism”, aimed at buying their compliance (Stiell & England, 1997, 351). Female caregivers who migrated to Canada confessed that the living-in requirement was particularly complicated due to “excessively long working hours, overtime without pay, restricted days off, or performing tasks outside their contract” (Stiell & England, 1997, 347). The reasons for the marginalization of female migration embrace the economic sphere, the nature of work and migrants’ role in the economic structure of society. Women migrants are prone to be involved in discriminated, informal and shadow sectors of migrant employment. Work in the services sector, which mainly attract women workers, has a number of features that make workers in this sector more vulnerable and less socially protected than those employed in other spheres. Work in the so-called sector of domestic service, including caregivers, traditionally is not recognized as equal social and economic value of different types of labor. The fact that migrant women work in the least prestigious employment sector is demonstrated by their remuneration. “The first world/third world dichotomy” refers to gender, ethnicity and language differences (Stiell & England, 1997, 344).
Migration and women in the labor market is the issue of crucial theoretical and practical significance in terms of the sustainable development of society. The level of female employment and the structure of their work is a kind of economic and social barometer that reflects the particular economic development of society. The gender analysis of migration rates and economic relations enables the integration of the principles of fairness when it comes to marginalization of female caregivers.
References
Chang, G. (2001). From the third world to the “third world within”: Asian women workers fighting globalization. In Feminist Frontiers, 7th ed., 462-473.
Stiell, B., & England, K. (1997). Domestic distinctions: Constructing difference among paid domestic workers in Toronto. Gender, Place and Culture 4(3), 339-359.
