Making Rights Matter – Feminized Migration and Political

Transnationalism

Gendering Asia Network Conference28-30 May 2009, Helsinki

Nicola PiperSwansea University/UK

Outline

1. Introduction 2. Feminization of Migration3. Migrant Labour as Transformative

Force4. Temporary Migration and Political

Transnationalism5. Gendering Political

Transnationalism – concluding remarks and future research

Introduction

•Migration and Social Transformation

•changing gender relations•gender equity and equality as part of the democratization process

•political activism by individuals•collective activism by social

movements

Choice of Title ”Making Rights Matter”.....

to flag......• social scientific approach to rights

(conceptual)

2. disjunction between ”rights on paper” and ”rights in practice” (empirical)

3. articulation of grievance/hardship as a rights issue (normative)

Contd.

•”Rights” conceptualized here as

a political struggle a ’work in progress’

= an on-going project

Introduction – approach in this paper….

In sum, exploring the linkages between migration & democratisation

Introduction

QUESTION

Does this activism contribute to transnationalization of migrant rights ?

What is thereby the role and position of migrant women?

Feminization of Migration

• Feminization widely acknowledged as one key feature of migration today• but: already nearly 47% in 1960 (48% in 1990)

• 49.6% of global migrants are women• even higher percentages of female out-flows

from certain countries

= “feminization” actually a misnomer

= feminized migration

Recognition of the Feminization of migration

• Connected to following key phenomena:

1. improved statistical visibility• but still areas of invisibility (e.g. as wives)

2. increasing participation of women in all migration streams largely in response to:

• male un- or underemployment in origin countries • demand in feminized ‘sectors’ in destination

countries

Regional Differences in Feminization

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Europe &Central

Asia

East Asia & Pacific

LatinAmerica &Caribbean

Sub-Saharan

Africa

South Asia NorthAfrica &Middle

East

(%)

1960

2005

Source: United Nations (2005)

Feminized Migration• Migrant women are generally over-

represented in those sectors in which home-state women are also over-represented • gender segregated labour market• but: trend towards increasingly stratification

• along class, skill (human capital), ethnicity or race

= differences between women

Feminized migration

• More migrant women in manufacturing sectors in middle-income countries• international division of productive labour• global production chains/global value chains

• More migrant women in care sectors in rich countries •international division of reproductive

labour•global care chains

Labor Market Consistencies

Source: POEA (1992-2006)

Source: POEA (1992-2006)

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006Year

Nu

mb

er

of

Mig

ran

t W

om

en

DomesticWorkers&Caregivers

Professional/Technical

Manufacturing

Nurses

Managerial

Feminized migration

• Migration Policies in Asia • temporary

contracts• employer-tied• live-in domestic

work• transnationally

split families

In sum….

• Temporary migration schemes• transnationalization of labour markets

and labour systems• transnational division of labour• transnational strategies to win and

defend the rights of workers

= political responses and processes gendered

Migrant labour as transformative force

Migrant labour as transformative force

Migrant labour as transformative force

• Labour relations/migration studies• ”institutional gap” in area of labour

organizing filled by NGOs• female workers (EPZs, maquila industry, home-

based)• migrant workers (female and male)

Examples:SEWA in IndiaTENAGANITA in MalaysiaForeign domestic worker unions in Hong Kong

Migrant labour as transformative force

• Global Care Economy and ’Everyday’ (IPE) approach• everyday caring activities by care workers• notion of ’social reproduction’• globalization of commodified care labour

• notion of ’global care chain’

= this does not fit into industrial class framework of conventional trade unionism

= yet, commodification of domestic work offers opportunities for worker organizing

Temporary migration and political transnationalism

•”Docility” Thesis

•temporary migrants are a-political

•primary interest in economic gains

IS THIS TRUE?

Contd.

• Migration experience raises political awareness

• Political remittances• ”political” relates to activist perspective• ”remittances” denotes the specific

relationship between origin and destination countries

• inbetween status of temporary migrant• shift from ’victimization’ of structural constraints

to agency via political activism

Definition of political remittances

• “The activities, actions, and ideas aimed at the democratization of the migration process (ranging from pre- to post-migration) via political mobilization in the form of collective organizations operating in the transnational sphere. These ideas and political practices are embedded in the social contexts of origin and destination countries’ structural and agential histories, shaped by the migration experience and characterized by multiple directions of flow.” (Piper, forthcoming)

Contd.

• Transnationalization of rights • Portability of rights• Portable justice • Portable membership

• “unions without borders” (UNI)• international union card (IUF)

= transnational organizational networks= transorganizational networks

Example of domestic workers

•’migrant activism’• migrant turns activist

•’activist migration’• trade unionist or NGO activist moves to

where the migrants are• ’trained’ activist migrant returns to carry

on with activism ”at home”

Gendering political transnationalism - to conclude…

• Migration constitutes one of the central challenges of the future•gendered migration an important

aspect•in areas of social reproduction,

marketization of care and responses by political organizations

….making rights matter

• disjunction between rights ‘on paper’ and rights ‘in practice’• importance of collective activism and role

of social justice organizations in conceptualizing and claiming rights

• specific action at specific time on specific issue• political science on ‘opportunity structures’

• * gender analysis??

Contd.

•Democratizing migration •through broad-based social

activism• aggregate account and analysis of various

types of organisations involved in struggle for social justice

• * captured by ’network’ concept and methodology• * flow of political remittances (ideas and

practices)

…future research

• NETWORK as concept

• non-hierarchical collaborative arrangements • but: is this true from a gender and migrant

perspective?

• fairly open-ended, membership not rigid• actor-centred approach to institutionalism

• ideal unit of analysis linking structure and agency

• cuts across the ”above” and the ”below”

….future research

• NETWORK as concept• multi-sited (multi-country, multi-level/scalar)• multi-issue (e.g beyond ethnicity, type of job)• expanding field of analysis beyond the migrant

to include non-migrants (e.g. the left behind)

• here: link to specific studies on ”networks in activism”• migrant (women) and rights activism from

social movement perspective

…future research

• NETWORK as method• networks can be mapped and their

relations observed• perspective of participating individuals

(gender, ethnicity, class position etc.)• nodes of intersection networks• ”event” research

• observant participation or participant observation in nodal events