User:Kelias081/sandbox

Since we decided to eliminate the former stub article on migrant domestic workers, we drafted the entire article on migrant domestic workers and did not have any initial edits to make on the original article. My contribution of 1289 words is in the sandbox (below) and I left 30 messages on the talk page. We are opting for a group grade.

MODIFIED ENTRY FOR THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE. PLEASE USE THIS ENTRY FOR GRADING. (please note that the notes and references were duplicated at the bottom because I kept the original and modified versions of my text in the sandbox)

Challenges to collective action
Migrant domestic workers, due to the nature of their work and to their status as migrants, or irregular migrants, are subject to a number of challenges that prevent collective action and claims for rights. The same factors that make migrant domestic workers vulnerable to abuse     also prevent them from developing social networks and coordinating action. Moreover, domestic workers more generally cannot employ tactics used by other workers in organizations, such as strike action, if they live in their employer’s home.

Beyond these structural issues, states are also partially responsible for preventing collective action, with some countries imposing limitations on movement and organization. In fact domestic migrant workers are prohibited from creating or joining trade unions in a number of countries around the world. Non-governmental organization (NGO) activity has also been constrained by state action, with barriers to registration or prohibition of “political activity.”

Efforts by intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations
International organizations have helped raise awareness about the plight of migrant domestic workers by issuing reports, launching programs and discussing issues surrounding migrant domestic work.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has stressed the importance of legal standards for workers and migrants. It has more specifically addressed states’ lack of protection for migrant domestic workers during its June 2004 Congress and during a High-Level Panel Discussion in 2013. The ILO has also launched the Global Action Programme on Migrant Domestic Workers and their Families, undertaken studies in and guidelines for foreign domestic workers in specific countries and published a report making note that female migrant workers constituted the main demographics in the sector of domestic work.

Other United Nations agencies have addressed migrant domestic work, with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) attempting to facilitate dialogue between countries to establish agreements that recognize migrant workers’ rights protection, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) releasing a report highlighting the gendered aspects of migration.

In terms of efforts to address the problem of private recruitment, the International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies, or Ciett, has created standards for recruitment in its code of conduct that are consistent with the ILO's Convention 181. Ciett's code reaches 47 national federations of private employment agencies and 8 of the largest staffing companies worldwide.

Collaborative works have also been published, including a manual by the International Domestic Workers Network and the ILO, geared to both national and migration domestic workers in Asia and the Pacific, and a report by Human Rights Watch, along with the International Domestic Workers’ Network and The International Trade Union Confederation.

Strategies by civil society to address issues faced by migrant domestic workers
Advocacy efforts have evolved from fighting to “recognize the position of paid domestic workers” to addressing work conditions and forms of abuse. Through time, a number of strategies have been used by international and civil society organizations in the hopes of improving the conditions surrounding migrant domestic work. These have included conventional means of mobilizing, such as rallies, protests and public campaigns to raise awareness or improve migrant domestic workers’ conditions. Lobbying, at both the national and supranational level to modify laws or by trade unions attempting to change the irregular status of migrant domestic workers has been used as a tactic. Civil society has also played a role in negotiating international legislation such as the International Labour Organization’s Domestic Worker Convention.

Beyond these public mobilizations and lobbying efforts for change, awareness raising has also been used as a strategy, serving in some cases to transform the public view on migrant domestic workers with the hope of stigmatizing abuse against and encouraging respect toward migrant domestic workers at the national level. Educational efforts have also been used to inform women of their rights in countries where laws outlining employers’ obligations do exist. Due to the difficulties in mobilizing domestic workers, initiatives to raise awareness and inform migrant workers of their rights has not always been undertaken in institutionalized manners, but rather through informal means, such as planned encounters in public spaces that migrant domestic workers are known to frequent.

Language and discourse represent another component in advocacy efforts for migrant domestic workers. Certain organizations and institutions, have, for example, taken the approach of promoting social and economic benefits of domestic work by migrants to private household and society at large. Groups have also employed women’s rights, workers’ rights and human rights language  in their discourse. Moreover, groups addressing migrant domestic groups have tied abuse against migrant domestic workers at the national level to campaigns against abuse at the global level, to wider issues of abuse against women more generally, to human trafficking and domestic slavery, and to neoliberal globalization. Migrant domestic groups have also created coalitions with other organizations such as feminist groups, labor groups, groups for immigrant rights, religious, human rights organizations, and trade unions. In fact, given these domestic workers come from abroad, there were a number of “cross-border alliances” created.

While women’s rights has been alluded to in some advocacy initiatives and that “cross-border exchanges strengthened the momentum in the development of transnational advocacy of worker rights as a gender-based concern,” the intersection between migrant domestic work and gender in advocacy has not been consistent. Some organizations may consider themselves “feminist” or emphasize the gender dimension of their work, while others may not wish to associate migrant domestic workers’ with feminist issues.

Given that the nature of domestic work poses challenges in mobilizing large groups of migrant workers, other tactics have been used by to cater to and improve the situation of these migrants. These strategies have included providing support and services to these workers,  with groups offering shelter, food, clothing, legal advice and assistance, as well as counselling. These groups have additionally been required to tailor their human resources and materials in order to ensure accessibility by communicating in a language understood by these foreign employees.

Resistance and agency by migrant domestic workers
Despite the challenges to collective action and advocacy, some works have shown that migrant domestic workers do communicate with and inform each other as well as engage in forms of resistance against their employers. During their time off work, migrant domestic workers “reclaim their identities” through their attire and can ridicule their employers in their absence. They also find ways to communicate with others and as such “attempt to build communities” or learn about ways to improve their own working conditions by making use of information and communication technology or by undertaking discussions from their balcony with passersby and domestic workers from neighbouring apartments.

Some domestic workers invest efforts to improve their own welfare or further challenge their employers’ authority by using emotion to capitalize on their employers’ guilt and sympathy for monetary gain, refusing to participate in “extracurricular work” such as family dinners, emphasizing “status similarity” between themselves and their employers, or refusing to accept statements by their employer that could be offensive to migrant domestic workers.

Best practices
In addressing issues faced by migrant domestic workers, some countries have ratified the Domestic Workers Convention or have adapted their national legislations by implementing minimum rest requirements or wages. Country-specific initiatives have also been introduced. These have included a Code of Conduct in Lebanon for recruiting migrant domestic workers, subsidies for assistance offered to migrant workers in Taiwan, or mandating certain government agencies with the task of overseeing the treatment of their nationals working as domestic workers in other countries, as it was done in the Philippines. Finally, there are governments, notably in Europe, which allow for migrant domestic workers to join or start trade unions.

ORIGINAL TEXT CONTRIBUTION TO THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE (DO NOT GRADE THIS PLEASE)

Challenges to collective action
Migrant domestic workers, due to the nature of their work and to their status as migrants, or irregular migrants, are subject to a number of challenges that prevent collective action and claims for rights. The fact that migrant workers may not speak the language of the host country, are unaccustomed to the local culture and laws, are non-citizens and are often only temporarily in the host country, all hinder efforts to organize in advocacy efforts.

In addition to this, domestic workers, who work in private households, are dispersed geographically, isolated from society,  and work long hours,  preventing them from developing networks  and coordinating action. Finally, domestic workers more generally cannot employ tactics used by other workers in organizations, such as strikes, if they live in their employer’s home.

Beyond these structural issues, states are also partially responsible for preventing collective action, with some countries imposing limitations on movement and organization. In fact domestic migrant workers are prohibited from creating or joining trade unions in a number of countries around the world. Non-governmental organization (NGO) activity has also been constrained by state action, with barriers to registration or prohibition of “political activity.”

Efforts by intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations
International organizations have helped raise awareness about the plight of migrant domestic workers by issuing reports, launching programs and discussing issues surrounding migrant domestic work.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has stressed the importance of legal standards for workers and migrants. It has more specifically addressed states’ lack of protection for migrant domestic workers during its June 2004 Congress and during a High-Level Panel Discussion in 2013. The ILO has also launched the Global Action Programme on Migrant Domestic Workers and their Families, undertaken studies in and guidelines for foreign domestic workers in specific countries and published a report making note that female migrant workers constituted the main demographics in the sector of domestic work.

Other United Nations agencies have addressed migrant domestic work, with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) attempting to facilitate dialogue between countries to establish agreements that recognize migrant workers’ rights protection, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) releasing a report highlighting the gendered aspects of migration.

Collaborative works have also been published, including a manual by the International Domestic Workers Network and the ILO, geared to both national and migration domestic workers in Asia and the Pacific, and a report by Human Rights Watch, along with the International Domestic Workers’ Network and The International Trade Union Confederation.

Strategies by civil society to address issues faced by migrant domestic workers
Advocacy efforts have evolved from fighting to “recognize the position of paid domestic workers” to addressing work conditions and forms of abuse. Through time, a number of strategies have been used by international and civil society organizations in the hopes of improving the conditions surrounding migrant domestic work. These have included conventional means of mobilizing, such as rallies, protests and public campaigns to raise awareness or improve migrant domestic workers’ conditions. Lobbying, at both the national and supranational level to modify laws or by trade unions attempting to change the irregular status of migrant domestic workers has been used as a tactic. Civil society has also played a role in negotiating international legislation such as the International Labour Organization’s Domestic Worker Convention.

Beyond these public mobilizations and lobbying efforts for change, awareness-raising has also been used as a strategy, serving in some cases to transform the public view on migrant domestic workers with the hope of stigmatizing abuse against and encouraging respect toward migrant domestic workers at the national level. Educational efforts have also been used to inform women of their rights in countries where laws outlining employers’ obligations do exist. Due to the difficulties in mobilizing domestic workers, initiatives to raise awareness and inform migrant workers of their rights has not always been undertaken in institutionalized manners, but rather through informal means, such as planned encounters in public spaces that migrant domestic workers are known to frequent.

Language and discourse represent another component in advocacy efforts for migrant domestic workers. Certain organizations and institutions, have, for example, taken the approach of promoting social and economic benefits of domestic work by migrants to private household and society at large. Groups have also employed women’s rights, workers’ rights and human rights language  in their discourse. Moreover, groups addressing migrant domestic groups have tied abuse against migrant domestic workers at the national level to campaigns against abuse at the global level, to wider issues of abuse against women more generally, to trafficking and domestic slavery, and to neoliberal globalization. Migrant domestic groups have also created coalitions with other organizations such as feminist groups, labor groups, groups for immigrant rights, religious, human rights organizations, and trade unions. In fact, given these domestic workers come from abroad, there were a number of “cross-border alliances” created.

While women’s rights has been alluded to in some advocacy initiatives and that “cross-border exchanges strengthened the momentum in the development of transnational advocacy of worker rights as a gender-based concern,” the intersection between migrant domestic work and gender in advocacy has not been consistent. Some organizations may consider themselves “feminist” or emphasize the gender dimension of their work, while others  may not wish to associate migrant domestic workers’ with feminist issues.

Given that the nature of domestic work poses challenges in mobilizing large groups of migrant workers, other tactics have been used by to cater to and improve the situation of these migrants. These strategies have included providing support and services to these workers,  with groups offering shelter, food, clothing,  legal advice and assistance, as well as counselling. These groups have additionally been required to tailor their human resources and materials in order to ensure accessibility by communicating in a language understood by these foreign employees.

Resistance and agency by migrant domestic workers
Despite the challenges to collective action and advocacy, some works have shown that migrant domestic workers do communicate with and inform each other as well as engage in forms of resistance against their employers. During their time off work, migrant domestic workers “reclaim their identities” through their attire and can ridicule their employers in their absence. They also find ways to communicate with others and as such “attempt to build communities” or learn about ways to improve their own working conditions by making use of information and communication technology or by undertaking discussions from their balcony with passersby and domestic workers from neighbouring apartments.

Some domestic workers invest efforts to improve their own welfare or further challenge their employers’ authority by using emotion to capitalize on their employers’ guilt and sympathy for monetary gain, refusing to participate in “extracurricular work” such as family dinners, emphasizing “status similarity” between themselves and their employers, or refusing to accept statements by their employer that could be offensive to migrant domestic workers.

Best practices
In addressing issues faced by migrant domestic workers, some countries have ratified the Domestic Workers Convention or have adapted their national legislations by implementing minimum rest requirements or wages. Country-specific initiatives have also been introduced. These have included a Code of Conduct in Lebanon for recruiting migrant domestic workers, subsidies for assistance offered to migrant workers in Taiwan, or mandating certain government agencies with the task of overseeing the treatment of their nationals working as domestic workers in other countries, as it was done in the Philippines. Finally, there are governments, notably in Europe, which allow for migrant domestic workers to join or start trade unions. Agency for Fundamental Rights, Migrants in an Irregular Situation Employed in Domestic Work: Fundamental Rights Challenges for the European Union and Its Member States (Luxembourg: Publ. Off. of the European Union, 2011), 35-36.