Policies Affecting Women and Migrant Workers

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How has the pre-existing gender division of labor and gendered state policies affected Saudi Arabia’s women workers in their demand for equal opportunities and fair treatment? What are some of the factors involved in disempowering migrant workers in host countries and what happens when these workers start asking for their rights?

Given the global economic restructuring and the shifting international division of labor, regions like the Middle East have become salient destination sites for many sub-Saharan African and South East Asian migrant workers. While past scholarship has focused on men-dominated migration patterns, current scholarship reports the increasing presence of women among migrant workers, particularly in the Gulf region (Martin Baldwin). In “Domestic Workers: Little Protection for the Underpaid,” Gloria Chammartin maintains that the number of migrant women have come to equal or outnumber men in recent years. Female migrant workers now constitute larger percentages of migrant workers in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. (470) For instance, data shows that more than 90 percent of Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates consisted of women workers in 1997-1998. In 2001, between 85 and 94 percent of Sri Lankan workers in Jordan, Kuwait, and Lebanon were women. The increase in international labor demand across this region is mostly attributed to the oil boom of the 1970s.

The oil boom of the 1970s created a demand for both skilled and unskilled labor in the Gulf region. In its early stages, demands for the labor construction sector were met mostly by male workers. (Munira Ismail) Later, as construction proj...

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Gender issues in labor migration governance: The Importance of considering Gender Issues in Migration. International migration branch.http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/migrant/areas/gender.htm

Martin Baldwin-Edwards. “Migration in the Middle East and Mediterranean.” http://mmo.gr/pdf/news/Migration_in_the_Middle_East_and_Mediterranean.pdf

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Christian-Filipino-migrants-forced-to-convert-to-Islam-17478.html

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Saudi-Arabia-to-drive-out-all-Indonesian-migrants-21994.html

"The conditions of Overseas filipino workers in Saudi Arabia."http://www.scribd.com/doc/49819988/The-Conditions-of-Overseas-Filipino-Workers-in-Saudi-Arabia

http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/Womens_Employment_in_Saudi_Arabia.pdf

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/25/saudi-arabia-migrant-mistreatment

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