Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights

Newsletter No. 7
March 2013
Workshop of the the RN-DWR Social Security Research Pro-
ject (Amsterdam, Dec. 2012, see under Research Activities)

Dear colleagues, 15, 2013 in Linz, Austria (in German). In-

You are reading the seventh newsletter
of the Research Network for Domestic
Worker Rights, including information on
the implementation process of the ILO
Convention, campaigns, and news from
the world of research. Contributions for
the next newsletter are welcome.
1. Upcoming Confer-
ences and Calls
The Bckler Foundation, together
with the University of Hildesheim and
Viadrina University are organizing a
workshop on Domestic workers in
Germany, opportunities of the ILO Con-
vention on April 19, 2013, in Berlin (in
German). Registration is possible until
April 2, 2013, Contact: Maria Jackschitz:
formation about the conference: www.
ith.or.at/konf/49_index.htm
CfP: Migrant Domestic And Care
Workers In Europe: The Employers
Perspective (provisional title) Sabrina
Marchetti And Anna Triandafyllidou
(eds).
Deadline for long abstracts 1 Apr. 2013
During the last 15 years, a rich and
articulated debate around the topic of
paid domestic and care labour has de-
veloped in the international academia.
However, in the developments of this
debate, the figure of employers has
remained somehow unexplored. Em-
ployers role is continuously called into
question as they are, in a sense, always
present -being a fundamental actor
Content
1. Upcoming Conferences
and Calls
2. Publications
3. Updates on the Con-
vention and Campaign
News
4. Research Activities
The Newsletter includes contri-
butions from Manuel Abrantes,
Nina Trige Andersen, Stefania
Azzarello, Hadelzein M. Elfatih,
Petra Luksikova, Katherine
Maich, Sabrina Marchetti, Jesse
Mertens, Marina Nikolova, Karin,
Pape, Helen Schwenken, Nisha
Varia, Stefanie Visel.

Maria-Jackschitz@boeckler.de. in the labour relationship itself. Yet,

The 49th International Conference of
Labour and Social History under the
topic For a global history of domestic
workers takes place from Sep. 12 to Sep
the elaboration on employers still lays
behind, in comparison to the flourish-
ing of studies on employees. A thor-
ough study on the figure of employer
would be a crucial contribution not

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 Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights
only to the specific debate on domestic
and care work, but more in general for
the understanding of the transforma-
tion taking place among middle class
households in Europe vis--vis the
transformations in the organization of
families and in public/private welfare, in
relation to the regulations pertaining to
migrant work.
Complete Call:
http://globalgovernanceprogramme.
eui.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/
Migrant-Domestic-Workers_The-
Employers-Perspective_Marchetti-and-
Trianda....pdf
In Bern, on May 3, 2013, the conference
Aging with dignity - decent work in
care (in German and French) will take
place. More information: http://www.
denknetz-online.ch/IMG/pdf/Tagung_
Pflege_Mai_2013_d_Web.pdf (German)
http://www.vpodbern.ch/Berufe/
Gesundheitsbereich%20aktuell/Ta-
gung%20Pflege%20Mai%202013%20f.
pdf (French)
2. Publications
Abrantes, Manuel (forthcoming), Yes,
but what about numbers? A quantita-
tive contribution to the study of domes-
tic services in Europe, in International
Labour Review 04/2013. http://onlineli-
brary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1564-
913X.2012.00004.x/pdf
How many individuals are employed
in domestic services? How did these fig-
ures evolve in recent years? Is difference
across countries significant? This article
examines data of the European Union
Labour Force Survey covering fifteen
countries in the period of 20002010.
Results confirm that domestic services
are expanding, in particular those
related to the provision of care to chil-
dren and frail adults. Analysis favours
a nuanced approach to the notion of
two key regimes dividing Europe the
northern countries relying chiefly on
public services, the southern ones re-
sorting more to private solutions.
Andersen, Nina Trige (2013). Profession:
Filippiner Kvinder p arbejde i Dan-
mark gennem fire rtier, Tiderne Skifter.
(in Danish)
Among the workers recruited be-
tween 1960 and 1973 to Denmark was
an unusual group of 49 Filipina workers,
contracted in Manila in 1973 by a Singa-
porean agent and put to work as maids
at the newly constructed Hotel Scandi-
navia in Copenhagen. The women did
not know each other prior to recruit-
ment, but still today they celebrate
annual re-unions as The 49ers.
Profession: Filippiner. Kvinder p arbe-
jde i Danmark gennem fire rtier is a
story of relations between personal
lives and global economy. Through
the life stories of the 49ers, the book
traces local and global histories of labor
migrations, of global restructuring, and
of the emotional, political and economi-
cal relations between Denmark and the
Philippines, between the global North
and the global South and between
the permanent migrants of the old
world and the permanently temporary
migrants of today.
Anti-Slavery (2013). Home Truths.
Wellbeing and vulnerabilities of child
domestic workers. http://www.anti-
slavery.org/includes/documents/cm_
docs/2013/c/cdw_report_final.pdf
The report presents the findings of a
multi-country study into the psychoso-
cial wellbeing of child domestic workers
across three continents. This study
provides indicators in terms of the
situation and circumstances that most
affect these child workers as well as the
aspects of their life that provide resil-
ience and contribute to their wellbeing
in a positive way.
Elfatih, Hadelzein M. (Feb. 2013). Les-
sons to learn from the Rainbow Nation.
Contact author: hadotaa@gmail.com
ILO (2013). Domestic workers across the
world: Global and regional statistics and
the extent of legal protection
http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-
ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_200937/
lang--en/index.htm
Triandafyllidou, Anna (2013). Irregular
Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe.
Who Cares? Ashgate. http://www.elia-
mep.gr/en/all-publications/
With specific attention to irregular
migrant workers - that is to say, those
without legal permits to stay in the
countries in which they work - this
volume focuses on domestic work,
presenting studies from ten European
countries, including Belgium, France,
Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the
Netherlands, and Spain. Offering a com-
parative analysis of irregular migrants
engaged in all kinds of domestic work,
the authors explore questions relat-
ing to employment conditions, health
issues and the family lives of migrants.
The book examines the living and
working conditions of irregular migrant
domestic workers, their relations with
employers, their access to basic rights
such as sick leave, sick pay, and holiday
pay, as well as access to health services.
Close consideration is also given to the
challenges for family life presented by
workers status as irregular migrants,
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 Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights
with regard to their lives both in their
countries of origin and with their em-
ployers.
3. updates on the
Convention and Cam-
paign news
The ILOs Promoting integration for
migrant domestic workers in Europe
(IMDW) project has a photo contest
with prizes up to 1000,-. They are
looking for photographs that include
migrant domestic workers in the work
environment, in society, or in their own
homes. The photographs should show
a positive image of domestic work
and migration and demonstrate the
character and resilience of these work-
ers. You can submit up to three photo-
graphs per person to MDWcontest@ilo.
org, by 30 April, 2013 at 23.59 (Central
European Time) using an Official Entry
Form. You must be resident in Europe
to be eligible to participate (see picture
below).
Coring delos Reyes, president of the
United Migrant Domestic Workers in
the Netherlands (UMDW NL), received
on International Womens Day, March
8, 2013 a prize for womens empower-
ment. Her organization has received
the award from WOMEN inc., one of the
most famous Dutch womens organi-
zation, because the jury agreed that
United Migrant Domestic Workers is a
powerful self-organization, with domes-
tic worker members supporting each
other in cases of need, employment
relations, and in lobbying for domestic
workers rights (see picture on page 1).
4. Research Activi-
ties
Research on the experience of nurses
recruited from overseas in the UK
The International Labour Organiza-
tion (ILO) Manila has commissioned Dr
Davide Calenda working at the Return
Migration and Development Platform,
European University Institute (Florence,
Italy), to conduct a research concerning
the experiences of nurses recruited
from overseas. Situated within the
framework of the ILOs Decent Work
Across Borders project, the study
explores nurses working experiences in
the UK, with a specific focus on Indian,
Filipino and Vietnamese-born nurses.
If you were born overseas and are
now working as a nurse in the UK, they
would like to hear from you. It is entirely
voluntary to participate in the research.
If you choose to participate it would be
valuable to them, since it would provide
them with a better understanding of
important issues. The on-line survey is
available at: http://surveynurses.word-
press.com/
Research on the social and eco-
nomic situation of migrant domestic
workers in the Czech Republic
The Association for Integration and
Migration (SIMI), the People in Need
Foundation (vT) and the Institute
of National Economy AV R are start-
ing a new research project on migrant
domestic workers in the Czech Republic
funded by the European Social Founds.
The research will contain analysis of
the legal, economic and social posi-
tion in the local labour market, in the
context of economic migration. The
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 Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights

questionnaire survey will focus on the
specific experiences of female mi-
grants - domestic workers who work at
in-home service and out-home service,
and also on the situation of migrants
who perform this type of work as their
additional job. Research results will
be presented during final conference
of the project in June 2014 in Prague.
More information about the research:
http://www.pracovnicevdomacnosti.cz/
en/for-public/research.html
Contact: Dr. Petra Ezzeddine, Charles
University in Prague: petra.ezzeddine@
fhs.cuni.cz.
Within the framework of the participa-
tory research project Social Security
Needs of Domestic Workers led by
the International Center for Devel-
opment and Decent Work, domestic
workers in the Netherlands and South
Africa conducted peer-to-peer inter-
views on access and needs for social
scurity. Domestic worker researchers
were awarded certificates, acknowledg-
ing their research skills.
Guatemala City-based ATRAHDOM, *La
Asociacion de Trabajadoras del Hogar a
Domicilio y de Maquila*, has published
results of a study on lesbian and
transgendered workers in maquilas in
the capital and surrounding zones enti-
tled, Los Rostros Ocultos en la Maquila
(October 2012). In collaboration with
COSME, *Consorcio de Organizaciones
Sociales y Sindicales de Mujeres en
la Economia*, this study draws from
focus groups, surveys, interviews, and
testimonials to analyze the rampant
discrimination lesbian and trans work-
ers [as well as gay, bisexual, and intersex
populations] face as they contribute
economically to the country and yet
remain invisible and legally marginal-
ized within Guatemalan society. While
still organizing around the ratification
of Convenion 189, ATRAHDOMs work
to draw attention to often-ignored
sector of the economy brings to light
discrimination facing these workers in
the maquilas as well as those laboring
in the home.
Joint application by RN-DWR for
NORFACE?
A group of researchers from the RN-
DWR is currently considering submit-
ting a funding proposal for NORFACE
(deadline is April 16). If you are inter-
ested in joining this initiative and/or
if there are other initiatives going on,
please contact Prof. Dr. Helen Schwen-
ken hschwenken@uni-kassel.de as soon
as possible. More information: http://
www.norface.net/upload/documents/
Call%20for%20proposals%20Wel-
fare%20State%20Futures.pdf

Contacts: Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights

Contact to the interim coordinators: Claire Hobden (ILOACTRAV), Rebeca Pabon (FNV Bondgenoten, The Neth-
erlands), Prof. Dr. Helen Schwenken (ICDD/University of Kassel), and LisaMarie Heimeshoff (ICDD/University of
Kassel): dwrn@icdd.unikassel.de

Europe: Dr. Sabrina Marchetti, European University Institute, Florence, sabrinamarchetti@rocketmail.com

Latin America: Prof Dr Adriana Causa, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina: acausa@gmail.com and Prof Dr
Mary Rosaria Goldsmith Connelly, Universidad Autnoma MetropolitanaXochimilco, Mexico: gcmr7503@correo.
xoc.uam.mx

North America: Prof Jennifer N. Fish PhD, Old Dominion University, United States: jfish@odu.edu

Editor of the Newsletter: Lisa-Marie Heimeshoff, dw-rn@icdd.uni-kassel.de