South Asian countries have emerged as one of the significant sources of migrant workers for the countries of West Asia. For many South Asian women, one critical reason to migrate is the everyday violence that they experience in the private and public spheres. Thus, gender inequality in South Asia has to be examined closely, particularly at the intersections of caste, class, religion, and ethnicity. These identities play a significant bearing on the patterns of migration and the risks women migrant workers are willing to take to earn livelihoods. As a result, they are confronted with multiple forms of discrimination, exploitation, and violence in their migration journeys.
With their paid and unpaid labour, women make significant contributions to the economies of both origin and destination countries. Despite this fact, several governments in the region have traditionally imposed various restrictions on women’s mobility. These restrictions force women to migrate under dangerous conditions and exacerbate the risks of exploitation and abuse.
The recently concluded 13th Global Forum on Migration and Development Summit held on 18-26 January 2021 raised crucial points on safe, fair, and ethical migration for women. The four thematic areas of the summit were Governance of Labour Migration and Skilling of Migrants; Addressing Gaps in Migrant Protection; Irregular Migration; and COVID-19 building back better for Migrants. Closely linked to these themes are the issues and challenges experienced by women migrant workers in the West Asian countries, as outlined below.
February began with the disturbing news of Myanmar’s armed forces seizing power and declaring state of emergency for a year. The month ended on a more distressing note. At least 23 people were killed and many more injured when security forces opened fire on peaceful protesters on Sunday, 28 February.
One month into the coup, we have seen much that was predictable: a UN Security Council Statement, imposition of economic sanctions by the US, strong denial by China that it was backing the coup and turmoil with ASEAN regarding an appropriate action step. While the military’s action, the rhetoric of western countries and ASEAN’s inaction are from their old playbooks, what is new is the massive protest within Myanmar.
Millions of workers from public and private sectors – teachers, doctors, journalists and garment factory workers -- have come forward to strike. People have expressed dissent in innovative ways by banging pots and pans at 8 PM every evening to ‘drive away the evil spirit of the coup’ and the artist community of Yangon has joined hands by projecting satirical images on social media and city walls. Young people are singing the protest songs of the famous 8888 era.
This is the first in what we hope will become a series in 2021 where we share information and opinions on some of the previous month's events that are relevant to GAATW members and partners.
Bandana Pattanaik
The first month of 2021 has ended and what a month has it been! The pandemic still keeps us under its control and many countries are dealing with a ‘second wave’ now. However, those of us fortunate to have our jobs, have also learnt to adapt to working from home and communicating remotely with colleagues, friends and sometimes with family too. In terms of in-person meetings, community interaction, international conferences and large meetings, this year is not looking very different from the last.
‘Vaccine Nationalism’ does not (even) make economic sense
Vaccination programmes have started in many countries but the competition and hoarding that we witness is worrying. Covax, the pooled procurement scheme, has been set up and many wealthy countries have signed up to support it but they have also placed their own direct orders with the pharmaceutical companies which has effectively pushed Covax towards the end of the queue. International cooperation on vaccine distribution is necessary for everyone’s safety and global economic recovery. According to recent research, ‘it would cost $25 billion to supply lower income countries with vaccines. The US, the UK, the EU and other high-income countries combined could lose about $119 billion a year if the poorest countries are denied a supply. If these high-income countries paid for the supply of vaccines, there could be a benefit-to-cost ratio of 4.8 to 1. For every $1 spent, high-income countries would get back about $4.8.’
An unsmooth transfer of power in the US
History tells us that transfer of power is often uneasy and the United States had witnessed bumpy White House transitions before. The events of 6 January 2021, however, went far beyond the awkward or rude. The world watched in horror as mob supporters of Donald Trump stormed into the United States Capitol and vandalised it. Countries affected by the US sanctions in the name of defending democracy were the first ones to react with bitterness. The events at the Capitol, wrote Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, ‘showed that the US has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy.’ The government of Venezuela commented that the United States now experiences ‘what it has generated in other countries with its policies of aggression’.
The Philippines is among the top ten origin countries and the one with the largest diaspora population. Migration for labour has been a part of almost every Filipino family’s life for decades. Described as an indispensable sector of the Philippine economy, the Philippine diaspora has in many ways become a permanent feature of the country’s GDP through a steady inflow of remittances from Filipino migrant workers.
In 1974, the Marcos administration institutionalised a policy for labour export as a temporary stop-gap measure to impede the rising unemployment rate and severe balance-of-payment pressures.. Nearly five decades and six administrations later, the number of Filipinos leaving the country for work continues to grow steadily due to the government’s effort to diversify its labour markets and to send more Filipino workers abroad.
The once temporary labour programme had become a permanent pillar of life in the Philippines. On the one hand, the country receives commendations for its comprehensive policies and protection measures for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). On the other hand, labour and migrant rights groups are questioning the government’s overreliance on the labour export programme to stimulate growth in the economy while there is lack of sustainable programmes to provide employment and livelihood opportunities in the country thus making migration a means for survival and a necessity rather than a choice.
Although Thiri got to keep her job in Mae Sot, she now struggles with her limited access to healthcare after she developed a waterborne disease during the pandemic. (Image: Linn Let Arkar)
Three women working at a garment factory along the Thai-Burma border share their struggles and triumph living away from loved ones amid the COVID-19 pandemic
When 24-year old Chit Ban Wah heard that Thailand was closing its borders as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March, she and her older sister, both operators at Top Form Brassiere Company Limited garment factory in the border town of Mae Sot, prepared to return to Burma. While in the taxi, she received a call from her employer asking her to stay.
“They told me if I leave, it will be very difficult to come back,” says Chit Ban Wah. “They also told me that if I left I would lose my job.”
Before Chit Ban Wah moved to Mae Sot in 2019 she worked selling cellphones in Burma, earning approximately 6,000 Thai Baht per month (190 USD). She now earns between 8,000 and 12,000 Thai Baht (257 USD – 385 USD) per month, the majority of which she combines with her sister’s salary to send home to their family in the bordering Burmese town of Myawaddy.
“I realized if I left to go home, there would be no more money coming in for my family,” says Chit Ban Wah.
38-year old Thiri, also an operator at Top Form Brassiere, had a choice to make too when the nationwide emergency decree was announced. She says it was a quick decision.
“I knew I had to stay in Thailand. I realized that it would be much harder to find a job in Burma with the pandemic,” she says.
The incentive for laborers to move to Thailand is high, as the opportunity to earn more money gives their families more economic security. Nationals from Burma make up the largest migrant worker population in Thailand, with recent estimates putting the figure at 2.3 million.
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