The Invisible Labour of Female Migrants in the Care Sector

Overview
  • INSTITUTE:
    UNU-GCM
    SERIES:
    Female Agency, Mobility and Socio-cultural Change
    VOLUME:
    03/06
    TITLE:
    The Invisible Labour of Female Migrants in the Care Sector
    AUTHORS:
    by Megha Amrith
    PUB DATE:
    2015•11•23
    ISSN WEB:
    2412-2173 (Female Agency, Mobility and Socio-cultural Change)
    COPYRIGHT YEAR:
    2015

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    This extended policy report will consider the economy of care and intimacy within which many female migrants are employed in the global labour market, ensuring the well being of individuals and families worldwide while also pursuing their own goals for economic and social empowerment. The report will feature three parts on migrant women employed in nursing, caregiving in private homes, and intimate labour, primarily sex work. It will demonstrate the different understandings that women have of their labour in each area of work and will examine how labour in this sector continues to be stigmatised, poorly valued and exploited. It also examines positive examples of empowerment and agency. While each type of labour within the care sector has distinct policy challenges, there are also overlaps and ambiguities between them. The report will indicate how policy-makers can better address the needs of female migrant workers within the often-invisible economies of care and intimacy.