Supported by my University, I'm continuing a research project I began last semester while studying in Amman about women migrant workers, popularly known as "maids" or "housekeepers". Jordanians employ some estimated (legal) 70,000 women mainly from the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, as domestic workers (cleaning, food preparation, caring for family members, etc.), typically on two year contracts settled through private labor recruitment agencies. For a good summary of issues concerning women migrant workers, I've added a link (on the right margin of this blog) to UNIFEM's website. The brief explanation on that link, which I would encourage those interested to spend five minutes reading, summarizes the issues well, at least from the humanitarian perspective.
I suppose Jordan "maid" a good first impression (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun), or a bad one considering popular Jordanian cartoonist Abu Mahjoob's critique (below):
Roughly translated, the Jordanian employer chastises his Indonesian housekeeper over the abundance of expensive phone calls home...regarding the (then) recent Tsunami. Ouch.
Even after having witnessed abuse of domestic workers last semester, I can still smile at Mahjoob's biting humor, if not a little bitterly, because I know the situation of women migrant workers in Jordan is not one of hopeless, vulnerable victims - abroad, alone and abused as news media and some humanitarian discourse stereotype them. (Even UNIFEM in a recent forum concerning migrant workers commissioned Mahjoob to produce a series of cartoons to raise awareness about housekeepers in Jordan .) As an anthropology student, I did a lot of observation and a good deal of thinking about what I saw, and what I saw was potential for improvement. The conclusion I reached in my 50 page report included incorporating women migrant workers into the Jordanian labor legislation, and I'm optimistic about the Ministry of Labor's recent revisions of the Labor Law - especially the inclusion of unions representing women migrant workers.
But I've had my fill of bureaucracy - of ministries, embassies and labor recruitment agencies. While these organizations and their representatives informed my initial report, I hope to get past the official discourse about women migrant workers (maids) and into the lived experiences of these women. What exactly that entails...we'll both have to wait and see.
Feel free to send your questions or comments throughout the summer - the more critical thinking/discussion the better. Well, I'm off to bed, or at least to lie awake thinking about all this for a few hours before my early morning flight.
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