Abstract
This chapter examines the relationship between migration and urbanization by exploring how female domestic workers (called Household Service Workers or HSWs), hailing from the Philippines, use and influence urban space in both their host country, the Arabian Gulf, and their home country, the Philippines. Since many HSWs work as nannies and are tied to exit visas, they are seen as employees of servitude and are kept separate from local citizens through social, spatial, and infrastructural segregations. Due to their precarious employment, HSWs are always second-class non-citizens with limited human, social, and spatial rights. The latter right, that of spatial access, or “right to the city,” is at the core of this chapter. By systemically examining the process of pre-migration training, the migrant’s limited mobility in the host country, and the impact of migration in the home country, this chapter focuses on the role of gender, identity, and citizenship on spatial mobility, migration, and urbanization in both the Gulf and the Philippines.
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Notes
- 1.
Gunatilleke, Migration of Asian Workers to the Arab World; Gunatilleke, Migration to the Arab World: Experience of Returning Migrants; The term “Arabian Gulf” is used to highlight the focus on Arab States. See Gunatilleke, The Impact of Labour Migration on Households: A Comparative Study in Seven Asian Countries.
- 2.
POEA, “Hiring Filipino Workers,” defines Household Service Workers as “All persons, male or female, who render domestic or household services abroad under contract for compensation. They shall include, among others, domestic helpers, maids, houseboys, nannies, babysitters, caregivers, tutors, governess, cooks, sewers, beauticians, masseurs, masseuses, drivers, and gardeners.”
- 3.
International Organization for Migration, “Key Migration Terms.”
- 4.
See, for example, Vora, Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora.
- 5.
See Sibley, Geographies of Exclusion: Society and Exclusion in the West.
- 6.
Harvey, “The Right To The City,” 23.
- 7.
See Robert Burgess and Vikram Haksar, “Migration and Foreign Remittances in the Philippines”; Veronica Bayangos and Karel Jansen, “The Macroeconomics of Remittance in the Philippines.” This work focuses on the economic impact of remittances on macroeconomies. Zosa and Orbeta Jr., “The Social and Economic Impact of Philippine International Labor Migration and Remittances.” It focuses on the social and familial expenditures in the Philippines of the influx of remittances. Tabuga, “International Remittances and Household Expenditures: The Philippine Case”; Gunatilleke, Migration of Asian Workers to the Arab World; Gunatilleke, Migration to the Arab World: Experience of Returning Migrants; Gunatilleke, The Impact of Labour Migration on Households: A Comparative Study in Seven Asian Countries. This canonical three-volume United Nations-funded project which took place between 1986 and 1992 researchers led by Godfrey Gunatilleke investigated the role of labor migration before, during, and after employment.
- 8.
Ramírez, García Domínguez, and Míguez Morais, “Crossing Borders: Remittances, Gender and Development,” 1.
- 9.
Harvey, “The Right To The City,” 32.
- 10.
Parreñas, The Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization, 5.
- 11.
Lim, Philippine Macroeconomic Developments, 1970–1993.
- 12.
O’Neil, “Labor Export as Government Policy: The Case of the Philippines.”
- 13.
“Philippines in Figures 2014”; “Stock Estimate of Overseas Filipinos.”
- 14.
TESDA, “Brief History of TESDA.”
- 15.
“Stock Estimate of Overseas Filipinos.”
- 16.
Bamberg, The History of the British Petroleum Company: The Anglo-Iranian Years, 1928–1952; Cadman, “The Oil Resources of the British Empire”; Longrigg, Oil in The Middle East; Mitchell, Carbon Democracy; Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power.
- 17.
See Lienhardt, Disorientations: A Society in Flux: Kuwait in the 1950s.
- 18.
See Ehsani, “Social Engineering and the Contradictions of Modernization in Khuzestan’s Company Towns: A Look at Abadan and Masjed-Soleyman.”
- 19.
Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, 122.
- 20.
See Longva, Walls Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, And Society In Kuwait; Esim and Smith, Gender and Migration in Arab States: The Case of Domestic Workers.
- 21.
Fargues, “Immigration without Inclusion: Non-Nationals in Nation-Building in the Gulf States,” 273.
- 22.
The Civil Identification Card (CID) is issued by the Gulf States’ Ministry of Interior and serves as the sole form of identification for foreigners in the GCC. The expiration date correlates with the visa and contract. If a foreigner is found without a CID by a police officer, they are held for further investigation.
- 23.
For more on the Kafala system and its impacts and repercussions, see Center for International and Regional Studies, “Migrant Labor in the Gulf, Summary Report.”
- 24.
See Gardner, City of Strangers; Vora, Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora.
- 25.
See al-Mughni, Women in Kuwait: The Politics of Gender; Alsayer, “From Domestic Housh to Consumer Mojama’a: The Social Space of Women in Kuwait.”
- 26.
Fargues, “Immigration without Inclusion: Non-Nationals in Nation-Building in the Gulf States,” 287.
- 27.
See, for example, Lienhardt, Disorientations: A Society in Flux: Kuwait in the 1950s, 199.
- 28.
On housing, see Alshalfan, “The Right to Housing in Kuwait: An Urban Injustice in a Socially Just System.”
- 29.
See, for example, Al-Moosa and McLachlan, Immigrant Labour in Kuwait; Al-Sabah, Development Planning in an Oil Economy and the Role of the Woman: The Case of Kuwait; Longva, Walls Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, And Society In Kuwait; Shah and Al-Qudsi, “Female Work Roles in a Traditional, Oil Economy: Kuwait.”
- 30.
Lienhardt, Disorientations: A Society in Flux: Kuwait in the 1950s, 51.
- 31.
See Al-Jassar, “Constancy and Change in Contemporary Kuwait City: The Socio-Cultural Dimensions of The Kuwaiti Courtyard and Diwaniyya.”
- 32.
See Alsayer, “From Domestic Housh to Consumer Mojama’a: The Social Space of Women in Kuwait.”
- 33.
Parreñas, “Transgressing the Nation-State: The Partial Citizenship and ‘Imagined (Global) Community’ of Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers,” 1129.
- 34.
TESDA, “Household Services NC II Competency-Based Curriculum,” 3–6.
- 35.
TESDA, 31–70.
- 36.
See Ehrenreich and Russell Hochschild, Global Woman; Gardner, City of Strangers; Rio-Laquian and Aprodicio A. Laquian, Seeking A Better Life Abroad:; Parreñas, Servants of Globalization; Parreñas, Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes, 2005.
- 37.
TESDA, “Household Services NC II Competency-Based Curriculum,” 49.
- 38.
TESDA, 24–29.
- 39.
Such as the supermarket, schools, produce and meat market, and shopping centers.
- 40.
Parreñas, The Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization, 8.
- 41.
For an in-depth analysis on the “schedule,” see Constable, Maid to Order in Hong Kong.
- 42.
In the architectural plans, the “driver’s” bathroom has an “eastern,” standing toilets, while the “maid’s” and the other bathrooms have a “western” toilet. This difference in fixtures reflects that drivers are typically from India and Bangladesh and would be more accustomed to “eastern” bathrooms.
- 43.
All Gulf States are Muslim nations and forbid pre- and extra-marital sex. This law is also extended to domestic workers, and sexual acts and/or pregnancy will most likely result in imprisonment and/or deportation.
- 44.
Muslim migrants have their “holiday” on Friday, and with the predominance of Christianity among HSWs, Sundays are usually their “holiday.” It should also be noted that the weekend in the Gulf is Friday and Saturday and some HSWs take their “holiday” on Saturday.
- 45.
Typically, HSWs make approximately KWD50 (US$165) per month, even though their contracts stipulate that salaries should be KWD120 (US$400) at minimum. With rides costing no more than KWD0.250 (US$0.83), public transportation appeals to the foreign community. See Kanlungan Centre Foundation, Inc. and International Labour Organization [ILO], Destination: Middle East: A Handbook for Filipino Women Domestic Workers, 28.
- 46.
See Anderson, Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Politics of Domestic Labour; Devault, Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work; Gamburd, The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle: Transnationalism and Sri Lanka’s Migrant Housemaids; Henshall Momsen, Gender, Migration and Domestic Service; Parreñas, Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes, 2005; Ramírez, García Domínguez, and Míguez Morais, “Crossing Borders: Remittances, Gender and Development”; Stanley Eitzen and Baca Zinn, Globalization: The Transformation of Social Worlds; Zimmerman, Litt, and Bose, Global Dimensions of Gender and Carework; Tyner, “The Globalization of Transnational Labor Migration and the Filipino Family: A Narrative.”
- 47.
World Bank, “Migration & Remittances Data.”
- 48.
Parreñas, The Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization, 25.
- 49.
See Parreñas, The Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization. Introduction: Contemporary Philippine Migration.
- 50.
Parreñas, 87.
- 51.
See Reisz, “Gulf Houses of Kerala.”
- 52.
Mehta, “Migration: Storytelling the City”; See Parreñas, “Mothering from a Distance: Emotions, Gender and Intergenerational Relations in Filipino Transnational Families.”
- 53.
Harvey, “The Right To The City.”
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Acknowledgments
The research here would not have been possible without the support of the Penny White Fund at the Graduate School of Design, the NCR Fund at the Asia Center, and the Philippines Fund at the Asia Center, Harvard University. Special thanks to Sonja Dümpelmann, Gareth Doherty, Pierre Bélanger, Edward Eigen, and Neil Brenner for their support and to Cathy Coote.
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Alsayer, D.M. (2019). The “Right to the City” in the Landscapes of Servitude and Migration, from the Philippines to the Arabian Gulf, and Back. In: Linhard, T., Parsons, T.H. (eds) Mapping Migration, Identity, and Space. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77956-0_12
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