Patterns of Migration, Working Conditions and Organizing in Globalized Care Work

The 100^th Session of the International Labour Conference in 2011 concluded with the adoption of the Convention on Domestic Workers, which recognized the “significant contribution of domestic workers to the global economy” that is “undervalued and invisible, and is mainly carried out by women and girls, many of whom are migrants or members of disadvantaged communities”.  The convention serves as an important initiative to develop a broad understanding of the work that migrant domestic workers do under restricted conditions or as undocumented.  Drawing from recent NGO studies and reports, this paper offers an overview of the carework transformed to globalized care, which includes the state regulations of specific receiving countries that increasingly restrict the movement and labor choices available to migrant workers; the complexities and inequalities inherent to traditional notions of women’s work and the intersections of race, class, ethnicity and citizenship in care work that is delivered globally; workers’ migration patterns shaped by the various recruitment processes and citizenship restrictions;  continued  devaluation of work perceived as ‘women’s work’, unskilled and outside of legal regulation offered to other workers.  I conclude by highlighting the wide range of organizing activity among domestic workers around the world.