10
Mar
2008
10 Comments
Sri Lankan workers in the Middle East: Statistics
I have been conducting case studies of migrant workers (mostly housemaids) in the Middle East, with my focus being Sri Lankan maids in particular, as most of my research implies that they are highly abused in our region. The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment has a lot of useful statistics on this, through which I have created the below graphs for. They are all pretty self-explanatory. You can see that the majority of the workers are both female and come to our region in order to work as (underpaid) housemaids.
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Esra’a
A very interestng topic dear. Education, even a bit of educaton would change the status of a worker from a mere housemaid to some one who works in an area of work which has a union, insurance and rights that is violated, police and the laws of country would effectively help. The way of living in Mideast countries and the poverty in some other countries around does contribute to this ready workforce market of house mads. Perhaps they need to have laws legislated to back them and their rights. For time being the well being of the house maids all depends on the people whom they work for..
I would actually consider housemaids to be skilled. They work twice as much as most of us, thrice as hard, and many are decent or fluent in at least 3 or more languages. I know maids as young as 18 who speak Arabic better than people who have studied the language for as much as 7 years.
So, really, I despise the people who dismiss maids as “unworthy slaves,” which is a common perception of them in the Gulf.
I wish we had some funds to revive the Migrant Rights page..
This is very interesting indeed. I know for a fact that housemaids in the U.S. get paid very well for the work that they do. Being a maid in today’s world is uncommon in the U.S. and therefore a generally well paid job for the work done. This is very sad that they are underpaid in Sri Lankan and the surrounding areas. I feel very bad that the workers get paid so little even though they do so much more work. It is odd indeed to see that there are so many more maids than all other professions combined. The 91.28% that are housemaids is quite appalling. Housemaids are indeed great workers, however, with the abundance of them there is a reason as to why they get pad so little. It is also very interesting to see that the number of contracted workers in Egypt. is so low that it seems to be zero on the charts. I am amazed by the difference in business of the Middle East and how there is so little diversity of professions.
To be a housemaid seems to be a common profession in the Middle East and the fact that many of them have gone on to further their studies and still become a housemaid is quite disappointing. If you go to college or a secondary school you are going to get a very professional job and those that don’t usually end up working at a fast food restaurant or, even, a housemaid. Professions seem to more diverse in the United States, but that is only compared to Sri Lankan and so it might not be a good comparison with the rest of the Middle East.
There is no diversity whatsoever and people really struggle to get more creative, as for the NGO fields, most of them get banned quite quickly in the ME depending on the type of work you do (everything is offensive/off-limits to our governments) and almost none of the small startups get regional funding. And people wonder why we turn to the foreign world, and then question our credibility based on that. It’s a mess. The ME region is the worst place for social entrepreneurs.
I believe the stats would be different for other nationalities, such as Filipinos. There are many Filipinos who are not housemaids but rather work in restaurants, as hair dressers, etc, and some get well paid if they work in 5-star hotels or for rich people. This is not to say that they don’t face abusive however, many go through a lot, but many are also very well off in the ME than at home in terms of employment or even living conditions.
For this specific research however my concern is human rights, so I focus on those who tend to be more abused.
Our agencies themselves are racist. Women are paid based on nationality, kind of like prostitution. Sri Lankans are amongst the cheapest, so you can imagine what they go through. If you speak to agents, they treat their clients like types of meat. “This one is pricey. This one will only cost you 40 a month. This one is cheapest because she has no experience and is young, so her workflow may not be the best.” They are regarded and treated as animals and this has to stop.
While this is an unfortunate situation, it is not an uncommon one. Even though most domestic workers in North America generally have good working conditions, there are numerous abuses committed against illegal immigrants in this field, who often are treated little better than slaves with the threat of deportation blackmailing them. While I certainly think that our society in general no longer subscribes to the repugnant classism that is reflective of this issue, it does exist. Education is a nice sounding idea as a solution, but there will always be a demand for cheap labour to do unpleasant jobs, and our world seems to be set up so there will always be someone desperate enough to fill that need. Establishing a comprehensive set of labour laws that protect workers, informing said workers of their rights, and giving them access to affordable (free) legal and legislative counsel so that they can defend their rights should be a must for any nation that considers itself civilized. Mopping floors and cleaning toilets is an unpleasant enough way to make a living without being abused.
Esra’a,
I can see how important is their role in a household. I wish a government would provide them with insurance before any thing else. Maybe many of them have this job as a part time job and they wish to swtich to another job which is less demanding, but the jobs of housemaniad should be considered as a defined job and an organization needs to work as a union of them, for their demands and their rights as the Employees of an organization which they work for. That way maybe the money they will recieve individually would be a bit less, but insurance and enforcement of supportive laws could be guarenteed instead…
Funny, housemaids in Sri Lanka who work for the rich are treated the same way, I am not expecting the Sri Lankan government to do anything about it since most in the government probably have a housemaid and they probably are treated like shit by these officials.
Of course it’s not he same for cheap general labourers here, a lot of whom have a degree and working in factories and driving cabs… no I am not talking about those with education from a foreign institutions, I am talking bout immigrants with Canadian education like my bro and dozen other people I personally know, including my uncle who has a fucking PhD working as a security guard.
Moral of the story, if you are an immigrant, you are fucked no matter where you live.
Dear ESRA,
I read your article in this web site with great interest.
i am a Sri lankan Chief Executive Officer of an International Company operating in Jordan. I am preparing a report to be presented to some NGOs to seek support in setting up a center for “Skills for Empowerment” in Sri Lanka..There is a need to set up a center of this nature to train Sri Lankan House maids for better silled jobs such as Care Givers and Home Stewardesses in view of the recent decison made by the Sri Lankan Governement to stop sending House Maids to the Middle Eastern Countries from 2009.
Purpose of your mail is to ask your permission for me to use some of your staistics and facts in my report.I will ofcourse quote your website as the source of information or else any other identiofication you may wish to release.
IT IS A VERY BASIC REPORT AND ONCE IT IS COMPLETE I WILL BE PLEASED TO RELEASE A COPY TO YOU.
However if you have any objections I will not use your report or the data in your report.
Thank you,
Robert F Edirisinghe
E MAIL athulla_edi@yahoo.com
Given the appaling conditions under which our poor women work and being handled as objects, I have always maintained the fact that these exports must stop immediately. Middle East should be (except Israel) a no go area for our helpless women.