By MD RASOOLDEEN | ARAB NEWS
Published: Mar 15, 2010 00:32 Updated: Mar 15, 2010 00:36
RIYADH: A Sri Lankan man who used to rent out jet skis in Jeddah died in hospital following an accident while riding a jet ski in the Obhur creek.
Sinne Lebbe Yusuf Lebbe, 36, popularly known as Zainul Abideen, died after falling from the machine which he had just repaired and was trying out.
Confirming the death, Sri Lankan Consul General Sabarullah Khan told Arab News that officials from the Saudi Red Crescent Society rescued the 36-year-old from the water and took him to a nearby hospital.
“He later succumbed to injuries to his stomach which were caused by the machine ... Doctors battled for 48 hours to save him,” said the consul general, thanking the hospital. He said police have ruled out foul play.
Lebbe, a bachelor, had been in the Kingdom for 13 years. He had not been maintaining regular contact with relatives in Nintavur in the Ampara district, some 300 km from Colombo.
Khan said Lebbe has three brothers, one of whom in the Eastern Province.
The consulate has contacted his relatives in Sri Lanka and obtained consent to bury him in Jeddah, Khan said.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Migrant workers an employment challenge: vice-minister
(Xinhua)
2010-03-10 16:15
BEIJING - Oversupply of labor in China's vast rural areas will continue now and for years to come, as China's migrant workers numbered about 230 million in 2009, Vice-Minister of Agriculture Wei Chao'an said here on Wednesday.
Wei told a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament, that he saw contradictions between current reports about "labor shortage" in coastal cities and massive underemployment in rural areas.
"We need further analysis on the reported 'labor shortage'," he said. "On the one hand, it is difficult for enterprises in coastal areas to recruit enough workers this year. And on the other hand, it is difficult for the countryside to transfer its redundant laborers to cities for employment."
The vice minister noted that oversupply of labor and underemployment would remain a challenge for China in the much longer term with its huge number of rural labor force.
Wei quoted the National Bureau of Statistics as saying that China had about 230 million farmer-turned workers last year, of whom about 145 million were seeking job opportunities outside their hometowns.
The number of redundant laborers in rural areas totaled about 90 million in China, home to a population of more than 1.3 billion.
In the government report submitted last week to the NPC, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to keep the urban registered unemployment rate no higher than 4.6 percent this year while guiding workers in an orderly flow, especially rural migrant workers.
2010-03-10 16:15
BEIJING - Oversupply of labor in China's vast rural areas will continue now and for years to come, as China's migrant workers numbered about 230 million in 2009, Vice-Minister of Agriculture Wei Chao'an said here on Wednesday.
Wei told a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament, that he saw contradictions between current reports about "labor shortage" in coastal cities and massive underemployment in rural areas.
"We need further analysis on the reported 'labor shortage'," he said. "On the one hand, it is difficult for enterprises in coastal areas to recruit enough workers this year. And on the other hand, it is difficult for the countryside to transfer its redundant laborers to cities for employment."
The vice minister noted that oversupply of labor and underemployment would remain a challenge for China in the much longer term with its huge number of rural labor force.
Wei quoted the National Bureau of Statistics as saying that China had about 230 million farmer-turned workers last year, of whom about 145 million were seeking job opportunities outside their hometowns.
The number of redundant laborers in rural areas totaled about 90 million in China, home to a population of more than 1.3 billion.
In the government report submitted last week to the NPC, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to keep the urban registered unemployment rate no higher than 4.6 percent this year while guiding workers in an orderly flow, especially rural migrant workers.
Thailand to jail migrants at political rallies - minister
From: AFP
March 09, 2010 5:58PM
THAILAND will imprison and hand out heavy fines to any migrant workers who attend mass anti-government rallies in Bangkok this weekend, the labour minister said today.
Migrants would be subject to a five-year jail term and fines of up to 100,000 baht ($3358) if found among protesters loyal to fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra who are due to gather in the capital on Sunday.
"Employers will (also) be fined up to 100,000 baht for each migrant worker and (the migrant's) work permit will be cancelled immediately," Labour Minister Phaitoon Kaeothong said.
Thaksin's supporters, known as "Red Shirts" for the colour they wear, are expected to hold one of their biggest ever rallies to protest against a Supreme Court decision two weeks ago that seized most of the tycoon's fortune.
They are also demanding that the government quit and end what they perceive as a two-tier system of justice that gives preference to the country's Bangkok-based elites in the bureaucracy, military and palace.
The government has warned that the demonstrations could turn violent and is expected to endorse on Tuesday a tough security act that places the army in charge of handling the rallies.
Thailand's economy relies on workers from its poorer neighbours, but in recent months the country has become tougher on immigration at its borders and has been accused of widespread mistreatment of migrants.
Amnesty International's Thailand expert Benjamin Zawacki said the kingdom should not deny migrants their basic rights to express their political views by attending the rallies.
"Regardless of your legal status in a country, it should not affect your human rights, which include freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association," Mr Zawacki said.
Rights groups have denounced a new migrant registration policy brought in this month that forces more than one million workers to verify their nationalities with their home governments.
They say the policy puts the vulnerable group in greater danger of deportation and extortion by unscrupulous authorities.
March 09, 2010 5:58PM
THAILAND will imprison and hand out heavy fines to any migrant workers who attend mass anti-government rallies in Bangkok this weekend, the labour minister said today.
Migrants would be subject to a five-year jail term and fines of up to 100,000 baht ($3358) if found among protesters loyal to fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra who are due to gather in the capital on Sunday.
"Employers will (also) be fined up to 100,000 baht for each migrant worker and (the migrant's) work permit will be cancelled immediately," Labour Minister Phaitoon Kaeothong said.
Thaksin's supporters, known as "Red Shirts" for the colour they wear, are expected to hold one of their biggest ever rallies to protest against a Supreme Court decision two weeks ago that seized most of the tycoon's fortune.
They are also demanding that the government quit and end what they perceive as a two-tier system of justice that gives preference to the country's Bangkok-based elites in the bureaucracy, military and palace.
The government has warned that the demonstrations could turn violent and is expected to endorse on Tuesday a tough security act that places the army in charge of handling the rallies.
Thailand's economy relies on workers from its poorer neighbours, but in recent months the country has become tougher on immigration at its borders and has been accused of widespread mistreatment of migrants.
Amnesty International's Thailand expert Benjamin Zawacki said the kingdom should not deny migrants their basic rights to express their political views by attending the rallies.
"Regardless of your legal status in a country, it should not affect your human rights, which include freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association," Mr Zawacki said.
Rights groups have denounced a new migrant registration policy brought in this month that forces more than one million workers to verify their nationalities with their home governments.
They say the policy puts the vulnerable group in greater danger of deportation and extortion by unscrupulous authorities.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Ex-migrant workers of Sri Lanka are to be registered
Mar 10, Colombo : Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau has commenced a programme to register the persons who have returned to the home country after working overseas.
The Chairman of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau Kingsley Ranawaka said that over 50,000 ex-migrant workers had registered themselves under this programme.
The programme, commenced recently, aims to guarantee the future of the ex-migrant workers and to obtain their services for the country, said Mr. Ranawaka. He added that the problems of the ex-migrant workers would be addressed and they would be provided with guidance and welfare under this programme.
The Chairman urged the ex-migrant workers to register as soon as possible at the nearest regional offices of the Foreign Employment Bureau.
International labor migration from Sri Lanka has remarkably grown over the last decades, with numbers increasing more than tenfold, according to the Central Bank, Annual Report 2008.
The total number of out migrants from Sri Lanka on employment abroad was estimated at 1.8 million. Annual outflow of workers is about 250,000 people. In 2007, the equivalent of 23% of total employment generated and 21% of Sri Lanka 's labor force was made up by foreign employment.
Migrant remittances are a mainstay of the Lankan economy, accounting for about 7% of GDP and 36% of export earnings.
SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka .
The Chairman of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau Kingsley Ranawaka said that over 50,000 ex-migrant workers had registered themselves under this programme.
The programme, commenced recently, aims to guarantee the future of the ex-migrant workers and to obtain their services for the country, said Mr. Ranawaka. He added that the problems of the ex-migrant workers would be addressed and they would be provided with guidance and welfare under this programme.
The Chairman urged the ex-migrant workers to register as soon as possible at the nearest regional offices of the Foreign Employment Bureau.
International labor migration from Sri Lanka has remarkably grown over the last decades, with numbers increasing more than tenfold, according to the Central Bank, Annual Report 2008.
The total number of out migrants from Sri Lanka on employment abroad was estimated at 1.8 million. Annual outflow of workers is about 250,000 people. In 2007, the equivalent of 23% of total employment generated and 21% of Sri Lanka 's labor force was made up by foreign employment.
Migrant remittances are a mainstay of the Lankan economy, accounting for about 7% of GDP and 36% of export earnings.
SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka .
Sri Lankan Migration To The Gulf: Female Breadwinners — Domestic Workers
By Michele Ruth Gamburd for MEI
Several waves of Sri Lankan migration have taken place since the country gained independence in 1948. Beginning in the mid-1950s, wealthy, educated, English-speaking elites have migrated to Commonwealth countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom. In addition, since the upsurge in ethnic hostilities in the early 1980s, Tamil speaking Hindu migrants have left the country, with many settling in Canada. In contrast with these permanent migrants, since 1976 a growing number of Sri Lankans have become migrant workers. The leading destination for this migrant labor force — the majority of whom are women — has been the Gulf.
The Scale and Composition of Sri Lankan Labor Migrants
In 2003, the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), the main administrative body regulating labor migration, estimated that 1,003,600 Sri Lankans worked abroad.1 By 2008, this number had increased to 1,792,368, or 9% of the island’s 20 million people. From the late 1980s until as recently as 2007, women made up the majority of these labor migrants. They accounted for 75% of the migrant flow in the mid-1990s, and by 2008 declined to a little under 50%. Of the migrant women, 88% went to work as housemaids.2 In much of the global North, such migrant transnational domestic workers meet the needs of the global “care deficit,” reflecting a global trend in outsourcing domestic labor to women from less developed countries. In contrast, transnational domestic servants in the Middle East free their sponsors for leisure, supporting a socially significant lifestyle.
In recent years, Sri Lankan officials have actively encouraged male migration. The male guest workers fill more diverse roles, with skilled and unskilled laborers making up roughly equal percentages of the male migrants (42% and 41% respectively in 2008).
Main Destination Countries
Most Sri Lankan migrants (92%), both male and female, journey to the Gulf, with four countries (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar) absorbing over 80% of Sri Lanka’s workers. In the Gulf, Sri Lankan women share the market for migrant domestic workers with women from Indonesia, the Philippines, and several other countries. Racial, ethnic, religious, and national stereotypes predetermine wages. For example, in the UAE in 2004, housemaids from the Philippines were paid more than those from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh, in that order.3
Most Sri Lankan housemaids go abroad on two-year contracts and live in their employers’ residences. Live-in housemaids have less autonomy and lower salaries than women with part-time or live-out arrangements. The isolation of the work situation can lead to abuse and exploitation.
Domestic workers’ legal protections vary from country to country. In many Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, labor laws cover male laborers but do not protect household workers.4 Labor regulations do apply to foreign domestic servants working in other areas in Asia, the European Union, and the United States, but may not be enforced against middle- and upper-class employers.5
Sri Lankan Sojourners as Temporary Migrants in the Gulf
Guest workers form a crucial aspect of local economies in the Gulf. Overall, foreigners make up an estimated 37-43% of the population of the GCC countries and constitute 70% of the workforce, with workforce numbers rising significantly higher in the UAE (90%), Kuwait (82%), and Qatar (90%).6 Most GCC countries have a de facto dual economy, with well paid, non-strenuous public-sector jobs created for “nationals” and poorly paid, difficult, low-status, private sector jobs performed by foreigners.
The high percentage of guest workers worries government officials. Accordingly, governments have legislated to minimize the perceived threat. Restrictions on length of stay, strict regulations about changing jobs, hurdles imposed by the sponsorship system, difficult-to-meet criteria for bringing in family members, the inability to own land and businesses, the near-impossibility of obtaining citizenship, and the absence of legal rights all work to keep guest workers’ stays short, temporary, or informal.7 Although Sri Lankans migrate to Australia, Canada, and the UK with plans to settle there, most sojourners in the Gulf do not hope to assimilate permanently into the host country.
Incentives for Sri Lankan Transnational Domestic Migrants
There are both national-level and family-level incentives for Sri Lankans to migrate. On the national level, migrant laborers’ remittances contribute significantly to Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings. In 2008, total remittances stood at SLR 316,118 million, or roughly $2.87 billion (converted at $1 = SLR 110). Nearly 60% of this total, SLR 189,039 million or $1.72 billion, came from the Gulf. In generating foreign earnings, private remittances (36%) come second after Sri Lanka’s large garment industry (40%). Clearly the country has a great financial stake in the remittances generated by migrant laborers, particularly those working in the Gulf.
Migration alleviates unemployment among the poorer segments of Sri Lanka’s population. Locally available jobs are mostly poorly paid and temporary, particularly for women. Although transnational domestic workers earn only an average of $100 a month while abroad, this is between two and five times what women could earn working in Sri Lanka, and equals or exceeds the wages earned by most village men. Migrant women consistently assert that families cannot make ends meet on their husbands’ salaries, and say that migration to the Middle East is their only available economic alternative. Family motives for migration usually include getting out of debt, buying land, and building a house. Women also state that they would like to support their family’s daily consumption needs, educate their children, and provide dowries for themselves or their daughters. Participants in the decision-making process (undergone repeatedly for migrants who return several times to the Gulf) weigh financial necessity and household improvements against separation, incursion of loans, and alternate arrangements for childcare.
Migrant women often become the sole or most significant breadwinners for their families. Several studies suggest that each migrant woman supports four to five members of her family; figures for migrant men are likely similar.8 In 2003, the SLBFE estimated that migrant laborers made up 14% of the total number of employed Sri Lankans. By 2008, this figure had jumped to 25%. A significant and growing percentage of Sri Lankan families are thus directly dependent on Gulf remittances.
Conclusion
Labor migration to the Gulf has become a core feature of Sri Lankans’ economic strategies at the family and national levels. Migration is likely to continue in the future. Trends will depend upon several factors: Sri Lanka’s success in diversifying its migrants’ destination countries; its economic growth and the local availability of desirable jobs; and its continued capacity to send care workers abroad while tending to an aging population at home.
Michele Ruth Gamburd is Professor of Anthropology at Portland State University. She is the author of The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle: Transnationalism and Sri Lanka’s Migrant Housemaids (Cornell University Press, 2000) and Breaking the Ashes: The Culture of Illicit Liquor in Sri Lanka (Cornell University Press, 2008).
This article was first published in Viewpoints: Migration and the Gulf, February 2010 (PDF) published by the Middle East Institute (MEI), pages 13-15, and is reprinted here with permission.
NOTES:
1. Statistical information in this article comes from the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment’s Annual Statistical Report of Foreign Employment 2008, which can be found online at http://slbfe.lk/downloads/Annual Statistical Report 2008 - SLBFE.pdf.
2. In Sri Lanka, domestic servants are often referred to as “housemaids” in both English and Sinhala. These migrant women’s duties often exceed the narrow technical limits of the term.
3. Michele Gamburd, “Advocating for Sri Lankan Migrant Workers: Obstacles and Challenges,” Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1 (2009), p. 70.
4. Regarding Saudi Arabia, see Graeme Hugo, “Indonesian International Domestic Workers: Contemporary Developments and Issues,” in Shirlena Huang, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, and Noor Abdul Rahman, eds., Asian Women as Transnational Domestic Workers (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2005), p. 83; regarding the UAE, see Gamburd, “Advocating for Sri Lankan Migrant Workers,” p. 66; regarding the UAE and Kuwait, see Karen Leonard, “South Asian Workers in the Gulf: Jockeying for Places,” in Richard Warren Perry and Bill Maurer, eds., Globalization under Construction: Governmentality, Law, and Identity (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), pp. 134, 153.
5. Pei-Chia Lan, “Surrogate Family, Disposable Labour and Stratified Others: Transnational Domestic Workers in Taiwan,” in Shirlena Huang, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, and Noor Abdul Rahman, eds., Asian Women as Transnational Domestic Workers, (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2005), p. 227; Vivienne Wee and Amy Sim, “Hong Kong as a Destination for Migrant Domestic Workers,” in Shirlena Huang, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, and Noor Abdul Rahman, eds., Asian Women as Transnational Domestic Workers, (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2005), p. 193.
6. Andrzej Kapiszewski, “Arab Versus Asian Migrant Workers in the GCC Countries.” Paper presented at the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Migration and Development in the Arab Region, United Nations Secretariat, Beirut, Lebanon, May 15-17, 2006, p. 4; Sulayman Khalaf and Saad Alkobaisiet, “Migrants’ Strategies of Coping and Patterns of Accommodation in the Oil-Rich Gulf Societies: Evidence from the UAE,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1999), p. 272; Leonard, “South Asian Workers in the Gulf,” p. 133.
7. Sulayman Khalaf, “Gulf Societies and the Image of Unlimited Good,” Dialectical Anthropology, Vol. 17 (1992), p. 72; Khalaf and Alkobaisi, “Migrants’ Strategies of Coping,” p. 294; Ahn Nga Longva, Walls Build on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, and Society in Kuwait (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997).
8. Swarna Jayaweera, Malsiri Dias, and Leelangi Wanasundera, Returnee Migrant Women in Two Locations in Sri Lanka: (Colombo, Sri Lanka: CENWOR, 2002), p. 1; Nedra Weerakoon, “Sri Lanka: A Caste Study of International Female Labour Migration,” in S. Sta. M. Amparita, J.J. Balisnono, R. Plaetevoet, and R. Selwyn, eds., Legal Protection for Asian Women Migrant Workers: Strategies for Action, (Makati City, Philippines: Ateneo Human Rights Center, 1998), p. 109.
Several waves of Sri Lankan migration have taken place since the country gained independence in 1948. Beginning in the mid-1950s, wealthy, educated, English-speaking elites have migrated to Commonwealth countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom. In addition, since the upsurge in ethnic hostilities in the early 1980s, Tamil speaking Hindu migrants have left the country, with many settling in Canada. In contrast with these permanent migrants, since 1976 a growing number of Sri Lankans have become migrant workers. The leading destination for this migrant labor force — the majority of whom are women — has been the Gulf.
The Scale and Composition of Sri Lankan Labor Migrants
In 2003, the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), the main administrative body regulating labor migration, estimated that 1,003,600 Sri Lankans worked abroad.1 By 2008, this number had increased to 1,792,368, or 9% of the island’s 20 million people. From the late 1980s until as recently as 2007, women made up the majority of these labor migrants. They accounted for 75% of the migrant flow in the mid-1990s, and by 2008 declined to a little under 50%. Of the migrant women, 88% went to work as housemaids.2 In much of the global North, such migrant transnational domestic workers meet the needs of the global “care deficit,” reflecting a global trend in outsourcing domestic labor to women from less developed countries. In contrast, transnational domestic servants in the Middle East free their sponsors for leisure, supporting a socially significant lifestyle.
In recent years, Sri Lankan officials have actively encouraged male migration. The male guest workers fill more diverse roles, with skilled and unskilled laborers making up roughly equal percentages of the male migrants (42% and 41% respectively in 2008).
Main Destination Countries
Most Sri Lankan migrants (92%), both male and female, journey to the Gulf, with four countries (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar) absorbing over 80% of Sri Lanka’s workers. In the Gulf, Sri Lankan women share the market for migrant domestic workers with women from Indonesia, the Philippines, and several other countries. Racial, ethnic, religious, and national stereotypes predetermine wages. For example, in the UAE in 2004, housemaids from the Philippines were paid more than those from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh, in that order.3
Most Sri Lankan housemaids go abroad on two-year contracts and live in their employers’ residences. Live-in housemaids have less autonomy and lower salaries than women with part-time or live-out arrangements. The isolation of the work situation can lead to abuse and exploitation.
Domestic workers’ legal protections vary from country to country. In many Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, labor laws cover male laborers but do not protect household workers.4 Labor regulations do apply to foreign domestic servants working in other areas in Asia, the European Union, and the United States, but may not be enforced against middle- and upper-class employers.5
Sri Lankan Sojourners as Temporary Migrants in the Gulf
Guest workers form a crucial aspect of local economies in the Gulf. Overall, foreigners make up an estimated 37-43% of the population of the GCC countries and constitute 70% of the workforce, with workforce numbers rising significantly higher in the UAE (90%), Kuwait (82%), and Qatar (90%).6 Most GCC countries have a de facto dual economy, with well paid, non-strenuous public-sector jobs created for “nationals” and poorly paid, difficult, low-status, private sector jobs performed by foreigners.
The high percentage of guest workers worries government officials. Accordingly, governments have legislated to minimize the perceived threat. Restrictions on length of stay, strict regulations about changing jobs, hurdles imposed by the sponsorship system, difficult-to-meet criteria for bringing in family members, the inability to own land and businesses, the near-impossibility of obtaining citizenship, and the absence of legal rights all work to keep guest workers’ stays short, temporary, or informal.7 Although Sri Lankans migrate to Australia, Canada, and the UK with plans to settle there, most sojourners in the Gulf do not hope to assimilate permanently into the host country.
Incentives for Sri Lankan Transnational Domestic Migrants
There are both national-level and family-level incentives for Sri Lankans to migrate. On the national level, migrant laborers’ remittances contribute significantly to Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings. In 2008, total remittances stood at SLR 316,118 million, or roughly $2.87 billion (converted at $1 = SLR 110). Nearly 60% of this total, SLR 189,039 million or $1.72 billion, came from the Gulf. In generating foreign earnings, private remittances (36%) come second after Sri Lanka’s large garment industry (40%). Clearly the country has a great financial stake in the remittances generated by migrant laborers, particularly those working in the Gulf.
Migration alleviates unemployment among the poorer segments of Sri Lanka’s population. Locally available jobs are mostly poorly paid and temporary, particularly for women. Although transnational domestic workers earn only an average of $100 a month while abroad, this is between two and five times what women could earn working in Sri Lanka, and equals or exceeds the wages earned by most village men. Migrant women consistently assert that families cannot make ends meet on their husbands’ salaries, and say that migration to the Middle East is their only available economic alternative. Family motives for migration usually include getting out of debt, buying land, and building a house. Women also state that they would like to support their family’s daily consumption needs, educate their children, and provide dowries for themselves or their daughters. Participants in the decision-making process (undergone repeatedly for migrants who return several times to the Gulf) weigh financial necessity and household improvements against separation, incursion of loans, and alternate arrangements for childcare.
Migrant women often become the sole or most significant breadwinners for their families. Several studies suggest that each migrant woman supports four to five members of her family; figures for migrant men are likely similar.8 In 2003, the SLBFE estimated that migrant laborers made up 14% of the total number of employed Sri Lankans. By 2008, this figure had jumped to 25%. A significant and growing percentage of Sri Lankan families are thus directly dependent on Gulf remittances.
Conclusion
Labor migration to the Gulf has become a core feature of Sri Lankans’ economic strategies at the family and national levels. Migration is likely to continue in the future. Trends will depend upon several factors: Sri Lanka’s success in diversifying its migrants’ destination countries; its economic growth and the local availability of desirable jobs; and its continued capacity to send care workers abroad while tending to an aging population at home.
Michele Ruth Gamburd is Professor of Anthropology at Portland State University. She is the author of The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle: Transnationalism and Sri Lanka’s Migrant Housemaids (Cornell University Press, 2000) and Breaking the Ashes: The Culture of Illicit Liquor in Sri Lanka (Cornell University Press, 2008).
This article was first published in Viewpoints: Migration and the Gulf, February 2010 (PDF) published by the Middle East Institute (MEI), pages 13-15, and is reprinted here with permission.
NOTES:
1. Statistical information in this article comes from the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment’s Annual Statistical Report of Foreign Employment 2008, which can be found online at http://slbfe.lk/downloads/Annual Statistical Report 2008 - SLBFE.pdf.
2. In Sri Lanka, domestic servants are often referred to as “housemaids” in both English and Sinhala. These migrant women’s duties often exceed the narrow technical limits of the term.
3. Michele Gamburd, “Advocating for Sri Lankan Migrant Workers: Obstacles and Challenges,” Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1 (2009), p. 70.
4. Regarding Saudi Arabia, see Graeme Hugo, “Indonesian International Domestic Workers: Contemporary Developments and Issues,” in Shirlena Huang, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, and Noor Abdul Rahman, eds., Asian Women as Transnational Domestic Workers (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2005), p. 83; regarding the UAE, see Gamburd, “Advocating for Sri Lankan Migrant Workers,” p. 66; regarding the UAE and Kuwait, see Karen Leonard, “South Asian Workers in the Gulf: Jockeying for Places,” in Richard Warren Perry and Bill Maurer, eds., Globalization under Construction: Governmentality, Law, and Identity (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), pp. 134, 153.
5. Pei-Chia Lan, “Surrogate Family, Disposable Labour and Stratified Others: Transnational Domestic Workers in Taiwan,” in Shirlena Huang, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, and Noor Abdul Rahman, eds., Asian Women as Transnational Domestic Workers, (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2005), p. 227; Vivienne Wee and Amy Sim, “Hong Kong as a Destination for Migrant Domestic Workers,” in Shirlena Huang, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, and Noor Abdul Rahman, eds., Asian Women as Transnational Domestic Workers, (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2005), p. 193.
6. Andrzej Kapiszewski, “Arab Versus Asian Migrant Workers in the GCC Countries.” Paper presented at the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Migration and Development in the Arab Region, United Nations Secretariat, Beirut, Lebanon, May 15-17, 2006, p. 4; Sulayman Khalaf and Saad Alkobaisiet, “Migrants’ Strategies of Coping and Patterns of Accommodation in the Oil-Rich Gulf Societies: Evidence from the UAE,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1999), p. 272; Leonard, “South Asian Workers in the Gulf,” p. 133.
7. Sulayman Khalaf, “Gulf Societies and the Image of Unlimited Good,” Dialectical Anthropology, Vol. 17 (1992), p. 72; Khalaf and Alkobaisi, “Migrants’ Strategies of Coping,” p. 294; Ahn Nga Longva, Walls Build on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, and Society in Kuwait (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997).
8. Swarna Jayaweera, Malsiri Dias, and Leelangi Wanasundera, Returnee Migrant Women in Two Locations in Sri Lanka: (Colombo, Sri Lanka: CENWOR, 2002), p. 1; Nedra Weerakoon, “Sri Lanka: A Caste Study of International Female Labour Migration,” in S. Sta. M. Amparita, J.J. Balisnono, R. Plaetevoet, and R. Selwyn, eds., Legal Protection for Asian Women Migrant Workers: Strategies for Action, (Makati City, Philippines: Ateneo Human Rights Center, 1998), p. 109.
Ex-migrant workers of Sri Lanka are to be registered
Wed, Mar 10, 2010, 07:44 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka .
Mar 10, Colombo : Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau has commenced a programme to register the persons who have returned to the home country after working overseas.
The Chairman of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau Kingsley Ranawaka said that over 50,000 ex-migrant workers had registered themselves under this programme.
The programme, commenced recently, aims to guarantee the future of the ex-migrant workers and to obtain their services for the country, said Mr. Ranawaka. He added that the problems of the ex-migrant workers would be addressed and they would be provided with guidance and welfare under this programme.
The Chairman urged the ex-migrant workers to register as soon as possible at the nearest regional offices of the Foreign Employment Bureau.
International labor migration from Sri Lanka has remarkably grown over the last decades, with numbers increasing more than tenfold, according to the Central Bank, Annual Report 2008.
The total number of out migrants from Sri Lanka on employment abroad was estimated at 1.8 million. Annual outflow of workers is about 250,000 people. In 2007, the equivalent of 23% of total employment generated and 21% of Sri Lanka 's labor force was made up by foreign employment.
Migrant remittances are a mainstay of the Lankan economy, accounting for about 7% of GDP and 36% of export earnings.
Mar 10, Colombo : Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau has commenced a programme to register the persons who have returned to the home country after working overseas.
The Chairman of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau Kingsley Ranawaka said that over 50,000 ex-migrant workers had registered themselves under this programme.
The programme, commenced recently, aims to guarantee the future of the ex-migrant workers and to obtain their services for the country, said Mr. Ranawaka. He added that the problems of the ex-migrant workers would be addressed and they would be provided with guidance and welfare under this programme.
The Chairman urged the ex-migrant workers to register as soon as possible at the nearest regional offices of the Foreign Employment Bureau.
International labor migration from Sri Lanka has remarkably grown over the last decades, with numbers increasing more than tenfold, according to the Central Bank, Annual Report 2008.
The total number of out migrants from Sri Lanka on employment abroad was estimated at 1.8 million. Annual outflow of workers is about 250,000 people. In 2007, the equivalent of 23% of total employment generated and 21% of Sri Lanka 's labor force was made up by foreign employment.
Migrant remittances are a mainstay of the Lankan economy, accounting for about 7% of GDP and 36% of export earnings.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Job seekers need home country health certificate
Asma Ali Zain
9 March 2010, 7:12 AM
Expatriates seeking employment here will soon have to bring a medical fitness certificate issued by approved centres in their home country.
This is the new health procedures being formulated by the Dubai Health Authority.
The new regulation, expected by year-end, will include a general health examination for both communicable and non-communicable diseases including diabetes.
The certificate will be issued by DHA-approved health centres abroad and apply to expatriates seeking work permit in Dubai . However, a decision is yet to be taken on whether the locally done medical fitness test will cease.
Decision is also awaited on whether the rule will apply to a specific category of workforce and nationality or for all, a senior health official said on Monday.
“This is for the benefit of both parties — the employer and employee,” Dr Ali Al Marzooqi, Director of Health and Safety of DHA, told Khaleej Times.
“We have seen cases where people have sold their entire property back home to come to Dubai and have not been able to work here because of ill health,” he said.
“It will be up to the employer to decide if he wants to hire an employee despite his medical condition,” he said. “It does not make sense having truck drivers with eyesight problems and people with hearing loss in a job where they are required to listen.”
For communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, the authority will order a local confirmatory test. Test centres will be monitored by the authority and will be penalised if found to be faking certificates.
“Not every centre will be able to issue a certificate since we understand that the authority can be misused,” said Dr Al Marzooqi. “We are putting a system in place.”
The DHA is also reviewing regulations governing communicable diseases including TB and HIV/AIDS. Plans are already on to treat and allow tuberculosis patients to stay in the country provided they follow a strict treatment regimen.
The current federal law states that people with tuberculosis be treated and sent back to their home countries. “A final decision in this regard will be taken by July,” he said.
asmaalizain@khaleejtimes
9 March 2010, 7:12 AM
Expatriates seeking employment here will soon have to bring a medical fitness certificate issued by approved centres in their home country.
This is the new health procedures being formulated by the Dubai Health Authority.
The new regulation, expected by year-end, will include a general health examination for both communicable and non-communicable diseases including diabetes.
The certificate will be issued by DHA-approved health centres abroad and apply to expatriates seeking work permit in Dubai . However, a decision is yet to be taken on whether the locally done medical fitness test will cease.
Decision is also awaited on whether the rule will apply to a specific category of workforce and nationality or for all, a senior health official said on Monday.
“This is for the benefit of both parties — the employer and employee,” Dr Ali Al Marzooqi, Director of Health and Safety of DHA, told Khaleej Times.
“We have seen cases where people have sold their entire property back home to come to Dubai and have not been able to work here because of ill health,” he said.
“It will be up to the employer to decide if he wants to hire an employee despite his medical condition,” he said. “It does not make sense having truck drivers with eyesight problems and people with hearing loss in a job where they are required to listen.”
For communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, the authority will order a local confirmatory test. Test centres will be monitored by the authority and will be penalised if found to be faking certificates.
“Not every centre will be able to issue a certificate since we understand that the authority can be misused,” said Dr Al Marzooqi. “We are putting a system in place.”
The DHA is also reviewing regulations governing communicable diseases including TB and HIV/AIDS. Plans are already on to treat and allow tuberculosis patients to stay in the country provided they follow a strict treatment regimen.
The current federal law states that people with tuberculosis be treated and sent back to their home countries. “A final decision in this regard will be taken by July,” he said.
asmaalizain@khaleejtimes
Come Protest the Illegal Detention of Migrants and Refugees in Beirut
Next Sunday (February 28th), a protest will be held in front of the General Security Retention Center in Adlieh, Beirut to demand the closing down of the center. Among others, the retention center holds refugees and migrant workers in an illegal manner in inhumane conditions.
Below is the press release by the Lebanese Center for Human Rights
CALL FOR A GENERAL MOBILIZATION
To Close Down the General Security Retention Center
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28 at 12PM
Under the Adlieh bridge, hundreds of persons are detained underground in inhumane conditions with no natural light or ventilation.
The General Security maintains these persons illegally, including refugees, migrant domestics and workers who have already served their sentence, for indeterminate periods of time without any external control.
This practice constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights and must end immediately!
The Lebanese Center for Human Rights calls on human rights defenders and all citizens to express their indignation this Sunday February 28 at 12PM in front of the General Security Retention Center at the Adlieh round-about to demand:
• The immediate release of all persons arbitrarily detained.
• The closing down of the retention center.
• The review of the General Security’s prerogatives
Break the silence on illegal practices of the General Security!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=328691816077&index=1
Below is the press release by the Lebanese Center for Human Rights
CALL FOR A GENERAL MOBILIZATION
To Close Down the General Security Retention Center
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28 at 12PM
Under the Adlieh bridge, hundreds of persons are detained underground in inhumane conditions with no natural light or ventilation.
The General Security maintains these persons illegally, including refugees, migrant domestics and workers who have already served their sentence, for indeterminate periods of time without any external control.
This practice constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights and must end immediately!
The Lebanese Center for Human Rights calls on human rights defenders and all citizens to express their indignation this Sunday February 28 at 12PM in front of the General Security Retention Center at the Adlieh round-about to demand:
• The immediate release of all persons arbitrarily detained.
• The closing down of the retention center.
• The review of the General Security’s prerogatives
Break the silence on illegal practices of the General Security!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=328691816077&index=1
Labor Market show offers Saudis ‘informed career choices’
By Saleh Al-Zahrani
JEDDAH – On behalf of Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah Region, Prince Misha’l Bin Majed Bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Jeddah, will open next Saturday the second Labor Market Exhibition which highlights efforts to find work for the local population and gives Saudis the chance to look at the estimated 100,000 job vacancies open to them.
According to JCCI deputy chairman Mazen Batterjee, the four-day event organized by Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), the Ministry of Labor and the Human Resources Development Fund, gathers the Kingdom’s leading companies in providing employment.
“It’s a unique opportunity for young Saudis to meet company owners and personal mangers face to face and discuss their concerns,” Batterjee said.
One company executive added that the occasion would give secondary schools pupils and their guardians the chance to view the needs of the Saudi labor market.
“This will help them make informed career choices,” he said. – Okaz/SG
JEDDAH – On behalf of Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah Region, Prince Misha’l Bin Majed Bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Jeddah, will open next Saturday the second Labor Market Exhibition which highlights efforts to find work for the local population and gives Saudis the chance to look at the estimated 100,000 job vacancies open to them.
According to JCCI deputy chairman Mazen Batterjee, the four-day event organized by Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), the Ministry of Labor and the Human Resources Development Fund, gathers the Kingdom’s leading companies in providing employment.
“It’s a unique opportunity for young Saudis to meet company owners and personal mangers face to face and discuss their concerns,” Batterjee said.
One company executive added that the occasion would give secondary schools pupils and their guardians the chance to view the needs of the Saudi labor market.
“This will help them make informed career choices,” he said. – Okaz/SG
Housemaid hangs herself from window
By Ibrahim Alawi
JEDDAH – Police say that a housemaid found hanging by the neck outside a bathroom window on Saturday committed suicide. The incident occurred at the apartment of the lady’s family, who, concerned at her prolonged absence, began to search their home until they found her outside the window with the cloth of a head covering around her neck. – Okaz/SG
JEDDAH – Police say that a housemaid found hanging by the neck outside a bathroom window on Saturday committed suicide. The incident occurred at the apartment of the lady’s family, who, concerned at her prolonged absence, began to search their home until they found her outside the window with the cloth of a head covering around her neck. – Okaz/SG
Monday, March 8, 2010
ACHRS opposes and actively campaigns against the death penalty in all cases and every form no matter where it is used. It considers the death penalty a violation of the right to life and the ultimate form of inhuman, cruel, and degrading punishment. In its stance against the death penalty, the organization in no way condones violent crime nor questions the responsibility of governments to ensure that those who commit such crimes are brought to justice. In carrying out this responsibility, however, governments must abide by relevant international law and standards, including the abolition of the death penalty and the prohibition of torture.
ACHRS recognizes that capital punishment has not proven to be an effective deterrent for violent crimes. The organization also emphasizes that execution is permanent and that as long as the death penalty is in practice, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.
ACHRS recognizes that capital punishment has not proven to be an effective deterrent for violent crimes. The organization also emphasizes that execution is permanent and that as long as the death penalty is in practice, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.
Participate in the Debate on the CEDAW in Jordan
Written by ACHRS
Tuesday, 05 May 2009
The CEDAW (Convention for Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and it is often called "the international women's bill of rights."[1] Jordan signed on to the convention in 1992 and ratified it in 1997 with some "reservations" - limitations – particularly the sections which grant adult women full freedom of mobility without male consent, their choice of residence without male consent, and the right to pass their nationality on to their children.
Recently, there was a "Cabinet decision to lift its reservations on paragraph four of Article 15, which gives women freedom of mobility and choice of residence without consent of their husbands or other male family members."[2]
The Islamic Action Front, the political party of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, has issued a statement warning that "families in Jordan face the threat of total collapse under the CEDAW" and are advocating for Jordan to reverse its position and withdraw from the convention outright instead.[3]
The IAF argues that it was wrong for the country to agree on universal standards for women's rights without holding a national dialog first.
In the spirit of free and open debate, we encourage you to participate in the survey ("Do you support Jordan's signing of the Convention on the "CEDAW", which aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women?) being hosted on Ad Dustor newspaper's website at http://addustour.com/.
Tuesday, 05 May 2009
The CEDAW (Convention for Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and it is often called "the international women's bill of rights."[1] Jordan signed on to the convention in 1992 and ratified it in 1997 with some "reservations" - limitations – particularly the sections which grant adult women full freedom of mobility without male consent, their choice of residence without male consent, and the right to pass their nationality on to their children.
Recently, there was a "Cabinet decision to lift its reservations on paragraph four of Article 15, which gives women freedom of mobility and choice of residence without consent of their husbands or other male family members."[2]
The Islamic Action Front, the political party of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, has issued a statement warning that "families in Jordan face the threat of total collapse under the CEDAW" and are advocating for Jordan to reverse its position and withdraw from the convention outright instead.[3]
The IAF argues that it was wrong for the country to agree on universal standards for women's rights without holding a national dialog first.
In the spirit of free and open debate, we encourage you to participate in the survey ("Do you support Jordan's signing of the Convention on the "CEDAW", which aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women?) being hosted on Ad Dustor newspaper's website at http://addustour.com/.
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