According to the World Bank, approximately 74 million -nearly half- of all migrants departing from the developing world settle and reside in other developing countries. A prominent and significant example of such a South-South migration includes South-Asian workers migrating to the oil-rich states of the Persian Gulf, such as Kuwait. While migration to the Gulf has become increasingly differentiated, the vast majority of South Asian migrants remain in low-skilled positions, with foreign female domestic workers constituting one-third of total expatriate workforce.
In 2009, embassies of labour-sending countries in Kuwait received more than 10,000 complaints of ‘modern day slavery’ from domestic workers employed in the country. The issue of maltreatment of foreign, female, domestic workers is also receiving considerable media exposure and is a serious concern of NGOs and human rights organizations worldwide.
This paper analyses the extent to which migration policy in Kuwait affects the working and living conditions of low-skilled, foreign female domestic workers, and to discuss whether a shift in migration policy would significantly improve their quality of life.
Author:Amina Samy
In Service of Those Who Serve Us? The Impact of Immigration Policy on Discrimination against Foreign Female Domestic Workers in Kuwait (240)
Latest Updates
In Service of Those Who Serve Us? The Impact of Immigration Policy on Discrimination against Foreign Female Domestic Workers in Kuwait
Featured Projects
The Learn Africa Project: Public Health, Applied Learning and Research Internship
Trevor Mattos is a Pike Scholar at Gordon College, Massachusetts. Earlier this year he and a colleague Miranda MacKinnon travelled to Togo, West Africa to direct a Development and Public Health project that had been planned since the previous year.
This project report details the establishment of the ‘The Learn Africa Project’ and highlights some of the challenges and planning required in establishing a community development and public health project from the base up in a Developing Country. It also highlights the principle research undertaken in preparation for the estabishment of the project.
Report Author: Trevor Mattos
Demographic Dimensions and their Implications on the Incidence of Street Begging in Urban Areas of Central Tanzania: The Case of Dodoma and Singida Municipalities
This study explores the implications of demographic dimensions on the incidence of street begging in urban areas of central Tanzania with Dodoma and Singida Municipalities as case studies. This study was conducted on different days at different streets and public spaces in Dodoma and Singida Municipalities to obtain data on incidence of street begging. A cross-sectional survey was employed and involved 130 street beggars. Structured questionnaires were administered on randomly selected beggars to obtain data on their demographic dimensions. Group discussions, key informant interview, and observations were also used to collect data relevant for the study.
Authors:Baltazar M.L. Namwata, Maseke R. Mgabo and Provident Dimoso
Demographic Dimensions and their Implications on the Incidence of Street Begging in Urban Areas of Central Tanzania (747)
Dadaab Refugee Camps, Kenya
With conflict and continuing uncertainty affecting the future of Somalia following the US backed Ethiopian invasion it is little wonder Somalis continue to flee their disintegrating country. Since the early 1990’s when large scale civil war broke out the Somali Diaspora has spread far and wide. Nearly a million have fled to already poor neighbouring countries and 400,000 of those headed south to Kenya. Though many have managed to return since there remains over 100,000 mostly Somali refugees in Northern and Eastern Kenya.
Featured Articles & Papers
On International Women’s Day Tanzanian women were still far from achieving a measure of equality
International Women’s Day earlier this month gave German based Governance student Dorosella Bishanga a moment to reflect on the levels of inequality faced by Women in her native Tanzania and citing recent studies comment on whether and when Women may yet gain greater participation in Tanzania’s social, economic and political spheres.
Focus on Corruption: How to secure the aims of decentralization in Peru by improving good governance at the regional level
Decentralization holds out the promise of improving democratic participation and public service delivery, but this can be undermined where week institutions allow corruption to flourish. In this joint policy analysis paper, the authors create an econometric model of corruption at the regional level in Peru to inform policy recommendations aimed at the Peruvian National Council of Decentralization and the Office of the Public Defender. The paper was awarded Most Outstanding Policy Analysis in 2005 at the MPA/ID program at Harvard Kennedy School.
Authors: Aaron Ausland and Alfonso Tolmos
Focus on Corruption: How to secure the aims of decentralization in Peru by improving good governance at the regional level
‘Money does not always talk’ – Reassessing the Empowerment Potential of Women’s Employment
It has often been assumed that, as a result of access to financial resources, women’s employment would lead to their empowerment. However, this link is not as straightforward as examples from Kenya and Bangladesh show: Firstly, intra-household dynamics shape women’s control over income and secondly, even when they have control, it does not necessarily lead to a transformation of their subordinate status. This paper examines fundamental problems in defining and measuring empowerment and in this context depicts underlying normative Western ideas about agency, emancipation and modernity. The paper argues for the inclusion of the women concerned in policy-making in order to construct locally relevant indicators for empowerment.
Author:David Parduhn
‘Money does not always talk’ - Reassessing the Empowerment Potential of Women’s Employment (306)
