Research has drawn attention to the increasing feminization of migration, and to how women in temporary foreign worker (TFW) programs tend to be concentrated in lower-skill and more vulnerable jobs traditionally considered “women’s work”: caregiving, domestic service, hospitality. Many developing countries look to TFW schemes as one way to deal with high unemployment levels as part of their employment strategies. Research by The North-South Institute and the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, University of West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica, proposes a rights-based approach to identifying gender sensitive TFW strategies that could improve outcomes for both women migrant workers and their communities, employers and host communities.
The proposed research will link teams in Jamaica and Canada to identify key gender concerns in TFWPs and explore policy responses for both labour-sending and labour-receiving countries. These include: gender-related barriers to recruitment processes in the labour-sending country; gender-related access issues for women TFWs to better jobs (better pay, occupational health and safety standards, and opportunities for skills development) in labour-receiving countries; access to skills training in both sending and destination country, and the undervaluing of traditional female occupations. If funding is available, the project may be expanded to include other labour-sending countries, including Mexico and the Philippines. Based on results from the preliminary scoping phase, the research would focus on potential opportunities for women temporary foreign workers in non-traditional sectors in labour-receiving countries. While it is expected that employment opportunities for TFWs during the current recession may contract in the short-term, both sending and receiving countries need to consider medium and longer-term labour force needs, and the place of temporary foreign workers in labour markets.
Related Resources
Impacts of the Economic Crisis: Women Migrant Workers in Asia, by NSI Senior Researcher Heather Gibb, Speaking Notes for the IWG-GEM Conference (United Nations Headquarters, New York, July 13th 2009)