ABSTRACT

This article aims to explore policy responses to the early phase of the COVID-19 crisis, with a particular focus on disparate outcomes for international migrant domestic workers (MDWs). Through an analysis of interviews conducted with health and humanitarian organizations and experts in key migration corridors, it surfaces the central role that MDWs play in social provisioning and in mediating care responsibilities between the state and the family, particularly during lockdown and shelter-in place orders, and calls attention to the essential but excluded nature of migrant labor. The study investigates how states’ responses to COVID-19 intersected with existing institutions of social provisioning and immigration laws, and with claims-making by MDWs to shape the impact of this crisis upon the well-being of these workers. It emphasizes that understanding what is happening to migrant care workers can help rebuild stronger, more effective social protection systems after the crisis.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Migrant domestic workers (MDWs) perform labor essential for social protection systems.

• The COVID-19 crisis revealed their exclusion from those social protection systems.

• Stronger pre-crisis social protection systems were more inclusive of MDWs.

• Countries of origin largely failed to advocate for these workers during the crisis.

• Claims-making by worker organizations emerged as workers’ main source of support.

• Greater social protection for MDWs is a public health and human rights imperative.

摘要

本文旨在探讨针对COVID-19危机早期阶段的政策对策，特别关注国际移徙家庭佣工（MDW）的不同结果。通过对在主要移民走廊与卫生和人道主义组织以及专家进行的访谈进行的分析，它揭示了MDW在社会提供以及在国家与家庭之间调解护理责任方面发挥的核心作用，特别是在封锁和临时安置令期间，并提请注意移民劳工的基本性质，但又排除在外。这项研究调查了各州对COVID-19的反应如何与现有的社会规定和移民法律机构以及MDW提出的要求相交，以塑造这场危机对这些工人的福祉的影响。

强调

• 移民家庭工人（MDW）从事社会保护体系必不可少的劳动。

• COVID-19危机表明他们被排除在那些社会保护体系之外。

• 危机前更强大的社会保护体系更多地包括了MDW。

• 在危机期间，原籍国基本上没有提倡这些工人。

• 工人组织提出的要求成为工人主要的支持来源。

• 对MDW加强社会保护是公共卫生和人权的当务之急。