Migrant Workers

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Migrant Workers Migrant Brides Concerns and
Challenges Neng Magno ARENA-RCGAD Marriage and
Migration Workshop Hanoi, 19 April 2007
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The concept of power is relative to the
understanding of the expression of power. One of
the expressions of power is power within where
individuals manifest the power to change their
lives. Jo Rowlands Questioning Empowerment
Working with Women in Hondras
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International bodies
Local communities
POWER?
Socio-economic conditions
Heroines?
Victims?
NGOs
Employers
Families
Scholars/researchers
Recruiters
Migrant workers groups
Advocates
Government policies
Local and international media
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• Migrants express spatially mobile yet
  contingent qualities of agency and empowerment.
  Given that the migrant women move between local
  and global spaces, their vulnerabilities and
  empowerment also become fluid dependent on their
  positions in a given time and locale.
• Pauline Gardiner Barber
• Envisaging Power in Philippine Migration the
  Janus Effect

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• as migrant, women, worker, wife
• in the receiving countries
• - have targeted multiple identities
• - are vulnerable, discriminated, disempowered
• experience new realities
• gain new ideas and insights
• get economic and social opportunities

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• separated from families and friends
• transform social relationships through
  occasional visits, regular phone calls, letters
  and emails
• become long-distance female head of the family
• in their new locales
• isolated, no social support systems
• independent, internationalized, empowered

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• individual empowerment
• improved self-image
• capacity to decide in private and public spaces
• education and work experiences
• coping with difficulties and challenges

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• empowering strategies
• life skills i.e. capacity to handle difficult
  situations, learning the language, negotiating
  with husbands
• creating social support network
• economic independence
• knowing their rights and privileges as citizens

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• minimize negative effects
• promote and enhance womens agency
• inform migrants and their families of risks and
  opportunities
• support at the workplace and at home
• provide legal framework and protection
• i.e. labor standards for workers, citizenship for
  brides

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• maximize benefits
• personal growth
• contribution to family welfare
• social and economic opportunities
• participation to a global community

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• challenges
• migrant workers and brides
• affirm personal power
• build support systems
• migrant support groups
• nuance experiences
• locate spaces of empowerment and agency
• governments
• establish conventions and legal protection
• provide support to migrants and their families

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thank you