COVID-19 as a story of job hardship and marginalization

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region – now known as the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf – which hosts approximately 23 million migrant workers (International Labor Organization, 2017) suffers from problems that particularly are related to discrimination from women migrant workers. Most of the expatriate workforce that dominates the GCC region’s workforce – accounting for nearly three-quarters of the region’s workforce (ILO, 2017) – is from South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, and is on temporary contracts and mostly low-wage engaged in business.

a thread of vulnerability

Women account for 39% of migrant workers in the GCC (International Labor Organisation, 2017) and feminization of the workforce reflects an increasing trend in many sectors of the economy. Women migrants, who are in the skilled category, are mainly nurses in the organized health industry; The semi-skilled or unskilled category includes domestic workers, care workers, sweepers, construction workers, salon workers and vendors. These workers are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. For example, domestic workers, mostly women, are highly vulnerable to abuse due to the nature of their workspace.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the vulnerabilities of women migrant workers. For health workers, it is more about the deterioration of their working conditions than the problem of job loss. While interviewing women working in a wide spectrum of jobs, a senior nursing staff said, “The government wanted nurses to be posted at COVID centres, and all hospitals under the ministry to send their staff. was asked to On the other hand, private hospitals were asked not to function. This has increased the burden on government hospitals significantly.” As a result, the staff of the private hospital were asked to go on unpaid leave during the lockdown and the employees of the ministry could not even take leave as the situation was declared an emergency.

stress in health

In many countries, nurses’ working hours were increased from eight hours without overtime remuneration to 12 hours in many countries – that too in challenging working conditions. A government nurse in Kuwait said, “Initially, our doctor told us not to use extra gloves and masks for fear of lack of these supplies. So only nurses at the point of care were allowed to wear masks. But then the cases started increasing and we were allowed to wear masks.”

One of them told us, I was assigned the triage area. There were personal protective equipment (PPE) gowns, masks and face shields, but we were not using gloves; We were using sanitizer. I had to be there continuously every day for three months, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.; I had to stand continuously, taking each patient’s temperature. It was stressful for my back; It was a difficult task for me.”

One of our respondents who works in Saudi Arabia explained, “The area where I live was completely closed due to the large number of cases, we had only one open road. Many hospitals discharged the staff living there, but my hospital told us to continue coming to work. It was stressful to know whether we would catch the infection, as we were also exposing our children and other family members. An employee working in Kuwait shared his concern. “We used to wear two N95 masks, but there was no social distancing. Employees from different wards used to come and go to work together. It was very risky as workers with asthma and respiratory problems used to travel in the same bus.”

Even in January 2021, many of these nurses from different countries had not taken leave, including their annual leave, except that they were COVID-19 positive. Even those who could manage the holiday could not go home, leading to extreme mental stress. Amidst all the pandemic chaos, our respondents felt relieved that they somehow kept jobs and monthly salaries; Many of his wives had lost jobs and their families were waiting for their financial support in India.

for semi-skilled workers

Many semi-skilled and unskilled workers found themselves in a bind when they lost their jobs, wages and even their housing. When we spoke to another employee in early 2021, her visa was about to expire, and she was looking for a job. She worked in Kuwait in a salon owned by a local woman, which provided her with shared housing, pay and decent working hours. The salon had 30 married female employees from South and South-East Asia. The salon first closed temporarily in March 2020 and all workers were given accommodation and food till October, deducted from their compensation benefits. However, in October the saloon soon went bankrupt and the workers had to evacuate without profit.

The social worker we spoke to described the condition of women working in vulnerable areas during COVID-19. The vulnerability of workers to severe restrictions to mobility during COVID-19 has worsened. “These exploited women include domestic workers, beauty parlor workers and sanitation workers in hospitals and big companies. Those living on employer’s premises, especially housewives, are more vulnerable. They didn’t know what was happening outside [the] Corona situation. Many of the women working here, especially the housewives, have no means to get news of the current situation. some don’t even have [a] phone, whereas most have just basic phones.” Their communication to the outside world including family is restricted and it is difficult for outsiders to reach them, we found a tough time trying to contact these women for this article. Learned the truth

We spoke to a 60-year-old housewife who had returned to India from UAE. She had health problems and her employer didn’t want to bother with her health problems during the pandemic. Her maid visa which had insurance coverage of 600 dirhams was not enough to cover the cost of her health.

other matters

Some of the more vulnerable workers were working ‘illegally’. For example, there was a woman who immigrated on a child-care visa but lost her job because her former employer was concerned about the safety of her child during COVID-19. The woman then started working as a housewife with very low wages, but she was reluctant to ask for a pay increase, as she feared being reported. There was also another woman who had migrated as a maid in 2008, received her last salary in March 2020, after which her employer gave her the option to work without pay or return home. Some people who have found themselves in more challenging situations have left their jobs and returned home without money; Some have had to borrow money from home for air tickets. Such conditions have made women workers more vulnerable and vulnerable to exploitation.

Whether professionally skilled or unskilled, it was not easy for migrant women workers in a foreign land where the discrimination and exploitation they faced was compounded by the novel coronavirus pandemic. This certainly highlights the flaws in the formulation of women-centric, rights-based policies to protect migrants.

Jinu Zakaria Oommen is currently a member of the Kerala Public Service Commission and formerly a Visiting Professor at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH), Paris, France. Anu Abraham is PhD Scholar, IIT Madras and Assistant Professor at School of Economics, NMIMS (Deemed to be) University, Mumbai.