Shoba Arun
(Manchester Metropolitan University)
Wendy Olsen
(University of Manchester)
Send message to Convenors
Chair:
Mariam Seedat Khan
(University of KwaZulu Natal)
Formats:
Papers
Stream:
Global inequalities
Sessions:
Thursday 1 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Modern slavery and exploitative work regimes in the Global South and the North and work: multiple and differential intersections II.
Panel P24b at conference DSA2021: Unsettling Development.
This panel explores forms of modern slavery practices in the Global North and South. We ask if initiatives such as the Bangladesh Accord on safety at work has made a difference to workers in global supply chains. How do such initiatives reflect on solidarity and work conditions in the Global North?
Long Abstract:
In recent years, debates on exploitative work regimes have gained much attention globally. Yet we need more evidence on the intersection of society and slavery, first to understand measurement of modern forms of slavery in work contexts, either in a range of sectors, and its differential impact on groups of people. Whilst, slavery today most often occurs in industries that are labour intensive, low skilled, and under-regulated, this more often is also grounded in intersecting inequalities such as gender, migration, poverty and age. Furthermore, we are keen to improve our understanding of persisting forms of bonded labour, the social-stratification and poverty contexts, the associated risk of vulnerability due to human trafficking of young victims, and the demand for cheap and precarious labour in economic sectors such as garments, construction, and carpets.
Specifically we look at inequality among types of working people, both in the Global North and the South, using intersectional definitions. We examine the definitions of modern slavery that can be used in specifying how work regimes differ by gender, social class and by ethnic or cultural divisions. Specific issues that papers may take up are:
• Forms of work and exploitative work practices in different economic sectors
• Bonded labour and social inequality
• Case studies and qualitative approaches to sector wide examples in the North and the South.
• Gender and time-use in the industries where forms of abuse are common.
• Policy changes and impact on work (inviting practitioner inputs)
Publication Plans: The panel submissions will lead to a proposal for a journal special issue.
We examine the precarious South Asia to Middle East migration route for female migrant workers to determine conditions that lead to exploitation along the migration pathway and mechanisms that reduce forced labor, highlighting the role of COVID-19 in exacerbating yet exposing vulnerabilities.
Paper long abstract:
Millions of female migrants experience various forms of exploitative and unsafe conditions when migrating for employment and income generation, both in countries of origin and in destination countries. For migrant workers the Covid-19 pandemic has caused income and job losses, entrapment in countries of destination without financial or social support, as well as stigmatization upon returning home. One of the key migration routes travelled by millions of migrants is from South Asia to the Middle East. We examine this precarious migration route for female migrant workers, particularly domestic and readymade garments workers, to highlight the conditions and challenges that lead to exploitation along the migration pathway. We determine what are considered the most important or effective (as well as least effective) mechanisms for reducing forced labour and trafficking. We draw lessons from the literature as well as interviews with key informants in the field, inclusive of academics, development partners, NGO workers, and policymakers, to identify promising interventions that successfully reduce the vulnerability of women migrants. Rather than only looking at conditions that impact women migrants in sending or destination countries, this paper takes a comprehensive approach, focusing on the entire migration pathway. This includes considering countries of origin and destination, the recruitment and employment process, policy frameworks, and the added challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic including repatriation. We find that while Covid-19 has increased migrant vulnerability, it has also heightened calls for action through increasing exposure of the current system's violations in facilitating trafficking and exacerbating poor working conditions.
Drawing on intersectional framework, the paper explores the problems associated to child trafficking in Nepal considering the interaction between varied forms of oppression triggered by various social categories.
Paper long abstract:
In the dominant trafficking narratives, children are viewed as 'victims' and vulnerable on the basis of their age. The Trafficking Protocol envisages children (i.e., person under 18) as a special case, and therefore views all children one unified category (belonging within a range of zero to eighteen). Such views which are built on the age of children tend to marginalise other social categories such as gender, ethnicity, class and caste intersect, all of which play a role in the process of victimisation. The diversity of childhood and the agency of the trafficked children and young people in different contexts are therefore beyond the purview of the existing Trafficking Protocol and the conventional understanding of these issue deviate from the realities of victims' needs (both social and economic).
Using intersectional analysis, the paper explores the problems associated to child trafficking in Nepal considering the interaction between varied forms of oppression triggered by various social categories. The data are drawn from 58 interviewees representing donor agencies, government officers, I/NGOs and anti-trafficking network in Nepal. The paper argues that anti-trafficking interventions should not be disengaged from the societal context where various normative and structural factors - culture, tradition, family, economic situation, and limited availability of opportunities for children - tend to reproduce rather than resolving child trafficking in Nepal. It concludes by considering a more holistic and intersectional approach in anti-trafficking interventions as an alternative to the existing rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration (3 Rs) framework in Nepal.
The subjugation of impoverished black domestic workers persists amid protective laws in South Africa. The paper offers a viable clinical model on bonded labour, among poor, isolated, vulnerable exploited women. Apartheid, education, patriarchy and class inform the transformative change agent model.
Paper long abstract:
A post-apartheid democratic South Africa continues to subjugate black African women employed as domestic workers. Despite the promulgation of legal frameworks that outline minimum wage, working hours, unemployment benefits, registration of domestic workers and leave requirements; harsh exploitative work environments have remained unchanged. Domestic workers operate in isolation in suburban homes for wealthy middle-class families. Isolation has been the key impetus for their continued and further exploitation at the lowest rungs of employment.
Researchers have failed to capitalise on developing a clinical model that ought to offer definitive social scientific strategies to mitigate the risk of isolation, exploitation and vulnerability among bonded workers that underscore their continued exploitation in an unequal South African context.
The proposed clinical model seeks to address key intersections of apartheid remnants, racial bias, gendered structures, patriarchal practice, class and human rights violations, experienced by domestic workers. The model identifies the extent and degree of the slave experience, evident, from the variance influence on poor women.
Domestic work as a form of bonded labour is pervasive lending to poor levels of education, inherent gender bias apartheid structures and inadequate state regulations necessitates consideration in the clinical model. This model, therefore, seeks to offer change agents, in the private and public sector, a scientific methodology to address bonded labour, among poor vulnerable black African women. The model explicitly identifies entrenched inequalities to address the exploitation, vulnerability and protection of domestic workers in South Africa.
What explains the high levels of child labour found in some regions of Kenya? Inequalities behind child labour can be examined using a statistical method. We test for social and regional differences, including household and personal characteristics. Area differences in education are found.
Paper long abstract:
We analyse the reasons for very high levels of child labour found in some regions of Kenya. We approach this by applying multilevel modeling with an evidence-based approach and a multidisciplinary orientation. Our interpretation has multiple explanatory strands. We test for explanations of high/low child labour risk, both with household and personal variables, and variables representing districts' characteristics. The prominence of mining and quarrying in a district offers significant explanatory purchase on Kenya's recorded child labour. A district's poverty level is also a risk factor. We tested socio-cultural hypotheses, combining them with the usual economic hypotheses. We found that Kenyan children living with a more educated female carer are less likely to be in harmful child labour. This paper uses a cautious definition consistent with both ILO and UNICEF definitions, which includes farming work, domestic work, and work in goods and services above set weekly hours-thresholds. We used data from 2015/6 Kenyan Integrated Household Survey.
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