Crisis, domestic workers and socio-economic rights

Abstract

Despite providing services that are essential for the sustainability of societies, economies and families, migrant domestic workers face important challenges when it comes to enjoying key socio-economic rights such as fair wages and social protection. I argue that to understand this paradox and to effectively ensure domestic workers’ rights, we need to examine the impacts of the enduring crisis of social reproduction, brought into stark relief by the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter starts by providing an account of the nature and multiple manifestations of social reproduction crisis. I then show the different ways the enduring crisis of social reproduction impacts domestic workers’ socio-economic rights. The chapter finally discusses different strategies that use the law to improve domestic workers’ access to socio-economic rights. Emergencies of the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic tend to exacerbate existing disadvantages but can also renew political and societal debates and provide much-needed impetus for positive changes, provided there are actors willing and able to carry these forward.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035302253.00022

Repository URI

https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/340974/