Presentation given at Gendered dimensions of migration: Material and social outcomes of South-South migration. 30 June - 2 July 2015 at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore http://migratingoutofpoverty.dfid.gov.uk/research/womenandchildren/gendered_dimensions

1. A Price on her Head: How domestic work
recruiters structure women’s migration
and employment experience
Dr. Katharine Jones
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Trust,
Peace and Social Relations, Coventry
University, UK
Gendered Dimensions of Migration: Material and Social Outcomes of South-South Migration
30 June – 2 July 2015, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

2. Why the study?
• Migrant recruitment industry has dramatically
grown over past 20 years
• Vast majority of studies of migrant domestic /
recruitment are conducted in one country only
• Little is known about transnational gendered
business model and how it is embedded in wider
regulatory regimes
• To inform ILO’s Fair Recruitment Initiative
(commissioned by ILO Special Action Programme
to Combat Forced Labour, DfID Work in Freedom)

3. About the study
• Study conducted across Bangladesh, Jordan and
Lebanon by international team Nov 2013- June
2014
• 141 semi-structured qualitative interviews with
heads of recruitment agencies, sub-agents,
returned women migrant domestic workers, key
informants
• Main objective to better understand the
transnational business model of domestic work
recruiters.

4. Gendered institutional &
regulatory context
1199 recruiters registered; only 29
authorised to recruit women
National recruitment regulation
543 recruiters registered in Lebanon
100 recruiters registered in Jordan
National recruitment regulation
Bangladesh Jordan Agreement on Domestic Work (2012)
BANGLADESH
76,000+ women overseas for
domestic work
JORDAN &
LEBANON
250,000+ migrant
domestic workers
70,000+ domestic
workers
Emigration
regulations
Immigration
regulations
Labour law

5. Door-sign for a Beirut-based
recruiter advertising
Ethiopian domestic workers
Selection of ‘bio-data’
forms
Constructing a gendered
‘cheap and compliant’ workforce

6. Recruiters advise employers to
select a woman who can be easily controlled:
“Employers don’t like to employ someone who
has worked in Lebanon before so that she
doesn’t come with a social network, demands to
leave the house and see friends.” (Recruiter,
Beirut, March 2014)

7. Employers want a ‘cheap and
compliant woman’ because they invest
a lot of money… ($)
“If they [employers] have financial constraints, it will have to be a Bangladesh
domestic worker.” (Recruiter in Beirut, March 2014)

8. Recruiters in Jordan and Lebanon select their
business partners in Bangladesh according to the following….
• Ability to deliver a high volume of women
• Speed which women can be delivered
• Ability of business owner to communicate in Arabic,
English, through Skype / Viber
• ‘Good quality’ medical testing – “no sick or pregnant
girls”
• Reputation for delivering and not cheating
• Willingness to ‘replace’ women if they fail to arrive,
arrive sick, pregnant, run away or “refuse to work”
Source: ‘For a Fee: the business of recruiting Bangladeshi women into domestic work in Jordan and Lebanon’
(http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/working-papers/WCMS_377806/lang--en/index.htm)

9. Role of recruiters in Bangladesh
Source: ‘For a Fee: the
business of recruiting
Bangladeshi women into
domestic work in Jordan and
Lebanon’
(http://www.ilo.org/global/
publications/working-
papers/WCMS_377806/lang
--en/index.htm)

10. “Refund and replace” regulation
JORDAN: Regulation no 12/2015. Regulation on organizing the private agencies for
recruitment of non-Jordanian domestic workers.
Recruiters are bound to replace domestic workers (at no cost) for employers in three
circumstances:
1. Women who “refuse to work” for their employer in the first 30 days to the
employer
2. Women who “fail to arrive”
3. Women who arrive pregnant, or otherwise certified “sick” or “unhygienic” by the
Ministry of Health.
LEBANON: Order number 1/1, governing the work of placement agencies, 2011.
Recruiters are bound to replace women who are unable to “fulfil the tasks required
for the job; refuses to work; is pregnant; or absconds from the employer.”
Extended to 6 months in certain circumstances.

11. Recruiters advise employers to
control their domestic workers
“I take the phone from the domestic worker and give it to
the employer. We do this to prevent running away.”
(Recruiter, Jordan, February 2014)
“I advise them [employers] to monitor them [domestic
workers] a lot in the beginning and to lock the doors. You
can tell if a domestic worker’s eye is always wandering,
always on the balcony, then that means she wants to run
away.” (Recruiter, Beirut, January 2014)

12. Recruiters also take direct action
in attempt to control women …
“If there is a problem I have the agency in the origin country speak to
her to scare her, tell her she has to pay $2000 if she wants to go home.
It is true it is harsh, but it works.” (Recruiter, Beirut, January 2014)
“[k]ept them in the office for about a week so that they can readjust
their attitude so I can go back to work…If the employer has the right, I
yell at the domestic worker and tell her that I will keep them in the
office until they change their attitude. I give them some food like
potatoes, rice and eggs. Eventually they will get bored and want to
work again.” (Recruiter, Beirut, February 2014)

13. A gendered business model
Source: ‘For a Fee: the business of recruiting Bangladeshi women into domestic work in Jordan and Lebanon’
(http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/working-papers/WCMS_377806/lang--en/index.htm)