Migration gender and poverty in zimbabwe julie litchfield
Urbanisation and domestic work.mediatraining workshop2
1. Urbanisation and Changing Dynamics of Migrant Domestic Work in Accra, Ghana
Awumbila, M.; Badasu, D.; Anamzoya, A.; and Alhassan, O.
Centre for Migration studiesUniversity of GhanaLegon
Paper Presented at 1stinternational Conference on Urbanisation and Rural-Urban Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa
Nairobi, Kenya, 26-27, November, 2012
2. Introduction
•Domestic workers estimated to be about 53 million worldwide, (representing some 3.6% of global wage employment), with women constituting 83% of this work force. (ILO, 2011).
•It accounts for 7.5% of female employees worldwide.
•Men are also hired as domestic workers, but their vulnerabilities and needs tend to differ from those of women domestic workers.
•Domestic work plays an important role for the functioning of families, households and labormarkets, but is largely undervalued and poorly regulated.
•Domestic work is performed to a large extent by migrant women.
•Domestic work is also a growing economic sector, as more households are substituting care work previously performed by female household members with external domestic services.
3. Domestic Work in Ghana
•Domesticworkisbelievedtobeasubstantialsegmentoftheworkforce.
•Thereisatleastonedomesticworkerineachhouse, andlargehousescouldhaveasmanyassix(LAWA- Ghana,2003).Manyhouseholds,irrespectiveoftheirpovertystatus,havebeenknowntoemploydomesticworkersonawiderangeoftermsandconditions.
•Domesticworkers,likeothersintheinformaleconomy,arelargelyundocumentedandundeclared.
•Theproblemoflabourstatisticsiscompoundedbythedifferencesinofficialdefinitionsofdomesticwork.
5. The Characteristics and Conditions of Domestic work in Ghana
•Bothruralandurbanhouseholdsacrossawidesocio- economicspectrumutilizetheservicesofdomesticworkers.
•DomesticworkispredominantlyafemaleoccupationinGhanaandactivitiesarehighlygendered.
•MosttendtobemigrantsfromruralpartsofGhana
•Thewideprevalenceofdomesticworkamongfemalesishowevernotdemonstratedbycensusdata.
•Theprevalenceofwomenindomesticworkandthefactthattheiremployersarelargelywomen,whotendtobemoreeducated,raisessomeimportantgenderissuesaboutdomesticwork
6. Patterns of Domestic Work
•Different kinds of arrangements and activities performed based on sex, kin, payment arrangement as dominant criteria for distinguishing type of domestic work.
1.Performs mostly only domestic tasks in the household. Usually performed by girls and women, includes fostered children
2.Performs all domestic work in addition to helping with productive and income earning activities.
3.Domestic workers who perform multiple tasks both inside and outside the household.Usually performed by males.
4.Domestic work in 2 households simultaneously –new trend -Employers of both HHs would usually be related.
7. Contract arrangements
•a wide variety of arrangements
•Most lack a formal employment contract regulating the relationship between the employer and worker
1.No contract at all -Principle of reciprocity. Common in fosterage situations.
2.Informal unwritten contract, but with some verbal agreements.
3.Informal recruited through “middle men” but with formal contracts.
4.Formal recruited, with clear, written contractand signed by both agency and the employer as well as between employer and DW.
