The following article is authored by Sawsan Abdulrahim and Farah Salkal.
Context
Women carry the “triple burden” of productive, reproductive, and community labour – a heavy burden that strips them of political power during times of crisis. The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have been gendered, impacting women migrant workers disproportionately given their overrepresentation in care work and other precarious forms of employment that do not offer a social safety net. (Al-Ali, 2020). In Lebanon, a destination country for migrant workers from Asia and Africa, the pandemic hit on the heels of an unprecedented economic crisis and the devaluation of local currency.
Following the spread of COVID-19 and the lockdown, hundreds of women migrant workers were abandoned by their employers or evicted by landlords, finding themselves homeless at the doorsteps of their embassies. Whilst many repatriated to their home countries, those from countries historically impacted by poverty, war, climate change, and inequities remained in Lebanon. Their occupational position which limits their decision-making on issues related to social distancing and mobility was a determinant of their increased vulnerability to the infection. COVID-19 met with an economic downward spiral and further magnified the vulnerabilities of this group of women, exposing their fragile position in a gendered and racialised global economy (Cheeseman, 2020).
Kafala, Racial Capitalism, and COVID-19
Women migrant workers have always experienced intersecting vulnerabilities given an inequitable global political economy and a system of racial capitalism that gives life to Kafala, a system of customary practices that govern the recruitment and hiring of migrant workers in the Arab region. Kafala binds each worker in the country of origin to a specific sponsor-employer in the country of destination in a short-term contract. By doing so, the system removes the responsibility of managing the migrant labour force from the state and places it in the hands of employers and recruitment agents. In this situation, the migrant worker’s access to rights is not guaranteed but is dependent on the moral values of her employer. (Abdulrahim and Abdul Malak, 2012)
Thus, Kafala is both a manifestation of global racial capitalism, which is the process of profiting from the labour of racialised persons, and a system that reinforces and extends the exploitation of migrant labour.
Anti-Racism Movement’s response: alleviating the impact of the double crisis on women migrant workers in Lebanon
Realizing that women’s agency, resilience, and ability to cope diminish during times of crisis, the Anti-Racism Movement (ARM)1 initiated solidarity efforts intended to provide support and ensure resilience to women migrant workers along with their families and children Along with the Migrant Community Center (MCC), which ARM operates and managed since 2010, ARM conducted a needs assessment of 345 migrant worker members in early April 2020.2 The assessment identified problems of food and shelter insecurity, and risks of joblessness and homelessness. The need for support in these areas is akin to the needs of displaced populations in humanitarian settings. These hardships and the multi-layered suffering of many migrant workers were further multiplied by the August 2020 Beirut Port explosion, which was near the dilapidated low-cost housing in which many migrant workers lived.
In response, ARM and MCC organised a solidarity campaign aimed to provide basic needs to 10,000 individuals (one-off or monthly) including migrant workers and their family members. An important component of their campaign focused on securing housing for abandoned or evicted women migrant workers to protect them from the dangers of homelessness particularly during COVID-19 lockdowns. ARM also focused on the packaging and distribution of food kits, hygiene kits and supplies for babies.
Policy Recommendations
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To abolish Kafala, the mechanism which perpetuates the inequalities of gender, race, nationality, and migration status.
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To integrate the rights of migrant workers into a broad agenda of protecting the rights of all workers
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To ensure access to health care, including mental health care, as a worker right.
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To support civil society organisations and grassroots organisations in their advocacy and efforts to promote the rights of migrant workers.
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To increase the number and improve the sanitary conditions of shelter services for workers who are distressed, violated or stranded, building on existing resources within the migrant community itself.
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To hold employers accountable for violations that occurred following the multiple COVID-19 lockdowns, namely: abandoning workers in front of their embassies, and withholding their rightfully earned wages as well as passports and other legal documents.
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To call upon the diplomatic missions of migrant workers’ origin countries in Lebanon to lead on access to services in times of crisis, in particular: housing assistance, repatriation and access to withheld wages.
References
Abdulrahim, S. & Abdul Malak, Y., 2012. The Health of Female Migrant Workers in the Arab Region. In (Eds) Giacaman, R., Jabbour, S., Khawaja, M. & Nuwayhid, I. Public Health in the Arab World. Cambridge University Press
Al-Ali, N., 2020. Covid-19 and feminism in the Global South: Challenges, initiatives and dilemmas. European Journal of Women’s Studies. pp. 333-348.
Cheeseman, A., 2020. ‘Thrown away like garbage’: the plight of foreign workers in crisis-hit Lebanon. The Telegraph. Retrieved from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/thrown-away-like-garbage-plight-foreign-workers-crisis-hit-lebanon/
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Sawsan Abdulrahim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Community Health at the American University of Beirut. She is a mixed-methods researcher, examining social inequalities and health across the life course, currently focusing on early marriage and sexual and reproductive health of Syrian refugee adolescent girls in Lebanon.
The facts, ideas and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO or any of its partners and stakeholders and do not commit nor imply any responsibility thereof. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this piece do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.