COVID-19 As A Tale Of Job Hardship And Marginalisation

Context: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region that hosts about 23 million migrant workers (International Labour Organization, 2017) is riddled with problems particularly related to discrimination of women migrant workers.

Plight of migrant workers in West Asia amidst pandemic

• Most engaged in low-end jobs: About three-quarters of workforce of the region hails from South Asian and South-east Asian countries, are on temporary contracts and mostly engaged in low-wage occupations.
• Gender issues: Women account for 39% of migrant workers in the GCC, but there are issues such as
  • Gender compartmentalisation: Women workers concentrated in health industry, domestic workers, care workers, cleaning crew, manufacturing workers, salon staff and salespersons etc.
  • Vulnerable to abuse and exploitation: Domestic workers, who are mostly women, are greatly vulnerable to abuse owing to the very nature of their workspace.
• COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the vulnerabilities of women migrant workers:
  • Deterioration of working conditions in health industry. Eg. Work hours of nurses in many countries were extended from eight hours to 12 hours without overtime remuneration, that too in challenging working conditions.
  • Even in January 2021, many of these nurses from different countries had not taken leave, including their annual leave, except if they were COVID-19 positive.
  • Even those who could manage to get off days could not travel home, which added to the immense mental stress.
• Issues in semi-skilled job paradigm: Many lost their jobs, wages and their accommodation too.
• Illegally working: Forced to work for living wages as they cannot demand their rights due to fear of being reported.

Conclusion: Whether professionally skilled or unskilled, migrant women workers have not had it easy in a foreign land where the discrimination and exploitation they faced were compounded by the novel coronavirus pandemic.