Higher Wages Vs. Social and Legal Insecurity: Migrant Domestic Workers in Russia and Kazakhstan

Abstract

This paper addresses the under-researched issue of migrant domestic work in post-Soviet space. There is an emerging trend of increase in the female share of migrants coming to Russia and Kazakhstan from Central Asia republics. The growing demand for domestic work could be an explanation of the feminization of migration in the region. Using the data of the research project conducted in 2013 in Russia and Kazakhstan, this paper investigates conditions of employment of female migrants in the domestic sector. We find that domestic sector work in the post-Soviet space is rather prestigious and well-paid, while at the same time, highly informal relationships and employment arrangements in this sector seem to satisfy both employers and workers. These findings highlight regional peculiarities of migrant domestic sector work and are important to better understand the feminization of migration within post-Soviet space.

Counting Migrants in Russia: The Human Dimension of Administrative Data Production

“…17 Since 2010, changes in Russian migration law have dampened statistical outputs on documented migration by limiting the number of migrants eligible to receive a patent (Schenk 2018a). 18 Patents were introduced in 2010 as a way for migrants to achieve legal status (Karachurina, Florinskaya and Prokhorova 2019;Kubal 2019). Reforms in 2015 made patents the primary work document for CIS citizens and 14 I have detailed these dueling imperatives elsewhere (Schenk 2018a(Schenk , 2018b, outlining the evolution of legislation as it has increased the bureaucratic burden on migrants seeking patents and the pressure the federal government put on Ministries and local agencies to increase revenues in many spheres in the wake of Vladimir Putin's re-election to the presidency in 2018 amid a financial crisis.…”

“…Since 2010, changes in Russian migration law have dampened statistical outputs on documented migration by limiting the number of migrants eligible to receive a patent (Schenk 2018a). 18 Patents were introduced in 2010 as a way for migrants to achieve legal status (Karachurina, Florinskaya and Prokhorova 2019; Kubal 2019). Reforms in 2015 made patents the primary work document for CIS citizens and added numerous bureaucratic requirements, including increased fees and a language exam (Ivanova and Varshaver 2018).…”

Tingkat Kesejahteraan Migran di DKI Jakarta Menurut Karakteristik Sosiodemografi (Berdasarkan Data SUSENAS 2018)

“…Orang yang berumur produktif berpotensi untuk bermigrasi dibandingkan yang tidak termasuk kategori produktif (Budijanto, 2011). Perempuan di dalam umur bekerja dan berstatus menikah lebih memiliki tanggung jawab keluarga dibanding yang tidak (Desi & Adi, 2017dan (Karachurina et al, 2019).…”

Destination Marketing and Policies Attracting High-Skilled Individuals in Germany and Singapore

“…(Strielkowski et al, 2018) Recently there has been a burgeoning literature on high skilled migration and migration policies attracting such individuals (e.g. Ahl & Czoske, 2018;Chaloff & Lemaître, 2009;Consterdine & Samuk, 2018;Czaika, 2018;Danaj et al, 2018;Hanson & Slaughter, 2016;Karachurina et al, 2018;Rehák & Dudová, 2018;van Meeteren & Pereira, 2018;Beqo, 2019;Samuk et al, 2019). For example, Cerna (2014) has researched the policies for attracting HSIs in France, Germany, Sweden and the UK from the late 1990s to 2014 and has drawn three main directions of the role of political economy actors in attracting HSIs.…”