Serial Labor Migration: Precarity and Itinerancy among Filipino and Indonesian Domestic Workers

Abstract

This article examines the mobility patterns of migrant domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates. It identifies and explains the emergence of serial labor migration, which we define as the multi-country, itinerant labor migration patterns of temporary low-skilled migrant workers. It argues that policy contexts shaping temporary labor migration, as they impose precarious and prohibitive conditions of settlement in both countries of origin and destination, produce the itinerancy of low-skilled migrant workers. We offer a holistic analysis of the migration process of temporary labor migrants, shifting away from a singular focus on the process of emigration, integration, or return and toward an examination of each stage as a co-constitutive step in the migration cycle. Our analytic approach enables us to illustrate the state of precarity and itinerancy that follows low-wage migrant workers across the various stages of the migration cycle and produces serial migration patterns among migrant domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia.

The mobility pathways of migrant domestic workers

“…Despite the disproportionate share of migrant domestic workers in Arab States, we know little about their migration due to the relative absence of studies in the region (for exceptions, see Fernandez 2013;Fernandez, de Regt, and Currie 2014;Jureidini 2010;Mahdavi 2011;Pande 2013;Silvey 2004). Most migrant domestic workers in Arab States come from Southeast Asia, specifically Indonesia and the Philippines (Parreñas et al 2019) but there are also sizeable numbers from South Asia (Ahmad 2017) and Africa (Fernandez 2013;Mahdavi 2011). Of the estimated 3.1 million migrant domestic workers in the region, the largest number can be found in KSA, estimated at nearly one million, followed by an estimated 750,000 in the UAE, 620,000 in Kuwait, 250,000 in Lebanon, and 100,000 in Bahrain (ILO 2015b).…”

“…In addition to exceeding the territorial boundaries of one host society, mobility pathways offer a perspective on migrant adaptation that extends our formulations of transnational migration beyond binary flows that tie sending and receiving states. A discussion of mobility pathways considers the transient mobilities of temporary labour migrants as illustrated by the multi-country migration flows embodied in 'stepwise international migration' (Paul 2012) and 'serial labor migration' (Parreñas et al 2019). Tracing the emergence of a variety of mobility pathways agrees with scholars who underscore the need to move beyond the normative integration paradigm in migration studies as it accounts for the 'super-diversity' of migrant experiences (Favell 2003; Grzymala-Kazlowska and Phillimore 2018; Vertovec 2007) and foregrounds the inequalities that result in the 'differential movements of people' (Sheller 2017).…”

“…While the Philippine government has instituted robust programmes to facilitate the return of OFWs, that is overseas Filipino workers, back into the economy and society, migrant domestic workers in the UAE admit to minimally participating in these programmes. 13 While my research design does not allow for the inclusion of those who successfully return and secure a viable means of livelihood in the Philippines, a sizeable number of interviewees have returned to the Philippines with many eventually departing once again as either a 'serial labor migrant' (Parreñas et al 2019) or a 'staggered migrant' (Robertson 2019) and those in the Philippines also attempting to migrate once again. There is a high likelihood that return migrants will opt to pursue migration once again due to the challenge of maintaining a viable livelihood in the undeveloped economies in their rural regions of origin, where access to wage employment including in agriculture remains scarce, or as unskilled workers in urban areas.…”

“…Of 85 interviewees, 41 can categorically be identified as serial labour migrants as they have worked in more than one destination in the course of their migration. Serial labour migration refers to the 'multi-country, itinerant labour migration patterns of temporary low-skilled migrant workers' (Parreñas et al 2019(Parreñas et al , 1230. In contrast, others (n = 21) are staggered labour migrants, as they have chosen to only work in the UAE, while the rest (n = 23) are first-time migrant workers who have been abroad for no more than two years and have yet to complete their first contract abroad.…”

“…Neneng's experiences offer a window to the multiple mobility pathways that are constituted in the migration of unskilled migrant workers, more specifically in this case of domestic workers. First, her experience verifies the rise of their multi-country migration (Parreñas et al 2019;Paul 2012). Migrant domestic workers are likely to work not only in one but multiple destinations in the course of their migration cycle (ILO 2015a).…”