The Empowerment of Domestic Workers: Female Agency in the Asian Region

This report will examine the practices of female migrants who campaign for the recognition of their fundamental labour and human rights as domestic workers and who seek empowerment in their migrant journeys. This is important in the light of recent debates at the international level that ‘domestic work is work’. It will focus on examples from the Asian region, which has one of the largest numbers of migrant domestic workers yet which is lagging in providing them legal protections and decent working conditions. The examples demonstrate the varied and creative means that civil society activists and migrant domestic workers use to exercise their agency and to advocate for decent work and social equality. These cases can demonstrate to policy makers what matters for female migrants who frequently work under exploitative and abusive conditions and whose voices are often marginalized.