Transcript The (Non)regulation of Domestic Work in the Netherlands

The (Non)regulation of Domestic
Work in the Netherlands
Sarah van Walsum
VU University Amsterdam
[email protected]
Outline
• Three perspectives:
1: MDW’s: impact of residence status
• documented and undocumented domestic
workers in Amsterdam
2: Trade Unions: combatting precarious work
• Paid household services in the Netherlands:
3: Dutch state: resolving contradictory aims
• A policy of denial
• Current trends in Dutch labour migration policies
• Possibilities and pitfalls
Migrant Domestic Workers:
impact of residence status
• Research population: Filipinos & Ghanaians
• Research method: (indirect) interviews
• Findings:
– Relevance immigrant status can differ
– Negotiating initial contract with employer:
– Gender & race > immigrant status
– Developing employment relationship :
– Status > social exclusion > dependency
– Undocumented Ghanaians: employer = income
– Undocumented Filipinos: employers > housing, health
care, visa for family, bank account etc. = patron/client
Trade Unions:
Precarious work in care sector
• Household services = precarious work
– Anyone outsourcing any form of work in the home
– For three days a week or less
– Is exempt from paying social premiums and deducting
taxes and from dismissal permit requirement
• Home-based care for elderly; children; household
maintenance
• health care centres; host parent centres; cleaning
companies: brokers or employers?
• marginalisation > racialisation declared labour?
• Increasing significance of (undocumented) migrants on
(growing) market for undeclared work
Dutch state: resolving contradictory
aims > a policy of denial
• Contradictory aims:
• Engage high skilled women more fully in paid
labour
• Cut costs of (elderly) care > “caring citizens”
• “emancipate” ethnic minority women thru
precarious work
• Policy of denial
• Admitting MDW via (quasi) family ties
• Silent collusion with (illegal) employment
undeclared migrant labour
Current trends in Dutch labour
migration policies
• Current labour migration policy:
• High salaried workers: employer manages
migration
• Low salaried workers: Ministry of labour manages
migration
• self-employed with high capital assests: selfmanaged
• Proposal for “Modern Migration Policy”
– Universal application of sponsor managed
migration
Possibilities & Pitfalls I
“Care broker” as sponsor
– Possibilities:
– Employment permit dependent on track record sponsor;
not situation Dutch labour market> expand scope regular
employment to include “low-skilled” migrants
– Pitfalls:
– Migration control via “care broker” > restricted
freedoms
– How to compete with undeclared labour?
– Tax rebates?
– Quasi self-employment?
Possibilities & Pitfalls II
Circular Migration
– Possibilities:
– alternative for current practice of irregularly employed
migrant labour > legal residence for “low skilled”
migrant workers
– Pitfalls:
– complete dependency vis a vis employer (housing &
medical care)
– Exclusion from permanent residence
– No claim to family reunification
Thank you!
Merci!
Looking forward
• Rethinking the public/private divide
• Rethinking the nature of employment
relationships
• Rethinking citizenship
• Themes to explore?
– Networks and relational concepts of belonging
– Transnationalism and glocal strategies for organising
care and financial security
– Decentring the nation state in democratic decisionmaking processes