Migrant work is my inheritance. My mother left our home in the slums of Manila when I was eight years old to work in Iceland. For the next seven years, I only saw her twice before joining her there as a migrant worker myself, working in a factory during the week and, at weekends, cleaning houses.
Many manufacturing countries rely on temporary migrant workers to do factory jobs, and like my mother and I, these workers are disproportionately young and female. Worldwide, there are more than 122 million women working outside their home countries who face a triple threat of discrimination -- for being women, for being migrants and for becoming pregnant.
Discrimination can start before they even get the job. Workers may be subjected to mandatory pregnancy testing in the application process, as they are when seeking work in Thailand. Depending on what country they work in, they may also be subjected to regular pregnancy testing as a condition for continued employment. In Malaysia, a worker told me, "Once you get pregnant, and your employer finds out, you will get deported immediately."
But even where such discrimination against pregnant women is illegal, as it is in Taiwan, loopholes in laws and regulations often leave women and their children without protection. Children born to low-skilled migrant workers in Taiwan are ineligible for health benefits or legal status, forcing women to choose between their families and their jobs. While maternity at work is legal, motherhood at work is not.
I've spent the last decade conducting research on the conditions facing migrant workers and making the case for better policies. For my latest report in conjunction with the Fair Labor Association, "Triple Discrimination: Woman, Pregnant and Migrant", I interviewed dozens of workers in Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan. They described situations where, even if their factory employer intends to respect a code of conduct that prevents discrimination, their hands are tied, as the government mandates the firing and deportation of pregnant workers.
Discrimination persists, in part, because of conservative cultural, religious beliefs and taboos against sex outside marriage. In many cases migrants who fall pregnant are single or working away from their spouses. Situations of pregnancy outside of marriage are often shrouded in secrecy or occur behind the scenes. Women are less likely to push back against unfair treatment over something they themselves might want to keep secret. And when the victims of discrimination are dismissed, it is nearly impossible for it to surface in company audits. My research questions about women's sex lives were deeply personal, but I didn't feel their intensity until one woman in Thailand asked me what method of birth control I used. I was taken aback. Questions about my body's fertility were never a part of my work experience, and I found this personal question to be quite invasive. How much more invasive, I thought, is the mandated testing for pregnancy that so many migrant workers endure. They deserve better.
First and foremost, governments must change the laws where migrant worker discrimination is allowed or mandated and protect temporary low-skilled workers and their maternity.
Second, many brands sourcing from countries with discriminatory laws adhere to a code of conduct for supplier factories, like that of the Fair Labor Association, which forbids the discrimination practised by host countries. To bring local law into harmony with their codes of conduct, sourcing brands should support efforts to change the law. In the meantime, when assessing whether their suppliers are upholding standards, brands should include additional questions in audits designed to uncover pregnancy discrimination.
But since discrimination can occur before the employment relationship starts, factory auditing is not enough. Brands should also examine recruitment practices and work only with suppliers using ethical recruiters. They should also create innovative redress mechanisms that uphold international standards, like the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, without violating local norms. For instance, brands can create a fund to compensate deported migrants with an amount comparable to what locals would have received in maternity and other benefits. And they can support initiatives to pressure governments to uphold the rules and regulations they have in place, in cases where implementation is lax.
These governments have already shown what is possible. Highly skilled, white-collar foreign migrant workers in Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan have few problems bearing and raising children, obtaining legal status for them and enrolling them in healthcare and education programmes. It is time for these governments in Southeast Asia to extend that model of decent treatment to every worker who participates in their economy -- regardless of the type of work they do.
Without migrant workers, a majority of whom are young, female and foreign, the supply chains of many companies would not work. Brands that benefit from suppliers employing migrant women must stand up for their privacy rights.
And until countries change and enforce their laws to protect women and their pregnancies, companies have the opportunity to empower women through economic means and by creating environments that allow women to keep their jobs throughout pregnancy and maternity.
Iceland was a good place to work. I had the training and safety equipment I needed. I was paid a decent wage. The value of my labour was taken seriously, and I took pride in having my job. Safety, fair wages, and respect for their labour rights should be available to all migrant workers, no matter where they are employed.
Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza is a researcher