Migrant Care - Promoting Decent Work for Migrant Care Workers

Project Overview

According to ILO estimates, there are 169 million migrant workers worldwide – including 99 million men and 70 million women. International migrants have higher labour force participation rates than non-migrants and are mainly concentrated in the service sector. Migrant workers – especially migrant women – represent a critical group of workers within care infrastructures and workforces around the world. One in eight nurses (13 per cent) are migrant workers (calculated as foreign born or trained) – a total of 3.7 million nurses globally. 17 per cent of all domestic workers worldwide are migrant workers.

The care economy is now widely recognized as a sector that has a great potential to boost women’s employment, including in India. A well-functioning and robust care economy is critical for achieving SDG goals; building resilience to crises, for achieving gender equality, inclusion and addressing other inequalities, promoting economic and social development, with a human-centred approach to the future of work, just transition and social justice. Care workers play an important role in ensuring that those who are vulnerable and in need are attended to and not left behind while helping to create an inclusive society.

Migrant care workers, particularly, women care workers, often face challenges in ensuring decent work. As demand for migrant care workers in countries of destination will continue to increase due to demographic changes, there is need to promote safe and fair labour migration through various measures including the bilateral labour migration agreements which can be effective instruments for the government to engage with destination/host countries and establish fair recruitment policies and terms of employment.

India is among the leading countries of origin for migrant care workers, particularly in the health sector, across the world. Asymmetries between origin and destination countries’ law and policies on care and migration can leave migrant care workers in a precarious situation. Thus, there is an urgent need for effective policies and improved governance of the care economy at large, including mobility of care workers. Decent work conditions should be extended to all care workers, including migrant care workers through measures such as fair recruitment, equitable social protection, and skills recognition and certification procedures.

Through the Migrant Care Project, the ILO will engage with constituents including governments (national, states and destination countries), employer’s representatives and workers organisations in source and destination to promote fair recruitment and decent work for migrant care workers from India.

Project Objectives

The key objectives of ILO’s Migrant Care project are –

1. Improved technical capabilities of migration officials, policy makers and relevant stakeholders on strengthening decent work opportunities for migrant care workers at both national and state level through the provisions of evidence-based research and capacity strengthening initiatives.

2. Increased institutional capacity and understanding on migration pathways of vulnerable care workers, social protection, skills and qualifications, and access to justice, among key stakeholders including governments, workers and employers’ organisations.

For further information, please contact:

Neha Wadhawan, National Project Coordinator, Email:[email protected]