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Abstract
This paper focuses on Indian migrant workers in Oman, with particular emphasis on women in the non-formal, domestic sector. Drawing on studies on gender and mobility, it argues for an intersectional approach to gendered migration which centres the narrative on migrant women themselves, given the layered and complex strategies adopted by them to confront their migrant situation. Based on a decade long personal interaction and personal interviews with 15 Indian female domestic workers in Oman, this study attempts to problematise established binaries of victimhood, exploitation and protection by focusing on the multiple ways in which women cope and wrest autonomy within a patriarchal system of both, the sending and receiving countries, thus facilitating a layered and heterogeneous approach to the experience of women’s migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, especially in the way they negotiate through the kafala system of sponsorship which is particular to this region.
Notes
† ‘Victim Narratives’ is a term used to describe the experiences of the Indian diaspora, both, the historical indentured labour as well contemporary diaspora and migrants.
1. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women suggests that
[m]igration positively impacts families, economies and societies in the countries of origin and destination. Origin countries benefit from the economic and social remittances, i.e. respectively the saved earnings sent to sustain households, and the transfer of skills, ideas, knowledge and technology to communities at home. A report by UN Women and UNDP on gender-responsive remittances in Africa found that women migrant workers were more likely than men to invest in schools, wells, hospitals, and local development, utilizing migrants’ and Diaspora networks. (Clarke, Citation2013, p. 5)
2. Presently, the Indian government does not allow women under 30 to migrate on a domestic worker visa.
3. Most women with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are not be part of the working sector as Oman has not given work visas to expatriate women for over 5 years (in most professions). Most women who accompany their husbands find themselves without a job.
4. Article 2 of the Royal Decree 35/2003 covering Oman’s labour law (Citation2003) states that the established rules for recruitment of labour in Oman ‘shall not apply to … Domestic servants working inside or outside houses such as driver, a maid and a cook and those with a similar job’ (p. 8).
5. The Omani Rial is pegged with the US dollar and remains constant (1 OMR = USD 2.59).
6. In 2009, 68% of ECR Clearances granted to Women Migrant Workers was by the Hyderabad office, followed by Cochin and Trivandrum (Potnuru & Sam, Citation2015).
7. This information is based on personal communication with women who are presently working in the homes of their sponsors.
8. An activist and journalist noted that there were 4800 commercial licenses issued in Oman in 2016, of which 80% were ‘fake’, i.e. companies which are registered for the sole purpose of bringing labour into the country. These visas are subsequently sold to the migrants themselves.
9. Pessoa et al. (Citation2014) suggest that the free visa was extensively used by Ethiopian women domestic workers but that they had no access to these women:
From our fieldwork, we were able to access a wide network of male workers from different nationalities, but women were often inaccessible due to the nature of their work (many work as domestic workers and have hardly any time off) and their insecurity in conveying information about their experience in Qatar (p. 8).
10. For a more detailed description of these areas of Muscat, see Mehta and Onley (Citation2015).
11. Expatriates with a minimum salary of OMR 1000 can sponsor a domestic worker and Indians usually tend to bring an Indian woman who lives on her own in shared accommodation. This happens, at times, because the children for whom the worker was brought have grown up and do not require full time help, or because the host family does not have a separate room for the maid.
12. As of 2016, an Omani national pays OMR 300 for a 2-year visa, thus profiting by more than 200% in a 2 year period, per person sponsored.
13. See Mehta and Onley (Citation2015) for a detailed description of migrant workers in Muscat.
14. The women whose case studies are presented were personally known to this researcher for over a decade.
15. Lakshmi and Padma (easily transcribed as ‘Fatma’) are the two most common names assumed by Indian domestic workers in Oman, even if that is not the name on their passport.
16. Part-time work is not consistent for those on a free visa as employers may leave the country, go on a holiday or decide to shift to another location in the city. Earnings, therefore, are not always dependable and these women often borrow from their employers and suffer a subsequent cut in future salaries.
17. One of these workers was in fact imprisoned for 12 days in 2013 for not possessing the correct visa. She said that she was rescued by her friends who gave the OMR 200 fine which the Omani sponsor refused to provide. The sponsor did go to release the worker but did not personally pay the fine. Thus the sponsor has no liabilities when it comes to being caught for selling visas and facilitating ‘free’ visa.
18. In 2008, An MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) was signed between India and Oman to ensure the welfare of Indian workers in Oman by examining ‘standardized Model Employment Contract, payment of salary through banks, retention of passport by employers, exchange of information with regard to illegal recruitment and human trafficking’ (MEA, Citation2012, p. 5). However, a MoU is only a call for action and not legally binding. Also see Wickramasekara (Citation2013) for further details on various MoUs signed by the Omani and Indian governments regarding domestic workers.
19. Once workers land in the U.A.E, their exit visas are not scrutinized and as such, the U.A.E authorities have no knowledge of what awaits the women who are exiting the land border to Oman. This, according to social workers, is encouraging trafficking as well.
20. Such measures are much publicised in the media with headlines as ‘Domestic workers set for legal rights in Oman’ (Times of Oman, 27 April 2016) but are yet to be implemented.
21. Domestic workers from African countries like Ethiopia, Kenya and Senegal are presently banned in Oman.
22. Despite suggestions that there may be ‘Reform/near-abandonment of the Kafala system’ (Thimothy, Citation2017, p. 84) in Oman and Bahrain, there is little evidence to suggest that governmental policies in Oman are moving toward a structural shift away from this sponsorship system.