RESPECT Transnational Conference: Report
Migrant Domestic Workers:
Acting Together
20th and 21st January 2002
T&G, Transport House, 128 Theobalds Road, Holborn, London, WC1X 8TN, UK
/ EUROPEAN COMMISSIONFunded by the Daphne Programme 2000/2001
Contents
Agenda of Transnational Conference 3
Introduction 6
Sunday, 20th January 6
Ana’s Story 6
Panels 7
Spain Country Update 7
Ireland Country Update 10
UK Country Update 12
Netherlands Country Update 14
Acting Together – in practice!! Workshops 16
Workshop One: violence 16
Workshop Two: immigration 17
Workshop Three: employment 18
Monday, 21st January 18
Video screening 18
Panels & Interviews 18
Belgium Country Update 19
France Country Update 22
Italy Country Update 22
Germany Country Update 24
Final Debate 25
Appendix One: Participation List 26
Appendix Two: Evaluation Forms 32
Agenda of Transnational Conference
Day 1 – Sunday January 20th, 2002
10:30-11:00 Registration, Networking, and Coffee
11:00-11:15 Introduction
Giampi Alhadeff, Solidar, Gema Susa, United Workers Association &
Bridget Anderson, Kalayaan
11:15-13:15 Performance of Ana’s Story (Forum and Legislative Theatre) including facilitator’s experiences & transferable evidence
Kirsteen Roe & Andrea Haase
13:15-14:30 LUNCH including showing of “Acting Together” video
14:30-15:30 Responses to Ana’s Story and the process of forum and legislative theatre from Migrant Domestic Workers and practitioner organisations (10/15 mins each)
Chair: Renate Heubach, Zapo
Lucy Kerileng Kagiso, United Workers Association
Erlinda Gamboa, Babaylan
Anibel Ferus-Comelo, Homeworkers
15:30-15:40 Feedback from Spain
Esther Pena, MPDL
15:40-15:50 Feedback from UK
Aida Dunlea, Kalayaan & Gema Susa, UWA
15:50-16:00 Feedback from Ireland
Margaret Healey, Kalayaan, Dublin
16:00-16:10 Feedback from Netherlands
Fe Jusay, CFMW
16:10-16:30 BREAK
16:30-18:00 Acting together – in practice!! A chance to try out some drama games & exercises, watch a small scene acted by some MDWs and to try out forum and legislative theatre. The workshop will be led by a drama facilitator and an expert. The expert will draw together any recommendations for legislation.
Workshop One: Dealing with violence (using scene from Spanish
& French European workshops)
Forum Facilitators: Kirsteen Roe & Jethro Bogdanov
Expert: Claire Gardner, Kensington & Chelsea Domestic Violence
Forum, Development Co-Ordinator
Workshop Two: Immigration status (using scene from Netherlands
European workshop)
Forum Facilitator: Andrea Haase
Expert: Chris Randall, Winstanley-Burgess Solicitors
Workshop Three: Employment legislation (using scene from
Greek European workshop)
Forum Facilitator: April Coetzee
Expert: Stephanie Harrison, 2 Garden Court Chambers
Workshop Four: Life after regularisation
Expert: Bridget Anderson, Transnational Communities Programme
18:00-18:45 Reproduction of scenes and expert to provide concrete recommendations of legislation change.
Chair: Renate Heubach, Zapo
19:00 Finish
Day 2 – Monday January 21st, 2002
09:30-10:00 Registration, coffee, networking.
10:00-10:10 Introduction & Chair
Giampi Alhadef, Solidar
10:10-10:25 “Acting Together” video screening
10:25-10:45 Recap of previous day including an explanation of forum and the recommendations that arose as a result of the forums and the workshops.
Margaret Healey
10:45-12:15 Policy response to “Ana’s Story”, what has been said about the project, the use of forum and the suggestions that have been given as a result of the previous day’s activities, with questions (10/15 mins per speaker).
Claude Moraes MEP
Gloria Moreno Fontes Chammartin, International Labour Organization
Graeme Hopkins, Home Office, Immigration & Nationality Policy Directorate
Bridget Anderson, Transnational Communities Programme
Maureen Byrne, Women, Race & Equalities, T&GWU
12:15-12:45 Interview with Claude Moraes MEP
12:45-14:00 LUNCH
Chair for afternoon: Brid Brennan
14:00-14:10 Feedback from Belgium
Amaya Fernandez-Gordillo, Solidar
14:10-14:20 Feedback from France
Maya Jezewski, Babaylan
14:20-14:30 Feedback from Italy
Marinella Meschieri, FILCAMS-CGIL
14:30-14:40 Feedback from Germany
Renate Heubach and Miryam Falla-Garzon, Zapo
14:40-16:00 Final debate/discussion. The future - where do we go from here? What should the EU level campaign work be prioritising? What has worked and what is transferable? How will the charter be used?
Focus will be on legislation, policy and support work, and confidence building.
Brid Brennan
16:00 Finish
Introduction
The RESPECT Transnational Conference “Acting Together” (20–21 January 2002) was the culmination of the RESPECT Project “Acting Together”, funded by the Daphne Programme of the European Commission (February 2001–February 2002). The project used the medium of forum theatre with Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) across Europe to explore issues of violence, employment rights and immigration rights. The Transnational Conference focused on these three themes over two days.
The conference was attended by 128 people, including delegates from Belgium, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; and 61 MDWs from Botswana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Participants comprised of members of the RESPECT Network, MDWs, academics, politicians and practitioners from NGOs, women’s groups etc. (see Appendix 1 for participant list).
The conference was filmed by CNN, and some participants were interviewed during the proceedings. Further filming was carried out at the Kalayaan offices. The resulting piece was shown on CNN’s Inside Europe on 16 & 17 March 2002. An article about the conference was also published in T&G’s magazine ‘Together’, which focuses on women’s issues.
Seventy-nine evaluation forms were completed by delegates and the results are displayed in Appendix 2.
Sunday, 20th January
The conference was introduced by Giampi Alhadeff (Solidar), Gema Susa (United Workers Association) and Bridget Anderson (Transnational Communities & Kalayaan). All delegates were welcomed, particularly those who had struggled to get visas to travel to the UK and had come from across Europe. The Transport & General Workers Union were thanked for their support for the conference, particularly in providing us with the conference venue and a contribution towards the cost of the food. All were encouraged to participate throughout the two days and not to feel shy about coming forward to participate in forum theatre, in order to ensure the success of the conference!
Ana’s Story
The morning began with a performance of Ana’s Story, a play devised by MDWs in the UK. The play follows the experience of Ana, an MDW whose story was developed from the stories of many MDWs. The play begins with Ana’s first dilemma: she has discovered that husband is having an affair, and her employers are moving to the UK and she must decide whether she will accompany them. Two of her friends visit her and persuade her that this would be a good idea. We see her employers promising her short working hours, a good salary and a nice house in the UK if she comes with them. She agrees and travels to the UK. Once there, the reality is very different and we witness Ana being overworked, having to cope with the demands of many children, her employers and the mother of her employer. She suffers sexual harassment from the male employer. At the culmination of the play, Ana is in crisis and decides to leave her employers, even though they still hold her passport and she has no money. She finds her way to an organisation, which seems to be able to offer her support, although she feels that her situation is helpless.
After watching the play through once, it is performed for a second time, but this time, the audience is instructed to play the role of ‘spect-actors’ (rather than ‘spectators’). This means that any member of the audience can shout ‘stop’ whenever they feel that Ana could act in a different way in order to bring about an alternative situation. The ‘spect-actor’ is then asked to come onto the stage, replace the protagonist, and act out their idea for improving Ana’s position. The other actors remain in character, and improvise their roles. Spectactors thus have the opportunity to try out or ‘rehearse’ many different possibilities; there are no specified or imposed ‘answers’. Some interventions may be successful, others will fail. It is made clear that Ana’s situation is not her ‘fault’ and that many changes can only be made at structural or policy level rather than at an individual level.
During the ‘forum’, various attempts to solve Ana’s problems were made by spectactors. Interventions included, for example, confronting Ana’s husband about his infidelity; trying to find out more information about the situation in the UK before agreeing to leave; trying to obtain a written contract, better pay and conditions; and trying to ensure that Ana could hold her own passport. The other actors ensured that spectators faced a realistic response to their interventions, and demonstrated that some solutions were not appropriate for Ana’s situation. However, some interventions were carefully thought out, and did seem to present some alternatives and possibilities for Ana. The ‘acting out’ of Ana’s situation also helped the audience to understand the concrete problems that MDWs face in the workplace and raised some constructive discussion about what changes must be made at policy level.
Panels
The afternoon began with a panel response to Ana’s Story and the process of forum and legislative theatre. Responses were given by practitioner organisations and from two MDWs who had taken part in the workshops in France and in the UK. What was very clear from the responses was that the experience of using forum theatre had been extremely positive. Those who had taken part had gained valuable new skills and had found working as a team very beneficial – at an organisational level as well as an individual level. MDWs commented that they felt more confident and had developed stronger personal relationships as a result of the drama workshops. MDWs had also appreciated the opportunity to meet together and focus on a positive project outside the workplace. There was some discussion concerning the differences and similarities for MDWs working in different EU states and how forum theatre might be used in the future and by similar organisations (e.g. refugee groups or anti-violence groups). Practitioners from such organisations were positive about the possibilities offered by using the forum theatre model with different client groups.
Representatives from the RESPECT network in Spain, the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands then provided ten-minute updates on the situation and the work being undertaken in each country.
Spain Country Update
Partiendo de la premisa de que en términos generales la situación laboral de la trabajadora doméstica en España, es discriminatoria en comparación con otros sectores productivos de la economía en cuestiones fundamentales como son el salario, la protección social, las condiciones de contratación y los derechos básicos del trabajador, este hecho constatable objetivamente se agrava considerablemente cuando quienes desempeñan la actividad descrita son mujeres inmigrantes.
De acuerdo con las cifras proporcionadas por el Ministerio del Interior, desde 1981, hasta el año 2000, se ha pasado de 200.000 residentes extranjeros en España ha casi un millón de personas. Claro ésta que estamos hablando de extranjeros regularizados sin que quepa visibilizar estadísticamente la segregación por género.
Solo Madrid y Barcelona albergan a más del 36% de los residentes extranjeros en todo el territorio nacional, seguidos por el litoral mediterráneo y los dos archipiélagos.
Las cuatro principales áreas de actividad laboral de los residentes regularizados, y por tanto, cotizantes del sistema de seguridad social-, son por orden de importancia, la agricultura, la construcción, la hostelería y el servicio doméstico; esta relación cambia notablemente cuando hablamos del mercado laboral oculto, sumergido alimentado por población inmigrante en situación administrativa irregular.
Así, el sector del servicio doméstico dispara sus cifras (estimado en torno al 30%) en cuanto al tipo de actividad laboral que ocupa el sector más representativo, seguido a gran distancia por la hostelería y la construcción….
En España, como en el resto de los países de la Unión Europea, el trabajo doméstico remunerado (y no remunerado) esta fuertemente feminizado. Se estima según cifras oficiales de junio del 2000 que dicho sector emplea a más de 350.000 personas de las cuales el 88% esta constituido por mujeres y únicamente 150.000 personas ,de las que un 93% son mujeres, cotizaban en el régimen especial de empleadas de hogar. Cifras que debe acotarse con que lo que se entiende por SERVICIO DOMESTICO propicia una gran dificultad de contabilidad estadística ya que se trata de una actividad tendente a permanecer oculta o incardinarse en la denominada economía sumergida.
La gran desprotección que sufre este sector no viene únicamente marcada por la insuficiencia y obsoleta regulación normativa del mismo sino también porque a ello debemos añadir la cualidad de que muchos de estos empleos se producen dentro de la economía sumergida, unido a la feminización progresiva y creciente del fenómeno migratorio, posibilita mayores abusos que constituyen palmarias conculcaciones de los derechos y libertades fundamentales de las personas y dolosas discriminaciones por razón de género al concurrir la doble cualidad de ser inmigrante y además mujer; cuyo resultado no es otro que la INVISIBILIDAD DE LA MUJER INMIGRANTE COMO SUJETO DE DERECHO Y NO UNICAMENTE COMO SUJETO DE OBLIGACIONES. Sociedad, la española que, ha invertido su patrón migratorio, pasando de ser una sociedad emisora de emigración a convertirse en receptora de la misma. Y con un dato clave: el cambio sustancial de pauta de la inmigración de la mujer, quienes inician y son pioneras en la cadena migratoria hacia los países occidentales que, como en el caso de España, se ha transformado de emisores de emigración a receptores.
Por tanto, dos notas esenciales dentro del sector de las trabajadoras domésticas, es que en el mercado laboral viene segmentado por dos variables :GENERO E INMIGRACION, cuestión que sin duda alguna, propicia una triple discriminación de las mujeres :como mujer, trabajadora en un sector desvalorizado social y culturalmente, que adolece de una regulación normativa acorde con los derechos de los trabajadores/as reconocidos en la Constitución española y el Estatuto de los Trabajadores como cuerpo legal específico en la materia , e Inmigrante ,y cuya condición administrativa ( regularizada o en situación irregular) de conformidad con la regulación de Extranjería “ad hoc” , va a condicionar notablemente su integración social en la sociedad receptora y , por ende, su reconocimiento de” facto” de sujeto de derechos y libertades en las dimensiones referenciadas. La existencia del tipo de trabajo que realizan ( cuidado de niños, ancianos , limpieza, servicio doméstico del hogar familiar, atención a enfermos,…..) se convierte en la “puerta de entrada en un mercado de trabajo subordinado y que comporta ,sin duda, una flagrante marginación social y laboral, impidiendo de forma palmaria la incorporación en plenitud de derechos como mujeres y además trabajadoras su integración social plena, porque la incorporación regular de las mujeres inmigrantes al mercado de trabajo se produce dentro del sector del Servicio Doméstico.