Unblocking the Barriers: Making the EAC Labour Migration Regime Beneficial to Female Migrants

1. Unblocking the Barriers: Making the EAC Labour Migration Regime Beneficial to Female Migrants Dr. Juliana Masabo

2. Women in international migration general trends • Growing presence • 48 % of the global of the 232 millionmigration total • Europe (51.9%), • Latin America and the Caribbean (51.6%) • Northern America (51.2%) • Oceania (50.2%),

3. Africa • More than 30 million Africans (3 per cent of Africa’s population) are living in countries other than the one in which they were born (ILO ) • by 2025, one in ten Africans will live and work outside their countries. (World Bank estimates) • growing feminisation of international labour migration • Women form 45.9 % of Africas migration stock • majority originate from within the region, mostly neighbouring countries

4. Factors • Gender segregation of labour – limited opportunities • Increased levels of feminized poverty and gender disparities in access to social & economic opportunities • Growing demand of women in some sectors eg. the service sector • preference for women migrant workers by employers WHY- perceived docility -lower labour costs associated with employing women

5. Issues • marginalized - human rights violations • Less opportunities for regular migration- • stratified entry • male dominated admission policies • Dual labour market • female migrants in ‘welfare and social professions (education, health and social work); service industry (domestic, sex work) informal & unregulated

6. The situation in the EAC • Increased presence -In some countries more than 50% • Rwanda in 2013 had 52 per cent (236,796 out of 453,406) • limited opportunities for legal mobility • Little scholarly attention • Statistics are unreliable (fragmented, poor profiling, gender-specific information not captured) • Stratified entry policies (selective?)

7. The EAC legal framework on free movement of workers • EAC Treaty art. 104 • EAC passport 1999 • EAC Common Market Protocol, 2009 – entry into force 1st July 2010 • free movement of persons • free movement of workers • right of residence • right of establishment

8. Free movement of workers (art. 10 & Annex 2) • right to seek and to accept employment in any State • equal treatment with nationals in terms of employment conditions • Right to join and participate in trade union activities • access to social security benefits • the right to be accompanied by family member

9. Further commitments • Harmonisation and Mutual Recognition of Academic and Professional Qualifications. Art. 11 • Harmonisation of Labour Policies, Laws and Programmes. Art 12

10. Implementation • Work in progress • 1st July 2010- progressive implementation • Schedule of implementation- Annex 2 • Selective list of occupations • Slow pace of implementation Expt. Rwanda

11. Women in the EAC framework • The Protocol and its annexes are gender neutral • the development of EAC labour migration policies, as that of individual Member States has proceeded from two faulty assumptions: • that labour migration is exclusively a man’s business and that • to the extent that women do migrate, female & male migrants have similar migration experiences. • Colonial era???

12. Stratified admission - Schedule of Implementation • Selected occupations • Skilled vs semi-skilled and unskilled workers • Regular vs. Irregular - illegal migration – smuggling • More women than men are affected because they are overrepresented in the fraction of persons with lower levels of education and limited skills.

13. Occupations in the schedule are overly biased towards male- dominated occupations (engineers, mathematicians, chemists, ICT specialists etc) • women's limited participation in home country’s formal labour market • occupational segregation- women in informal & precarious work- no protection

14. Other general barriers • Recognition of academic qualifications • Denial of admission on grounds of public policy, public security or public health. Art 10.11

15. Do women have an alternative ? • Self employment article 13 and Annex 3 right of establishment • Work permit – proof of valid standard travel documents, necessary licences, registration and sufficient capital . • Irregular migration ? • informal cross border trade ?

16. What should be done? • Getting the statistics right - how many, where are they, what they do, what are the unique challenges (fragmented, poor profiling, gender-specific information not captured) • advocacy programmes widening the knowledge base on the sub-region’s labour migration framework and the situation of female migrants • revise the existing framework so as to integrate gender perspectives in EAC and in domestic frameworks the AU Migration Policy and Common Position on Migration , 2006

17. Building on exiting gender mainstreaming programmes and women empowerment programmes to advocate for gender sensitive migration policies • Using universal human rights instruments and general international labour law standards • CEDAW , 1979 • substantive equality between women and men • obligation on State Parties to eliminate discrimination • General Recommendation No 26 on Women Migrant Workers • ILO Convention 100 (Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951, and 111 (Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958) listed by Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 1998 .(National Labour Laws) • ILO Convention and Recommendation concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers as adopted by the International Labour Organisation in 2011 (Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201 )

18. Conclusion It is very important that the EAC labour migration policies, laws and practices integrate a gender perspective because ‘a gender perspective is essential to the analysis of the position of female migrants and the development of policies to counter discrimination exploitation and abuse.’ CEDAW, General Recommendation on Migrant Women, para 5