ASERA-ASPAC Network
OBECTIVES
- Develop an Asia-Pacific network to build up current database on women-headed households to provide applied solutions on family and community fragmentation.
- Form a website to provide online communications and exchange of statistics, papers and other relevant documents
- Share policy recommendations which are culture and gender sensitive including best code of practices for the feminisation of labour.
CONTENT OF NETWORK AND METHOD OF FORMATION
Special Features and Originality
- The network includes field sites where issues and problems are located and provide opportunities for direct exchanges with migrant workers both national and global
- Location of workshops in communities experiencing feminisation of the labour force provides the fuel to stimulate discussions in the right direction
- Web and field communities converge to provide first hand news on the situation of migrant workers
ANTICIPATED BENEFITS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
The project is expected to introduce and develop a more dynamic interdisciplinary approach to the study of emerging problems of work and labour in the global market. By locating the network discussions in local areas where such labour markets are formed, network participants will be able to obtain direct feedback from public and private agencies including civil society movements on the complexity of the issues. Instead of commissioning a formal survey, the coordinator of each country will prepare a kit containing background information on trends, underlying problems and profile of workers including statistics and social mapping of worker’s migratory patterns and the network will together work out the scenario and form conclusions which are general enough to compare to other countries where similar work and labour patterns are formed
These comparisons will form the basis of social theory relating to global labour and the feminisation of global labour. This methodology will enable comparative data to emerge over a shorter period of time and one where historical, geographical, economic, and social perspectives can be woven into a common thread of understanding.
It is also hoped that the findings from this network can lay the grounds for international agencies like ILO to develop international codes of practices for the use of cheap female labour in the global labour market .This can encompass regulations relating to rates where workers are paid similar wages as men and women from the host country, reimbursements of costs of relocation, allowances for children and other social benefits.
It is anticipated that graduate students will be able to benefit from this network since they will be exposed to extensive sessions of brain-storming, discussions and dialogues which can generate new knowledge on current issues of globalisation , gender and work.
The network hopes to be able to generate a lecture series on “Globalisation and Social Wealth”” where members of the network and other eminent scholars can give public lectures on current issues and problems of globalisation and liberalisation, focusing on gender, poverty, family transformation, new markets, democracy and many other interrelated topics of academic and popular interest. The country coordinator will lay the ground work for these public lectures which will eventually be posted on the web. Debates can continue with blogging and email messaging. This lecture series can develop into a credible organisation of its own and will be able to influence the development of theory and policy.
As explained earlier, discussions on globalisation and the deregulation of markets is capital driven but is built on the idea that human capital can be composed and disposed at will according to market forces. This network can make a major contribution to the understanding of what has been described by A Sen as “economic justice” where policy intervention can help to bridge the rights of workers with the needs of industry.
Social Theory and Methodology
a) The network through online communications, narratives blogs and workshops will advance the research process with greater efficiency. It shortens the interface between empirical and applied outputs and enable quicker results in data gathering.
b) The participatory action approach will also benefit the “researched” ie migrant workers since they can out source quick solutions from activist and researchers of the network.
c) The network can stimulate thinking with greater relativity and enable participants to sharpen comparative perspectives.
d) The unique approach to the study of engendered labour movements can throw new light on economics and demography. This could be a contribution to ‘gendered economies’: or ‘womenomics’ as it is popularly referred.
1) Social Perspectives
a) Different field locations could be at different phases of advancement in the deregulation of labour markets and this will provide evidence of the dynamism of structural process which move labour to follow capital or capital to follow labour. The relationship between capital driven and labour driven economies will be elucidated.
b) The transformation of family structures follow the dynamism of labour
markets and comparisons on the deconstruction of family and
community institutions and their subsequent revitalisation if any can be drawn.
c) It is also possible to envisage that urban centres may have diasporas of
earlier migrant communities and differences in the historicity of
early diasporas and emerging labour movements may explain the rise of
problems relating to juvenile delinquency, domestic violence and child abuse
in communities where these workers originate and where they work. Sexual
exploitation for example is a new phenomenon of the migratory labour
market while youth malaise is a rural problem in communities
without mothers.
Future Prospects
Such a network can play a crucial role in shaping social and economic policy
on the free market. By showing the private sector how problems and issues of women affect their productivity, the private enterprise could participate in
worker welfare projects with greater sensitivity. The private enterprise can also
engage in direct discussions with relevant policy makers on Ministerial levels.
Service officers linked to the needs and rights of women migrant workers
such as banking , financial, health and educational institutions could be more
actively involved in the network and offer client friendly products and services
which can assist workers invest their earnings more efficiently with long term results. This can benefit the health and education of their children and function
as a social safety net against the sudden withdrawal of these enterprises into
even cheaper labour markets.
The network could also maximize its contribution on empowerment of
women workers through contribution of papers to international organisations
like the ILO, UNDP products like Counseling Clinics, Social Service
Directories, Human Rights Education through Media dissemination , Preventive
Health Brochure and other civil society services which are available in
countries where the Workshops are located.