Migrant Domestic Workers and Continuums of Exploitation: Beyond the Limits of Antitrafficking Laws

Abstract

Of particular concern to any exploration of global migration law is the significance of collective organizing by migrants to secure legal reforms through the making of rights claims. Despite pessimism as to the impact of law, activists continue to frame their demands for change in the language and practice of human rights. At the same time, migration status, and the deportability of the alien continue to function as limits to the enactment of rights and to the effective vindication of human rights norms. Dejuridification, understood as the enactment of legal exceptions, is of particular significance in the domestic work context,3 creating specific challenges for reform initiatives that promote decent work standards and more secure migration status and pathways. Such processes of dejuridification bring into question the potential of human rights laws to secure reforms that can withstand challenges from states. These challenges are linked to the continuing impact of a sovereignty-based global legal system, which situates migrant workers at its limits. Global migration law is pushing back at those limits, including through expanding the boundaries of human rights and international labor standards. From a relatively thin and fragmented base, it could be argued that a new domain of international law is beginning to emerge. Recognizing the significance of gender to migration status and rights, it is timely, therefore, to reflect on how migrant domestic workers are shaping this evolving legal domain, and whether the domain of global migration law recognizes the significance of compounded and intersecting forms of discrimination.