Female Migrant Workers: Our Remittance Heroines?

Currently, of 272 million international migrant workers worldwide, nearly half of the population (41,5%) is women (Bureau International du Travail, 2021). Meanwhile, it is estimated that Indonesia has more than four million registered female labourers working abroad (Platt, 2018). The actual figure may be higher as many migrant workers are unregistered in the government system due to illegal procedures they made.

The labour migration in Indonesia has occurred since the colonial era when the colonisers moved labourers for construction, plantation and mining projects in several countries such as Suriname, Malaysia and so forth (Yazid, 2016). In the early 1980s, the Indonesian government developed a regulation for overseas labour and appointed a private sector to manage the settlement for migrant workers, called BNP2TKI. Since then, labour migration has been included in a national development plan, with two concentrated regions, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Economically, this transnational migration has benefitted the country. In 2013, it was recorded that Indonesia received USD 7,4 billion (Yazid, 2016).

Despite this fact, some scholars argue that women workers have limited access to migrant jobs due to their capabilities (Chan, 2014; Yazid, 2016). Most of them come from rural areas and less educated backgrounds. As a result, most female workers work in low-paid employment in the hospitality and informal sectors, such as domestic jobs. Furthermore, women’s migration has entangled with morality issues, such as religious morality and domesticated femininity, as reasons to employ domestic work in destination countries.

In terms of religious morality, many countries in The Middle East consider Muslim women workers to be religiously appropriate and, in return, are employed with prosperous employees that would support their well-being. Additionally, the spiritual rewards of pilgrimage to Mecca and the guarantee to work in ‘halal’ circumstances have been promises from the employees. These two conditions have been seen as a significant honour in the Indonesian religious community because being a hajj can substantially increase their family’s social privilege. Thus, it shows that women’s migration is not only about economic capacity but also social and cultural values that cultivate their roles in society (Platt, 2018; Silvey, 2007).

When it comes to domesticated femininity, the subject of middle-class lifestyles and consumption has also prevalently inspired women to work overseas to produce their definition of success when they return home (Chan, 2014; Platt, 2018; Yazid, 2016). The modern lifestyle brought by the improved economic status is considered a success from the community’s point of view. Nevertheless, this motivation is followed by domesticated dependency and norms, which remain formulated in gendered migration in Indonesia. During the recruitment process, for instance, women must provide a permission letter from their male guardians (father or husband) that allows them to go abroad. If they fail to obtain this permission letter, their application will not proceed. On the contrary, this administration requirement does not apply to male workers.

The definition of women through religious morality and domesticated femininity is socially institutionalised in the term ‘kodrat’ or female destiny of women, based on social, religious and cultural values. Therefore, despite the economic endeavours that women have made, the public expects that they must equally pay attention to their domestic duties (Chan, 2014). In other words, women can contribute to their family or nation as long as they get approval from their male counterparts or society.

Female migrant workers are our heroines.

The latest research by The World Bank illustrates that Indonesian migrant workers have improved their income by up to six times as much as they earned in their former jobs in the country (The World Bank, 2017). This income has contributed to the nation’s economic development through the remittances or money transferred by migrant workers to their families or relatives in Indonesia. The Central Bank of Indonesia reported that in 2012, workers’ remittances reached USD 6,998,000 (Bachtiar, 2011). Some scholars argue that remittances have been the main reason the government promotes transnational labour migration for rural communities, including women (Bachtiar, 2011; Chan, 2014). Also, the government considers that involving women in labour migration equals increasing women’s participation in public domains, hence, it can address gender inequality issues.

Although, in general, female workers send roughly the same amount of remittances as their male counterparts, study shows that migrant women are prone to send a higher proportion of their income, more regular and more consistent than men, albeit with lower wages (International Organization of Migration, 2015). In a patriarchal culture like Indonesia, female migrant workers are expected to have a greater responsibility to remit to their families to compensate for their absence in taking care of their children and household. Additionally, they tend to send money to extended families who become primary caregivers, such as their mothers and siblings, to improve their family lives.

Bachtiar (2011) suggests that at the local level where female workers originate, remittances have improved family welfare, for instance, educating their children, renovating their houses, starting a business or acquiring farmland. Within this context, the Indonesian government and communities have labelled female migrant workers as economic heroines (Pahlawan Devisa) (Chan, 2014; Irawaty, 2022; Tittensor & Mansouri, 2017; Yazid, 2016). This public discourse has been considered a sign of recognition and gratitude from the nation to the migrant workers due to their contribution to economic development.

This discourse of heroines of remittances manifests gendered nationalism through the commodification of love for their families in their home country (Irawaty, 2021). Female migrant workers consider remittances as proof to their families that they are good mothers or daughters. Thus, the commodification of love demonstrates that motherhood is not an experience but an institution and ideology that shapes women’s identity and contributes to formulating their nationalism (Glenn et al., 1994; Rich, 1976).

Practically, the ideology of motherhood and nationalism have forced women to prove themselves to be capable of working outside their home country while maintaining their domestic responsibilities in the home country. The remittances, therefore, become a tool for the ideology by creating bonding and close familial relations with the community members in Indonesia, even though they are separated by geographical distances.

However, Irawati (2022) argues that the public discourse of heroines of remittances is an overstatement produced politically to promote transnational migration and overlooks the exploitation of overseas migration. This narrative is a concealment of the neoliberal strategy to take advantage of female migrant workers in the name of economic development and manipulate their gendered nationalism. Meanwhile, from the perspective of female workers, the construction of the identity through transnational motherhood is a process of self-conception, awareness and identification, and not merely through the heroines’ label given by the state.

What is more, while it may be a sign of recognition of their existence, it does not significantly benefit female workers because it is not accompanied by extensive support from the state and society when it comes to abuses and exploitation faced by female workers. The government tends to discursively normalise poor working conditions as a consequence of global market inequality and expects female workers’ personal responsibility to persevere while working overseas rather than systematically produce transnational legal protection for migrant workers (Chan, 2014). As a result, female migrant workers are relentlessly in precarious and vulnerable conditions.

Gendered morality of female transnational migration

In addition to the lack of legal protection for female migrant workers from the Indonesian government, the promotion of women’s involvement in international migration through its public discourse of heroines of remittances ignores the issue of the moral discourse of women in the public sphere. This morality discourse relates to the Indonesian context’s cultural collectivistic, which influences social behaviour.  For instance, the Indonesian community submerge itself in others’ lives in the name of solidarity and social protection. Therefore, albeit a personal decision to migrate, the consequences of transnational migration have been associated with stigmatisation from the whole community. As a result, the lives of female migrant workers often become the subject of gossip or scorn when their family life does not meet social expectations due to their absence in their home country.

When it comes to gender roles, the ideology of motherhood has shaped the role of women as natural caretakers of the family, thus requiring physical presence in the households. Therefore, their absence due to migration is often seen negatively by society as irresponsible women (Platt, 2018). In many cases, the migration of married Indonesian women may involve extended families (primarily parents) to take care of their children as primary caregivers. Even when the women workers have left-behind husbands, they likely seek support from extended families in caring for their children, as it is assumed that fathers do not have motherhood in nature (Aminuddin et al., 2019; Platt, 2018). Thus, this situation creates a public perception that migrant women neglect their domestic roles and leave their husbands, which is associated with ‘sin’ in the patriarchal Indonesian context (Hirano, 2015).

Furthermore, women tend to be subjected as immoral individuals when migrating alone and have been involved in a relationship with other men overseas. This stigma does not apply to left-behind husbands or male migrant workers (Chan, 2014; Hirano, 2015; Platt, 2018). The misogyny community often normalises men’s extramarital affairs and financial depletion yet blames women’s absence as the family’s main responsible person. The moral failure is exacerbated when women workers have a child out of wedlock overseas since it relates to sexual taboos and will be stigmatised as ‘bad women’ (Platt, 2018).

Another morality issue faced by female migrant workers relates to the remittances or financial support to the family. In many cases, when women fail to fulfil their family’s needs and expectations, family reunions are loaded with guilt, shame, and a sense of motherhood responsibility (Sreedharan & Kapoor, 2021). These feelings are worsened because the decision to migrate is perceived as an individual choice for economic reasons and comes with social consequences on gender roles and the standard of motherhood. Additionally, society negatively views women workers who fail to support their families as having personality deficiency due to consumptive behaviour, weak mentality, or not working hard enough in foreign countries.

What is even worse, in the case of the sex trafficking issue, many women tend to silence their experiences with their family members due to fear of social stigma and being blamed for their personal decision to migrate. Many women tend to keep their bad experiences while working abroad to manage their familial relationships and avoid divorce (Sreedharan & Kapoor, 2021).

Women’s migration and their vulnerability

Other than the morality issues within the country, women’s overseas migration is followed by many detrimental challenges in their destination states. The challenges are not only faced by legal migrant workers but also illegal or undocumented workers. Women tend to be involved in illegal migration to avoid high recruitment costs, complicated paperwork and lengthy waiting periods. The illicit pathways have been made available by unlicensed recruiters (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2014). Human Rights Watch (2004) suggests that female migrant workers face vulnerability at every phase of migration, starting from recruitment, training, departures, employment and return.

During recruitment, recruiters often ask for expensive recruitment costs. Meanwhile, unlicensed agents often falsify travel documents and deceive working arrangements (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2014; Chan, 2014; Human Rights Watch, 2004). In the training centres, both Indonesia and destination countries, women migrant workers often suffer from intense restrictions and physical, sexual and verbal abuse. In some secular destination countries, they also experience prohibitions on practising their religions (Human Rights Watch, 2004; Silvey, 2007).

Additionally, the training curricula do not integrate comprehensive information on anticipating culture shocks, especially in the destination countries where geographically different from Indonesia, such as The Middle East and Hongkong. Chan (2014) analysed a case in which two female workers died due to burned charcoal poisoning when they tried to warm up their bodies during cold weather in Dubai. In reality, many workers do not know how to anticipate severe weather or other circumstances when in destination states. What is more, language barriers make women workers find it challenging to communicate with and isolate themselves in employers’ houses (Silvey, 2007; Tittensor & Mansouri, 2017).

What is more, throughout the deployment stage, women face ubiquitous labour rights violence in the workplace, such as extreme working hours without overtime pay, no rest days, underpaid, irregular and incomplete payment of salary, and even without being paid completely (Chan, 2014; Human Rights Watch, 2004; Platt, 2018; Silvey, 2007; Tittensor & Mansouri, 2017). For some women who work as domestic workers, many employers keep their passports and other travel documents, resulting in long isolation for them (Silvey, 2007).

Sexual, physical and verbal abuse have also emerged during deployment in the workplace. It has been revealed by many Indonesian media that employers mistreat female domestic workers who work and stay in their houses, including placing domestic workers in substandard rooms, not providing daily meals, and beating workers when they make mistakes (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2014; Chan, 2014). In some exceptional cases, many workers were found guilty of stealing money and food and sentenced to death or jail for killing their employers due to the abuse they experienced (Chan, 2014). These cases have raised the attention of many international and national organisations to demand legal protection and monitoring systems for women workers overseas.

However, the exploitation faced by Indonesian female migrant labourers has been ignored by the decision-makers, mainly because they assume that transnational migration is women’s personal choice. Thus, women should be responsible for the risks, prepare themselves with education, and maintain appropriate religious traditions (Jochelson, 1995). Moreover, their economic contribution in the form of remittances has shifted the government’s focus from legally protecting female workers based on the ideology of ibu-ism to promoting transnational migration in the name of gender equality.

All in all, if female migrant workers are truly our heroines of remittance due to their economic contribution to our nation, then why do so many of them suffer with limited legal protection from our government? The representation of women in transnational labour is the best example for understanding the complications of female nationalism in Indonesia. On the one hand, female migrant heroes are the subject of nationalists who contribute to political economy improvement in the country. On the other hand, their existence is either in contrast to the realities of gendered morality and exploitation or violence in every stage of the migration cycle.

Despite being exploited, sexualised, domesticated, and stigmatised, female migrant workers are only appreciated through the economic benefaction to the community. When they fail, their struggles become invisible. This resonates with what has been suggested by Rai (2002). The discussion around nationalism has always posed a specific challenge for women despite their participation in the public domain in the new era of citizenship. Women remain fragile within and outside the country. The gendered morality and discrimination against women continued to endanger their human rights and prolong their vulnerability. Along with the collectivistic of the Indonesian community, morality issues and violence become weapons to scratch women’s endeavour to prove their capability to work in the public arena.

The struggle to access the public sphere has been ironically visible and a concern for gender equality. However, the Indonesian government seems to ignore the facts and keeps promoting women to migrate abroad in the name of the nation’s economic development. Then, let us not keep silent to raise their rights.

Happy Remembrance Day.

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