Brief description:

Despite the historically undervalued and yet politically charged character of domestic labour its contemporary emergence as a female migrant occupation exposes the group of female migrant domestic workers to more intense exploitation and abuse comparatively to the past. Within security regimes, which act as the primary means of management for female migrants, the national and gender identities of female migrant domestic workers are constructed as an existential threat to the national politics of social reproduction. This research project examines the experienced inequalities and vulnerabilities of female migrant domestic workers in Greece as outcomes of the politicization of migration as an existential threat to the national societal security. It does so by utilizing the Copenhagen School’s securitization theory as the basis for the development of this project’s analytical framework and by conducting research at the three securitization stages: negotiation, acceptance and institutionalization. It argues that the identified characteristics of the contemporary migration wave, racism and xenophobia, rise in crime and growth of the informal economy, that have defined the experiences of both nationals and aliens are outcomes of the conceptualization and development of migration policies as exclusionary measures. The findings bring forward the silencing of female migrant domestic workers and their experiences on a political level despite a strong presence of this group in the printed press. The analysis determines that the securitization of this particular migrant group takes place via the political reproduction of patriarchal structures that result in securitization being experienced differently by female migrants rather than direct speech acts. Utilizing Huysmans concept of desecuritization the research project concludes by claiming that the conscious reorientation of the ethical basis upon which migration policy is established in Greece will result in the alleviation of the burdens of migration for both nationals and migrants.

Methodology:

Keywords: domestic work, gender equality, Greece, human trafficking, illegal migration, Immigration, Labour Migration, migrant women, Securitization

Supervisor: Frankln Lisk

Added to catalogue on: 02-10-2018

Additional information: