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Migrant workers, maids and social hierarchy Dewi Anggraeni, Melbourne Consciously or subconsciously, living in modern times, we continuously seek out ways to take control of our lives, yet for the majority of people, events in life are often dictated by sheer necessity. In today's economy for instance, people are increasingly driven to seek work in other countries in order to earn a decent living. Migrant workers, however, have to contend with inherent disadvantages, wherever they are. Very few countries provide legal protection for transient workers, leaving these workers vulnerable to various kinds of abuse. So if they have a choice, they should select a destination where the labor law extends to migrant workers. Nonetheless, while having the protection of the law gives them a powerful sense of security, another kind of protection, in effect just as powerful, is the continuous support of their own government and their home community. For Indonesians this can be problematic if they are being employed as domestic helpers. Government support in the form of institutional infrastructure is being built as we speak. It is moving slowly, but moving in the right direction. The fact that it is being built at all must be credited to the political will of the authorities involved, because the community at large has not been a prime mover. Over the years since independence, Indonesian society has continuously evolved. On the surface, with the spread of formal education throughout the country, uneven as it is, people have been growing more aware of their rights and obligations, presumably eroding the collective feudalistic mores society has been steeped in since the precolonial era. Feudalism however, has proven to be a great deal more difficult to uproot from the collective psyche than most people with high ideals would have hoped. In every sector, the hierarchical structure is still as strong as ever. In formal employment situations, everybody automatically positions himself or herself in this structure almost without question. Anyone who steps out is uncompromisingly pushed back to position or cut out altogether. This structure is mirrored, in a more truncated manner, in a domestic situation where the husband is accepted as the head of the household, and below him comes the wife, then the children, and last of all, the household staff. This may consist of the children's nanny, the driver, the gardener-cum-guard, the cook and then, only then, the domestic helper -- popularly known as the maid -- in that pecking order. The staff may be friendly toward each other, but are aware nonetheless where everyone stands in the hierarchy. The office cleaner and the maid -- the lowest positions respectively in the hierarchical pecking order, are at the bottom of the heap because their work is regarded as not requiring any real skills. Perception and reality do not necessarily coexist. The actual role of a maid is disproportionately bigger than the credit given to her. She is responsible for the smooth operation of the household without having access to budget planning; she is the de facto receptionist for the family; she has to make sure that everybody -- meaning the husband, the wife and the children -- have the specific clothes they need, ready on the right day and at the right time of day; and above all, she has to be polite and well presented, but not better presented than her female employer. And she has to be near-invisible. When the family has a dinner party, the cook, while also invisible, at least has a "presence" in the food the diners are enjoying, but the maid? She serves quietly, then disappears until summoned from time to time to carry out specific tasks. Then when everyone has finished, she comes to clean up. She does not leave any lingering impression on anyone. She is indispensable yet nobody recognizes her indispensability. There are gradients of the maid's "invisibility" in households, especially considering that among the less affluent families, it is also common to have the maid charged with the responsibility of being a cook as well as a general household helper. However the core premise of her irrelevance in terms of status in the family is immutable. This subconscious notion is so prevalent in society that it is reflected in the government, and specifically in this case, in the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry and the Directorate General of Immigration, which in principle should have the responsibility of having a workable system in place, in order for the women who work as domestic helpers overseas to have proper legal protection and the ability to obtain proper documents. This protection has so far been a hit and miss affair, because as Salma Safitri of the National Commission on Women's Affairs pointed out, even the new law protects workers other than migrant domestic helpers, despite the fact that they are the biggest segment (70 percent) of the all Indonesian workers sent overseas. It seems that the notion of the maid's irrelevance is so strong that it has even permeated the government level. After all, in everybody's perception, these domestic helpers are "just maids", and as such, do not merit serious attention. The problems of Indonesian domestic helpers overseas are chronic and, basically, rooted in a system which can be described as makeshift, propped up by ad hoc regulations here and there, to treat symptoms that have come up and that cannot be ignored. What is needed is an overhaul, a remedial surgery. Time will tell if the new Law No. 39/2004, and the mechanisms which are yet to be set up to enforce it, will be able to effect this remedial surgery. One thing is sure, it will require public support to implement the changes, because most of the strength of support lies in the community's collective psyche. Just as important is the fact that when the community cares about the workers, it sends a message to their employers overseas that they are members of the community who are appropriately appreciated, not people to be bullied, by anyone. The writer collaborated with the International Labor Organization in writing the book Dreamseekers; dream and reality of working as domestic helpers overseas, which will be released jointly by Equinox Publishing and the ILO at the end of March. printer friendly [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. 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