Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe

This book explores the often neglected, but overwhelmingly common, everyday vulnerability of those who support the smooth functioning of contemporary societies: paid domestic workers.

With a focus on the multiple disadvantages these - often migrant - workers face when working and living in Europe, the book investigates the role of law in producing, reinforcing - or, alternatively, attenuating - vulnerability to exploitation. It departs from approaches that focus on extreme abuse such as 'modern' slavery or trafficking, to consider the much more widespread day-to-day vulnerabilities created at the intersection of different legal regimes. The book, therefore, examines issues such as low wages, unregulated working time, dismissals and the impact of migration status on enforcing rights at work.

The complex legal regimes regulating migrant domestic labour in Europe include migration and labour law sources at different levels: international, national and, as this book demonstrates, also EU. With an innovative lens that combines national, comparative, and multilevel analysis, this book opens up space for transformative legal change for migrant domestic workers in Europe and beyond.

Auteur

Vera Pavlou is Lecturer in Labour Law at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Contenu

Introduction

1. Domestic Workers Under National Migration Regimes
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Migration Regime Features as Vulnerability Vectors
1.3. A Typology of European Migration Regimes on Domestic Workers
1.4. Comparing the Construction of Vulnerabilities Under European Migration Regimes
1.5. Conclusion

2. Labour Law Regimes and Vulnerability
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Labour Law Regulation of Domestic Work in the UK, Cyprus, Sweden and Spain
2.3. Approaches to Illegally Employed Migrant Domestic Workers
2.4. Conclusion

3. Migrant Domestic Workers Under EU Migration Law: Fragmentation and the Value of Work
3.1. Introduction
3.2. EU Sources on the Movement of EU and Non-EU Workers
3.3. Fragmentation, Different Hierarchies and the Value of Work: Implications for Migrant Domestic Workers
3.4. Domestic Workers Under EU Law Sources on the Integration of Non-EU Migrants
3.5. EU Migration Law Norms on Illegally Resident Domestic Workers
3.6. Conclusion

4. Using EU Labour Law Sources to Challenge Domestic Workers' Vulnerability
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Domestic Work and the Personal Scope of EU Labour Law Sources
4.3. Substantive Rights in Selected Areas
4.4. How Does National Law Fare?
4.5. Conclusion

5. Challenging Vulnerability
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Organising Migrant Domestic Workers
5.3. Processes of Reform and Avenues to Challenge Domestic Workers' Vulnerability
5.4. Conclusion

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index