Lect 2.1- cult dils

Lect 2.1- cult dils

1. Reproductive rights of migrant workers (overlooked human R issue)

2. Overarching questions (linkage between globalization and human rights):

   • What are the key human rights concerns caused by contemporary global economic processes?
   • How does culture interact with these concerns?
   • Why do reproductive rights of migran workers interact with human rights concerns?
   • Is globalization good for development bc it provides econ opportunities for the poor or problematic bc it exacerbates inequalities and human rights problems?

3. Reproductive R def:

   • Reproductive sphere = prego, sex behav, child bearing, dom care L
     • Reproductive R: R to life, liberty and security
       • - R to reproductive self-determination (sex behav) - R to consent to marriage - R to health (prego, child bearing) - R to freedom from discrimination - R to be free from sex violence
   • Reproductive R as universal R? (intl HR standards)
     • Recognition of reproductive R regardless of nationality (the state's responsibility to uphold reproductive R) [convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in 1979]
       • Reality: normative denial of reproductive R (prego) of temporary foreign workers

4. Key human rights violations surrounding migrant pregnancy

   • Feminization of L migration:
     • Intensified L integration of migrant women from the global S
     • Development Assumption: Women's L participation is a soln for the poverty and gender inequality
       • Reality: construction of inequality and gender specific vulnerabilities in global L mkts
     • Neolib immigration policies = strong emphasis on L flexi (disposability), productivty and docility
       • Outcome: migrant vulnerabilities (de facto statelessness) = abortion, detention, deportation, illegality
     • Impact of gender norms on migrant reporductive R (regulating reproductive behav and punishing preg) = normalized rejection of preg
   • Agency of migrant women: mitigating migrant vulerabilities:
     • Continuation of illegality (migrants remain undocumented, remittances)
     • Legalization of status (through marriage to a local citizien; asylum-seeking)
     • Migrant acitivism (pushing for structural change)
     • Liberal and illiberal immigration regimes = affecting migrant agency

5. Structural factors: Neoliberal labour flexibility (disposability) and productivity in neoliberal migration policies

   • globalization intensified neolib L flexibility
     • Why?
       • Mkt volaitility
       • Intensified bus competition
         • Outcome = exploitation of surplus L as cheap and disposable workers (david Harvey 1989)
       • Narrowing profit margins
   • Preg = loss of L flexi
     • Neolib immigration regimes:
       • Ensuring migrant workers' producitivity, L flexi (disposability), docility (exploitability)
       • Maximizing econ profit of the domestic L mkts (the state's prioritization of mkts vs HR)
       • THUS, if you are preg, u are not productive and u are not a flexi L
         • Seen as violation of neoli L mkt norms (from good worker to bad worker)

6. The Impact of cult norms (gender norms) on migrant reproductive behaviour

   • Why do the reproductive R of migrant women interact with cult and HR?
     • The impact of gender norms (cult) on punishing migrant prgo and regulating productive behaviour
       • Gender norms = regulation and punishment
         • Role of gender norms = regulating women's reproductive behav
           • Prego as moral violation (why?)
           • Normative sexual morality attached to migrant women's reproductive behav
           • self-regulation of sex behav by migrant women (strong fear of deportation [removal of legal status], which is the punishment)
             • Punishment of migrant prego:
               • Singapore: illegalization of prgnncy and temporary foreign workers (mandatory prog test, prohibition of marriage to a local, deportation)
                 • Strong interconnection of migrant pregnancy and illegality (ex. Melca Salvador's case)
                   • Salvador's case in 1999 (montreal), she was an au pair from Flip and she lost her job due to prego (work visa tied to a single employer) ==> loss of legal status = deportation
               • Japan: denial of citizenship of more than 100k Jap Flip children (an outcome of prego of Flip migrant workers)
               • migrant prgo in Canada:
                 • Deportation of pregnant temporary foreign workers
     • How do both the mkt and the state punish prego migrants?
   • impact of gender norms + neolib L mkts = HR violation??
     • normalized subjugation of female L (docile L = exploitable)
     • Normalized gender-specific migrant vulnerabilities (reproductive R, reproductive servitude, care deficit, sex violence)
     • Normalized denial of reproductive R (pregnancy as moral violation in neolib world)

7. Consequences of migrant pregnancy = de facto statelessness (punishment)