Gender, Migrant Labor, and Health

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the gendered tensions that arise between health and work in the context of migration. Growing levels of labor mobility over the past few decades are closely linked to economic liberalization, as growing numbers of individuals, particularly women, migrate across borders to fill the devalued, marginalized, and flexible sectors of production and services (Sassen, 2002). However, for many migrants, their oppression needs to be understood as an intersection of various forms of subordination, including gender, class, race, ethnicity, and migrant status (Anderson, 2000; McDowell, 2008). Furthermore, critics have argued that the “labor condition” should also be added to this intersection, given that migrant women tend to be concentrated into marginalized and precarious work in the informal and “individualized” sector of domestic work (Mora and Piper, 2011: 8). These broader trends are reflected in the case of Peruvian migrants in Chile, a predominantly female stream of migration with many located in casualized, low-paid work in the service sector such as domestic labor. As the discussion within the chapter highlights, many of these low-income migrants not only face occupational health risks but also remain excluded from accessing health services because of both formal and informal barriers, many of which are gendered.