The legitimacy of the need to distribute the service sectors on the basis of the division of labor of skills has proved an obstacle for the agenda of skill improvement, both within the frameworks of the national and regional program.

The national and regional agendas of skill improvement prove powerless when faced with the domination of global policies supporting sustainable unskilled jobs.

For migrant domestic workers, the selling of their labor power to destination countries may be the only option for them while there is little chance for skill improvement.

Given the transnational pattern and global trade of domestic workers as commodities, revising the protection rules for migrant workers, especially migrant domestic workers, so that they have a long-term purpose is a must for Indonesia.

But with the government currently tending to compromise the distribution of Indonesian workers as low-skilled reserves, it is not surprising that the prevailing Migrant Workers’ Law is dominated by placement clauses, rather than clauses of protection.

Repatriating migrant workers from Saudi Arabia and other diplomatic actions does not prove the Indonesian government’s commitment to the protection of these workers. The government should change its political stance and come out against the commodification of unskilled reserves. But again, the most important thing is to build a transnational strategy to bridge the gap between strategies in both countries of origin and destination.

This is important because the exploitation of domestic workers in their countries of origin and destination originates from a single root: families caught up in gender inequality feed the market of domestic services trade.

If only gender equality could form part of policies that are related to migrant workers worldwide and not merely restricted to the mobility of women in the public domain. Perhaps then, the exploitation of migrant domestic workers might be overcome. Indicators such as day care facilities, household work training centers for men and child psychological education centers for parents, all provided by the government, will encourage citizens to perform household duties in the spirit of equality.

Global programs that aim to promote gender equality from the likes of the Social Institution and Gender Index (SIGI), should take these indicators into account.

Many developed countries, especially in Scandinavia, have proved that facility-based gender equality programs have changed perspectives toward migrant domestic workers.

Gender equality in the domestic domain has reduced the amount of live-in domestic migrant workers, but these kinds of workers have not been abolished altogether.

In Norway, for example, migrant domestic workers are professionally facilitated by the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, a state agency that standardizes contracts, limits working hours and regulates wages, and all this for relatively light work.

Most household duties remain the responsibility of family members, not domestic workers. It can be said that employing this strategy in destination countries can serve to reduce the exploitation of migrant domestic workers.

For Indonesia, the challenge is more severe. From looking at the global trade in services, Indonesia is a country of origin for domestic workers. The GCC represents a huge market for these workers.

The Indonesian government should gauge the standardization measures implemented by destination countries. Looking at eligibility standards adopted in countries such as Norway, the government should ensure that such standards have a transnational focus and can be a realistic option for sending migrant workers overseas.

If standardization measures do not meet elements of professionalism and protection that should be afforded to migrant domestic workers, then the right choice is to not send migrant workers abroad.

Setting minimum standards that are then met by destination countries is the responsibility of the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI).

These standards include employment contracts, minimum wage, restriction of working hours, the type of work and insurance. Most importantly, these standards show that there is a state agency responsible for their implementation.

In short, the BNP2TKI should no longer serve as an agency that places migrant workers abroad, but as a supervisor of the standards of professionalism and protection of migrant workers overseas.

Of course, such standards should be reflected at home so that destination countries take into account this new culture of respecting domestic workers.

The writer is a lecturer and researcher on feminist legal issues at the Faculty of Law, Padjadjaran University, Bandung.

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