Publications on domestic work

  1. Publication

    Migrant domestic workers in action: Leaflet

    01 November 2013

    Around the world, at least 52 million people - over 80% of whom are women - earn their living as domestic workers. They clean, cook, look after children and take care of the elderly, among other tasks. Domestic workers provide much needed skills and make invaluable contributions to the families and homes they care for, and to society at large. Yet their contribution is often not valued, and they remain largely unprotected and subject to abuse.

  2. ILO Newsletter

    Migrant Domestic Workers in Focus, Issue #1

    31 October 2013

    ILO Newsletter “Migrant Domestic Workers in Focus” is an awareness rising and promotion tool developed in the framework of the EU funded Global Action Programme on Migrant Domestic Workers and their families (GAP-MDW) and published on a quarterly basis. The purpose of the newsletter is to promote decent work for migrant domestic workers globally and to keep ILO partners, constituents and other stakeholders informed about current and upcoming developments in the migration and domestic work sectors.

  3. Publication

    Child domestic work: Global estimates 2012

    04 October 2013

    This fact sheet is an update to the global estimates on child domestic work 2008

  4. International Migration Papers No. 117

    Promoting integration for migrant domestic workers in France (in French)

    19 September 2013

    The French country report of the European research project “Promoting the integration of migrant domestic workers” analyses the trajectories of migrants working in the domestic services sector in France. Although the sector has been significantly transformed, against a background of major socio-demographic changes, this research relates in particular to three groups of paid activities carried out in people’s homes: care for incapacitated adults (dependent elderly and people with disabilities), childcare, and household services used by private individuals (single persons or families) (In French)

  5. International Migration Papers No. 116

    Promoting integration for migrant domestic workers in Belgium

    18 September 2013

    Domestic workers provide an invaluable contribution to societies, yet still too often their work is not valued as such, and they remain a largely hidden and often vulnerable workforce. The Convention of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, 2011 (No. 189), can be perceived as recognition of the value of domestic work and as a call for action addressing the exclusion of domestic workers from protective regulatory frameworks.

  6. Publication

    Know your rights leaflet

    17 September 2013

    Questions and answers on decent work for migrant domestic workers

  7. International Migration Papers No. 115

    Promoting integration for migrant domestic workers in Italy

    17 September 2013

    Since the 1970s, the labour market of domestic services has experienced a considerable growth in Italy, becoming over the past decade the main sector of employment for migrant women: in 2011, more than one foreign woman in two (51.3 per cent) was employed as a domestic worker or family assistant (CNEL, 2012). This phenomenon has been driven by the concomitance of a number of processes: an advanced process of population ageing (with one of the highest rates in the world of persons over 65), the increase of female participation in the labour market, the persistence of rigid patterns of gendered labour division in households, a public welfare budget heavily skewed in favour of monetary transfers (especially old-age and survivor pensions) to the detriment of welfare services in support of families.

  8. International Migration Papers No. 114

    Promoting integration for migrant domestic workers in Spain

    16 September 2013

    This case study of the Spanish situation is part of a wider international project, ‘Promoting Integration of Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe’, led and promoted by the ILO, funded by the European Commission and with research carried out by four international research institutions.1 The aims of the project are to: expand the knowledge on the characteristics, dimensions, and patterns of migration in Europe and its possible implications for the integration of migrant domestic workers; raise awareness of social actors in relation to the challenges of socio-economic integration of migrant domestic workers; and contribute to the planning and implementation of efficient policies and programmes to proactively promote social and labour integration of these workers

  9. Domestic Work Policy Brief no. 6

    “Meeting the needs of my family too”: Maternity protection and work-family measures for domestic workers

    01 July 2013

    This document is part of a series of briefs on issues and approaches to promoting decent work for domestic workers.

  10. Publication

    Ending child labour in domestic work and protecting young workers from abusive working conditions

    12 June 2013

    New report on domestic work within the framework of the two ILO fundamental conventions on child labour and the recently adopted instruments on decent work for domestic workers.