My study focuses on analyzing how the foreign domestic workers in the Maldives resist the cultural alienation that they experience within their workplace and the society at large. The relatively large migrant worker population in the Maldives lives in an environment with heavy restrictions on their rights, limited mobility and limited physical space and privacy. Their vulnerability is emphasized by the limited legal protection, inadequate institutional support and limited voice of migrant workers in the media. The domestic workers work in households, and are often isolated and hidden from the view, making the group potentially an even more vulnerable group within the migrant workers. However, several studies on migrant workers had described their agency in finding ways to resist and respond to socially, culturally and politically restrictive situations. Through participatory fieldwork with Sri Lankan Singhalese domestic workers, I explore how they resist their cultural alienation by redefining their identities and through the use of social networks and by negotiating place and space.
Songdej, A. (2010) Cambodian Child Beggars in Thailand: A Case Study of Rights and Needs Based Approaches in Legislation and Implementation
This research aims to determine the extent that Thailand's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (2008) protects the rights of Cambodian child beggars as outlined in human rights conventions. This was done by assessing the level of policy coherence between Thailand's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (2008) and other related policies, by assessing the practicality of the guidelines used for screening victims of trafficking by Thai officials, and by assessing whether Thai officials' attitudes towards Cambodian child beggars affected whether the rights-based approach or the needs-based approach was followed in practice.
Lo, M. (2010) A Refugee-Centered Perspective on Refugee Protection Mechanisms: The Case of the Lao Hmong Refugees in Thailand
Title: A Refugee-Centered Perspective on Refugee Protection Mechanisms: The Case of the Lao Hmong Refugees in Thailand
Author: My Lo
Year: 2010
Keywords: REFUGEE, REFUGEE PROTECTION
Download PDF of Abstract: English Thai
Abstract:
In a state-centered paradigm, the refugee regime has diverted the application of its moral obligations of protection to serve state interests. It has moved away from the object of its protection the refugee herself—to prefer policies and practice of political convenience.
Looking closely at the experience of the Lao Hmong refugees in Thailand, this study contends that the refugee perspective must regain its validity in dictating protection policies. When asked to define refugee protection, their experience with it and their expectations of it, Lao Hmong refugees invoked basic principles of human rights: right of livelihood, freedom from fear, freedom of movement, right of education, cultural and religious freedom, etc.
Most importantly, they frame their protection demands within the respect and full realization of their human dignity, self-sufficiency and self-determination. Their experience validate the idea that refugee protection must not seek to provide solutions to the circumstances of being a refugee but rather it must seek to empower refugees to decide what solution suits their aspirations best.
Recommendations include practical programmatic considerations (e.g. the strategic use of technology to promote self-sufficiency) and wider policy guidelines (e.g. signing and ratifying the 1951 Refugee Convention).
Contact MAIDS-Chula for more information and full thesis at maidschula@gmail.com
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