A perceptive study on migrant labour

Ravi PERERA

Arecent issue of the Daily News had an article about a Lebanese film which is of exceeding national and social importance to us Sri Lankans. “Maids for sale” the Lebanese film maker Diam Al-Joundi’s exposure of the thriving business of domestic servants in that country, is both a critique of the human rights/labour standards of her own country as well as a cry for help on behalf of the near hundred thousand poor vulnerable women from Sri Lanka whose destiny in the hands of their employer is often appalling.

People generally have a parochial sense of what various countries are good at producing, like electronics from Japan, wine from France and Italian clothing. Sri Lanka was historically associated with tea, a drink said to bring unfailing cheer. But in the last three decades or so, particularly in the Middle East, we have come to be known for a not so cheery activity, that of a large scale supplier of untrained labour.Our historical, economic and social development has been such that there is a big pool of unemployed here for whom job opportunities in foreign countries are a boon eagerly clutched. Although it is often said that we are a status obsessed society, averse to giving dignity to certain economic activities, when it comes to foreign employment there seems to be no such reservations.

Lebanon, sometimes referred to as the Riviera of the Arab world has itself barely emerged out of a crippling civil war. Although having a representative form of Government, with many democratic features, it is by no means a prosperous country. Geographically at the door step of Europe, Lebanon has a per capita income of approximately US $ 11500. By the estimates of 1999 20 per cent of her population of five million is said to live below the standard poverty line while about the same percentage are unemployed. Although rich by our standards, Lebanon will not be universally considered an ideal employment destination.

Diam Al-Joundi put it to a Sri Lankan employment agent she interviewed for her film “What if I take you out of your country, take away your passport, make you work more than 20 hours a day for only $ 100 a month, as well as lock you in the house ?What would you call this ? It is not only racism, its slavery”.

A series of reports in Lebanon have highlighted the callous abuse of the Asian (and African) domestic work force in that country. Human rights groups contend that the existing laws of Lebanon do not offer protection to these foreign domestic workers and that the country has no clear national policy to fight such abuses.

Aggravating the situation of a legal system which seems to favour the locals, it also is clear that there is a thinly disguised racism in that society against the darker skinned Asian workers so obviously at their mercy.

A prevailing idea seems to be that the Arab women are particular about hygiene, an attitude allegedly absent in the Asian recruits. This outlook is strengthened further when the employer observes the evident unfamiliarity of the poor immigrant worker with house-hold appliances and even basic domestic conveniences. In a way it is to Lebanon’s credit that Diam Al-Joundi and other activists have come forward to expose the near slavery that goes on in the name of employment in their country. Their endeavours are on behalf of an alien people while the target of the inquiry their own. Such investigation inevitably lead to uncomfortable questions about the culture and even long held believes of that society. The ability to look dispassionately at one’s own society is the hallmark of a free mind. At the same time, for all its flaws the fact that these activists are able to publish and discuss their findings freely, says something for Lebanon.

The other side of this distressing tale of foreign domestic employment is of course the feeder country. In the process of researching her film Diam Al-Joundi spent much time in Sri Lanka.

“Every time I took a tuk-tuk or a bus (in Sri Lanka) men would ask me, ‘Madam, can you please take my wife to Lebanon?’ It got so bad, that after a while started telling everyone that I was French.”

A society which so willingly volunteers their females for such humble foreign “employment” also perhaps needs their Diam Al-Joundis to give them a sobering look at reality. Culturally, confronting the truth does not appear to be a strong point with us. It seems that as long as we can periodically assure ourselves of our own greatness, as well as goodness, the actual reality of poverty, injustices and unhappiness is of little importance. A few symbolic acts said to underline our virtues, performed at every opportunity, would suffice for the real thing. We do not need to worry about the plight of these women or for that matter any other anguish as long as we continue to perform these various rituals demanded by the prevailing culture. A mindset which assumes an historical greatness as well as a modern day competence, is unassailable where other ideas are concerned.

The producer of “Maids for Sale” is obviously a perceptive artist and also no bigot. Diam Al-Joundi’s cultural sensitivity comes through clearly in her portrayal of the harrowing plight of the helpless dark skinned women both in her country as well as their own. While making the film she met with some Sri Lankan women preparing to travel to Lebanon. “They were crying and I found myself crying with them. I said to myself, there is something wrong with this situation, these women are leaving their own babies behind.”

Al-Joundi spent one and half years making the film. Once she spoke to Janaki a Sri Lankan housemaid in Lebanon. “While working I think always about my country. My heart is with my husband and children. Although I am here, for more than three years I have cried for my daughter every day.”