Regulation and Resistance: Strategies of Migrant Domestic Workers in Canada and Internationally * Daiva K. Stasiulis Carleton University Abigail B. Bakan Queen’s University While the Canadian program for migrant domestic workers offers among the best conditions internationally, it shares two features in common with worldwide policies and treatment of foreign household workers. These are: 1) the inherent asymmetry in citizenship statuses and rights of employers and their domestic employees; and 2) the expectation that employees will 'live in' their employers' homes. Enforcement of rights of foreign domestics is also complicated by shared, yet ambiguous jurisdiction over foreign domestics of the federal and provincial governments. These conditions render foreign domestic workers vulnerable to all forms of abuse. They have not been eliminated despite impressive organizing and advocacy among these migrant workers and their allies. The challenges of finding adequate protection against abuse by domestic workers in Canada and elsewhere are explored by examining the policies of labor sending and labor receiving countries, and international conventions. A significant development in domestic workers organizations is the linking of campaigns for migrant worker rights to global efforts to address the causes of unemployment and migration. * An earlier version of this article was presented by Daiva Stasiulis, the Canadian expert and Chair of the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Violence Against Women Migrant Workers, Manila, 27-31 May 1996. It is based on research for a study in progress entitled “Women of Color, Work and Citizenship: Filipino and West Indian Domestic Workers and Registered Nurses in Toronto” (see Bakan and Stasiulis, 1994; 1995; 1996; forthcoming). We wish to express our sincere thanks to Ms. Pura Velasco for her prodigious assistance in our research trip to the Philippines and Hong Kong in June 1995. We are also grateful to INTERCEDE, L’association pour la defense des droits du personnel domestique and the West Coast Domestic Workers’ Association for their generosity in providing us access to their files and documents. The research for this article was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1997 31 by guest on July 7, 2015 amj.sagepub.com Downloaded from