Migrant domestic workers in Egypt: A case study of the economic family in global context

American Journal of Comparative Law

Volumn 58, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 987-1022

  Thomas, Chantal ^a  

^a MIT Sloan School of Management   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79958069616     PISSN: 0002919X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5131/ajcl.2010.0009     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. See Janet Halley & Kerry Rittich, Critical Directions in Comparative Family Law, 58 AM. J. COMP. L. 753 (2010), for an exposition on the relationship of this proposition to world-systems theory.
2. In the study of governance we see a convergence of analytical methods from different parts of the academy: economists such as Douglass North have offered institutional analysis which includes both formal rules and informal norms and ideologies, as well as methods of implementation and enforcement (or lack thereof) by the state and the impact of economic and social forces, see, e.g., DOUGLASS C. NORTH, INSTITUTIONS, INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE (1990).
3. Critical theorists such as Michel Foucault have adopted studies of governmentality which pay close attention both to administrative practices of the state and to forms of knowledge that shape power relations within state and social structures, See, e.g., MICHEL FOUCAULT, SURVEILUR ET PUNIR (1975).
4. Both approaches influence the analysis here. Additionally, the study of "global governance" by political scientists in international relations has offered the key precept that regulatory effects stem from both state and non-state actors. See, e.g., GOVERNANCE IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD (Joseph S. Nye & John D. Donahue eds., 2000),
5. Extensive comparative analyses of national legal systems have been conducted by the ILO. See, e.g., Jose M. Ramirez-Machado, Domestic Work, Conditions of Work and Employment: A Legal Perspective, ILO Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 7 (2003) [hereinafter 2003 ILO Report]; 2010 ILO Report, supra note 1. Such comparison, needless to say, requires multiple disclaimers, as it is challenged not only by differences in legal contexts but also by the fact that labor protections can arise from multiple formal and institutional sources within any given country.
6. For extensive discussion of the concept of economic informality, see generally LINKING THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL ECONOMY: CONCEPTS AND POLICIES (Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis et al. eds., 2006).
7. HARRY SUMNER MAINE, ANCIENT LAW 100 (1861)
8. ("we may say that the movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract"); see also DUNCAN KENNEDY, THE RISE AND FALL OF CLASSICAL LEGAL THOUGHT ch. 4 (1975).
9. In eighteenth century legal treatises, the household included not only marital (husband-wife) and parental (parent-child) relations, but also those of "master and servant." See JANET HALLEY, FAMILY LAW IN AMERICA: A GENEALOGY 4 (2009). In the nineteenth century, the household servant became a paid wage laborer and that legal relationship became defined by contract.
10. See BRIDGET ANDERSON, DOING THE DIRTY WORK: THE GLOBAL POLITICS OF DOMESTIC LABOUR ch. 9 (2000).
11. See id., at 126; DAVID BACON, ILLEGAL PEOPLE: HOW GLOBALIZATION CREATES MIGRATION AND CRIMINALIZES IMMIGRANTS (2008); see also infra Part III.B.
12. Philippe Fargues, Work, Refuge, Transit: An Emerging Pattern of Irregular Immigration South and East of the Mediterranean, CARIM Analytic and Synthetic Notes 2009/02, Irregular Migration Series, Background Paper ("[T]hese.. categories are not as distinct as one might think in terms of migration motives."). Fargues adds the third category of transit" migrants, or those seeking to migrate elsewhere either through the refugee resettlement process or for work. This category is quite important in Egypt, as will be discussed below, but not necessary for the introductory discussion in this section.
13. Robert L. Hale, Coercion and Distribution in a Supposedly Non-Coercive State, 38 POL. SCI. Q. 470 (1923).
14. International Organization for Migration [IOM], World Migration Report 2008: Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy, 206 (2008)
15. [hereinafter 2008 IOM Report] (describing the "so-called 'nexus' between asylum and migration: the propensity of significant numbers of irregular migrants to make use of asylum procedures not because of a genuine need for protection, but to gain entry to new countries and access to their labor markets. This pattern is particularly evident when asylum systems are perceived as the primary or only official mechanism sanctioning the entry and stay of foreigners in the absence of an alternative means of access to the labor market."); Guy Mundlak, Irregular Migration in Israel - A Legal Perspective, at 1, CARIM Analytic and Synthetic Notes 2008/59, Irregular Migration Series, Legal Module, at 2 ("Some [migrants] attempt the asylum avenue given the tight control over labor migration.").
16. For a discussion of "the developmental state," see David M. Trubek, Developmental States and the Legal Order: Towards a New Political Economy of Development and Law, Remarks at the Conference on Social Science in the Age of Globalization National Institute for Advanced Study on Social Science, Fudan University, Shanghai (Dec. 2008), available at http://papers.8srn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract-id=1349163.
17. There is an emerging body of scholarship on law and development. See, e.g., THE NEW LAW AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL (David M. Trubek & Alvaro Santos eds., 2006).
18. Martha Alter Chen, Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment, in LINKING THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL ECONOMY, supra note 11, at 75, 81.
19. James Heintz & Robert Pollin, Informalization, Economic Growth and the Challenge of Creating Viable Labor Standards in Developing Countries, 1 (Political Economy Research Institute [PERI], Working Paper No. 60, 2003) ("Over recent decades, conditions for working people in developing countries have undergone a major transformation. This has been the substantial rise in the proportion of people engaged in what is termed 'informal' employment, generating a broad trend toward 'informalization of labor market conditions in developing countries. Current estimates suggest that informal employment comprises about one-half to three-quarters of non-agricultural employment in developing countries. Moreover, and perhaps even more significantly, these proportions appear to be rising even when economic growth is proceeding in developing countries, contrary to what a previous generation of researchers and policymakers had anticipated.").
20. Keith Hart, Bureaucratic Form and the Informal Economy, in LINKING THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL ECONOMY, supra note 11, at 21, 23, 27.
21. Dzodzi Tsikata, Towards a Gender Equitable Decent Work Regime for Informal Employment in Ghana: Some Preliminary Considerations, CAN. LAB, & EMP. L. (forthcoming);
22. Marilyn Carr & Martha Alter Chen, Globalization and the Informal Economy: How Global Trade and Investment Impact on the Working Poor, 2 (Women in Informal Employment Globalizing & Organizing [WIEGO], Working Paper No. 1, 2002) ("the informal economy [has] continued to expand and grow").
23. Dzodzi Tsikata criticizes this literature, arguing that, in terms of labor issues, there has not been a focus on development or sustainability, or livelihood security. See Tsikata, supra note 35, at 5 ("Dominated by the international financial institutions.. and economists, policy discussions have stressed the importance of flexibility of labor markets for economic growth."); See also Anne Trebilcock, Using Development Approaches to Address the Challenge of the Informal Economy for Labor Law, in BOUNDARIES AND FRONTIERS OF LABOR LAW 63 (Guy Davidov & Brian Langille eds., 2006).
24. The significant population of African asylum-seekers in Egypt can be attributed to a variety of interlocking factors. First, waves of intense political and military conquest and upheaval, as well as economic desperation, have expelled African asylum seekers from their countries of origin. Donald P. Chimanikire, African Migration: Causes, Consequences and Future Prospects and Policy Options (paper presented to the U.N. Univ. Conf., "Poverty, International Migration, and Asylum," Helsinki, Finland, Sept. 27-28 2002).
25. In addition to these "push" factors, are diverse "pull" factors attracting African asylum seekers to Egypt. Most African migrants enter Egypt from its southern border with Sudan. Munzoul A.M. Assal, Refugees from and to Sudan (paper prepared for the Migration and Refugee Movements in the Middle East and North Africa, The Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program, American University in Cairo, Egypt, Oct. 23-25, 2007).
26. Until recently, see infra text accompanying notes 96-99, the Egypt-Sudan border has not been heavily policed, certainly in comparison to the borders of proximate wealthier nations, i.e., Israel and Mediterranean Europe. Second, there are relative economic and political advantages of migration to Egypt. With its capital city Cairo as the largest on the African continent, Egypt at least promises economic and survival opportunities. As a territory that is relatively free of outright physical conflict - despite or because of its authoritarianism - Egypt offers a degree of stability and physical security. Cairo's history of relative cosmopolitanism must also factor in, as a city with ancient traditions of political, mercantile and cultural flux, and hybridity. Third, Egypt's legal culture has also been relatively hospitable. Following World War II, Egypt pursued aspirations of postcolonial leadership in the international community and the Third World. Accordingly, the Egyptian constitution grants political asylum to all who have defended "their people, human rights or justice." CONST, OP THE ARAB REP. OP EGYPT art. 53 ("The right to political asylum shall be guaranteed.. for every foreigner persecuted for defending the peoples' interests, human rights, peace or justice."). This general posture of openness is particularly enhanced in the case of the Sudanese, since, as the Egyptian government recently put it, "the Sudanese in Egypt have always enjoyed a special status." U.N. Comm. on the Prot. of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, Written Replies by the Government of Egypt Concerning the List of Issues Received by the Committee on Migrant Workers Relating to the Consideration of the Initial Public Report by Egypt, 1 6, U.N. Doc. CMW/C/EGY/ Q/1/Add.l (Feb. 6, 2007) [hereinafter Migrant Workers' Committee]. This charitably phrased description glosses over the colonial relationship of Egypt (as a proxy for Britain) over Sudan and the prejudices of many Egyptians against the Sudanese. Nevertheless, it does reflect geographical, historical, cultural, and linguistic ties that have resulted in various treaties granting mutual rights of, inter alia, entry and work, though the most recent of these treaties has not been fully implemented. YASMINE AHMED & REBECCA DIBB, PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS AMONG SUDANESE MIGRANTS IN GREATER CAIRO 14 (Center for Migration and Refugee Studies, American University in Cairo, 2008) C[T]he 1976 Wadi El-Nil (Nile Valley) [agreement] granted [mutual rights].. to enter and exit.. without visa requirements and unrestricted access to education, employment, health-care and ownership of property.. This agreement was revoked in 1995 after an assassination attempt on Hosni Mubarak blamed Sudanese Islamist extremists in Ethiopia. The sudden change in the law caused a number of Sudanese migrants, previously residing lawfully in Egypt, to find themselves.. in an irregular situation.. However, in 2004, Egypt signed the Four Freedoms Agreement.. [which] promised a partial return to the Wadi-El Nil Agreement.."). For criticisms of Egypt's lack of implementation of the Four Freedoms Agreement, see infra Part II.B.3. The result of all of these factors is that the Sudanese are the largest group of foreign nationals living in Egypt, though the lack of data leaves a very wide estimated range of between two and five million. Migrant Workers' Committee, supra.
27. Lama Abu-Odeh, Modernizing Muslim Family Law: The Case of Egypt, 37 VAND. J. TRANSNAT'L L. 1043 (2004).
28. See Halley & Rittich, supra note 4; Duncan Kennedy, Savigny's Family IPatrimony Distinction and its Place in the Global Genealogy of Classical Legal Thought, 58 AM. J. COMP. L. 811 (2010).
29. See Ray Jureidini, Irregular Workers in Egypt: Migrant and Refugee Domestic Workers, 11 INT'L J. MULTICULTURAL SOC'YS 75-82 (2009).
30. The Middle East and North Africa have the "highest share of migrant populations in the world, if regular and irregular migration is included as well as refugees and asylum seekers." Jureidini, supra note 46, at 77. Migrants have historically constituted an important source of labor for the oil-producing Gulf states, Libya, Jordan and, increasingly in recent years, Israel. Philippe Fargues, Introduction to EUR. UNIV. INST., ROBERT SCHUMAN CTR. FOR ADVANCED STUD., MEDITERRANEAN MIGRATION 2006-2007 REPORT (Philippe Fargues ed., 2007);
31. ILO REGIONAL OFFICE FOR ARAB STATES, GENDER AND MIGRATION IN ARAB STATES: THE CASE OF DOMESTIC WORKERS 11 (Simel Esim & Monica Smith eds., 2004); See Mundlak, supra note 22. The migrant population is greatly increased beyond "regular" migrants by substantial movements of refugees: "the Middle East is the world's largest source and host of refugees, constituting around 42 per cent of the total world refugee population." Jureidini, supra note 46, at 77.
32. These treaties are held by the Egyptian Constitution to possess "the force of law." CONST, OF THE ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT, art. 151, available at: http://www.el-ahoura.gov.eg/shoura-en/const-pdf/eng-const.PDF.
33. The direct legal effect of ratified and published treaties has been confirmed in Egyptian jurisprudence. See General Prosecution case 4190 (Supreme State Security Court, 1986)
34. (cited in TAKER BADAWY, COMMENTS ON EGYPT'S REPORT TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF ALL MIGRANT WORKERS AND MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILIES 3 (2007). It has also been confirmed by the Egyptian executive branch in its reporting to the United Nations, for example on its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families discussed below. See U.N. Comm. on the Prot. of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 73 of the Convention, Initial Report of States parties due in 2004: Egypt, U.N. Doc. CMW/C/EGY/1 (Aug. 21, 2006), paras. 12 & 13: [I]nternational treaties in general are governed by the provisions of article 151 of the Permanent Constitution of 1971, which provides that following completion of the requisite constitutional procedures, treaties are deemed to constitute part of Egyptian law. Accordingly, following their ratification and publication, international instruments concerned with human rights and freedoms, including the International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, are regarded as being equivalent to laws enacted by the legislative authority. Their provisions are equivalent to those of applicable Egyptian law and may be invoked before all legislative, executive and judicial authorities of the State.
35. Awad El-Morr, The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt and the Protection of Human and Political Rights, in ISLAM AND PUBLIC LAW 229 (Chibli Mallat ed., 1993).
36. NATHAN J. BROWN, MICHELE DUNNE, & AMR HAMZAWY, EGYPT'S CONTROVERSIAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2007).
37. Egypt has a reservation to the Refugee Convention's requirement that recognized refugees enjoy equality with Egyptian nationals insofar as national labor legislation and social security provisions are concerned. See Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees art. 24(1), July 28, 1951, 189 U.N.T.S. 137. However, Egypt has made no similar reservation to the Convention's requirement that recognized refugees benefit from the rules awarded other foreign nationals regarding the right to work. Id. art. 17(1) ("The Contracting States shall accord to refugees lawfully staying in their territory the most favourable treatment accorded to nationals of a foreign country in the same circumstances, as regards the right to engage in wage-earning employment."). That means refugees should be able to obtain a work permit if they go through the appropriate channels, as has been argued by the refugee advocate community in Egypt. Interview with Michael Kagan, Senior International Human Rights Fellow, American University in Cairo (Feb. 4, 2009).
38. TAREK BADAWY, COMMENTS ON EGYPT'S REPORT TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF ALL MIGRANT WORKERS AND MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILES 5 (2007).
39. Low institutional capacity characterize both the Egyptian governmental offices responsible for the process, and the Egyptian offices of the UNHCR, which conducts the bulk of the process on behalf of the government. Michael Kagan, Seeking Asylum in the Middle Ekut: State-to-UN Responsibility Shift and the Challenge of Finding a Foundation for Refugee Policy in a Troubled Region (unpublished manuscript, on file with author) (presented at American University in Cairo, Department of Law Faculty Workshop, Feb. 21, 2008).
40. CATHERINE DAUVERGNE, MAKING PEOPLE ILLEGAL: WHAT GLOBALIZATION MEANS FOR MIGRATION AND LAW 26 (2008).
41. See, e.g., U.N. Comm. Against Torture, Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee against Torture: Egypt, 15 (b), U.N. Doc. CAT/C/CR/29/4 (Dec. 23, 2002) (detailing "the many consistent reports received concerning the.. phenomenon of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by law enforcement officials, and the absence of measures to ensure effective protection and prompt and impartial investigations. Many of these reports relate to numerous cases of deaths in custody.");
42. U.N. Human Rights Comm., Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee: Egypt, ¶ 13, U.N. Doc. CCPR/CO/767EGY (Nov. 28, 2002) ("The Committee notes with concern the persistence of torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment at the hands of law-enforcement personnel, in particular the security services, whose recourse to such practices appears to display a systematic pattern.").
43. See also HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, SINAI PERILS: RISKS TO MIGRANTS, REFUGEES, AND ASYLUM SEEKERS IN EGYPT AND ISRAEL 34 (2008).
44. Interview with Mohamed Lotfy, Campaigner, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Amnesty International (Feb. 8, 2009).
45. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, EGYPT: MARGINS OF REPRESSION - STATE LIMITS ON NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION ACTIVISM (July 2005), available at http://hrw.org/reports/2005/egypt0705/index.htm.
46. Interview with Hossam Bhagat, Executive Director, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (Feb. 4, 2009). Bhagat explained that, in his opinion, Egypt "understands very well" that it can indefinitely prolong investigations and findings under the UN reporting process, by simply issuing denials in response to repeated UN follow-up queries, such as those contained in U.N. Coram, on the Prot. of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, Written Replies by the Government of Egypt Concerning the List of Issues Received by the Committee on Migrant Workers Relating to the Consideration of the Initial Public Report by Egypt, U.N. Doc. CMW/C/EGY/Q/1/Add.l (Feb. 6, 2007).
47. See, e.g., Gamal Nkrumah, Four Rights Go Wrong?, AL-AHRAM WEEKLY, Sept. 8, 2004.
48. Freedom of association is protected by the ILO's Convention on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize (ILO Convention No. 87), which on its own terms applies "without distinction whatsoever," as well as the Convention on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining (ILO Convention No. 98). Additionally, the freedom of association is recognized as one of the four "core" rights of international labor law by the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Rights and Principles at Work, and held by the ILO to be applicable to all of its members regardless of whether they have specifically ratified the relevant conventions. The specific issue of the undocumented migrant came before the ILO Committee when U.S. and Mexican labor unions filed a complaint alleging that a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision violated U.S. obligations under international labor law. For a more thorough discussion of this case, see Chantal Thomas, Convergences and Divergencies in International Legal Norms on Migrant Labor, COMP. LAB. L. & POL'Y J. (forthcoming, 2011).
49. Adelle Blackett, Making Domestic Work Visible: The Case for Specific Regulation (ILO Labor Law and Labor Relations Programme, Working Paper No. 2, 1998).
50. Laurence R. Heifer, Monitoring Compliance with Unratified Treaties: The ILO Experience, 71 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 195, 195 (2008). Heifer explains how the ILO has gradually accumulated this authority, which is distinctive for its defiance of both principal-agent theory and the international law doctrine of sovereign consent. See id. at 196-87. Heifer "challenges the view that the ILO's.. [monitoring] authority is inconsequential," articulating a variety of consequences that flow from monitoring, including promoting informal enforcement by other states and domestic advocacy.
51. For a general discussion of this dynamic, see my analysis in Janet Halley et al., From the International to the Local in Feminist Legal Responses: Four Studies in Contemporary Governance Feminism, 29 HAHV. J. L. & GENDER 336 (2006).
52. Janie Chuang, The United States as Global Sheriff: Unilateral Sanctions and Human Trafficking, 27 MICH. J. INT'L L. 437 (Winter 2006).
53. Robert H. Mnookin & Lewis Kornhauser, Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: The Case of Divorce, 88 YALE L.J. 950 (1979).
54. Melvin A. Eisenberg, Private Ordering Through Negotiation: Dispute-Settlement and Rulemaking, 89 HARV. L. REV. 637 (1976).
55. See, e.g., Robert D. Cooter, Structural Adjudication and the New Law Merchant: A Model of Decentralized Law, 14 INT'L REV. L. & ECON. 215 (1994);
56. ROBERT C. ELLICKSON, ORDER WITHOUT LAW: HOW NEIGHBORS SETTLE DISPUTES (1991).
57. Notable exceptions include Adelle Blackett, Promoting Domestic Workers' Human Dignity through Specific Regulation, in DOMESTIC WORK AS A FACTOR OF EU-ROPEAN IDENTITY: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBALIZATION OF DOMESTIC WORK, 16TH-21ST CENTURIES 211 (Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux ed., 2005);
58. Mundlak & Shamir, supra note; Ruthann Robson, A Servant of One's Own: The Continuing Class Struggle in Feminist Legal Theories, 23 Berkeley J. Gender L. & Justice 392 (2008);
59. Hila Shamir, The State of Care: Rethinking the Distributive Effects of Familial Care Policies in Liberal Welfare States, 58 AM. J. COMP. L. 953 (2010).
60. Wesley Hohfeld, Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Legal Reasoning, 23 YALE L.J. 28 (1913).
61. INTERNATIONAL LABOK ORGANIZATION, EQUALITY AT WORK: TACKLING THE CHALLENGES 31 (2007).
62. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, SWEPT UNDER THE RUG: ABUSES AGAINST DOMESTIC WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD (2006).
63. Interview with Dr. Ray Jureidini, Director of Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS), American University in Cairo, in Cairo, Egypt (Feb. 10, 2009).
64. Interview with Mekonnen Firew, American University in Cairo, Egypt (Sept. 29, 2008).
65. See U.N. Int'l Law Comm'n, Fragmentation of International Law: Difficulties arising from the Diversification and Expansion of International Law, U.N. Doc. A/ CN.4/L. 682 (Apr. 13, 2006) (finalized by Martti Koskenniemi) C[S]uch specialized law-making and institution-building tends to take place with relative ignorance of legislative and institutional activities in the adjoining fields and of the general principles and practices of international law. The result is conflicts between rules or rule-systems, deviating institutional practices and, possibly, loss of an overall perspective on the law."); U.N. Int'l Law Comm'n,
66. Fragmentation of International Law: Difficulties arising from the Diversification and Expansion of International Law, 16, U.N. Doc. A/CN.4/L. 702 (July 18, 2006) (finalized by Martti Koskenniemi) (defining fragmentation as "the emergence of specialized and (relatively) autonomous rules or rule-complexes, legal institutions and spheres of legal practice.").
67. MICHEL FOUCAULT, SECURITY, TERRITORY, POPULATION: LECTURES AT THE COLLEGE DE FRANCE, 1977-1978, at 12-13 (Graham Burchell trans., 2007).
68. AYELET SHACHAR, THE BIRTHRIGHT LOTTERY: CITIZENSHIP AND GLOBAL INEQUALITY 5 (2009) ("full membership in an affluent society emerges as a complex form of property inheritance: a valuable entitlement that is transmitted, by law, to a restricted group of recipients under conditions that perpetuate the transfer of this precious entitlement.. This inheritance carries with it an immensely valuable bundle of rights, benefits and opportunities.").
69. See Adelle Blackett, Trade Liberalization, Labour Law and Development: A Contextualization, ILO, Int'l Inst, for Labour Stud., Geneva, Discussion Paper DP/ 179/2007 (2007), available at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inst/ publica-tions/discussion/dpl7907.pdf (discussing Karl Polanyi's view that "social welfare entitlements for the paradigmatic workers in the North [were given] in exchange for the progressive liberalization in the economy..").
70. This assumption about distributive justice is reflected in the "gender main-streaming" discourse, defined by the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women as "a globally accepted strategy for promoting gender equality.. [which] ensures that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities." U.N. Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women [OSAGI], Gender Mainstreaming, http://www.un.org/ womenwatch/osagi/gendermainstreaming.htm (last visited June 8, 2010).
71. Jacqueline Bhabha has pointed out that this double-sidedness extends to legal recognition: What the evidence reveals is that while female asylum seekers have a relative disadvantage in gaining access to developed states, but a relative advantage in securing asylum once they do gain access and an application is made, separated children appear, on the evidence available, to be in the opposite situation: relatively privileged in securing access, but disadvantaged in being accorded the security of refugee status. Demography and Rights: Women, Children and Access to Asylum, 16 INT'L J. REFUGEE L. 227, 238 (2004).
72. Interview with Mulki Sharmani, Social Science Research Center, American University in Cairo (Febw 10, 2009).
73. HANNAH ARENDT, THE HUMAN CONDITION 45 (2d ed. 1998) ("The private realm of the household was the sphere where the necessities of life, of individual survival as well as of continuity of the species, were taken care of and guaranteed.. [M]an existed in this sphere not as a truly human being but only as a specimen of the animal species man-kind.").