In Pain and in Wail: A phenomenology of the abuses of the Filipino Domestic Workers, Qatar

Abstract: Abuse is a common problem among domestic workers. Many are trapped in highly exploitative situations with limited, strenuous escape options and negligible support from the host country and labor sending country. With the participation of a select group of Filipino domestic workers who are housed in OWWA shelter Doha, Qatar, this phenomenological inquiry afforded to categorically classify three forms of abuses namely: corruptive, confrontative, and coercive that generate a ripple of consequences known as effectual damage and affectual damage respectively. The lebenswelt of the underprivileged domestic workers is a primordial source to raise awareness about the abuses and their effects and to encourage collective action such as implementing change as regards to labor policies and procedures, policy formulations, and human resource capacity building programs as means to reviving the human dignity and wellbeing of women in the informal employment.

Student papers posted on WIEGO's website have not been commissioned, vetted or otherwise approved by WIEGO. They are posted with the student writers' permission as resources to be shared.