Comment by conductr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by conductr | Hacker News Reader

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My American in laws did expat life in UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, others in the region. They, and many other western expats, employed Filipino house keepers. They have to assume a lot of responsibility for their actions while in the country as well. The expats are there under-highly conditional work visas and employeeing low-wage expats to come into the country was like another level of liability they took on personally and could blow up their work visa status if something really went wrong. It was normal for the expats to take their worker's passport and the Filipino's were basically trapped, and they wouldn't always have a car or any mode of transportation. I recall their biggest fear was if she got pregnant while in their "care" it was almost like the child was their responsibility or if she had some relationship with a married guy it would be a big issue (paraphrased hearsay...). It sounded horrible, but in reality it mostly worked since the western expats were not exploitative but the opportunity is more than present. My understanding is the natives imported labor in a highly exploitive way (low wage labor camps, etc).

This reminds me of the article “My Family’s Slave”[1] which is both a powerful story and an interesting look at the cognitive dissonance of people who benefit from modern exploitative labor. Just because someone isn’t constantly and overtly cruel to their “imported labor” does not mean they aren’t exploitative.

[1]https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-s...

> Just because someone isn’t constantly and overtly cruel to their “imported labor” does not mean they aren’t exploitative.

While true. What’s also interesting is “exploitative” is often through the modern western lens. It’s also a sliding scale where it is quite often seen as a good deal from labor’s perspective. In my previous example, the Filipino’s generally loved the arrangement. They got to travel and send a good deal of money home. It was a highly sought after position from their perspective. My experience is limited to about 10 days in the region and what I heard from American expats, but the hard labor forces also generally liked the arrangement. It offered opportunities that did not exist wherever they immigrated from. It was not without risks as no/low worker safety or OSHA concepts are in effect. Also just what we would consider fair labor practices, just didn’t exist. I’m sure slavery does exist as well because the opportunity is very present.

All of that region is a horror show in terms of exploitation. My opinion is contributing to their economies is effectively endorsing their policies. If you have an issue with the ethics of these countries and their exploitation of vulnerable labour, don't work there.

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