WIMN’s Call to Action on the International Day of Care and Support

Full rights and status for all migrant care workers

29 October 2025

As the Women in Migration Network marks the UN International Day of Care and Support on 29 October, we call attention to the globalized and racialized international division of care work. Care work is the foundation of human well-being and a non-negotiable economic pillar—it is the labor that allows societies to function, families to thrive, and all sectors to operate. Recognising care work’s value demands rethinking the political and economic system by putting people at the centre and acknowledging the interdependence of all living beings. 

At the heart of the global economy are migrant women workers. In their hands rests the care for elderly, children, the differently-abled and disabled people, as well as the maintenance of health and life within and outside of households worldwide. Despite this foundational contribution of caring for people, families, and lives, they often find themselves excluded from the right to care itself.According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), one in eight nurses globally is a migrant worker (3.7 million), and of over 70 million domestic workers worldwide, 17% are estimated to be migrant workers.

As a predominantly feminized sector, care work constitutes a popular, yet meagerly protected avenue for the employment of migrant women. Within the global care chain, these migrant women, and the women that care for their families in countries of origin, find themselves closing gaps of institutional failures – fueled as labor commodities to higher GDP countries – and subjected to exacerbated racial, gender, and class inequalities and inequities. 

Global crises, from pandemics to climate change, expose how care is systematically under-resourced, with austerity measures further shifting the burden onto the backs of these marginalized workers. The reality for countless migrant women is a cycle of low or no compensation, denial of social protection, and working conditions defined by precarity, exploitation, and violence: a direct violation not only of their labor and mobility rights, but also of the fundamental Right to Care.

Women are socially expected to bear a disproportionate amount of care work. When this burden necessitates paid help, families often rely on poorly paid care and domestic workers, many of whom are migrants. These migrant women, in turn, often rely on other women in their countries of origin to care for their own families, perpetuating a cycle of separated families and labor exploitation.

Despite a high demand for migrant women’s care work globally, systemic barriers and a lack of political will remain in formalizing their work or providing living wages, long-term residency, and access to social protection. In particular:

• Employer-tied visas: Systems like the Kafala sponsorship model in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Lebanon, and Jordan, as well as employer-tied visa regimes in Asia and temporary labor schemes in the U.S., Canada, and many countries in Europe, subjugate  a migrant worker’s legal status to a specific employer. This inherently limits their freedom of movement and association, and acts as a powerful deterrent against reporting abuse for fear of deportation, blacklisting, or losing the right to work.
• Irregular status and debt: Restrictive and incoherent migration policies frequently force women into irregular status, putting them in situations of vulnerability and exploitation. Exorbitant recruitment fees often lead to debt bondage even before work begins, severely hindering the ability of workers to exercise their internationally recognized labor rights.
• Exclusion from labor law: Domestic workers, in particular, are frequently excluded from national labor laws, often lacking the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
• Gaps in systems of care: Public, institutional, accessible, and affordable systems of care are lacking. When migrant women cover these gaps providing care services for others, care becomes accessible to their employers but not to themselves. Furthermore, care labor requires physical strength, which is often unsustainable in the absence of adequate health coverage for migrants. When these migrants are no longer able to perform care labor, because of their own lack of access to the right to care, they often become disposable to their employers and to the sector. 

No more precarity: WIMN’s urgent call to action on care

The Women in Migration Network celebrates the relentless organizing and advocacy efforts of care workers, including the instrumental role of domestic workers in drafting and campaigning for the ILO Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers as well as the ILO Resolution concerning decent work and the care economy (2024), As the demand for care workers increases dramatically in the coming decades, fueled by aging populations and intensified by climate change, investing in the care sector is a necessary path to more resilient and equitable societies. 

The Women in Migration Network calls for immediate and transformative action on the following:

• PUT CARE WORK AT THE CENTER of our society and economy and ensure the Right to Care for all—encompassing the right to give care, receive care, and care for oneself—is a fundamental human right. This right is inseparable from the fight for decent work and humane migration policy.
• RECOGNIZE, REWARD, REDUCE, REDISTRIBUTE and REPRESENT care work through national policies that ensure quality, affordable public care services (childcare, eldercare) that provide labor rights and a living wage for caregivers.
• ENSURE FULL LABOR RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS for all paid care workers, including migrant women workers, through the ratification and implementation of ILO Conventions 189 and 190 on Gender-Based Violence in the World of Work.
• ABOLISH EMPLOYER-TIED VISAS and sponsorship models like the Kafala system. Guarantee the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining regardless of migration status, and ensure the right to live outside the workplace.
• INSTITUTE FAIR AND HUMANE MIGRATION POLICIES that offer gender-responsive, rights-based pathways to decent work and provide routes to permanent status with family unity. End the reliance on temporary migration programs that breed precarity.
• ESTABLISH FIREWALLS between labor inspections/social and health services and immigration enforcement authorities to ensure all workers, especially those who are undocumented, can safely report labor violations and access health, legal, and social services.
• INTEGRAL CARE SYSTEMS must ensure domestic workers have access to affordable, quality care services for their own families and dependents, thereby alleviating their dual burden of care and allowing them to generate necessary income.
• GOVERNMENTS MUST PARTNER WITH WORKERS: Domestic workers’ organizations must play an active role in the development, implementation, and monitoring of public policies and regulatory frameworks related to care.

Care work is work, and care for care-workers, including migrants, is non-negotiable.