Conference Agenda

Navigating Employment Challenges: Addressing Work Permits, Contracts, and Poor Working Conditions for Kenyan Migrant Workers in the Arab World

By Samuel Auchi Ngonela

Abstract

Kenya’s high unemployment rate has compelled thousands of citizens to seek employment opportunities in the Arab world, driven by the promise of better livelihoods. However, this migration is fraught with challenges, including difficulties in obtaining work permits, exploitative contracts, and poor working conditions. These obstacles leave migrant workers exposed to economic hardship, human rights abuses, and limited access to justice, undermining the potential benefits of labor migration for workers and their families. This study investigates the systemic gaps in Kenya’s labor migration policies, focusing on bilateral agreements with destination countries and the regulatory frameworks governing labor export. The primary research questions include: How do existing policies and agreements address the challenges faced by Kenyan migrant workers? What roles do recruitment agencies and pre-departure training programs play in mitigating these issues? How can Kenya align its labor migration framework with international labor standards to better protect its workers? Adopting a multidisciplinary methodology, the study combines legal analysis, international labor law, and migration theories. Data collection involves case studies, policy reviews, and interviews with migrant workers, recruitment agents, government officials, and advocacy groups. By integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches, the research provides a nuanced understanding of the socio-economic and psychological impact of labor migration challenges. The findings reveal critical gaps in the enforcement of international labor standards, inefficiencies in recruitment processes, and inadequate support structures for Kenyan migrant workers. Despite the existence of bilateral agreements, their implementation often fails to address the lived realities of workers abroad. Recruitment agencies play a pivotal role but are largely unregulated, leading to exploitative practices. Pre-departure training programs, though beneficial, are inconsistently delivered and lack comprehensive coverage of workers’ rights and coping strategies. This paper contributes to existing literature by highlighting the intersection of migration, labor rights, and economic policy in Kenya. It offers actionable recommendations to enhance the regulation of recruitment agencies, strengthen pre-departure training, and improve the enforcement of bilateral agreements. Ultimately, the study advocates for a sustainable labor migration framework that ensures dignity, fairness, and economic security for Kenyan migrant workers in the Arab world.

Key Words: Kenyan migrant workers, Employment challenges, Work permits, Exploitative contracts, Poor working conditions and Labor migration policies.

Though international migrant workers occupy a wide range of occupations, a report by the International Labour Organization (2021) found that the majority are in the service sector. In emerging Gulf economies like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the rising demand for service work has led to increased reliance on expatriate labor from South Asian and Southeast Asian sending states. In response, the UAE has introduced legislative reforms regulating employee rights and employer relationships. However, the complexities of temporary work arrangements and the kafala system make navigating migration and labor rights challenging for many workers. This is particularly true for overseas Filipino workers, who, despite having rights on paper and state-led initiatives, such as the mandatory pre-departure orientation seminar, are often unaware of their rights.

This mixed-methods study examines how aware Filipino service workers in the United Arab Emirates are of their labor and migration rights, and why this awareness often fails to translate into meaningful redress. While prior research has measured rights awareness, few studies have assessed how the nature of rights information sources shapes levels of knowledge and action. Drawing on original survey data and semi-structured interviews, this study finds that despite exposure to multiple information channels, workers remain poorly informed about many of their core rights. Available sources often emphasize restrictions over entitlements, conditioning workers to view the exercise of their rights as a threat to their employment and legal status. Even when workers are aware of formal recourse procedures, many choose silent endurance, compelled by a high tolerance of abuse, severe power imbalances in the workplace, and a mistrust of systems of redress. These findings suggest that rights education for low-wage migrant workers must move beyond raising awareness, toward building the capacity and confidence to act.

Using the analytical category of right-making/state-making, the aim is to examine how the Indian state of Kerala, a state renowned for its high social development and communist governments, has been protecting labour rights and interstate migrants in particular within the context of the ILO's efforts to promote a human rights-based economy. In response to the increased inflow of interstate migrants in the state, Kerala declares itself a "migrant-friendly" state and implements a number of welfare programs. It is argued that Kerala sees migrants not as a problem, not even part of a problem, but as integral to the larger development process and a model worth replicating for the global south but confronted with financial constraints.

This paper examines the economic and social conditions of interstate migrants in the state at a time when Roy and Raman (2024) describe Kerala as a "miracle state." It is important to know how far the interstate migrants contribute to the process and to what extent their rights are protected since the miracle state has experienced highly impressive economic growth since the turn of the century, with a per capita income that is 50 to 60 percent higher than the national average. The objective is to capture this process by extending the analytical framework of “right making/state making," which I have already explored as a policy intervention (Raman 2021; 2024), a mutually legitimating process. As a reciprocal welfare state, it is equally important to know how much the migrants contribute to this economic growth and what they get in return (Parida and Raman 2022) as a measure of inclusive and human-rights embedded growth through infrastructure projects employing a large number of migrants. Furthermore, I wish to supplement the ILO's normative framework for inclusive growth and social justice with policy mechanisms worth emulating and the policy challenges ahead—especially in terms of migrant-friendly welfare projects—to understand what kind of financial architecture might be developed at the state (social security funds, pension funds, welfare boards, etc.), federal, and international levels based on evidence-based experiences and experiments at the state and regional levels.

The paper would make use of available statistics, including the National Sample Surveys and Periodic Labour Force Surveys, and more importantly, the sector-wise composition of economic growth, nature and size of the migrant population in varying sectors, and budgetary allocations for their welfare benefits.

Labour market orientation in migration policy has often been associated with the commodification of migrant labour and workplace exploitation. In this paper, we argue that employer-centric migration policy can create conditions where exploitation not only becomes endemic but evolves into a tradeable commodity. To make this argument, we examine the transformation of New Zealand’s migration policy, which has led to the systemic exploitation of migrants in workplaces, accommodation and other spheres. Our analysis focuses on the development of temporary labour migration management in New Zealand since the early 2000s, particularly examining how policies have consistently prioritised employer demands for workers. A key consequence of this policy orientation has been growing reports of migrant exploitation, for which policymakers have sought solutions that protect and prioritise employer-centricity. This is especially apparent in the rush to address labour shortages following Covid-19 where a new labour migration scheme was developed based on accrediting employers—the Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme—shifting to employer-initiated visas and quantifying employer entitlements to recruit migrants.

Methodologically, we conduct a systematic document analysis of primary sources, including proactively released Cabinet papers and ministerial briefing documents, alongside an analysis of the New Zealand Public Service Commission’s review of the Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme. Additionally, we incorporate commentary from key stakeholders, such as the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, to provide broader context. This triangulation of sources allows us to trace policy evolution from multiple institutional perspectives. Our research question asks: "How has New Zealand's employer-centric migration policy framework since the early 2000s contributed to the commodification of migrant labour and shaped the conditions for exploitation?"

The outcome has been the expansion of exploitation from the workplace to a literal trade in precarious workers who experience heightened risk of exploitation. Migration policy has thus constructed a marketplace for exploitation, where migrant lives and their capacity to work and be subject to substandard conditions have become tradeable commodities for employers and intermediaries. Our account, in this regard, offers a critical and cautionary tale about employer-centric migration policy and the ways in which this can facilitate the entrenchment and expansion of exploitation. By providing both theoretical insights and policy critiques, this paper advances scholarly debates on temporary migration schemes, commodification, and precarious work.