I came several thousand miles to find myself in a familiar place-- the overflowing, less than deluxe offices of a shoe-string non-profit. For the past several weeks I have been helping Jessica Nevo, the development officer of Kav LaOved (Worker’s hotline), write grant proposals for the EU, the UN and some private foundations. I also attended a workshop (in Hebrew!) for the staff and volunteers. Everyone has been very friendly and welcoming, especially Jessica. We have very similar interests and hit it off immediately. She said that when she read my resume she felt we could be twins. Originally from Argentina, she came to Israel as a child and attended Haifa University where she took classes in sociology and women’s studies. Since then she has been working in various social change organizations in Israel. A few years ago she received a fellowship to study at Rutgers University. While she was there she worked with the International Center for Transitional Justice (www.ictj.org) an organization that helps countries seeking accountability and healing from mass atrocities and human rights abuses.
Kav LaOved (www.kavlaoved.org.il) formed in the 1990’s to protect the rights of Palestinian workers in Israel and the settlements. When the Intifada stopped the flow of these workers into Israel, migrant workers from Thailand and other countries were brought to take their places in construction and agriculture. Kav expanded its scope to provide assistance to these and other low-wage Israeli workers, as well as to African refugees from Sudan and other new immigrants. When social welfare cutbacks reduced governmental responsibility for the elderly, and working women were not able or willing to take the full burden of caring for dependent family members, migrant workers (mostly women but also some men) from the Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, India, and Romania came to take the low-wage, 24 hour jobs giving in-home assistance to the disabled and elderly. There are about 200,000 migrant laborers in Israel, both legal and illegal, about 40% of them working as caregivers. Many of them are women and many are educated but cannot find decent paying jobs in their countries. Often they leave children and husbands behind at home. They send most of their money home to help their families and to repay the huge sums that they borrowed to pay the exorbitant fees that brokers charge to get them Israeli visas (e.g. $5,000 –Philippines; $10,000—India; $20,000—China). Unfortunately it is not uncommon for the family members at home to spend all the money on drugs, alcohol, and prostitutes (husbands) or clothing (teenagers), leaving the woman’s debt unpaid. What started out as a short-term way to earn a better living can lead to longer-term employment in Israel (legal or illegal) to earn enough to pay back the fees and finally realize some gains. Now there is a surplus of caregivers beyond the number of families who have received permits from the government to employ them. The flow is supposed to be capped but the agencies keep bringing workers, promising them jobs that may not in fact exist, so that they can get the recruitment fees. Government enforcement is inadequate. Furthermore, until recently, a worker’s visa was tied to a specific employer, making switching employers very difficult. This situation has supposedly changed with new regulations giving the workers more freedom to change employers or register with a different agency, but these new rules have not yet been fully implemented. Fear of losing their visas makes workers afraid to challenge the employer over wages or work conditions.
It’s a terrible system for all involved. Given the language barriers, long hours and isolation, and the irresponsible or outright criminal behavior of some of the employers and the employment agencies in Israel and the host countries, the caregivers are vulnerable to all kinds of exploitation—financial as well as sexual abuse and violence. They come to KavLaOved for legal advice and assistance to secure their rights and entitlements (minimum wage, vacation or severance pay, and medical coverage). Kav intervenes with the employers and the Israeli agencies and follows through with legal action if necessary. The organization also advocates for changes in the laws, monitors enforcement and brings the issues to public attention.
For family members who need extensive care, the options are not great either. Retirement communities and nursing homes are very expensive and, as in the States, there are not many good choices for those without resources. Families depend on the agencies to find them a suitable worker but there is no system in place to check the credentials, skills, or mental and physical health of the caretakers before they receive their visas. Some of the matches that are made are really crazy--- an Indian woman who speaks Hindi and a few words of English caring for a Yemeni woman who speaks Hebrew and possibly some Arabic, for example. Despite the language and cultural barriers, the caregivers and their elderly clients often become attached to one another, creating dynamics of paternalism and obligation that complicate the employer-employee relationship (the actual payment is typically handled by the older person’s children). Often, the caretakers end up doing most of the household labor-cleaning, cooking, looking after other family members, without receiving extra compensation, even though they were hired to look after one elderly or disabled person. They are on call 24/7 with only one day off during the week.
Last week I met four women who came to Kav to get help—an Indian woman who showed me a photo of her beautiful four and five year old daughters back home; two Nepalese women who have been in Israel almost four years (long enough to learn Hebrew); and a young Sri Lankan woman who as a B.A. in the arts and taught dance to 7-12 year old children in Colombo.They all spoke with Irit, one of the dedicated volunteers who work with the staff (which includes lawyers and translators—Chinese, Thai,etc.) to share the details of their complaints --unpaid wages, owed severance and overtime pay, overwork, no time off for their national holidays and so on. Erandi, the young woman from Sri Lanka, would like to come to the U.S. I gave her information about the American Dance Festival summer program and the world music and dance program at Wesleyan. I hope in the future she will have an opportunity that matches her skills better than giving around the cloa care to an elderly couple in Netanya.
I spent some time talking with Irit and Yael, two women around my age have been volunteering at Kav twice a week. They come together from Rehovot (one and a half hours by car, depending on traffic). Irit has five children and is working on her Ph.D. dissertation on the relationship between the caregivers and the elders. Yael retired from her job as a high school civics/politics teacher. We had a very interesting conversation about the difficulties that the migrants face and the lack of options for older people. They said that some groups of workers—bus drivers, for example, have organized communal arrangements for retirees but by and large you are on your own unless you can afford an expensive retirement place. Apparently, the kibbutzim (where they still exist) are the only ones that take good care of their elders and also treat the caretakers who work in their nursing facilities well. They still have good ideals and values!!!
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