Foreign domestic workers exploited


Date: January 1, 1970
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I’m a 27-year-old single mother with three children. I am an outgoing, independent and hard-working person. I dedicate most of my current work to cooking. My life has never been that easy, mostly because I have suffered from discrimination in this country. Even today, I still know many migrants that do not know their rights.

Before my current job working as a cook, I worked as a live-in domestic worker. This work was in many ways forced. I could not easily go out, or get to know other people. They always spoke of the police, and said that if I went out, police would deport me back to Maputo.
 
For a long time, I thought this was the only life possible in this country. It was only after some time that I discovered the hidden reality.
 
For three months, I worked for my employer, without receiving any payment. By that time, I had already left my eldest daughter in Maputo. I had no way of getting money or food to send back home to my family in Maputo. I worked a lot, with almost no time to spend with my other children, so I suffered a lot.
 
I felt helpless. I felt like I could not do anything to stop it. I did not know who to turn to for help. And because I do not speak very much English, my struggles were even more difficult. I know that they were able to do this because of my nationality.
 
Sometimes my employers would send me to the shops near to the house. I started to have conversations with people. I told people about my life, and I heard about other people who had better work, and whose employers paid and respected them. But I was still afraid of police.
 
In my search for a better life, I discovered that migrants are still entitled to rights in this country. This was something that my boss did not tell me.
 
After a long time, I finally found another opportunity, so I packed my bags and quit working for that employer.
 
Once I started working this better job, I started to see differences in my life. Today I have a nice boss, who treats me fairly, and I am able to make money to survive. I have also found a supportive community and I do not feel discriminated against very often.
 
However, I still live far away from my children.  Their paternal grandparents are now raising them back in Mozambique. I am only able to see them on holidays. I miss them a lot.
 
I wish that people would realise that life for us migrants life is not that easy. We leave people we care about behind. And even when we are looking for a better life, there are many people who take advantage of us.
 
Tuca Jonas Massingue came to South Africa from Mozambique in 2000. This article is part of a special series produced by CMFD highlighting lives of migrant women and being carried by the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service that provides fresh views on everyday news. 

Far From home: Women and Xenophobia series:

Migrants face poor service


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