The Foreign Service Journal, March 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2014 13 someone home to let in repair people or watch a sick child was irresistible. (As a bonus, our boys learned to vacuum, dust, do dishes and cook.) We have always made a point of com- plying with local labor laws and paying high salaries overseas, because doing so makes an important contribution to the local economy, represents good labor practices and is just common sense. After all, these are the people with full access to our house and children every day! Besides treating our staff with respect and friendliness, we also provided training to enhance their skills and employability for when we departed. For example, in Nairobi I had our driver/gar- dener and cook/housekeeper cross-train one another so that each could fill in for the other, which enabled both of them to take paid vacations and sick leave. I have no doubt that our staff communicated what good employers Americans were to their families and neighbors, building up local good will. As a labor officer, I established several initiatives to protect Kenyans who went to the Middle East for work. I obtained a copy of Saudi labor regulations and protections for migrants for distribution in Kenya, collected the laws and protec- tion programs in European and other countries, and trained Kenyan diplomats on how to protect compatriots facing abusive employers. I also worked with nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations to build awareness of the abuse of child domestics in Kenya. The State Depart- ment’s annual human rights and traffick- ing reports highlight such conditions and encourage reforms around the world. The countries where these employees originate can also do a lot to protect their migrant workers. The Philippines’ model is the best I have encountered. In Seoul, when we hired a Filipina housekeeper who had been let go by another U.S. embassy family, we had to submit a copy of our contract with her to the Philippine embassy for approval of the terms and conditions; only then would the Korean Immigration Department extend her visa. Each year, she had to go to her embassy for an interview so officials could check on her treatment and con- firm we were abiding by the contract. Our housekeeper’s paycheck enabled her to support an extended family back home, expanding their house and send- ing children to school. So on balance, while I appreciate Ms. Fabrycky’s concerns about perpetuat- ing the kafala system she experienced in the Middle East, I believe that our best course is to hire domestics so they can support their extended families, whether in the host country or a third country. Offering fair compensation and safe working conditions is a great way to inject money into low-income house- holds, constitutes a good model for other employers and employees, and builds good will for the United States. For all those reasons, we should not shrink from hiring foreign domestics and miss these opportunities. Randy Fleitman FSO Washington, D.C. n Share your thoughts about this month’s issue. Send your letters to journal@afsa.org