Globalization and the erosion of the welfare state: effects on Chinese immigrant women

By Sally Ding on April 19, 2011

ID:	HARP-197
Title:	Globalization and the erosion of the welfare state: effects on Chinese immigrant women
Source:	Canadian Woman Studies , Spr/Summ’0221/22 (4/1) pg 26-32
Parties:
Dispute Resolution Organ:
Year:	2002
Pages:	0
Author(s):
Keywords:	Canada, economic, social, and cultural rights, employment, gender equality, globalization, human rights, social security, unemployment, woman, civil and political rights, privatization, minority rights
Abstract:	Since the 1980s, the Canadian neoliberal state has been rapidly undergoing economic restructuring. The dominant discourse argues for the natural and inevitability of the mechanisms of globalization, structural adjustment, and privatization, thus closing off challenges and debates for possible alternative strategies and action. The withdrawal of the state and the erosion of welfare programs (such as daycare, elderly care, women’s shelters, psychiatric hospitals, etc.) changes concretely the everyday lives of Canadian citizens, particularly for women and other disadvantaged groups. Previously state-subsidized programs such as childcare, elderly care, mental care, and healthcare are either downsized or privatized. The work of caring is being pushed back into the home and downloaded onto women who are expected to be the primary caregivers due to their gender. The shutdown or downsizing of public institutions causes many women to lose their jobs, since they are over-represented in the public sector. Those women who seek employment are being channelled into the private sector as part-time, flexible labour, with no benefits or job security. The hollowing out of the welfare state means that the state no longer provides a social safety net for its citizens. Unemployment is seen as an individual, private problem, rather than a public responsibility
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