Fictive Kinships and the Remaking of Family Life in the Context of Paid Domestic Work

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Rosario T. de Guzman ◽  
Aileen S. Garcia ◽  
Minerva D. Tuliao
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Physical Distance ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Culturally Embedded

For many migrants, mediated communication and other forms of contact can provide a means to maintain some semblance of family life across distance. For others, economic and other constraints can make meaningful long-distance connections challenging or impractical. This chapter highlights how some migrants reconfigure family life not by bridging physical distance with biological kin but by developing close connections in their host communities. The authors draw from their research on Philippine rural-to-urban migrants who work as yayas (i.e., live-in, domestic workers caring for children) and how they build family life with peers in their neighborhoods and with their employers in the context of paid domestic work. The chapter highlights how culturally embedded notions of family are reflected in these fictive kinships and how indigenous notions of obligations and family life can provide protections and benefits but also make yayas more vulnerable to abuse in the workplace.

“We cannot discriminate against someone without an eye or a leg … But I do look at obesity”: Statistical discrimination and employers’ recruitment strategies at housecleaning service companies in Johannesburg

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
David Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Recruitment Strategies ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Recruitment Process ◽  
Demographic Profile ◽  
Job Seeking ◽  
Service Companies ◽  
Personal Skills

The landscape of paid domestic work has changed considerably in recent years with the growth in the number of housecleaning service companies in South Africa and elsewhere. Housecleaning service companies transform domestic work into a service economy where trained domestic workers render a professional cleaning service to clients. In South Africa, little is known about the factors that employers at housecleaning service companies take into consideration during the selection and recruitment process. A key feature of paid domestic work is the gender, class and race constructions of domestic workers, the vast majority of whom are women, usually women of colour, from low socio-economic backgrounds. Whether we are seeing a change in the demographic profile of domestic workers with the growth of housecleaning service companies remains unclear. This paper therefore focuses on the recruitment strategies of employers at selected housecleaning service companies in Johannesburg in an attempt to shed light on the challenges that jobseeking domestic workers may face. Open-ended interviews with managers revealed that gender, race, age, long-term unemployment, and technical and personal skills of job-seeking domestic workers have a strong impact on the recruitment process, while immigration status plays a somewhat reduced role. This paper concludes that housecleaning service companies have not changed the demographic profile of domestic workers in South Africa yet, and that paid domestic work is still predominantly a black woman’s job.

scholarly journals The use of visual icons and signs: investigating the punctuation of text by emoticons and communication clarity in online professional communication environments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgia Marie Metcalfe
Keyword(s):  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Global Networks ◽  
Visual Semiotics ◽  
Communication Environments

Computer mediated communication (CMC) is becoming increasingly prevalent and relied upon as the Internet facilitates the rapid growth of global networks and expands communication boarders. Today, many individuals rely on CMC for professional purposes, such as connecting long distance with co-workers to collaborate and advance workplace tasks. These individuals often rely on professional online collaborative programs that allow them to connect with colleagues across cities, provinces, and around the world. Relying on CMC for the transmittal of important electronic messages places it at the forefront for understanding how technical communication devices and networks function. This also requires an understanding of how ambiguity with online conversations can be decreased through the use of the Internet. However, what professional collaborative programs currently lack is a singular professional software that integrates both collaborative on-screen practices and online chatting capabilities with visual icons; or professional emoticons. The following research aims to investigate the communicative value of emoticons within a structured sentence via a study involving professional communication graduate students from Ryerson University and senior marketing communication professionals from a marketing agency in Toronto, Canada. Using concepts from critical visual methodology and a theoretical framework of visual semiotics, emoticons will be examined to see whether or not these pictorial symbols act in a similar fashion to punctuation symbols within a given sentence structure. The goal of this research was to investigate the use and meaning derived from emoticons in relation to grammatical punctuation for sentence structures in online communication environments. Specific emoticons were selected and used to measure participants‘ interpretation of each symbol within the particular context of a given sentence.

scholarly journals PERLINDUNGAN HUKUM PEKERJA MIGRAN PENATA LAKSANA RUMAH TANGGA (PLRT) DI LUAR NEGERI OLEH NEGARA DITINJAU DARI KONSEP TANGGUNG JAWAB NEGARA

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Koesrianti
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Vulnerable Group ◽  
Unfair Treatment ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
The Government ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

<p align="center"><strong><em>Abstract</em></strong></p><p><em>This research discusses the legal protection of migrant workers, especially, women migrant domestic workers. Due to the nature and characteristic of domestic work, the migrant domestic workers are subject to violence, abuses, discrimination and unfair treatment when they are in destination countries. The most vulnerable group among migrant workers is women migrant domestic workers because they are women. Accordingly, the government and the stakeholders should give protection to the women migrant domestic workers regardless their status (legal or illegal) as they are stay beyond national jurisdiction of sending state.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong><em>legal protection, Migrant workers, domestic, state responsibility.</em></p><p align="center"><strong>Abstrak</strong></p><p>Penelitian ini mengkaji bentuk-bentuk perlindungan hukum yang diberikan kepada pekerja migran PLRT di luar negeri. Pekerja migran PLRT karena karakteristiknya merupakan kelompok yang sangat rentan terhadap perlakuan <em>abuse</em>, diskriminatif, dan ketidak-adilan ketika bekerja di luar negeri. Kelompok paling rentan diantara pekerja migrant adalah TKW PLRT karena keperempuannya. Konsep tanggung jawab Negara mengharuskan pemerintah memberikan perlindungan kepada TKI terlepas dari status mereka, baik legal atau illegal karena mereka berada diluar yurisdiksi Negara pengirim</p><p><strong>Kata Kunci: </strong>Perlindungan hukum, TKI, PLRT, Tanggung Jawab Negara.</p>

Social Distance Increases Perceived Physical Distance

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Stevenson Won ◽  
Ketaki Shriram ◽  
Diana I. Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Physical Distance ◽  
Spatial Distance ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Social Closeness ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
The Social

Proximity, or spatial closeness, can generate social closeness—the closer people are together, the more they interact, affiliate, and befriend one another. Mediated communication allows people to bridge spatial distance and can increase social closeness between conversational partners, even when they are separated by distance. However, mediated communication may not always make people feel closer together. Here, we test a hypothesis derived from construal theory, about one way in which mediated communication might increase spatial distance, by imposing social distance between two texting partners. In three studies, the social distance generated by a text conversation correlated with estimates of spatial distance. Conversations designed to generate social distance increased estimates of spatial distance. We discuss this relationship in light of the rise in computer-mediated communication.

scholarly journals Design of a Massage-Inspired Haptic Device for Interpersonal Connection in Long-Distance Communication

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lalita Haritaipan ◽  
Masahiro Hayashi ◽  
Céline Mougenot
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Average Force ◽  
Considerable Research ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Haptic Communication ◽  
Distance Communication ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Online Conversation

The use of tactile senses in mediated communication has generated considerable research interest in past decades. Since massage is a common practice in Asian cultures, we propose to introduce massage-based interactions in mediated communication between people in a close relationship. We designed a device for distant interactive massage to be used during online conversation and we assessed its effect on interpersonal connection with eight pairs of Chinese participants in romantic relationships. All pairs were asked to engage in a conversation, either through a video call or through a massage-assisted video call. The findings showed that the use of the massage device significantly increased the perceived emotional and physical connection between the users. The results also showed a significant increase in the engagement in the massage activity, e.g., total massage time and average force per finger, from positive conversation to negative conversation, demonstrating an evidence of the interplay between audio-visual and haptic communication. Post hoc interviews showed the potential of the massage device for long-distance communication in romantic relationships as well as in parents-children relationships.

Is outsourcing better? Clients' views on contracting in domestic cleaning services

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
David du Toit ◽  
Lindy Heinecken
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
Domestic Servants ◽  
The People ◽  
Routine Tasks

PurposeThe nature of paid domestic work is changing, with the growth in companies delivering domestic cleaning services. Few studies have looked at why people opt to use these services and the underlying drivers. As with the outsourcing of non-core tasks in businesses, outsourcing domestic work is motivated by similar, yet different reasons, which have to do with the personal and private nature of domestic employment. This study aims to establish the reasons why “clients”, who were former employers of domestic servants, opted to outsource domestic work to a domestic cleaning service provider.Design/methodology/approachGiven the limited research on domestic cleaning services in South Africa, a mixed-methods research approach is used.FindingsThe findings showed that there are three key motivations: the nature of the domestic cleaning service supplier, the services rendered by domestic workers and the tripartite employment relationships. These three benefits imply that clients have access to functional and numerical flexibility, unlike employing a domestic worker directly. This study contributes to the literature on outsourcing and domestic work by showing that clients not only look to change the economic structure of the relationship with domestic workers, but it allows them to psychologically and emotionally distance themselves from domestic workers.Research limitations/implicationsThis study shows that some people are no longer willing to have a relationship with the people who clean their homes, and that they believe it is simply not worth the effort to maintain a relationship. This is an aspect that needs further research, as this is the one sphere where women are united in their plight, albeit from different worldviews. Thus, a limitation is that this study only focuses on clients' views of outsourcing. Have domestic workers employed by the outsourced domestic cleaning service supplier become just like assembly-line workers, where they are anonymous to their clients, performing routine tasks with little recognition from those whose homes they are servicing? Future studies could focus on domestic workers' views on outsourcing and the effects it has on their working conditions and employment relations.Originality/valueFirstly, studies mainly focus on the Global North where domestic work and outsourcing have different dynamics, regulation policies and social changes when compared to South Africa. Secondly, few studies have sought to establish why people shift from employing a domestic or care worker directly to an outsourced domestic agency when direct domestic help is available and affordable. Considering these shortcomings, this study aims to provide a better understanding of domestic cleaning service suppliers from the perspective of clients, often omitted from the literature. Accordingly, this study aimed to establish what the benefits are for clients (former employers of domestic workers) who use domestic cleaning service suppliers.

Embodied Inequality

2019 ◽  
pp. 35-54
Author(s):  
Erynn Masi de Casanova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Food Consumption ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Limited Resource ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Body ◽  
Health Food

This chapter examines the role of bodies and embodiment in domestic work. It argues that bodies matter for how domestic employees experience their work. Indeed, domestic workers' accounts emphasized physical labor and the embodied inequality between employer and employee. They described their work as exhausting, accelerating the deterioration of their bodies, and potentially dangerous. These accounts conceive of the body as a limited resource that women draw on to do their work, a resource that can be used up or damaged in the process. Bodies also matter because of the symbolic distinctions drawn between “good,” middle-class/elite bodies and “bad,” lower-class/deviant bodies—between employers' and workers' bodies. Workers face clear boundaries between themselves and employers in relation to health, food consumption, and appearance. Even employers who buck tradition by pursuing more egalitarian relations are aware of the differential values typically placed on differently classed bodies in Ecuador.

Migrant domestic workers and the right to a private and family life

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 288-310
Author(s):  
Natalie Sedacca
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Labour Legislation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Domestic workers are mainly women, are disproportionately from ethnic minorities and/or international migrants, and are vulnerable to mistreatment, often receiving inadequate protection from labour legislation. This article addresses ways in which the conditions faced by migrant domestic workers can prevent their enjoyment of the right to private and family life. It argues that the focus on this right is illuminating as it allows for the incorporation of issues that are not usually within the remit of labour law into the discussion of working rights, such as access to family reunification, as well as providing for a different perspective on the question of limits on working time – a core labour right that is often denied to domestic workers. These issues are analysed by addressing a case study each from Latin America and Europe, namely Chile and the UK. The article considers impediments to realising the right to private and family life stemming both from the literal border – the operation of immigration controls and visa conditions – and from the figurative border which exists between domestic work and other types of work, reflected in the conflation of domestic workers with family members and stemming from the public/private sphere divide.

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