Power relations and persistent low fertility among domestic workers in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico

This essay presents a social history of power relations between domestic workers and their employers by examining the representations of servants in a wide array of Hindi print literature, including didactic manuals, popular magazines, reformist writings and cartoons, in the early twentieth-century North India. Exploring possibilities within repertoires of representation, it navigates how a contentious discourse around servant and employer developed in the Hindi print sphere. The essay links the portrayal of servants with changing class, caste and religious dynamics, in which print intersected with material circumstances to shape the hierarchical relationship between servants and employers. While imaging ‘ideal’ servants, the Hindi vernacular was also infused with their negative counterparts and anxieties around personal interactions between mistresses and servants, taking its cue from quotidian life and caste–community relations of the time. Increasing assertion by Dalits and growing antagonism between Hindus and Muslims left its imprints on portrayals of subordinate-caste and Muslim servants by dominant castes and classes. The vernacular straddled these domains of distance/desire and hate/love in the servant–employer relationship.

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“Doing Ô Sin”

Journal of Vietnamese Studies ◽

10.1525/vs.2012.7.4.32 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 32-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Nguyễn Thị Nguyệt Minh

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Power Relations ◽

Domestic Work ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Urban Life ◽

Cultural Discourse ◽

Urban Labor ◽

And Control ◽

Urban Labor Market ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

This article discusses the negotiations of migrant domestic workers in Hà Nội with the urban labor market, the conditions and relations of paid domestic work, and their life away from home. These negotiations indicate constraining structures of the labor market and the challenging conditions of urban life and work. They shape and are shaped by the power relations that the domestic workers simultaneously resist and legitimize through an active investment in the cultural discourse of reciprocal affection and harmony. The negotiations, however, demonstrate the diverse ways in which domestic workers actively carve out niches of autonomy and control over their life and work.

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Mapping Evidence of the Power Relations Between Domestic Workers and Their Employers in Sub-Saharan Africa: a Scoping Review Protocol

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1130557/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Thobeka Ntini ◽

Delarise Mulqueeny ◽

Vishanthie Sewpaul

Keyword(s):

Scoping Review ◽

Search Engines ◽

Power Relations ◽

Grey Literature ◽

Domestic Work ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Future Research ◽

International Labour Organization ◽

Sub Saharan

Abstract Background Across various intersectional lines, including race, class and gender, domestic work is profoundly exploitative than other comparable occupations. The private household, within which domestic workers (DWs) work and function, provides for a space of complex and nuanced dynamics of power. According to the International Labour Organization there are more than 65 million DWs in the world, and Africa is the third largest employer of DWs, with more than 5.2 million DWs reported. The inception of the Domestic Workers Convention (No. 189) (C189) in 2011 sought to protect DWs from all forms of exploitation and discrimination in the workplace, the convention brought global attention to the violation of their human rights and inequalities within the domestic work sector. Although there are more than 5.2 million DWs in Africa, 39/46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have not ratified this convention. Due to the extremely low ratification of the C189 and scanty evidence on the power relations between DWs and their employers in SSA, this scoping review is relevant to detect the extent and characteristics of domestic work in SSA since the introduction of C189 in September 2011. Methods The literature that will be included in this scoping review are published peer-reviewed articles, grey literature from relevant departmental websites, humanitarian organisations and theses. Electronic searches of databases and search engines such as Google, Google Scholar, EBSCOhost, EBSCO Discovery Service, Scopus, World Bank and International Labour Organization (ILO) for literature published between September 2011-2021. Other search engines will include screening citations and references of appearing literature within the stipulated time period. All retrieved literature will be exported to an Endnote X9 library. Duplicate documents will be deleted prior to commencement of title screening. An adapted Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT), developed in a Google form, will be used by two reviewers to quality assess and describe all included studies (qualitative, mixed methods and quantitative). Discussion We anticipate mapping relevant literature on the power relations between domestic workers and their employers in sub-Saharan Africa. Once analysis and summary is finalised, the data will be useful to guide future research.

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Paid domestic work and outsourcing in South Africa: Clients’ views on trust, control and power relations

Current Sociology ◽

10.1177/00113921211056058 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 001139212110560

Author(s):

David du Toit

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Power Relations ◽

Domestic Work ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Employment Relationship ◽

Household Cleaning ◽

Depth Interviews

Outsourced domestic cleaning service suppliers reconfigure the bipartite employment relationship between employers and domestic workers into a tripartite one between clients (former employers of domestic workers), the management or franchise owners, and domestic employees. While this transformation is attractive to some, outsourcing domestic work involves more than the outsourcing of physical tasks of household cleaning. It also involves the outsourcing of the employment relationship where trust, control and power relations are passed on to the management of the domestic cleaning service suppliers. By taking trust, control and power relations as being reconfigured through outsourcing, this article debates why such reconfiguring might not be convenient for some. By doing this, trust, control and power are conceptualised and how it is perpetuated in a bipartite and tripartite domestic employment relationship. By drawing on 16 in-depth interviews with former clients of a domestic cleaning service supplier in South Africa, this article illustrates that perhaps outsourced domestic services are not an appropriate solution to everyone’s domestic cleaning needs and that some clients expect a particular relationship that is not achieved through outsourcing.

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Abandoned Hungarian workers and the political economy of care work in Austria

Szociológiai szemle ◽

10.51624/szocszemle.2018.4.3 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 61-87

Author(s):

Attila Melegh ◽

Dóra Gábriel ◽

Gabriella Gresits ◽

Dalma Hámos

Keyword(s):

Domestic Workers ◽

Poverty Line ◽

Low Fertility ◽

The Political ◽

Eastern European ◽

Population Loss ◽

Mass Migration ◽

Eastern European Countries ◽

High Level ◽

Political Economic

In an era of globalization, the institutional system of mass migration is being substantially reorganized: its intensity and the variation in its forms are increasing. Global production chains combine diverse areas and different forms of work with varying wage levels by forming worldwide networks. In the Eastern European region, the growing level of emigration and relatively low fertility are leading to population loss. Hungary is not among the Eastern European countries with a high level of emigration; nevertheless, it faces serious challenges, particularly in some regions where after the transition losses of jobs were massive, and a greater proportion of people live under the poverty line than the national average. Our analysis is based on interviews, containing narrative and semi-structured parts, among domestic workers working mainly in Austria and Germany. The paper reveals possible causal mechanisms and the political economic structures behind this type of labour migration. We seek to understand how migrationrelated decisions are embedded in a global and highly unequal economic order.

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Impact of foreign domestic workers on the fertility decision of households: evidence from Hong Kong

Journal of Demographic Economics ◽

10.1017/dem.2021.33 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-31

Author(s):

Nobuyuki Nakamura ◽

Aya Suzuki

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Local Area ◽

Ordinary Least Squares ◽

Low Fertility ◽

Child Rearing ◽

Fertility Choice ◽

Variable Approach ◽

Foreign Domestic Workers

Abstract A potential solution to low fertility is the employment of foreign domestic workers (FDWs), who substitute child-rearing and housework duties, thus reducing child-rearing costs. Recent studies argue that the flow of low-skilled foreign workers into the childcare sector influences fertility choice. However, these studies mainly use the availability of FDWs in the local area as the causal inference and focus on Western countries, making it difficult to identify individual direct effects or generalize the findings to other countries. To bridge this research gap and examine the impacts, this study uses household data from the Hong Kong census. Employing ordinary least squares, the inverse probability weighted regression adjustment, and the instrumental variable approach, we find that households that employ live-in FDWs give birth to more children. Moreover, the heterogeneous analysis reveals that women's greater proportional contribution to household income has a positive impact on households' fertility response after employing the FDWs.

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„Ich war lange illegal hier, aber jetzt hat mich die Grenze übertreten“ – Subjektivierungsprozesse transnational mobiler Haushaltshilfen

Geographica Helvetica ◽

10.5194/gh-68-191-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 68 (3) ◽

pp. 191-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

A. Strüver

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Power Relations ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

The Self ◽

Economic Power ◽

Technologies Of The Self ◽

Female Migrants ◽

Market Regime ◽

Working Practices

Abstract. This contribution examines the processes of subjectivation of transnational mobile female migrants from Eastern Europe, who work irregularly as domestic workers in Germany. Applying an intersectional framework, the working practices of female migrants are conceptualized as an expression of the interplay between technologies of the self and technologies of domination. Both are constitutive for the migrant subjects and they are thus analyzed as part of geopolitical constellations and economic power relations as well as being influenced by the European border and labor market regime.

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Accent Policy and Accent Modification Enterprises as Potential Indicators of Intercultural Power Relations: A Call for an Updated Research Agenda

Perspectives on Global Issues in Communication Sciences and Related Disorders ◽

10.1044/gics3.1.22 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 22-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Brynne D. Ovalle ◽

Rahul Chakraborty

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Identity Construction ◽

Social Theory ◽

Power Relations ◽

Linguistic Diversity ◽

Cultural Organization ◽

Using Data ◽

The Individual ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

This article has two purposes: (a) to examine the relationship between intercultural power relations and the widespread practice of accent discrimination and (b) to underscore the ramifications of accent discrimination both for the individual and for global society as a whole. First, authors review social theory regarding language and group identity construction, and then go on to integrate more current studies linking accent bias to sociocultural variables. Authors discuss three examples of intercultural accent discrimination in order to illustrate how this link manifests itself in the broader context of international relations (i.e., how accent discrimination is generated in situations of unequal power) and, using a review of current research, assess the consequences of accent discrimination for the individual. Finally, the article highlights the impact that linguistic discrimination is having on linguistic diversity globally, partially using data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partially by offering a potential context for interpreting the emergence of practices that seek to reduce or modify speaker accents.

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