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A stirring account of the experiences of migrant domestic workers,
and what freedom, abuse, and power mean within a vast contract
labor system. In the United Arab Emirates, there is an employment
sponsorship system known as the kafala. Migrant domestic workers
within it must solely work for their employer, secure their
approval to leave the country, and obtain their consent to
terminate a job. In Unfree, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas examines the
labor of women from the Philippines, who represent the largest
domestic workforce in the country. She challenges presiding ideas
about the kafala, arguing that its reduction to human trafficking
is, at best, unproductive, and at worst damaging to genuine efforts
to regulate this system that impacts tens of millions of domestic
workers across the globe. The kafala system technically renders
migrant workers unfree as they are made subject to the arbitrary
authority of their employer. Not surprisingly, it has been the
focus of intense scrutiny and criticism from human rights advocates
and scholars. Yet, contrary to their claims, Parreñas argues that
most employers do not abuse domestic workers or maximize the
extraction of their labor. Still, the outrage elicited by this
possibility dominates much of public discourse and overshadows the
more mundane reality of domestic work in the region. Drawing on
unparalleled data collected over 4 years,this book diverges from
previous studies as it establishes that the kafala system does not
necessarily result in abuse, but instead leads to the absence of
labor standards. This absence is reflected in the diversity of work
conditions across households, ranging from dehumanizing treatment,
infantilization, to respect and recognition of domestic workers.
Unfree shows how various stakeholders, including sending and
receiving states, NGOs, inter-governmental organizations, employers
and domestic workers, project moral standards to guide the
unregulated labor of domestic work. They can mitigate or aggravate
the arbitrary authority of employers. Parreñas offers a deft and
rich portrait of how morals mediate work on the ground, warning
against the dangers of reducing unfreedom to structural violence.
A stirring account of the experiences of migrant domestic workers,
and what freedom, abuse, and power mean within a vast contract
labor system. In the United Arab Emirates, there is an employment
sponsorship system known as the kafala. Migrant domestic workers
within it must solely work for their employer, secure their
approval to leave the country, and obtain their consent to
terminate a job. In Unfree, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas examines the
labor of women from the Philippines, who represent the largest
domestic workforce in the country. She challenges presiding ideas
about the kafala, arguing that its reduction to human trafficking
is, at best, unproductive, and at worst damaging to genuine efforts
to regulate this system that impacts tens of millions of domestic
workers across the globe. The kafala system technically renders
migrant workers unfree as they are made subject to the arbitrary
authority of their employer. Not surprisingly, it has been the
focus of intense scrutiny and criticism from human rights advocates
and scholars. Yet, contrary to their claims, Parreñas argues that
most employers do not abuse domestic workers or maximize the
extraction of their labor. Still, the outrage elicited by this
possibility dominates much of public discourse and overshadows the
more mundane reality of domestic work in the region. Drawing on
unparalleled data collected over 4 years,this book diverges from
previous studies as it establishes that the kafala system does not
necessarily result in abuse, but instead leads to the absence of
labor standards. This absence is reflected in the diversity of work
conditions across households, ranging from dehumanizing treatment,
infantilization, to respect and recognition of domestic workers.
Unfree shows how various stakeholders, including sending and
receiving states, NGOs, inter-governmental organizations, employers
and domestic workers, project moral standards to guide the
unregulated labor of domestic work. They can mitigate or aggravate
the arbitrary authority of employers. Parreñas offers a deft and
rich portrait of how morals mediate work on the ground, warning
against the dangers of reducing unfreedom to structural violence.
What do home health aides, call center operators, prostitutes,
sperm donors, nail manicurists, and housecleaners have in common?
Around the world, they make their livings through touch, closeness,
and personal care. Their labors, both paid and unpaid, sustain the
day-to-day work that we require to survive. This book takes a close
look at carework, domestic work, and sex work in everyday life and
illuminates the juncture where money and intimacy meet.
Intimate labor is presented as a comprehensive category of
investigation into gender, race, class, and other power relations
in the context of global economic transformations. In chronicling
the history of intimate labor in light of the rise and devolution
of welfare states, women's workforce participation, family
formation, the expansion of sex work into new industries, and the
development of institutions for dependent people, this wide-ranging
reader advances debates over the relationship between care and
economy.
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