The entire world has changed and there are no more slaves or servants, each person has a right to life, freedom, liberty, education, food and others. The notion of equal human rights makes one believe that the world is homogeneous at least in this sense, because freedom of choice must be never violated. But social stratification of society still exists and there are people, who live in affluence and can afford people caring their children and cleaning their houses. And on the other side there are those, who can do this job in order to get at least some chance to live better and get some money for their children’s future. The book “Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence” by Hondagneu-Sotelo presents a deep insight into the relationships between babysitters and cleaners from Central America, El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala with their American employers and reveals the fact that both parties’ deeds and behavior can be justified, although sometimes extreme points are the case.
Migrant domestic work has become an essential part of the globalization and integration process and nowadays a number of agencies and companies make profit on finding and selling job-offers, inviting people from less economically developed countries to the U.S. or highly-developed European countries, such as Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Austria and others. Such factors as legacies of colonialism, development of neocolonialism and imperialism, preceding civil wars, uneven social, economic and political development of the countries have shaped the structure of global migration at our time (Hondagneu-Sotelo X). New technologies and a wide range of transportation possibilities have facilitated and intensified the process of migrant labor movement. The above-mentioned companies represent the legal channel of this activity and therefore, workers usually get officially registered, insured and the taxes are paid. However, there are also quasi-legal and illegal channels, which allow both employers and employees reduce or even completely avoid paying taxes and dealing with any kind of documentation.
It is also worth admitting, that the migrant labor does not only exist on the level of cleaning and babysitting. In the era of industrialization men were the target group in this sense and male workers came to the U.S. to build factories, railroads, irrigation pipes, canals and nowadays the situation is quite different, because it is much more difficult to find a job for a man. Therefore, very often husbands stay at home with the children, while their wives leave to take care of foreign houses and children. Such women, who do not have an opportunity to look after their own children and dedicate all their time to strangers’ babies, are called transitional mothers. It has become rather a big issue nowadays, because poverty and unemployment make families literally fall apart, so that it has become quite normal to communicate with spouse or mother on Skype and see each other only once or twice per year. Their employing families want them love their children, be more than caretakers, substitute busy mothers and that is why this kind of job does not only presuppose some kind of bodily care, bathing, feeding, clothing, but also implies affiliation, intimate knowledge, attachment and being extremely patient (Hondagneu-Sotelo 10). It is quite natural and normal if a caretaker, who performs very close personal relationships and attitudes, wants to get some psychological support, understanding and respect back. Otherwise, parents should not demand her emotional involvement and loving their children, but only communicate on the level of business relationships. Idiosyncratic nature of children and elderly care makes this kind of job different and eventually not recognized as a real work.
Arguments, misunderstandings and deeper conflicts often take place in the sphere of domestic labor and the reasons for this fact are very different. First and foremost, one should admit that different social, educational, cultural and ethnical backgrounds lead to the distinct way of communication and world perception. Immigrant workers have their own way of feeding and breeding up the children and a large number of reproaches and critics from the employers can cause a “blow-up”, that results in firing of a nanny or leaving the job in one’s own volition. If the employment is legal and organized by special companies, preparatory course and training will be very useful in this sense, because it would help to prevent from the easiest problems. Of course, caring and cleaning women are ready to accommodate and do their job according to the employers’ preferences, but sometimes it is just impossible due to their nature and way of thinking.
Domestic labor will always exist, because fast progress and increase of possibilities make people work more and get no time for raising the children or cleaning their houses. The latter is quite clear and can be always justified, because cleaning is a rather time-consuming activity, which should be done by cleaners, if a person can afford it. Taking care of children is a more ambiguous and problematic issue, because family aims at reproduction and a phenomenon of babysitting destroys families of both parties: live-in babysitters have no time for their own families and become transitional mothers and employers do not spend time with their children, that results in estrangement and alienation within the family members. Live-out and part-time nannies would be the best solution in this case and mothers of employing families need to reduce their working hours in order to save their families as such, keep basic family values. But if a family and migrant worker still decide to completely change their lives, they need to be ready to find compromise and respect each-other’s priorities.
Works cited
Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette. Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the
Shadows of Affluence. Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2007. Print.
