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Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work
Servants of Globalization is a poignant and often troubling study of migrant Filipina domestic workers who leave their own families behind to do the mothering and caretaking work of the global economy in countries throughout the world. It specifically focuses on the emergence of parallel lives among such workers in the cities of Rome and Los Angeles, two main destinations for Filipina migration.
The book is largely based on interviews with domestic workers, but the book also powerfully portrays the larger economic picture as domestic workers from developing countries increasingly come to perform the menial labor of the global economy. This is often done at great cost to the relations with their own split-apart families. The experiences of migrant Filipina domestic workers are also shown to entail a feeling of exclusion from their host society, a downward mobility from their professional jobs in the Philippines, and an encounter with both solidarity and competition from other migrant workers in their communities.
The author applies a new theoretical lens to the study of migrationthe level of the subject, moving away from the two dominant theoretical models in migration literature, the macro and the intermediate. At the same time, she analyzes the three spatial terrains of the various institutions that migrant Filipina domestic workers inhabitthe local, the transnational, and the global. She draws upon the literature of international migration, sociology of the family, women's work, and cultural studies to illustrate the reconfiguration of the family community and social identity in migration and globalization. The book shows how globalization not only propels the migration of Filipina domestic workers but also results in the formation of parallel realities among them in cities with greatly different contexts of reception.
The book is largely based on interviews with domestic workers, but the book also powerfully portrays the larger economic picture as domestic workers from developing countries increasingly come to perform the menial labor of the global economy. This is often done at great cost to the relations with their own split-apart families. The experiences of migrant Filipina domestic workers are also shown to entail a feeling of exclusion from their host society, a downward mobility from their professional jobs in the Philippines, and an encounter with both solidarity and competition from other migrant workers in their communities.
The author applies a new theoretical lens to the study of migrationthe level of the subject, moving away from the two dominant theoretical models in migration literature, the macro and the intermediate. At the same time, she analyzes the three spatial terrains of the various institutions that migrant Filipina domestic workers inhabitthe local, the transnational, and the global. She draws upon the literature of international migration, sociology of the family, women's work, and cultural studies to illustrate the reconfiguration of the family community and social identity in migration and globalization. The book shows how globalization not only propels the migration of Filipina domestic workers but also results in the formation of parallel realities among them in cities with greatly different contexts of reception.
309 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 24, 2016
After having finished my first year in university learning about the effects of globalization on immigrant women (especially Filipinas), I was very excited to have been lent this book by a family friend. I walk away from this book understanding the lives of transnational migrants a little bit more than I did before; both its apparent/obvious traits as well as its more ambiguous causes of workers' migrations. I recommend reading Parrenas' dissertation if one is interested in delving into this concealed social problem.
March 10, 2025
Truly a very fascinating exploration of Filipina migrant domestic work and all it entails. I have a great sense of appreciation for Parrenas’s attention to the impacts on personal Filipina life and her sensitivity to the situations of domestic workers away from home. This book helped produce some incredibly interesting classroom conversation and details a labor force that is often not given the spotlight!
February 8, 2019
I appreciate this work's certain categorizations of domestic labor and migration.
Although the work signifies the effects of the globalization, it does not have a single word on the colonial history of Philippines.
Although the work signifies the effects of the globalization, it does not have a single word on the colonial history of Philippines.
March 21, 2024
Took way too long to finish this but I finished this at the right time! Definitely a book that inspired my Masters thesis!
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July 23, 2025SIMP28, this is the only topic in this course that I can related to. However the discussion in this seminar are totally different from what I reflected when reading…
October 25, 2026
Ch 1-5 & Conclusion
October 19, 2022
A good and thorough study of the global migration of filipino domestic workers, highlighting how the purchase of the asset of domestic workers by class-privileged women ensures the reproduction of societies
Particular highlights include:
The international division of reproductive labour that describes Filipino women's migration and entrance into domestic work and the international transfer of caretaking in which migrants in the Philippines relegate their reproductive labour to poorer women unable to migrate i.e. women with means pay poor immigrant women of colour to help reproduce their family, and these women in turn transfer their care to women left behind in the Philippines
This demonstrates that production is not the only means by which international divisions of labour operate in the global economy; under globalisation, the transfer of reproductive labour also links nation-states
The popularisation of the term "care chains" has shone light on the issue, but has also eliminated the political-economic foundation of Parreñas' original analysis by narrowing the framework to the distribution of care and redirecting the focus away from reproductive inequalities; Parreñas thus makes a case against the misappropriation of the concept as a "care inequality" and call for the continued examination of the reproductive inequalities that the migration of domestic workers elicits among women and households across the globe
Parreñas also puts forward a case for using the term "reproductive labour" rather than "care" as she finds the latter to be an inadequate concept for analysing the inequalities constituted in domestic work; reducing the international division of reproductive labour to a "care chain" simplifies the concept, resulting in its misunderstanding, as the analysis of Nicola Yeates (2012) points out
Parreñas also suggests that rather than calling for studies on the care work of men, perhaps we need to document how the labour of migrant women not only relieves other women, but also provides "benefits to men, other family members, and society as a whole" (Duffy, 2005)
The aging of reproductive workers - recognising their reproductive labour - the work of caring, feeding, bathing, and clothing the population - requires that we acknowledge their reproductive rights, which not only refers to the right to a family life, but their right to retire
Their inability to retire, their forced loyalty and continued labour in old age, signifies a return to servitude in economic globalisation, the return of servitude signals the globalisation of a feudal order between employers from the Global North and domestic workers from the Global South
The crisis of masculinity - emasculation of male domestic workers does not necessarily occur in relation to female domestic workers but instead vis-a-vis the straw man of a traditionally masculine subject
The racism and class hierarchies - Employers often assigning tasks to their domestic workers that they would not want to undertake themselves, which enforces race and class hierarchies, as tasks that are unacceptable for employers are acceptable for domestic workers, most of whom are women of colour
The emotional labour (coined by Arlie Hochschild and referring to the expectation of employers to "produce an emotional state in another person" through "face-to-face" interaction) expected of domestic workers, such as disregarding their true feelings and carrying attitude reflecting the idealised environment of the home such as smiling and acting happy
Particular highlights include:
The international division of reproductive labour that describes Filipino women's migration and entrance into domestic work and the international transfer of caretaking in which migrants in the Philippines relegate their reproductive labour to poorer women unable to migrate i.e. women with means pay poor immigrant women of colour to help reproduce their family, and these women in turn transfer their care to women left behind in the Philippines
This demonstrates that production is not the only means by which international divisions of labour operate in the global economy; under globalisation, the transfer of reproductive labour also links nation-states
The popularisation of the term "care chains" has shone light on the issue, but has also eliminated the political-economic foundation of Parreñas' original analysis by narrowing the framework to the distribution of care and redirecting the focus away from reproductive inequalities; Parreñas thus makes a case against the misappropriation of the concept as a "care inequality" and call for the continued examination of the reproductive inequalities that the migration of domestic workers elicits among women and households across the globe
Parreñas also puts forward a case for using the term "reproductive labour" rather than "care" as she finds the latter to be an inadequate concept for analysing the inequalities constituted in domestic work; reducing the international division of reproductive labour to a "care chain" simplifies the concept, resulting in its misunderstanding, as the analysis of Nicola Yeates (2012) points out
Parreñas also suggests that rather than calling for studies on the care work of men, perhaps we need to document how the labour of migrant women not only relieves other women, but also provides "benefits to men, other family members, and society as a whole" (Duffy, 2005)
The aging of reproductive workers - recognising their reproductive labour - the work of caring, feeding, bathing, and clothing the population - requires that we acknowledge their reproductive rights, which not only refers to the right to a family life, but their right to retire
Their inability to retire, their forced loyalty and continued labour in old age, signifies a return to servitude in economic globalisation, the return of servitude signals the globalisation of a feudal order between employers from the Global North and domestic workers from the Global South
The crisis of masculinity - emasculation of male domestic workers does not necessarily occur in relation to female domestic workers but instead vis-a-vis the straw man of a traditionally masculine subject
The racism and class hierarchies - Employers often assigning tasks to their domestic workers that they would not want to undertake themselves, which enforces race and class hierarchies, as tasks that are unacceptable for employers are acceptable for domestic workers, most of whom are women of colour
The emotional labour (coined by Arlie Hochschild and referring to the expectation of employers to "produce an emotional state in another person" through "face-to-face" interaction) expected of domestic workers, such as disregarding their true feelings and carrying attitude reflecting the idealised environment of the home such as smiling and acting happy
July 26, 2007
for those who want to understand the life of transnational migrants, read this book, such a good work!
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July 26, 2013331.41279 P259 2001
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews