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The Trafficker Next Door: How Household Employers Exploit Domestic Workers
A renowned sociologist examines the pernicious societal forces that lead employers to exploit vulnerable domestic workers.
The phrase “human trafficking” often conjures nightmarish images of sexual exploitation, but Rhacel Salazar Parreñas reveals that the vast majority of trafficking victims are domestic workers—who suffer abuse not at the hands of shadowy crime lords but rather “ordinary” family employers. Drawing on twenty years of groundbreaking research across three continents, Parreñas exposes the grim realities faced by migrant workers ensnared in forced labor due to poverty and debt bondage. She uncovers how entrenched social and legal norms, coupled with a patronizing “employer savior complex,” foster a troubling sense of ownership among employers over “their” domestic workers. Through powerful firsthand accounts, including harrowing stories of workers held against their will in the United States, Parreñas illustrates migrants’ desperation and the power dynamics that often lead to modern-day slavery. Parreñas’s urgent narrative challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about everyday household arrangements and calls for justice and fair treatment for all workers.
The phrase “human trafficking” often conjures nightmarish images of sexual exploitation, but Rhacel Salazar Parreñas reveals that the vast majority of trafficking victims are domestic workers—who suffer abuse not at the hands of shadowy crime lords but rather “ordinary” family employers. Drawing on twenty years of groundbreaking research across three continents, Parreñas exposes the grim realities faced by migrant workers ensnared in forced labor due to poverty and debt bondage. She uncovers how entrenched social and legal norms, coupled with a patronizing “employer savior complex,” foster a troubling sense of ownership among employers over “their” domestic workers. Through powerful firsthand accounts, including harrowing stories of workers held against their will in the United States, Parreñas illustrates migrants’ desperation and the power dynamics that often lead to modern-day slavery. Parreñas’s urgent narrative challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about everyday household arrangements and calls for justice and fair treatment for all workers.
- GenresNonfiction
176 pages, Hardcover
Published September 2, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 7, 2025
This is a quick read packed full of important facts and heartbreaking anecdotes about the trafficking of domestic workers worldwide. So much of what we hear about trafficking is focused on sexual exploitation, and it can be easy to miss the fact that the majority of trafficking involves non-sexual labour (although sexual assault is of course among the risks of unfair labour situations).
A lot of this book’s focus is on expats in regions where employing household staff is common for the upper classes, like Dubai and Singapore. The most interesting story, to me, was about an American woman in the UAE who exploited her housekeeper, even to the point of taking half of her $4/hour wage when she “lent” her to other households, while justifying it to herself with the racist belief that her Arab neighbours surely treated their staff far worse. It also digs into the ways that exploitative visa systems and agencies normalize low wages and unfair practices, to the point that many people don’t really realize they’re treating their nannies or housekeepers unfairly.
If you want to pack a serious dose of human rights education into a single reading session, I highly recommend this one.
A lot of this book’s focus is on expats in regions where employing household staff is common for the upper classes, like Dubai and Singapore. The most interesting story, to me, was about an American woman in the UAE who exploited her housekeeper, even to the point of taking half of her $4/hour wage when she “lent” her to other households, while justifying it to herself with the racist belief that her Arab neighbours surely treated their staff far worse. It also digs into the ways that exploitative visa systems and agencies normalize low wages and unfair practices, to the point that many people don’t really realize they’re treating their nannies or housekeepers unfairly.
If you want to pack a serious dose of human rights education into a single reading session, I highly recommend this one.
June 22, 2025
[5 stars]
There’s a few nonfiction books where I almost feel like I need to suspend my disbelief. Like, there is no way that people can be this cruel. Yet, through interviews, published accounts, and firsthand witness recorded by the author, it gets proven.
176 pages and made up of five parts, an introduction, three chapters, and a conclusion, Parreñas takes us through the experiences of the millions of migrant domestic workers in countries like the UAE, Canada, the UK, Singapore, and others. She explores the abuse that these women face, only one day off a month (if even), inhumane work schedules, withholding pay, peonage, and holding onto passports/other documentation is commonplace. She interviews both the workers and their employers, analysing the different social, cultural, and economic aspects that create these conditions. This is one of the most skillfully written nonfiction books that I have read in a while. Parreñas makes a perfect balance between quotes from her interviews, statistics from various sources, her personal experiences in her research, and her analysis of these facts.
We begin with an extremely strong introduction with both the defining of her main thesis, the idea of the “employer savior complex”, and previews into the various situations of trafficked domestic workers that we will explore. Parreñas describes her own past research on the topic, including her time working with those Filipina entertainers in Japan, in a way that is both captivating and informative. It truly sets the stage for the rest of the book.
The first chapter explores the story of a Filipina woman who was sent to work for a distant relative in the US when she was 18, only to not be paid for her labor once there (see: “My Family’s Slave” by Alex Tizon). She was rarely able to leave the house and so had no private or social life outside of caring for the house, besides regular phone calls with a niece of hers. We first explore the essay by the son of her original “employer” (his mother), who later became her employer following his mother's death. Parreñas looks into the ways that the employer distances himself and his mother from any blame and that their laborer would have experienced much worse conditions had she remained in the Philippines - an obvious example of Parreñas’ “employer savior complex”. She then moves to her own visit to the laborer hometown in the Philippines and her interviews with her family members who rightfully have a very different opinion than the employer did. The author explores both the family's opinions on the situation as well as the cultural context that led to it and the laborer’s lack of fighting against it. We're given short but informative explanations of these different cultural, gender, and “social contract” contexts that fed into this woman's exploitation for nearly seven decades. The balance of information is done expertly all while staying captivating.
The third chapter, focusing on the employees and their place in the system as well as the mindset that allows them to absolve themselves from this exploitative system, goes more in depth in its analysis. It brings up topics such as orientalism, positive liberty, and pernicious ignorance to explain the ways that employers, no matter their race (whether Western expats in Singapore or Arabs in the UAE) participate in this system. Goes through multiple examples of employers that Parreñas interviewed, her research into how “maid agencies” function, and her analysis of how these examples fit into the previously mentioned ideas. We see how employers withhold pay from their employees in repayment for the debt that they accrued to the agency as well as how actions such as holding onto passports and only giving the mandatory one day off a month is commonplace even among the employers that consider themselves the kindest to their workers. It's an extremely well-researched and strong piece of writing that further proves her concept of the employer savior complex while showcasing just how pervasive it is.
Again, his book is extremely well-written. Parreñas does not rely on long segments of quotes or interviews (not inherently a bad thing when done right) but weaves them into a discussion of each example. Small examples are presented in conversation with each chapter's main story, using the words from one to extrapolate conditions and information from the other. Equal emphasis is given to the words, point of view, and explanations of both the enslaver and the enslaved. When confronted with an “employer” stating that “slavery can turn into love”, she explores the wrongness of this with:
”Love exerts such gravitational force because it is often the only source of dignity for victims of slavery like Pulido. Love counters the indignity of sleeping next to a dog, wearing hand-me-down clothes, eating leftovers, and suffering regular beatings. It cloaks the violence of being ripped from one's family. Love hides the crime of abusers who demand that victims like Pulido displace their love for their own family onto their employers.”
Just so, so well written with gems like this embedded in the interviews describing workers’ experiences and Parreñas’ analysis.
It’s hard to write reviews for non-memoir nonfiction, especially as a layman. This book is expertly researched and written beyond expectations. It is not bogged down with statistics but gives enough to support her points and the horrors that she explores. Smoothly concise but never lacking, I could have read another whole book of just more of this (an obvious sign to look into her other works). An essential look into an overlooked and under-checked pandemic of human rights violations.
There’s a few nonfiction books where I almost feel like I need to suspend my disbelief. Like, there is no way that people can be this cruel. Yet, through interviews, published accounts, and firsthand witness recorded by the author, it gets proven.
176 pages and made up of five parts, an introduction, three chapters, and a conclusion, Parreñas takes us through the experiences of the millions of migrant domestic workers in countries like the UAE, Canada, the UK, Singapore, and others. She explores the abuse that these women face, only one day off a month (if even), inhumane work schedules, withholding pay, peonage, and holding onto passports/other documentation is commonplace. She interviews both the workers and their employers, analysing the different social, cultural, and economic aspects that create these conditions. This is one of the most skillfully written nonfiction books that I have read in a while. Parreñas makes a perfect balance between quotes from her interviews, statistics from various sources, her personal experiences in her research, and her analysis of these facts.
We begin with an extremely strong introduction with both the defining of her main thesis, the idea of the “employer savior complex”, and previews into the various situations of trafficked domestic workers that we will explore. Parreñas describes her own past research on the topic, including her time working with those Filipina entertainers in Japan, in a way that is both captivating and informative. It truly sets the stage for the rest of the book.
The first chapter explores the story of a Filipina woman who was sent to work for a distant relative in the US when she was 18, only to not be paid for her labor once there (see: “My Family’s Slave” by Alex Tizon). She was rarely able to leave the house and so had no private or social life outside of caring for the house, besides regular phone calls with a niece of hers. We first explore the essay by the son of her original “employer” (his mother), who later became her employer following his mother's death. Parreñas looks into the ways that the employer distances himself and his mother from any blame and that their laborer would have experienced much worse conditions had she remained in the Philippines - an obvious example of Parreñas’ “employer savior complex”. She then moves to her own visit to the laborer hometown in the Philippines and her interviews with her family members who rightfully have a very different opinion than the employer did. The author explores both the family's opinions on the situation as well as the cultural context that led to it and the laborer’s lack of fighting against it. We're given short but informative explanations of these different cultural, gender, and “social contract” contexts that fed into this woman's exploitation for nearly seven decades. The balance of information is done expertly all while staying captivating.
The third chapter, focusing on the employees and their place in the system as well as the mindset that allows them to absolve themselves from this exploitative system, goes more in depth in its analysis. It brings up topics such as orientalism, positive liberty, and pernicious ignorance to explain the ways that employers, no matter their race (whether Western expats in Singapore or Arabs in the UAE) participate in this system. Goes through multiple examples of employers that Parreñas interviewed, her research into how “maid agencies” function, and her analysis of how these examples fit into the previously mentioned ideas. We see how employers withhold pay from their employees in repayment for the debt that they accrued to the agency as well as how actions such as holding onto passports and only giving the mandatory one day off a month is commonplace even among the employers that consider themselves the kindest to their workers. It's an extremely well-researched and strong piece of writing that further proves her concept of the employer savior complex while showcasing just how pervasive it is.
Again, his book is extremely well-written. Parreñas does not rely on long segments of quotes or interviews (not inherently a bad thing when done right) but weaves them into a discussion of each example. Small examples are presented in conversation with each chapter's main story, using the words from one to extrapolate conditions and information from the other. Equal emphasis is given to the words, point of view, and explanations of both the enslaver and the enslaved. When confronted with an “employer” stating that “slavery can turn into love”, she explores the wrongness of this with:
”Love exerts such gravitational force because it is often the only source of dignity for victims of slavery like Pulido. Love counters the indignity of sleeping next to a dog, wearing hand-me-down clothes, eating leftovers, and suffering regular beatings. It cloaks the violence of being ripped from one's family. Love hides the crime of abusers who demand that victims like Pulido displace their love for their own family onto their employers.”
Just so, so well written with gems like this embedded in the interviews describing workers’ experiences and Parreñas’ analysis.
It’s hard to write reviews for non-memoir nonfiction, especially as a layman. This book is expertly researched and written beyond expectations. It is not bogged down with statistics but gives enough to support her points and the horrors that she explores. Smoothly concise but never lacking, I could have read another whole book of just more of this (an obvious sign to look into her other works). An essential look into an overlooked and under-checked pandemic of human rights violations.
July 17, 2025
"desperation fuels vulnerability"
do I think this is an important topic everyone should learn more about? Yes absolutely. Do I think this book is the way to do that? Absolutely not. In the introduction, the author states how numbers are so misleading since there are so many cases we don't know about and then proceeded to use numeral statistics throughout. She also states how her family and her herself have had domestic workers, but that supporting these agencies automatically makes you supporting trafficking. She also only went over the most stereotypical of cases. There was nothing about how children often fall into these, people dealing with homelessness are a targeted group, or how men can suffer the abuse that comes from these situations as well. She also repeated herself soooooo much like a college student trying to reach a word count and that mixed with her hypocritical, holier than thou attitude, I think this was the wrong move
do I think this is an important topic everyone should learn more about? Yes absolutely. Do I think this book is the way to do that? Absolutely not. In the introduction, the author states how numbers are so misleading since there are so many cases we don't know about and then proceeded to use numeral statistics throughout. She also states how her family and her herself have had domestic workers, but that supporting these agencies automatically makes you supporting trafficking. She also only went over the most stereotypical of cases. There was nothing about how children often fall into these, people dealing with homelessness are a targeted group, or how men can suffer the abuse that comes from these situations as well. She also repeated herself soooooo much like a college student trying to reach a word count and that mixed with her hypocritical, holier than thou attitude, I think this was the wrong move
July 1, 2025
The Trafficker Next Door: How Household Employers Exploit Domestic Workers – A Devastating Exposé of Hidden Exploitation
Rating: 4.8/5
Rhacel Salazar Parreñas’ The Trafficker Next Door is a meticulously researched and emotionally charged examination of modern-day slavery lurking within ordinary households. As someone who once assumed human trafficking was confined to sensationalized criminal networks, this book once again shattered my illusions—leaving me equal parts horrified and enlightened.
Why This Book Is Essential
Parreñas dismantles the myth that trafficking is solely about sexual exploitation, revealing how domestic work—often framed as “helping” migrants—becomes a pipeline for systemic abuse. Her cross-continental research (spanning the U.S., Asia, and the Middle East) exposes how legal loopholes (like the kafala system) and cultural narratives of employer benevolence enable coercion. The chapter on debt bondage—where workers pay exorbitant recruitment fees, trapping them in servitude—is particularly gut-wrenching, reframing opportunity as predation.
Emotional Impact & Revelations
Reading this felt like lifting a veil. Parreñas’ inclusion of migrant workers’ voices—like a Filipina nanny forbidden from leaving her employer’s home, or a Lebanese maid whose passport was confiscated—sparked visceral outrage. Her analysis of the employer savior complex (where families justify control as care) left me questioning my own assumptions about domestic help. The juxtaposition of workers’ desperation with employers’ casual entitlement is haunting, especially when Parreñas notes how even kind employers perpetuate structural violence by normalizing unpaid overtime or restricted movement.
Constructive Criticism
While Parreñas’ sociological lens is incisive, deeper engagement with intersectional factors (e.g., how race compounds exploitation for Black or Indigenous domestic workers) could broaden the critique. The solutions section feels abbreviated—a roadmap for policy changes (e.g., banning recruitment fees globally) would have strengthened the call to action.
Final Verdict
A groundbreaking work that belongs alongside The Slave Next Door and Disposable Domestics. Parreñas doesn’t just diagnose a crisis; she forces readers to see their complicity in everyday exploitation. This book will linger in your conscience long after the last page.
Thank you to Edelweiss and W. W. Norton for the gifted copy. Parreñas’ work is a moral imperative—an antidote to the complacency surrounding labor rights.
Pair with: Maid by Stephanie Land for a memoir perspective, or Freedom Is an Endless Meeting for historical context on labor movements.
For fans of: Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, Siddharth Kara’s Modern Slavery, and Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste.
Rating: 4.8/5
Rhacel Salazar Parreñas’ The Trafficker Next Door is a meticulously researched and emotionally charged examination of modern-day slavery lurking within ordinary households. As someone who once assumed human trafficking was confined to sensationalized criminal networks, this book once again shattered my illusions—leaving me equal parts horrified and enlightened.
Why This Book Is Essential
Parreñas dismantles the myth that trafficking is solely about sexual exploitation, revealing how domestic work—often framed as “helping” migrants—becomes a pipeline for systemic abuse. Her cross-continental research (spanning the U.S., Asia, and the Middle East) exposes how legal loopholes (like the kafala system) and cultural narratives of employer benevolence enable coercion. The chapter on debt bondage—where workers pay exorbitant recruitment fees, trapping them in servitude—is particularly gut-wrenching, reframing opportunity as predation.
Emotional Impact & Revelations
Reading this felt like lifting a veil. Parreñas’ inclusion of migrant workers’ voices—like a Filipina nanny forbidden from leaving her employer’s home, or a Lebanese maid whose passport was confiscated—sparked visceral outrage. Her analysis of the employer savior complex (where families justify control as care) left me questioning my own assumptions about domestic help. The juxtaposition of workers’ desperation with employers’ casual entitlement is haunting, especially when Parreñas notes how even kind employers perpetuate structural violence by normalizing unpaid overtime or restricted movement.
Constructive Criticism
While Parreñas’ sociological lens is incisive, deeper engagement with intersectional factors (e.g., how race compounds exploitation for Black or Indigenous domestic workers) could broaden the critique. The solutions section feels abbreviated—a roadmap for policy changes (e.g., banning recruitment fees globally) would have strengthened the call to action.
Final Verdict
A groundbreaking work that belongs alongside The Slave Next Door and Disposable Domestics. Parreñas doesn’t just diagnose a crisis; she forces readers to see their complicity in everyday exploitation. This book will linger in your conscience long after the last page.
Thank you to Edelweiss and W. W. Norton for the gifted copy. Parreñas’ work is a moral imperative—an antidote to the complacency surrounding labor rights.
Pair with: Maid by Stephanie Land for a memoir perspective, or Freedom Is an Endless Meeting for historical context on labor movements.
For fans of: Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, Siddharth Kara’s Modern Slavery, and Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste.
2025
October 2, 2025Non-fiction November TBR
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company
August 8, 2025
Well I tell ya this book The Trafficker Nextdoor it sure opened my eyes bout a whole lotta things I didn’t even know was happenin right under folks noses this book ain’t no story made up it real and it hurt my heart what them poor folks go through just tryin to make a honest livin and end up gettin treated worse than trash by the same folks they cook for clean for raise they kids and everything in between
See I used to think human traffickin was just bad stuff with real bad people in dark alleys and scary lookin types but this here book it show you plain as day that a lot of it come from regular families rich ones actin all good and holy in public then treatin these workers like they own em like they some thing not a person like they a rag you use then throw away
This woman who wrote the book her name Rhacel Salazar Parreñas and she smart she done spent like twenty years diggin into this mess all over the world and she talk to them workers and she tell it just like it is she don’t sugar it up she say it straight they get trapped from the start with no money no rights and them agencies that supposed to help em well they just in it for the money too they don’t care if the worker sleepin on the floor or cryin every night or bein screamed at or locked in
There was some stories in the book that just made me sit quiet and think like dang how is this even allowed to happen in a place like America or anywhere really one lady was workin day and night barely eatin scared to even call her family and the folks who had her they actin like they doin her a favor when really they treatin her like a prisoner
But not all of em was bad some folks did right and even gave more than they had to some of them workers treated em like family like they was people cause they are people and it made me feel good to read that part cause it show there’s still some good in the world but even that don’t fix the whole mess it’s bigger than one house or one nice lady it’s the whole dang system that need changin
This book hit me hard cause it show the truth not just the big scary stuff but the everyday quiet evil that folks just let happen and pretend they don’t see and I reckon more folks need to read it and wake up cause this ain’t right and it ain’t gonna stop til folks speak up and do somethin bout it
I give it 5 outta 5 Catfish
See I used to think human traffickin was just bad stuff with real bad people in dark alleys and scary lookin types but this here book it show you plain as day that a lot of it come from regular families rich ones actin all good and holy in public then treatin these workers like they own em like they some thing not a person like they a rag you use then throw away
This woman who wrote the book her name Rhacel Salazar Parreñas and she smart she done spent like twenty years diggin into this mess all over the world and she talk to them workers and she tell it just like it is she don’t sugar it up she say it straight they get trapped from the start with no money no rights and them agencies that supposed to help em well they just in it for the money too they don’t care if the worker sleepin on the floor or cryin every night or bein screamed at or locked in
There was some stories in the book that just made me sit quiet and think like dang how is this even allowed to happen in a place like America or anywhere really one lady was workin day and night barely eatin scared to even call her family and the folks who had her they actin like they doin her a favor when really they treatin her like a prisoner
But not all of em was bad some folks did right and even gave more than they had to some of them workers treated em like family like they was people cause they are people and it made me feel good to read that part cause it show there’s still some good in the world but even that don’t fix the whole mess it’s bigger than one house or one nice lady it’s the whole dang system that need changin
This book hit me hard cause it show the truth not just the big scary stuff but the everyday quiet evil that folks just let happen and pretend they don’t see and I reckon more folks need to read it and wake up cause this ain’t right and it ain’t gonna stop til folks speak up and do somethin bout it
I give it 5 outta 5 Catfish
September 21, 2025
Thanks to Goodreads for a reviewer copy. The book does a good job of stating how trafficking and exploitation are engrained even in Westerners. The book is quite triggering, but at least scratches the surface of how family ill treats its vulnerable members and how society's denial makes it worse for those suffering from familial abuse. I kept getting a sense of the author trying to reduce how serious sexual exploitation is. Given the stigma in reporting and the near impossible and harrowing task of proving it, such a delicate topic which affects so many should not be written about so dismissingly. It's also shocking how she makes light of people being exploited and subjected to illegal behavior from their employers if they make more money.
July 9, 2025
The Trafficker Next Door is an eye opening and shocking read that reveals the mistreatment and abuse faced by domestic workers; often by people who seem like ordinary employers. What’s happening is essentially human trafficking, and it’s happening all over the world.
The book is clearly structured into four sections and is really well researched. Through interviews, observations, and deep investigation, the author gives a voice to people who are so often overlooked. I received a free advanced review copy and this is my honest review.
The book is clearly structured into four sections and is really well researched. Through interviews, observations, and deep investigation, the author gives a voice to people who are so often overlooked. I received a free advanced review copy and this is my honest review.
October 4, 2025
the author’s sociological research with migrant domestic workers and their employers is very interesting. her suggestions for change in the conclusion did not go as far as I thought they would considering the role of global inequality and restrictive immigration policies in creating the potential for exploitation. basically if you’re a marxist you will probably not appreciate her recommendations
October 16, 2025
It provided some interesting stories. I was hoping for more of a general introduction to trafficking. What's the problem? How widespread is it? Is it good or bad? Is it slavery? How to help people caught in it? Etc. This book didn't give me enough of that.
October 16, 2025
Even though this book is not a pleasant one, it's worth reading because it exposes abuses of domestic workers that most people don't know much about.
October 8, 2025
While the subject matter was interesting, the execution seemed off. The author made the point numerous times about how she had been researching the subject for decades, but then only seemed to have enough material for what felt like a long article.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews