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In Service and Servitude
In Service and Servitude explores the relationship between contemporary domestic service and the pursuit of the "good life" in an era of global economic transformation. The author offers an interdisciplinary approach to examining the in-migration of foreign domestic workers in Malaysia.
The book uses Malaysia as a case study of the role played by foreign domestics in a rapidly industrializing Asian country. Christine Chin discusses how the state elites and the middle classes come to rationalize the demand for-and treatment of-domestic workers while pursuing the country's modernity project, designed to create a stable, developed, multiethnic society. She shows how different and competing pressures on the regional, national, and household levels leave Filipina and Indonesian domestics open to mistreatment and abuse, most directly by employment agencies and employers. Chin argues that late-twentieth-century efforts to expand open markets and establish global free trade, encourage the exploitation of transnational migrant workers, and that such exploitation should not become an acceptable part of pursuing the "good life."
The book uses Malaysia as a case study of the role played by foreign domestics in a rapidly industrializing Asian country. Christine Chin discusses how the state elites and the middle classes come to rationalize the demand for-and treatment of-domestic workers while pursuing the country's modernity project, designed to create a stable, developed, multiethnic society. She shows how different and competing pressures on the regional, national, and household levels leave Filipina and Indonesian domestics open to mistreatment and abuse, most directly by employment agencies and employers. Chin argues that late-twentieth-century efforts to expand open markets and establish global free trade, encourage the exploitation of transnational migrant workers, and that such exploitation should not become an acceptable part of pursuing the "good life."
- GenresGenderEthnography
Paperback
First published April 15, 1998
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 28, 2025
A brilliant qualitative study bridging the micro-macro gap in analysing the relationship between transnational migrant female domestic labour and the political economy of development in Malaysia
Rather than take a simplistic, ahistorical problem solving approach that would be rooted in issues of economic growth to equalise wage differentials and training and legislation to protect domestic workers; this study adopts a critical interdisciplinary approach to examine the relationship between domestic service and a development path that is constituted by and that constitutes responses of the state elite and private citizens to forces of change on, as well as interactions among the transnational, national, and household level
Chapter 3 that covered domestic workers of Malaysia’s past and present was particularly interesting in discussing how domestic service has changed from the Chinese migrant men of the 19th century to the mui tsai and amahs of the early 20th century to the foreign female domestic workers of the late 20th and early 21st century as local women when offered other economic opportunities in an industrialising Malaysia no longer accepted work in domestic service
Highly recommended to anyone interested in transnational domestic labour in Southeast Asia
Rather than take a simplistic, ahistorical problem solving approach that would be rooted in issues of economic growth to equalise wage differentials and training and legislation to protect domestic workers; this study adopts a critical interdisciplinary approach to examine the relationship between domestic service and a development path that is constituted by and that constitutes responses of the state elite and private citizens to forces of change on, as well as interactions among the transnational, national, and household level
Chapter 3 that covered domestic workers of Malaysia’s past and present was particularly interesting in discussing how domestic service has changed from the Chinese migrant men of the 19th century to the mui tsai and amahs of the early 20th century to the foreign female domestic workers of the late 20th and early 21st century as local women when offered other economic opportunities in an industrialising Malaysia no longer accepted work in domestic service
Highly recommended to anyone interested in transnational domestic labour in Southeast Asia
Displaying 1 of 1 review