Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan

Pei-Chia Lan

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Global Cinderellas

Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2006

About this book

Migrant women are the primary source of paid domestic labor around the world. Since the 1980s, the newly prosperous countries of East Asia have recruited foreign household workers at a rapidly increasing rate. Many come from the Philippines and Indonesia. Pei-Chia Lan interviewed and spent time with dozens of Filipina and Indonesian domestics working in and around Taipei as well as many of their Taiwanese employers. On the basis of the vivid ethnographic detail she collected, Lan provides a nuanced look at how boundaries between worker and employer are maintained and negotiated in private households. She also sheds light on the fate of the workers, “global Cinderellas” who seek an escape from poverty at home only to find themselves treated as disposable labor abroad.

Lan demonstrates how economic disparities, immigration policies, race, ethnicity, and gender intersect in the relationship between the migrant workers and their Taiwanese employers. The employers are eager to flex their recently acquired financial muscle; many are first-generation career women as well as first-generation employers. The domestics are recruited from abroad as contract and “guest” workers; restrictive immigration policies prohibit them from seeking permanent residence or transferring from one employer to another. They care for Taiwanese families’ children, often having left their own behind. Throughout Global Cinderellas, Lan pays particular attention to how the women she studied identify themselves in relation to “others”—whether they be of different classes, nationalities, ethnicities, or education levels. In so doing, she offers a framework for thinking about how migrant workers and their employers understand themselves in the midst of dynamic transnational labor flows.

Author / Editor information

Pei-Chia Lan is Associate Professor of Sociology at National Taiwan University.

Reviews

“[T]he book is a major contribution to contemporary research in the relevant areas, including globalization. Its feminist outlook is radical, yet pays attention to the incredible difficulty for involved parties that are willing to undo the inequalities unfolding in the space of the private home. It may be used to compare other proliferating ‘maid economies’ in places like Hong
Kong, Singapore, and the Gulf region.”

-- Ann Vogel Sociology

“[The book] makes fruitful and intelligent use of what broadly might be described as transnational feminist frameworks. . . . [It] provides us with a rich portrait of the constraints and possibilities of a particular space and moment of contemporary existence.”

-- Leslie Salzinger Gender & Society

“This is a fine and challenging ethnographic project . . . . The book is a theoretically informed, sophisticated analysis of employment relationships in the era of transnational migration. Scholars in women’s studies, and international migration and globalization will find this book insightful and informative. It is clearly written, rich in ethnographic insights, and accessible to both undergraduate and graduate students in social sciences and Asian studies.”

-- Ping-Chun Hsiung Labour/Le Travail

Topics

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Frontmatter
i

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contents
vii

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List of Figures and Tables
ix

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Preface
xi

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A Note on Style
xv

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Introduction
1

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1 A Bounded Global Market
29

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2 Disdained Aliens, Stratified Others
59

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3 Jealous Madams and Anxious Mothers
94

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4 Crossing Borders and Gender Divides
125

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5 Cinderella with a Mobile Phone
160

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6 Eat, Drink, Masters and Servants
199

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Conclusion
237

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Appendices
251

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Notes
259

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References
277

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Index
297

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Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

November 23, 2020

eBook ISBN:

9780822387787

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822387787

eBook ISBN: 9780822387787

Keywords for this book

International Convention of Asian Scholars Book Award Winners; American Sociological Association section book awards; American Sociological Association Sex and Gender Distinguished Book Award; ASA Book Award Winners; domestic labor; migrant labor; immigration policy; child care; Taiwan; Indonesia; Philippines; guest workers

Duke University Press

Global Cinderellas

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

contents

List of Figures and Tables

Preface

A Note on Style

Introduction

1 A Bounded Global Market

2 Disdained Aliens, Stratified Others

3 Jealous Madams and Anxious Mothers

4 Crossing Borders and Gender Divides

5 Cinderella with a Mobile Phone

6 Eat, Drink, Masters and Servants

Conclusion

Appendices

Notes

References

Index

Bibliographic data