Written to be Erased: Paper Rights and the Visibility of Migrant Domestic Workers

Rima Sabban, Zayed University
Hannah Kasak-Gliboff

Document Type

Book Chapter

Source of Publication

Advances in Gender Research

Publication Date

8-15-2022

Abstract

This chapter conceptualizes forms and processes of erasure and visibility of migrant domestic workers through the analysis of interview data, media coverage, and public policy. This chapter builds on the existing literature on foreign domestic labor by synthesizing a framework to better represent the mechanisms that produce instances of visibility and erasure; these include transnational forces of erasure like sexism, xenophobia, and domestic labor stigma that interact with country-specific policies and norms. Within this framework of visibility and erasure, we also delineate different aspects of each, such as spatial erasure, erasure in the media, and self-erasure. Finally, this chapter explores how each of these components interconnect into a system of erasure, each aspect enabling another aspect in dampening the individuality of migrant domestic workers. This chapter is intended to illuminate the realities of erasure with careful specificity, while still crediting domestic workers for their resilience and creativity in promoting their own visibility.

ISBN

9781803825939

ISSN

1529-2126

Publisher

Emerald Publishing Limited

Volume

33

First Page

109

Last Page

125

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Domestic labor, Migrant labor, Systematic erasure, Gender equality, Labor rights, Social stratification

Indexed in Scopus

no

Open Access

no

Link to Full Text

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