Domestics of the World (Unite?): Labor Migration Systems and Personal Trajectories of Household Workers in Historical and Global Perspective

CHRISTIANE HARZIG

WOMEN WHO MIGRATE to take up waged domestic labor form the largest single female category of migrant labor, not only in the twentieth and twenty-first century but in fact throughout the history of migration. This is accounted for by economic restructuring processes (mainly agrarian and in the textile industry), by an uneven distribution of wealth between regions and nations, and by changes in the international division of labor. Different parts of the world are connected and related by various domestic workers' migration systems, however, their exact volume, trends and developments over time are almost impossible to determine. Cynthia Enloe provides for a compelling cultural-political analysis to explain today's migration of women into domestic service, situating it appropriately at the juncture of international politics, its domestic political implications, and the historical role of women in society: International debt politics has helped create the incentives for many women to emigrate, while at the same time it has made governments dependent on the money those women send home to their families. The International Monetary Fund [which pressures] . . . indebted governments to adopt politics which will maximize a country's ability to repay its outstanding loans with interest, has insisted that governments cut their social service budgets. Reductions in food-price subsidies are high on the IMF's list of demands . . . . Keeping wages down, cutting back public works, reducing the numbers of government employees, rolling back health and education budgets—these are standard IMF prescriptions for indebted governments . . . .