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Introduction: Domestic and Care Work of Migrant Women and the Right to Family Life

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Book cover Migrant Domestic Workers and Family Life

Part of the book series: Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship Series ((MDC))

Abstract

An increasing number of women migrate alone from poor countries in order to work in the domestic and care sector of wealthier countries. The growing demand for domestic and care workers’ labor — an estimated 53 million of transnational and internal female migrants around the world are involved in domestic and care work (ILO 2013) — has fuelled the autonomous migration of women and the feminization of migration (Kofman, Phizacklea, Raghuram, and Sales 2000; Sassen 2003; Zlotnik 2003). Domestic and care workers are particularly vulnerable since they work in the private households of employers. They work in isolation, the remuneration is low and in many countries, domestic workers are excluded from the protection afforded by labor laws (Gallotti 2009; ILO 2010). This type of work is devalued and considered as unskilled. Moreover, live-in domestic and care workers are separated from their own families. This book is about the family rights of domestic workers and caregivers, in various contexts.

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Authors
  1. Maria Kontos
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  2. Glenda Tibe Bonifacio
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Sozialforschung, J.W. Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Maria Kontos

  2. University of Lethbridge, Canada

    Glenda Tibe Bonifacio

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© 2015 Maria Kontos and Glenda Tibe Bonifacio

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Kontos, M., Bonifacio, G.T. (2015). Introduction: Domestic and Care Work of Migrant Women and the Right to Family Life. In: Kontos, M., Bonifacio, G.T. (eds) Migrant Domestic Workers and Family Life. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137323552_1

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