Abstract
The au pair job has its very own challenges. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that au pairs work in a very intimate, and at the same time, foreign setting; they move in with an unknown family and care for their children. They enter a closed system with its own norms, time schedules, eating habits and even family jokes. On top of this, the fam- ily lives in a foreign country, and differences in culture come into play. American host families and au pairs meet and match online, thousands of miles away from each other. They start living with each other on the same day they first meet face to face. Keeping all this in mind, it is not surprising that some of these arrangements will fail and end early.
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© 2015 Christine Geserick
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Geserick, C. (2015). ’she Doesn’t Think It Will Work Out’: Why Au Pairs in the USA Leave Their Host Family Early. In: Cox, R. (eds) Au Pairs’ Lives in Global Context. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137377487_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137377487_14
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-47796-8
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