Live-in or live-out?
A study of domestic worker empowerment in modern day
China
A Research Paper presented by:
Bing XIE
(China)
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for obtaining the degree of
MASTERS OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Specialization:
Work, Employment and Globalization
(WEG)
Members of the examining committee:
Dr. Lee Pegler
Ass. Prof. Karin Astrid Siegmann
The Hague, The Netherlands
November, 2011
Disclaimer:
This document represents part of the author’s study programme while at the
Institute of Social Studies. The views stated therein are those of the author and
not necessarily those of the Institute.
Inquiries:
Postal address:
Location:
Telephone:
Fax:
Institute of Social Studies
P.O. Box 29776
2502 LT The Hague
The Netherlands
Kortenaerkade 12
2518 AX The Hague
The Netherlands
+31 70 426 0460
+31 70 426 0799
ii
Acknowledgements
I would like to extent my sincere gratitude to all those who helped me in accomplishing this project.
My deepest gratitude goes to Lee Pegler, my supervisor, for his patient instruction and continued encouragement, and to Karin Astrid Siegmann, my
second reader, for her insightful comments and suggestions. Without their expert guidance, the paper could not have reached its present form.
Also, I would like to express my acknowledgement to the Dutch government for offering NUFFIC scholarship, and to all staffs and teachers of ISS.
Meanwhile, special thanks to my beloved husband and parents, who always support and help me out of difficulties without a word of complaint, and
to my daughter for her understanding of being separated from me.
Last but not least, I own a special debt of gratitude to my organization-All
China Federation of Trade Unions, and to all colleagues, for their generous
support during my study.
iii
Contents
List of Tables
List of Maps
List of Acronyms
Abstract
vi
vi
vii
Error! Bookmark not defined.
Chapter 1 Introduction
1
1.1
Problem statement and Justification
1
1.2
Research Objectives & Research Question
2
1.3
Research Methodology
1.3.1 Techniques
1.3.2 Research Venue and participants
3
3
3
1.4
Limitations of the research
4
1.5
Organisation of the paper
4
Chapter 2 Literature review & Theory framework
5
2.1
Structure-Agency debate on Domestic Work
5
2.2
Structure-Agency debate on the shift from live-in to live-out
7
2.3
Theory framework related to Structure & Agency Debate
9
2.4
Concept of Social Network
10
Chapter 3 Chinese context
13
3.1
History of DS
13
3.2
Scope and profile of current DS sector
13
3.3
Structure and background
14
3.4
Far from decent work
3.4.1 Employment
3.4.2 Fundamental rights
3.4.3 Social Security
3.4.4 Social dialogue
3.4.5 Security issue
15
15
16
16
17
17
Chapter 4 Case study: work experience in different stages
19
4.1
Background information
19
4.2
Migration Decisions and reasons to be DWs
20
4.3
Live-in work
4.3.1 Job search
21
21
iv
4.3.2 Working condition-whose time and whose life is it?
4.3.3 Limited resilient space
22
26
Live-out work
4.4.1 Preparing to move out
4.4.2 Working condition-My time and my life
4.4.3 Greater resilient space
28
28
29
31
Chapter 5 Case study: what does transition suggest?
36
5.1
Changed employer-employee relationship
36
5.2
Social network determines upward mobility
37
5.3
The answer for the leading question
40
4.4
Chapter 6 Conclusions
References
43
44
v
List of Tables
Table 1 Different opinions on DWs
5
Table 2 Two different perspectives on transition from live-in to live-out
8
Table 3 Comparison between SN and SC
10
Table 4 Benefits &Risks on three dimensions of SN
12
Table 5 General profile of DS
14
Table 6 Anker's indicators for seven work-related securities
18
Table 7 Respondents’ key characters
20
Table 8 Benefits & risks of the three types of SN
38
List of Maps
Map 1 Map of original places of respondents
vi
19
List of Acronyms
ACFTU : All-China Federation of Trade Unions
ACWF: All-China Women’s Federation
DS: Domestic Service
DSCs: Domestic Service Companies
DWs: Domestic Workers
HRS : Household Responsibility System
NGOs : Non-governmental Organizations
SC : Social Capital
SN : Social Network
vii
Abstract
Drawing upon in-depth interview, this article examines the transition process
of fifteen female domestic workers in Beijing from live-in to live-out status. It
indicates, it is out of their aspiration for more autonomy and control over work,
these workers decides to move out. After overcoming the difficulties brought
by live-out status, these workers treat their movement as a progress in terms of
enhanced working conditions. The transition suggests a more equal employeremployee relationship. Besides, the social network, in particular, the peers’
network, serves as an important determinant in their upward mobility. However, instead of showing pure agency, the whole process actually describes a
mixed picture of structure and agency, as there are also structural and individual factors involved.
Keywords
Domestic work, Migrant, Structure, Agency, Live-in, Live-out, EmployerEmployee relationship, Social network.
viii
Chapter 1
Introduction
Domestic work is one of the most important occupations in many countries
and China is not an exception. According to the ILO’s estimation, about
20million workers are working in domestic service (hereinafter referred to as
DS) in China. Besides, 40% of urban families have a demand for DS, which
pointing to another 15 million potential jobs (ILO, 2009b). However, like
many other places in the world, Domestic workers (hereinafter referred to as
DWs) in China are belong to the vulnerable group .The challenges DWs are
facing raise worldwide concerns. Therefore, the 100th ILO annual conference
held in June 2011 in Geneva adopted international standards trying to improve
the working condition of DWs.
Concerning the general situation of DWs, it is just as cited in the convention for domestic work in 100th ILO conference: “Domestic work continues
to be undervalued and invisible and is mainly carried out by women and girls,
many of whom are migrants or members of disadvantaged communities and
who are particularly vulnerable to discrimination in respect of conditions of
employment and work, and to other abuses of human rights.”
This research, which specifically focus on the transition of DWs in Beijing from live-in to live-out status, aims to use the data to better understand
and look at the empowerment process of DWs in China.
1.1 Problem statement and Justification
A DW is the person hired in a private household doing household chores including cleaning, gardening, cooking or caretaking. (IDWN, 2010)
Basing on the national surveys of 117 countries recently, ILO found the
number of workers in DS totals 53 million. However, because of the hidden
character of this job, the total number of DWs could reach 100 million (ILO,
as cited in IDWN, 2010). Specifically, in developing countries, it represents 410% of total employment. Also in some developed countries, it accounts for
more than 2% of the employment, for example Cyprus (4.4%), Spain (3.7%),
and France (2.3%) (IDWN, 2010). Further, demand is still increasing in the
past two decades, so the number of DWs is raising both in industrialized and
less-developed world. Additionally, this is an important occupation for many
women, as more than 80% of DWs are female ((IDWN, 2010).
However, despite the significance of this sector, DWs are among the most
vulnerable groups. Their work is not valued and poor regulated. They normally
face long working hours with little pay. Worse still, abuse of their human rights
and maltreat do happen to some of them. (ILO, 2010)
Exploring the reasons underpin their vulnerability, three important causes
contribute: informality, feminization and migration. First, the job is informal
as it performs in private household, which makes it not “fit the general frame-
1
work of existing employment laws” (IUF, 2008:9). Because an individual’s
house is not seen as the workplace and the person who hire them is not considered as an employer in the law. As a result, DWs are always excluded from
labour law and social security.
Also, the feminization brings down the working conditions. As women are
not treated as breadwinners, and the job is not seen as skilled as women are
considered to be born with the ability to do the tasks. (ILO, 2010)
Further, the migration also plays a crucial role in the conditions of employment, as many of them are from poorer countries or relatively underdevelopment areas of the nation. Therefore, although they contribute their work to
the economy of the receiving society, they normally do not enjoy citizens’
rights. In particular, if they are undocumented migrants, this might lead to
more exploitation and vulnerabilities.
Compared with the global picture, the situation in China shows both likeness and difference. On one hand, it is similar in respect of informality and
feminization. Among the 20 million estimated DWs in China, approximately
90% are female. In addition, because of its informality, DWs are out of labour
law and labour contract law. On the other hand, the difference lies in the migration aspect. While in many countries, like Southeast Asian countries, many
DW are foreigners migrating from poor countries. DWs in China are Chinese
nationals, among whom many migrate from rural areas to urban cities. However, due to the household registration system, which does not allow them to
transfer their registration locations to their working cities, DWs cannot enjoy
the social facilities provided to the city residents. Hence, this internal migration
in China also has the dynamic often described for international migration.
(Sun, 2008)
In academic area, most literatures in China focus on the structural constraints and institutional challenges facing by DWs, trying to improve the legal
framework for DWs. In contrast to them, the author of this paper believes,
despite the external forces, it is equally important to pay attention to the internal forces of DWs themselves. In detail, the author aims to explore whether
and how they resist to the outside world as well as how their agency intervened
with the outside structure through the case study of their transition from livein to live-out. Also, the paper tries to shed some light on better understanding
the differences of these two types of work in order to check whether the transition could link to empowerment or not, and if so, how and why?
1.2 Research Objectives & Research Question
This research aims to investigate the degree of empowerment of women working in DS in China. Specifically, it tries to find out: does the move of DWs
from live-in to live out suggest accrued empowerment? Can structure be overcome and agency more effective?
Main question:
Does living out make domestic work more “decent”?
What are the key factors determine this?
2
Sub-questions:
1, What leads them to be domestic workers?
2, How do they categorise their work and work relations both as live-in
and live-out domestic workers?
3, What leads them to change into live-out workers?
4, How do they compare their status between live-in and live-out? What
has brought this about?
1.3 Research Methodology
This study is based on both primary data and secondary data. The primary data
is generated from semi-structured interviews with 15 live-out DWs who have
live-in experience and 5 employers. Because this research aims to capture and
explore in-depth the transition process of DWs from live-in to live-out to find
out their empowerment process. Therefore the stories told by the household
workers with the shift experiences will provide key information to know
whether live out leads to more decent work.
On the other hand, employers are also included as they decide demand. In
fact, besides laws and regulations, the employer also plays a crucial role in determining employment conditions. Because a DW is working in an employer’
home and the negotiations of pay and working condition are mainly between
the employer and the DW. What is the employer’s attitude and how he or she
treats the DW not only determine what the worker can get but also how she
feels at work.
1.3.1 Techniques
Individual semi-structured interview technique has been chosen because this
research aims to collect in-depth information about the shift from live-in to
live-out. This technique allows asking questions in different ways, and it is also
suitable for the illiterate respondents as questions can be explained and interviewees can express their story in their own way. Further, parts of standard
questions are needed with a view to keep the correspondence of the information, and also some questions can be added according to each person’s experience to get more in-depth information. In addition, one to one interview
will avoid the phenomenon that the respondents may feel uncomfortable in
speaking when in groups, and it allows the researcher to concentrate on each
person’s case. (Laws et al., 2003)
1.3.2 Research Venue and participants
Beijing was chosen to be the research location because it is one of the top destinations for migrant workers. The statistic from Beijing Domestic Service Association in 2007 showed there are 367,000 household workers and 2,955 domestic service companies (hereinafter referred to as DSC) (ILO, 2009b).
Another reason is that, the household workers in Beijing are mainly rural migrants, who are more vulnerable than urban residents because of their migrant
status.
In total, 15 live-out domestic workers who have live-in experiences and
5employers were interviewed. The number of the interviewees is determined
3
according to the research aim, which is to provide in-depth information instead
of generalizing the outcome (Laws et al, 2003), and time limit of the fieldwork,
that is 6-week time. Besides, non-random sampling is used to reach the respondents, as “the number of elements in a population is either unknown or
cannot be individually identified” (Kumar, 1999: 160). Specifically, snowball
sampling was chosen after consideration. As there were three ways to reach the
informants, which are to find them through DSCs or through worker’s advertisement information online or through Non-governmental organizations
(hereinafter referred to as NGOs) or friends. Comparing those three methods,
the first two may lead to biased outcomes as they already show some extent of
agency. Thus, I chose the third way to be a better choice to get the initial entrance to reach the target group. More clearly, I contacted with an NGO
named “home for female farmer workers” in Beijing to get the first interviewee. Then each informant was asked to introduce other potential interviewees.
In a sum, the research is conducted on the basis of willingness of participants with their clear knowledge of the purpose of interviews. Besides, the language used during interviews is Chinese.
1.4 Limitations of the research
Snowballing sampling is used to find the informants. As a result, the representativeness cannot be presented. Moreover, it may cause sampling bias as the
subjects tend to introduce people they know. Hence, it is quite possible this
subject group share similar characteristics. (Castillo, 2009)
However, despite the disadvantage, this method is still being used after
consideration, as it seems to be the second “best”. The reason is that chain
referral offers a most effective way to reach hidden population (ibid, 2009).
Particularly in my research, DWs are exactly the hidden population as many of
them are rural migrant, who may not register in any official department. Moreover, their workplaces are private homes, which are also invisible.
1.5 Organisation of the paper
This paper is divided in six chapters. Chapter 2 gives literature review, focusing
on structure-agency debate and related theories and concepts. Chapter 3 explains the context in China, covering the history, scope and profile of the sector and the macro structure, background involved, as well as the micro situation of this occupation from decent work perspective. Chapter 4 deals with the
case study of the day domestic workers with previous live-in experiences, analyzing their experiences in different stages, focusing on how those workers categorise and compare their two types of work and their feeling at work as well
as why and how they make the change. Then, Chapter 5 further explores what
does their transition process suggest in terms of employment relationship, and
what determines their upward mobility, followed by answering the main question-does living out make domestic work more “decent”?-from the structure
agency debate. Finally, Chapter 6, a short conclusion, trying to take a step back
to look at the whole issue from another way, gives out the author’s reflect on
the issue of empowerment of DWs.
4
Chapter 2
Literature review & Theory framework
2.1 Structure-Agency debate on Domestic Work
In academic area, considering constrains DWs are facing, many scholars, taking
the structure perspective, see DWs as victims. They believe there is little space
for the individual household workers to fight with the structure limits, such as
institutions, norms or rules, to improve their subordinated position in the society.
In contrast to them, other researchers focus more on the agency of individuals. They argue that, instead of passive beings, they are active agents who
do not only have wishes to change, but also abilities to make better lives for
themselves and their families. (Morokvasic, 1991, 1993)
Both of the two groups have persuasive arguments to support their points
of view, which is summarised in table 1.
Table 1
Different opinions on DWs
Structure
Agency
Forced migration, modern exploitation
Pioneers for change, better life
Female work ,Gender oppression
Breadwinner, raised position in household
Employer dominated relationship
Reduce the asymmetry of employee-employer
relations
Isolated, privatized workplace
Social network
Inferior social status & recognition, difficult to
escape
Upward social status &redefine social recognition
The Structure perspective sees the migration process appeared in this sector as a form of modern exploitation (Kurz-scherf, 1995). As Chang (2000)
described, the flow of international migrant DWs is a forced move characterized by exploitation of the first world towards the third world. Also, Pareenas
(2001:80) shared similar opinions: the new global division of labour has posed
a structure that the DWs who are migrated from east, Europe, Asia or South
America are being exploited by the receiving countries, thus, creating different
hierarchies.
Also, they believe the gender oppression is one of the root causes for
household workers’ difficulties. Because doing housework is seen as a females’
natural role (Hutton, as cited in Lutz, 2002). When women’s participation at
the labour market is greatly increased by global capitalism, it leads the transfer
of their reproductive work to less privileged females instead of sharing the
household chores with the males in the families (ibid, 2002). Further, the gender segregation even undervalues and deskills the occupation (Dill, 1988).
Moreover, in terms of the employment relationship, we see patriarchal and
vertical relations between DWs and their employers (Anderson, 2000). This is
not only because historically, this kind of job is done by slaves (ILO, 2010),
5
thus social “norms” see the employer-employee relation as mistress-servant
relations. It is also because the workplace is the employer’s private home,
which favours the employer (Dill, 1988). Consequently, they are easy to be
controlled by employers.
Further, the isolated, privatized workplace makes them, especially the livein workers, vulnerable (Pierrette, 1994) There are three reasons for this: Firstly,
it leads to exclusion of DWs from legal provisions, as home is not seen as
workplace, thus they are not seen as real workers (IUF, 2008). Secondly, its
isolation makes DWs being separated from outside world, difficult to be monitored and regulated. Thirdly, as homes are scattered, it is hard for them to organize (Lutz, 2002).
Last but not least, those workers have a low social status, which is difficult
to change. Their jobs lack social recognition as their work is always considered
to be dirty and the people who do dirty jobs are seen to be dirty or polluted.
(Ashforth and Kreiner, 1999)
In contrast to those scholars, who argue the structure and constraints facing by DWs limit their upgrade opportunities, agency-oriented researchers find
empirical evidence to challenge the argument made by the former group.
Firstly, the research of Morokvasic (1991, 1993) indicated that: migrant
DWs are, in fact, active agents of change instead of passive victims. Because
they are pioneers who are willing to link original and receiving countries, creating new space for global migration, improving the family living standard.
Thanks to their efforts, their families are being supported, and cross-nation
lifestyles and consumptions as well as communications are being facilitated. In
addition, Irek (1998), who studied the Polish women workers’ role in Berlin’s
household work, got similar results. He contended that: their experiences in
Berlin as informal labour forces were used as instruments to realize their goal.
Secondly, although DS involves gender biased issue, but there are also stories suggest improved gender status of DWs in their own families. For instance, in Tacoli’s research (as cited in Briones, 2009): through migrating into
other countries as DWs, those wives in their family became breadwinners.
While transferring part of their house task and care work at home to their husband, their increased economic status also led to big say and power in their
families.
Thirdly, despite the unequal power relations between household workers
and their employers, this does not necessarily mean DWs take their inferior
positions as granted without any resistance. On the contrary, a successful example of Chicana DWs showed how they redefined the mistress-servant relationship into customer-vendor relations through conceptualizing themselves to
be “expert” to sell their labour (Romero, 1988). Another example is that, the
black DWs in America took collective action to negotiate with their employers
to gain more autonomy and control over their job. By doing this, they also reduced the asymmetry of the employ-employer relations (Dill, 1988).
Fourthly, it is true the workplace constraints DW’s employment condition.
However, social network (hereinafter referred to as SN) has been proven to be
an enabling factor for DWs to gain leverage in their negotiation with employers. For example, Pierrette (1994) gave the empowerment example of the Mexican undocumented immigrant women who did job work in DS through SN.
6
For instance, they did not only use SN as an instrument to entry the occupation, but also to get information to find multiple employers, cutting the dependency on one employer. Moreover, they shared their strategies and tips to
upgrade their working conditions.
Next, upward space not only exists at work but also beyond employment.
For example, the study by Irek (1998) recorded how the Polish women DWs in
Berlin, who did not surrender to their disadvantaged position, grew into entrepreneurs owning small businesses. Beside, Lan (2003) also showed a picture of
female Filipina DWs in Taiwan actively use their agency to expand their life
opportunities. Particularly, for single DWs, some of them use international
marriage to realize social mobility, escaping their destiny as DWs and improving their social status.
Moreover, instead of being seen as dirty, many DWs do not feel ashamed
of the occupation. They defend the merit of their jobs and gain social recognition (Dill, 1988).
In a sum, agency-oriented researchers told us a different story: according
to the proponent of agency, there exists upward mobility, individually and intergenerationally (Broom and Smith, 1963; Katzman, 1981; Glenn 1988). A
DW may use her SN, experience and capacity to utilize resources to upgrade
her position (Pierrette, 1994).
2.2 Structure-Agency debate on the shift from live-in to liveout
Under the big structure-agency debate, this research interests in the transition
from live-in to live-out. Because live-in status might be one of the main causes
for their vulnerabilities, as both of their work and accommodation depend on
their employers. Hence dependency may undermine their bargaining power,
leading to no voice at work. To put it in another way, they may suffer from
long working hours, waiting for orders 24 hours. There may be no distinction
between work hours and off- duty hours. Also, they may not have clear task
responsibilities as they are hired to satisfy the various requirements of the employers, supposing to do all types of chores. Further, their isolation status
might lead to verbal and physical abuse as well as sexual harassment. (Sedef,
1989; Pierrette and Ernestine, 1997; Nona and Joanna, 1998; ILO, 2010)
Besides of the negative impact on their working conditions, it may also
bring harms to their personal lives. It is not rare to see: they are under 24
hours’ “supervision” with no private space. Some share rooms, even their personal belongings and mails and calls are under scrutiny. They are not allowed
to invite friends or move freely. Therefore, they face difficulties to provide care
for their own families or set up families of their own. Further, their subordinated position in the family may damage their self-esteem and even cause mental problems. For instance, some of them live in the laundry room, having inadequate food, often forbidden to use the same eating utensils or toilets as
their employers’. (Sedef, 1989; Pierrette and Ernestine, 1997; Nona and Joanna,
1998; ILO, 2010)
The case of live-out DWs suggests this could be different since that: at
least, they do not have to live with employers, which might make us think that
7
live-out could be a better choice for them. Still, the structuralism literatures and
agency-based works show differentiated attitudes toward this specific issue, as
summarized in Table 2.
Table 2
Two different perspectives on transition from live-in to live-out
Agency
Structure
progress
No change
Cut dependency
More task
Autonomy &Flexibility
Worse the condition
Loosen the personalized employer-employee
relations
job scarcity
Increase bargaining power
No help to clarify job responsibilities
More freedom to be with family and friends
Little space to upgrade employment
social network to upgrade social status
Still low status
The agency-perspective scholars take this shift as a big progress, because it
reduces the dependency on one employer for both job and residence (Romero,
1988). Further, it offers more autonomy and flexibility as workers could arrange their work for several employers on different time. Besides, the multipleemployers relation helps to loosen the personalism in the employer-employee
relations (Pierrette, 1994), increasing their bargaining power because once they
find a higher pay by another employer they can leave the former one. Thus,
this will increase their say in controlling working conditions (Katzman, 1981,
Glenn, 1988). Moreover, Live-out status offers DWs more personal freedom
and opportunities to be with friends or families (Dill, 1988). At the same time,
they have more chances to attend various activities, establishing SN to upgrade
their social status (Pierrette, 1994). In conclusion, those researchers believe living out could enable employees. (Yong, 1987)
Conversely, other structure-oriented researchers hold different opinions.
They think live-out cannot help. First of all, the seeking for multiple employers
brings more tasks, such as locate different jobs and make complex arrangements (Romero, 1988; Salzinger, 1991). As a result, it may worsen the conditions of workers instead of improvement. Also, Rollins (cited in Pierrette 1994)
said, employers normally do not hire several workers for diverse tasks, such as
cooking, cleaning, and caring. In addition, it challenges the job scarcity and
volatility (Pierrette 1994). Similar argument also shared by Dill (1988), who believes live-out status cannot change the low social position of DWs. Because it
still does the same kind of job, difficult to separate the work responsibilities
from the demand of the specific employers. So, the duties and expectations are
unclear and vary from one to another. Thus, the job responsibilities remain
vague. Further, there is little space to upgrade their career, although they improve their skills, what they can do is just to find another employer in the hope
of getting higher pay. Given that they remain in the personal service job, it is
hard to improve their social status as they remain in the personal service job.
Therefore, this research, focusing on the shift from live-in to live out in
Chinese context, as an example to capture the empowerment process of DWs
8
under the structure-agency debate, will help us know more about the differences between these two types for work and to find out the whether this transition can be related to empowerment or not. At the same time, it also aims to
explore the factors determine the agency of DWs in China.
2.3 Theory framework related to Structure & Agency Debate
As mentioned above, on one side, we have agency-based theories, underpinned
by individuals’ choice focusing on individuals’ capacities. For example, Neoclassical Migration Theory argues individuals are rational actors calculating
their cost and benefit, making choices to maximize their benefit. In light of
this, people migrate on a voluntary basis because the advantages outweigh the
disadvantages. (Haas, 2010) However, the critic is that: it neglects the constraints of moving and arrival, which may lead to the failure of actors. (Briones,
2009)
On the other side, structuralist researchers study constraints. For example,
the “Global Dare Chain”, which is a structure oriented theory applied to DWs,
draws a clear picture of racialization, subordination, gender oppression and
social inequality involved in global migration. This term was raised by
Hochschild and Giddens (2000:131) referring to “a series of personal links between people across the global based on the paid or unpaid work of caring”.
She described:
“an older daughter from a poor family who cares for her siblings while her mother works as
a nanny caring for the children of a migrating nanny who, in turn, cares for the child of a
family in a rich country”(2000:131)
From the chain, we see transfer of care tasks from one household to another based on the power axes. The social division and inequalities: such as
race, class, nationality and gender, are involved in the process (Yeates, 2005).
The structures determine the fate of the disadvantaged woman works for another female who possesses more power. Nevertheless, the weakness of the
structure approach is that: it totally neglect the role played by individuals.
Between these two contradict views, Gidden’s Structuration Theory and
Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice helps us to bridge structure and agency instead
of dividing them.
The Structuration Theory believes we cannot separate the structure from
the agency, as the structure is the medium and also the outcome of human
agency. In this way, through participating in different social actives, agents create and re-create the social structure (Perez, 2008). However, the people who
criticize Gidden’s theory argue that: he is more in favour of agent’s point of
view, overemphasizing the ability of individuals to overcome the difficulties
posed by structure. Thus, it fails to conceptualize the external constraints for
individuals. (ibid, 2008)
Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice also believed there is a link between structure and agency, but he took a different perspective from Gidden. The important concepts developed by him are “habitus”, “field” and “capital”. He
contended that one’s past history compromise the ‘habitus’, which means the
mental structure influence one’s opinion, attitude and action. “Field” is the so-
9
cial area where people fight for resources in order to increase their capitals.
There are four types of capital: social, culture, economic and symbol ones
(Bourdieu, 1986). With more capital one possesses, the more advantaged position he/she get in the field. Therefore, he argued one’s action is decided by
habitus, capital and rules of the field. As many authors indicated, Bourdieu is
more leaning to structure, as he emphasized one’s action is mainly determined
by one’s past experiences and neglected the initiatives of agents (Perez, 2008).
In other words, his view reflected that one’s habitus may bring limits to one’s
capital as well as the SN.
To conclude, there are structure and agency perspectives at two opposing
extremes, in between are Gidden’s theory and Broudieu theory with respective
preference to either agency or structure.
An empirical study made by Elizabeth (1985) showed such a mixed picture.
She recorded the experiences of 23 black female DWs in Washington: at the
initiate period of the migration, as these women do not have money and
enough SN in the new city, they have no choice, but to be live-in workers. But
gradually, after saving amount of money, they began to move out to be day
workers with a desire for less restrictive jobs. Being as day workers, they gained
more control over their work and lives. They participated in the church activities, building new and large network. By doing this, they did not only gain autonomy on the job tasks, but also changed their identities, moving the stigma
of their job by supporting the church expansion.
This story might suggest that, the transition is neither a picture of pure
structure nor pure agency, but a mix of these two. As those workers were earlier more restricted by the structure, but later they broke the structure limits,
changed to be day worker as they wished. Further, their agency continued to
be empowered by living-out status, bringing more leverage to their employment conditions and control over their own lives. Therefore, it is possible that
in some circumstances, agent is more constraint by structure, while under other
conditions: structure can be changed by agents. So, my work aims to explore
the process in China to see how this might reflect in the Chinese context and
what are the factors determining this.
2.4 Concept of Social Network
Another related key concept is SN. It means “a set of people (or organizations
or other social entities) connected by a s set of social relationships, such as
friendship-co-working or information exchange” (Garton et al, 1997:2). It is an
integral part of our lives, which could be identified at various levels: individual,
group or institutional level. (Jordan, 2006)
SN has a close link with the concept of social capital (hereinafter referred
to as SC) mentioned before. Comparing the definitions of these two terms, it
could be said that while SN refers to the actual connections between people,
SC is the “cumulative result” of SN, that is to say, the value that a member
gains from being in a SN (ibid, 2006). (Followed is the table 3, comparing the
definitions of SN and SC.)
Table 3
Comparison between SN and SC
10
Concept
Definition
SN
“a set of people (or organizations or other social entities) connected by a s set of
social relationships, such as friendship-co-working or information exchange” (Garton,et al, 1997:p.2)
SC
“the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession
of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition” (Bourdieu 1986: 248)
Towards this concept, there also exist agency and structure perspectives,
focusing on benefits or risks, respectively. On one hand, agency-oriented
scholars believe: SC from social connections of one type (e.g., friendship) often
lead to a variety of benefits, providing informational, material, and emotional
as well as spiritual support (Jordan, 2006; Adler and Kwon, 2002). More importantly, this could explain the rationale behind SN. Based on the rational actor model, the motivation of SN formation would be explained by the assumption that all members are motivated by self-interest. First or all, the
instrumental motivation is one key driving factor for members. Therefore, actors are seen to utilize SC to fulfil their multiple purposes, such as to facilitate
their migration (Elrick, 2005; Decressin, 1994), and to get job information
(Calvo-Armengol and Jackson, 2004; Granovetter, 1995) , as well as to advance
their careers (De Graaf and Flap, 1988; Marsden and Hurlbert,1988). Another
motivation would be explained as generalized reciprocity, which is described by
Putnam (1993: 182-183) as: “ I’ll do this for you now, knowing that somewhere
down the road you’ll do something for me ”. This norm addresses the issue of
collective action and unites communities (Adler and Kwon, 2002).
On the other hand, structure perspective sees the risks involved in SN.
Namely, in some cases, the disadvantages may outweigh the advantages for the
actors. For example, one’s habitus may limit one’s SN (Bourdieu, 1986). Besides, SN has potential cost and maintains cost (Leana and Van Buren, 1999).
Moreover, the benefits of members in the SN may lead to risks for the outside
actors because of exclusion. (Portes, 2000)
Taking an in-depth view, I would like to draw on Adler and Kwon
(2002)’s perspective to distinguish both benefits and risks in the three dimensions of SN: information, influence and control, as well as solidarity, as summarized in Table 4. First, Sandefur and Laumann’s (1998) identified three benefits of SN: information, influence and control, as well as solidarity. Then,
Adler and Kwon (2002) further elaborate that there are not only benefits but
also risks in the three dimensions.
11
Table 4
Benefits &Risks on three dimensions of SN
Three dimensions
Benefits
Risks
Information
Facilitate access to broader
resources
Cost in establish and maintain
Influence &control
Gain power
Constrain power
Solidarity
Trust ,Social support, Collective action
Over-embeddness
&exclusion
Firstly, in terms of information, SN helps focal actor to have more opportunities to gain diverse access to broader resources. However, establishing and
maintain the connection need investment. So, the risk emerges due to overinvestment, which means the cost may outweigh the benefit.
Secondly, A’s connection with B may bring influence or control over B.
Then for A, it is beneficial as it helps to reach A’s goal through A’s potential
ability to influence or manipulate B. However, for B, it means possible constraints on his autonomy and freedom.
Thirdly, Solidarity may emerge from SN, which brings the benefits of trust,
social support or collective action. Literatures have already recorded how individuals cope with their psychological stress through trust gained from SN
(Pearlin, 1989). Also, solidarity may lead to collective action help to felicitate
collective gains. However, solitary may also lead to over-embeddness, which
may hamper one’s innovation ability or restrain one’s mobility. Also, it may
lead to exclusion, which means the access for members to better resources may
bar non-members from access.
Considering the role played by SN, it is especially important to look at
domestic work from the lens of SN. Just as Pierrette (1994) indicated, analysing
SN of DS could help to see how it affects the work culture of this special occupation, which is isolated and privatized. Therefore, SN concept is also used
in this research to see different types of mechanisms used by DWs, and what
role SN has played in the work environment and how it might empower or
constrain DWs.
12
Chapter 3
Chinese context
3.1 History of DS
In China, Paid DS emerged in the nineteenth century. Before that, the work
was done by bondservants (nubi), who together with beggars and prostitutes
belong to the low class of people called jianmin1. Later, the caste like system in
DS began to be substituted by waged labour in the late nineteenth and then the
old system was eradicated completely by the social revolution led by Communist Party in the first half of twentieth century (Yan, 2007).
Then, waged labour in DS can be further dived into two periods: Mao’s
period, which was before the economic reform, and the post-Mao period,
which indicates the post-reform era. In Mao’s time, DWs were few, only hired
by the social, political and cultural elite (Lu and Wang, 2004; Yan, 2007). In
comparison, after the economic reform, this sector expands very quickly. DS
enters into ordinary urban families’ lives all around China. Beyond of elites,
employers also include the traditional middle class families like teachers or doctors, as well as many retirees and ordinary workers like clerks and selfemployers who are not usually seen as middle class(Sun, 2008). It is exactly as
Feng (2004) concluded: DS is no longer the symbol of elite identity or special
lifestyle. It has become the daily necessities for a great number of citizens.
Nonetheless, it still remains as a problematic issue.
3.2 Scope and profile of current DS sector
Statistics further prove the quick expansion in DS sector. In 1989, there were 3
million rural women worked as maids in cities (Yan, 2007). Now, according to
the ILO’s (2009b) estimation, the number of workers in DS amounts for about
20 million, and the number of Domestic Service Companies (hereinafter referred to as DSC) totals 600,000. In fact, the real number of household workers may actually exceed 20 million as data only available for those working in
formal recruitment channels, not including the workers who find their job
through informal channels (ILO, 2009b).
In general, rural migrants and laid-off workers are the main components
of DWs. However, the concrete situation of different cities varies. Specifically,
in Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, over 90% are migrants from rural areas,
while in other cities like Xi’an, Chengdu, and Tianjin, near 50% of household
workers are urban laid-off workers (ILO, 2009b). The general profile is summarized in the followed Table 5
1 Jianmin is compared to liangmin, like farmers, craftsmen, etc.
13
Table 5
General profile of DS
Top Destination provinces
Top Sending provinces
Gender
Age
Marital Status
Education
Beijing,Shanghai,Shenzhen,Guangzhou
Gansu,Henan,Sichuan,Anhui,Hunan,Shandong
Female: 90%
From 16-48, majority: 30-40
60% married
Middle school(rural migrants) High school(urban laid off
Source: ILO, 2009b
3.3 Structure and background
To better understand the quick expansion and current profile of DS, it is important to look at the structure and background as well as institutional changes
affecting this sector.
On the demand side, firstly, the transformation from planned economy to
market system, greatly accelerating the overall economic performance and urbanization in China. This leads to the generation of more middle class and dual-career families in cities, who have the wish and can afford to hire DWs (Wu
and Zhou, 1996).
Moreover, the change in social care system, aging population and one
child policy increase the care burden of Chinese families. Previously, in the
planned economy, state played a key role in providing social reproduction and
care service for urban residents. For example, childcare, healthcare, and access
to retirees’ service centres. After reform, these care responsibilities have back
to the households. In addition, the rising aging population with the one child
policy further loads the burden on individuals. According to official figure, the
percentage of the Chinese population above 65 years old increased from 4.9%
in 1982 to 8.3 per cent in 2008. Meanwhile, the one child policy suggests increasing numbers of married couples will take care of four parents and one
child (Cook and Dong, 2011; Feng, 2004). All these factors contribute to the
growing demand for DWs.
On the supply side, rural-urban migration becomes a distinct labour market phenomenon in the post-reform period. With the direct government intervention, the rural reform from collective to a household-based responsibility
system, known as the household responsibility system (HRS) was introduced to
boost the productivity in farming. This generates surplus labour for non-farm
activities. (Wu and Zhou, 1996)
Although the hukou system (China’s household registration system2) was
loosened to allow free movement of labour migration, it still separates rural
residents from their urban counterparts. This means that, rural labourers could
2China 's household registration system , set up in 1958 to control its citizens ' movements , divided its countrymen into two groups : urban and rural residents
14
not change their hukou into cities where they work. Thus, they cannot enjoy
the benefits or welfare system in cities as the local urban residents. Their inferior position leads to labour segregation, as they normally do the job that the
city residents do not willing to take, like the dirty, heavy, informal jobs. In detail, male migrants are mainly in the construction sector while female are concentrated in labour-intensive factories and DS sector. (Wu and Zhou, 1996)
3.4 Far from decent work
The 4 aspects of decent work: Employment, Fundamental rights, Social security and Social dialogue, are rough measures of empowerment. Therefore, it is
helpful to look at this occupation in the Chinese context from these four aspects. Moreover, underpinning the general picture covering the four aspect of
decent work is the issue of security about the occupation. Hence, the last part
of this section unravels different forms of security to facilitate decent work
analysis.
3.4.1 Employment
In terms of DWs’ salaries, statistics show a quick rise. Several years ago, researches showed the salaries of DWs were low (MOLSS, 2003；Wang, 2006;
Wong，2007). But the recent data from Domestic Service Association indicates that their salaries are higher than the minimum wage of the receiving cities, and also higher than migrants in other occupations (ILO, 2009b).
However, despite their not-bad wages, DWs are always revealed to have
bad working conditions for multiple reasons: Firstly, they suffer long working
hours with little or no compensation. For instance, 35% of them in Beijing and
Guangzhou work longer than 10 hours per day (ILO, 2009b). Also, the study
of Wang (2006) showed similar results on their long working hours. Secondly,
they do not have fixed or scheduled working time, especially for the live-in
workers. The live-in workers do not have a distinction between working hours
and rest time. They wait for orders 24 hours, and can be called on duty at any
time. Besides, they normally do not have days off as stipulated in the labour
law (Wong, 2007; Yan, 2007). Thirdly, their job responsibilities are always unclear. They, especially the live-in workers, perform multi-tasks in the household,
depending on the requirements and negotiation between employers and employees (ILO, 2009b). Fourthly, most of the workers do not sign labour contracts. The survey conducted by the Beijing University Legal Aid Centre found
out, the coverage rate of labour contract is lower than 50% in Guangzhou and
Chengdu, while the situation in Beijing is better. Approximately, 27% are not
covered by the contract (ILO, 2009b).Fifthly, they always face vertical relationship with the employers. As historically in China, those workers are seen as
servants. Thus, the relationship between the employers and employees are mistress-servant relations. As a result, workers are always under strict supervision
and control of employers (Yan, 2007). Sixthly, because of the isolated working
environment, they are more vulnerable to abuse. For example, a survey in 2005
covered 206 workers discovered that: 6% of DWs had sexual harassment experiences (ILO, 2009b). Seventhly, they face discrimination at work. One reason
is that: traditionally, people doing domestic service are regarded as “second
15
class” in old times. Still in today, this kind of job is seemed to be disgraceful.
(Wong, 2007).Another part of the reasons is that: many of them are migrants
from poorer rural areas, so the urban citizens treat them as uneducated and
dirty (Yan, 2007).
3.4.2 Fundamental rights
Concerning the child labour, although labour law forbids children to work under hazardous working condition, the law does not apply to DS. In fact, this
job may harm the children physically and psychologically due to the long working hours and isolated environment (ILO, 2009b). Therefore, child domestic
work is argued to be the worst forms of child labour3.
Another aspect is forced labour. When trafficking is involved or a worker’
freedom to leave an employer’s house is forbidden, either due to physical restrained or withholding her/his identity paper, it causes forced labour in DS
(ILO, 2009b). Moreover, recently, Nicola Phillips from Manchester University
argues that: forced labour should not only focus on whether the employment
relationship is voluntary or not, but also on the working conditions and circumstances. According to her opinion, labour exploitation is also a kind of
forced labour.4
Next, is worker’s right of the freedom of association. In China, the Xi’an
Domestic workers union, which is affiliated to All-China Federation of Trade
Unions (ACFTU) established in 2004, is the only trade union in the DS industry. Until 2009, the number of members exceeded 700, among which 98% are
female. In order to empower the member, the trade union set up peer-to-peer
support group, focusing on capacity building, which appears to be successful
(ILO, 2009b).
3.4.3 Social Security
More than half of workers do not join any kind of social insurance scheme,
because the system excludes this occupation from access. The only exception is
Shanghai, where the local government introduced a new insurance covering
both local and migrant household workers (Wong, 2007).
Besides of social insurance, they are also excluded from labour law and labour contract law. As DS is informal and private individuals or families are not
seemed as the “employing unit” in the labour law and labour contract law,
there is no legal provision to guarantee working conditions of those workers.
For the same reason, there is no legal system for a labour dispute. More
specifically, the Supreme People’s Court excludes the disputes between DWs
and private employers from the category of labour disputes.5
3 For example, Maine L.(2004), when home is not a sweet home: Psychosocial consequences of Child Domestic
Service
4 Speech on World Day for Decent Work: Development Research Special Seminar held on Oct.7th, 2011 at ISS
5 See “interpretation of the supreme people’s court on several issues bout the application of laws for the trial
of labor dispute cases (II)”
16
In law, only Personal injury Compensation 6 could apply to DWs. The
document states that employers should be responsible for the compensation of
personal injury happened to employees when performing employment tasks.
However, unlike the employment injury insurance in the social insurance system, it does not cover the injuries happened when workers are on the way to
work or back work to home.
3.4.4 Social dialogue
Besides of workers’ union, the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) also
actively participates in the employment promotion for DWs. It has 465 DSCs
in 16 cites. It provides vocational training and also organise conferences to
share the information and facilitate communications (ILO, 2009b). Also, other
NGOs, like home to female farmer workers, Beijing University Legal Aid Centre, also involved in protecting DW’s rights and interests.
However, sill low percentage of DSs has joined any of those organizations.
The reason may be the lack of information.
3.4.5 Security issue
Underneath the various aspects of decent work is the notion of security
(Standing, 2002): how people feel about security and insecurity about their
work. Anker (2002) further explained this work-related security into seven
forms, which covers diverse dimensions of security: labour market, employment, job, work, skill reproduction, income and representation. Specifically, (1)
Labour market security refers to the ability to gain work; (2) Employment security indicates the capability of keeping one’s main job or work; (3)Job security reflects having an occupational niche, which is often life-long, or a job with
possibilities for improvement; (4)Work security assesses the physical working
conditions, which means providing a safe and healthy environment; (5) Skill
reproduction security refers to how well the workers can develop and maintain
skills;(6) Income security means the security of having income adequacy and
assurance;(7) Representation security means having an organization or collective voice to represent the worker’s interests and rights .(Kantor et al. 2006;
Anker, 2002)
Anker’s concrete methodology used for each security is reproduced below
in Table 6:
6 See “Interpretation of the supreme people’s court of some issues concerning the application of law for the
trial cases on compensation for personal injury”
17
Table 6
Anker's indicators for seven work-related securities
Decent Work Dimension
Anker's Detailed Measures
Employment status, hours of work, multiple work
Labour market security
activities, length of experience; days of unemployment;
difficulty finding work in case of job loss; notice period;
restrictions on women seeking work; perceived like illness
of losing work if pregnant or ill
Employment security
Occupation, place and regularity of work; employer
characteristics; type of contract; do subcontracting work
or work for labour contractor; need for licence; tenure
at current work ;perceptions of satisfaction; expectations
of keeping current job/work
Job security
Past advancements or regressions; expectations of need
for skills and of advances or regressions in work; perceived importance of following own profession
Work security
Absence from work due to work-related injury, illness,
stress; excessive work hours; control over work; sexual
harassment; hazardous work/dangerous equipment; toilet
and water available; use protective clothing; safety department at work place; opinion of workplace safety;
compensation for injury/insurance for injury; childcare
help; absence due to household duties
Skill reproduction security
Formal/informal training received; use training/qualifications/ education in one's work; opinion on
skill adequacy and need for further training
Income security
Income level; fringe benefits; wage arrears; how income
received ;if women keep income; raw materials/equipment provided by employer; regularity of income; expectations for future income; opinion on income adequacy and relative income; ability to save
Representation security
Knowledge and opinions of unions; union in the workplace; belong to union; knowledge of and/or membership
in other worker organisations; circumstances for action
Source: Adjusted from Kantor et al. (2006)
Later, in the next chapter, I will use this more detailed security for analyzing the different stages, by which the respondents move from live-in to liveout. This will help us to see how DWs feel about their two types of work in
various aspects of work-related securities and also to check whether the security issue might be a consideration factor for DWs to make their change or not.
18
Chapter 4
Case study: work experience in different stages
4.1 Background information
The data for this study were derived from in-depth interviews with 15 female
live-outs DWs, labelled from A to N. All of them have previously live-in experiences. They ranged in age from 30s to 40s with3 to 12 years migration experience in Beijing. All had married, 8 of them have one child while 6 have two
children and only 1 person has 3 children. All migrate from diverse areas, reflecting different classes and various occupation origins. In detail, they migrate
from 8 provinces: 3 from Shanxi, 2 from Anhui, 1 from Liaoning, 2 from
Shaanxi, 1 from Shandong, 1 from Henan, 3 from Hebei, 2 from Sichuan
province. 13 of them are rural residents while the other 2 are urban residents.
In terms of their previous working experiences at hometown, 6 of them were
peasants, and other 4 persons were petty dealers. For the others, 2 were working in factories, 1 were a restaurant waitress, while the other 2 were teachers,
more specifically, one was a substitute Chinese teacher in a primary school, and
the other was a kindergarten teacher in rural areas. The highest education they
have received is middle school education. None of them are union members.
Followed is Map 1 indicates their home towns and Table 7 lists their key information.
Map 1
Map of original places of respondents
19
Table 7
Respondents’ key characters
Respondents
Place of Origin
Age
Hukou
Previous occupation
A
Shannxi
40s
rural
petty dealer
B
Anhui
30s
rural
restaurant waitress
C
Henan
30s
rural
Factory worker
D
Shanxi
40s
rural
petty dealer
E
Shanxi
40s
rural
peasant
F
Shanxi
30s
rural
Primary school
teacher
G
Anhui
40s
rural
peasant
H
liaoning
40s
rural
Petty dealer
I
Shannxi
30s
urban
Factory worker
J
Hebei
40s
rural
kindergarten
teacher
K
Shandong
40s
rural
peasant
L
Sichuan
40s
rural
peasant
M
Hebei
40s
urban
Petty dealer
N
Sichuan
40s
rural
peasant
O
Hebei
30s
rural
peasant
4.2 Migration Decisions and reasons to be DWs
Exploring the reasons behind their migration decision, passive factors can be
seen: such as no jobs in rural areas, less-developed economy in origins, the
need for money to pay debt, the need to support old parents because they do
not have pension as well as to earn money to send their children to private
schools7
Like D and E (both 40s from Shanxi province) mentioned: they are in debt
because of family member’s illness, or due to their sons marriage8, so they
have to go to big cities to earn money to pay back the debt.
From this perspective, we may see there are structural or institutional factors drive their migration: For example, the uneven development of the economy between urban and rural areas, weak public education in rural areas, as
well as insufficient social security for farmers.
As they think the teachers’ strength are weak in public schools in rural areas.
In some parts or the rural are.s, it is the custom that the man’s parents take the responsibilities for the marriage, like building a new house for marry, or dowry to the
pride’s parents , holding the wedding feast. If they do not have money to pay for it,
they will borrow money from the relatives and pay back the money by themselves.
7
8
20
However, active factors are also involved in their decisions to move to
Beijing, like their desire to broaden the vision, see the outside world, gain
knowledge, be economically independent, and satisfy curiosity about the life in
the capital.
For example, C (30s, Henan province) said: “I do not want to live in the village, although my husband’s business is good in my hometown, and he said
there is no need for me to go out to earn money. Still I want to go to Beijing
as I want to see the outside world, to experience t the Beijinger’ life. I am still
young. I want to know more about the world and to improve myself.”
From this angle, they are active actors who are willing to fight with the
structure constraint to create a better life for themselves and their families.
However, despite the diverse migration reasons, they found there are limited jobs for them after arrival in Beijing, either being a street vendor, or being
a restaurant waitress or a factory worker or a DW. All these jobs belong to the
dirty and heavy work with insufficient social securities. Although several of
them tried to continue their previous occupations like starting a small business
or being a teacher, none of them succeed. The reasons for their failure are multiple: such as the lack of information about the rules in the new place, insufficient funds as well as no network.
For instance, A (40s, from Shanxi) failed to open a small shop selling wool
just like what she did in the hometown. Because in Beijing, a licence is needed
to start a small business, and she had no idea about what is a license and how
to get one. Also, her only relative in Beijing cannot help because he knew
nothing about this sector. Moreover, she found the initial capital needed to
open a shop far exceeded her budget.
What’s more, the experience of F (30s, Shanxi’) revealed her exclusion
from stable jobs not only because of the less-educated background, but also
their migrant “identities”. F, who received high school education, tried to continue her career as a Chinese teacher in primary school. However, she found
that: being a teacher in Beijing required at least a bachelor’s degree. Also, all
the vacancies in these schools are only open to Beijingers or fresh graduates.
Therefore, comparing DS to other available job options, this work becomes a “good” choice as it has several advantages: First of all, job search
costs are low, as they normally could find the first jobs within one week. Secondly, it is relatively well-paid compared to other jobs open to the migrants.
This is in line with ILO (2009a)’s research in DS. Thirdly, the income is stable
as a live-in DW compared to a street vendor. Fourthly, this work does not
need to deposit one-month salary as a factory or a restaurant job does, which
means they will not have any lose when quit their job.
4.3 Live-in work
4.3.1 Job search
Just as those black-American DWs in Washington (Elizabeth, 1985), my interviewees also chose to be live-in workers first because a live-in job does not
need initial capital, and it solves the accommodation problem quickly.
21
However, unlike the black-American DWs (Elizabeth, 1985), who found
their first live-in job through a personal-reference system via their urbanresiding kin, most of my informants found their live-in jobs through DSC. This
is due to distrust between employers and employees. While employers worry
about the “stranger” may traffic their children to rural areas or steal the money
before disappearance or hurt the kid or the old because of careless, employees
are concerned about any kind of abuse or sexual harassment as well as wage
arrears. Both sides believe the individual-reference cannot bear the responsibility in case of an unhappy result. Therefore, they prefer to have a third partyDSC to be involved, although it is not the case that all DSC will be liable to
damages of employers or the protection of rights and interests of employees9.
Another reason for DW’s preference to find a job through DSC is that many
of the companies arrange free lodging or lodging with little cost during the job
search period10.
Although the DSC is the main recruiting channels for live-in DWs, this
does not mean their local network is not useful. In fact, all the informants depend on their relatives, or fellow-villagers, or friends, who have already settled
down in Beijing as a first link to the new city providing information or guidance to find the DSC for jobs or for short term lodging. None of them came
to Beijing without knowing anyone, nor did they find jobs through advertisements or labour recruitment fairs. They admitted that if they did not know anyone in the city, they would not have come.
4.3.2 Working condition-whose time and whose life is it?
Just as the labour market information they got from their acquaintances, it is
easy to find domestic jobs in Beijing .All of my respondents found their first
jobs as live-in workers within one week, through the companies. The households they worked in cover different kinds of families, the rich, powerful elites
or the middle-class families or retirees’.
They were hired to do one of three types of domestic work in the employers’ home-either doing the general household work, or taking care of the elder,
The operation of DSCs can be grouped into “staff regime, membership regime and
intermediary regime” 1,Under the staff regime, DSC and DWs have an employment
contract while the companies and customer have a service contract. Customer pays
the company first and then the company pay the workers after deducting the administration fee. It takes the responsibility to any damage or loss of employers and is obligated to “lodge appeal to customer for compensation” if the worker’s rights are infringed; 2, Under the membership regime, DW sign contracts with customers, and
the DSC act as a witness party. Customers pay the workers directly and company
charge DW administrative fee before job recommendation. The company is not liable
for any loss to customers. But it may help to meditate the dispute of conflict between
employers and employees; 3, Under the intermediary regime, the customer and the
worker sign a contract on their own and the company chare an intermediary fee for
every job introduced to the workers. It does not take any other responsibilities(Wang,
2006).
9
he staff regime and membership regime companies will provide lodging for DWs
( Wang, 2006).
10
22
or looking after small children.11 Among these three types of jobs, household
work gets the lowest salary, which is about 1700 Yuan; while the work involving care of the elder is higher paid, approximately 1800Yuan; The wage for
children’ carer, which is the highest, reaches more than 2000Yuan.Generally ,
they have one day off every week. But during weekdays, they work more than
10 hours per day.
Therefore, the labour market reflects some extent of security as jobs could
be easily found. Besides, looking at their income security, it is not bad. Because
their pay is much higher than the statutory minimum monthly wage, that is
1160 Yuan in Beijing on a regular monthly base. However, all the respondents
expressed their dissatisfaction with the jobs. The reasons are similar to their
counterparts in other countries (Sedef, 1989; Pierrette and Ernestine, 1997;
Nona and Joanna, 1998). They complained about work insecurities: the physical and psychological exploitation resulting from the hierarchy relationship between them and their employers. In terms of physical exploitation, they referred to long working hours, no distinction between work and life, as well as
multiple tasks with unclear responsibilities. Related to the psychological stress,
they suffered from an isolated environment, dominated control by employers
and discrimination or poor recognition toward them and their occupation.
Take the one-day rest as an example. The China Association of Domestic
Service, which represents DSCs, issued the guideline on DS, promoting oneday rest. Although it lacks supervision and executive force (Wang, 2006), many
DSCs in Beijing have taken the one-day rest as one of the companies rules.
This helps to raise the common awareness about the right of employees to
have one day off every week. All my informants said it was easy to ask for one
day off. Only in special circumstances, if the employer needs the worker to
work seven days a week, then the employer needs to raise the salary to get the
worker’s consent.
However, the insecurity issue involved is that: they lack control of their
rest day. Employers generally choose the rest day according to their schedule,
totally ignoring workers’ concerns and needs. Also, it is common that the rest
day is not regular and fixed, like every Friday or Saturday, making it difficult
for workers to make their arrangement in advance.
“The good thing is: I have one day off every week. The bad thing is: they do
not allow me to pick the day. They chose the day according to their needs and
informed me one day before the day. It made me unable to make my own arrangements. For example, once, I had a friend from hometown visiting me in
Beijing on Sunday, but they did not allow me to take off on that day even after my request. So, I missed my friend. Then, when I did not need and was
not willing to go out, they asked me to take the day off.” (H, 40s, from Liaoning province)
The DSC (domestic-service Company) group the live-in work into 3
types: doing the general household work, or taking care of the elders, or looking after the small children.11
11
23
Another indicator of work insecurity is excessive work hours. During their
weekday, none of them ever worked 8 hours a day-that is 40hours a week according to the Chinese labour law. Their working hours ranged from 10 to 17
hours a day. One reason is that, just as mentioned in Chapter 3, domestic work
is excluded from labour law and labour contract law. Another reason is that,
although they all had contracts, working hours were not stipulated in the contracts. Thirdly, “even if the contract covers the working hour, it may not help,
because you cannot stop when your employers ask you to continue” K (40s,
from Shandong province) continued to explain, “When you live in other’s
home, how can you not follow their order? Actually, we are waiting for orders
24hours a day, whenever they ask you to do something, you cannot refuse by
saying that “I have already worked so many hours”,-if you still want to keep
your job.”
In contrast to the working hour, the main services they offered had been
grouped into three types12as mentioned above and also were written in the
contract. However, this does not change their suffering from multiple tasks
with vague responsibilities. One reason for that is the employer’s ignorance
about the task signed on contract. One common example is that although one
is being hired and paid only for general household work, whose salary is the
lowest among the three types. This does not mean she can totally avoid the
task of caring for family members.
Just as G (40s, from Anhui) described: “I was hired by one family to do the
general house chores, but they had a 5 years’ old boy taken care by the employers’ parents. So, besides house work, their parents always asked me to
help them to take care of the boy. I have to do double work: the housework
given by employer and the care work given by their parents.”
Even if the employer didn’t violate the contract, it is still difficult to define
the concrete task and responsibility, as there was no detailed task responsibility
listed on the contract. Also, it is common that: employers and employee have
different understanding on defining the responsibilities.
As K (40s, from Shandong) explained: “I was hired to take care of their (the
employers) son and they had a day worker to do the cleaning job and meals
cooking. So, I only took care of the boy. But whenever their boys say some
dirty words, they blame me for that. I explained to them that it was not me
who taught their boy dirty words. Yet, they said no matter where their boy
learned that from, it was my fault because I didn’t fulfil my responsibility. I
spoke to myself that I was only a DW not a teacher, why do I also need to
bear the responsibility of teaching? But I dare not to say this.”
Their insecurity feelings do not only come from no control on the working hours, or the content of tasks they did, but also from no voice on deciding
the ways to do jobs. More than half of them expressed their experiences of being asked to do their job in the most time-consuming and most demanding
way, such as washing clothes by hand, cleaning floors on their knees, etc.
The 3 types: doing the general household work, taking care of the elders, and looking after the small children.
12
24
Thus, the fact that: they actually do not “own their time” and cannot “add
value to their time”, generates work insecurity. Moreover, besides the physical
exploitation, it is the psychological exploitation from the insecurity in work,
which made them reflect on their choice as live-in workers.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t afraid of the hard work and long working hour,
because I used to work very hard on my farm and later in one cloth factory.
But I really could not bear the psychological pressure as live-in DW”(G, 40s,
from Anhui). What G said expressed the universal feelings of all my informants.
The psychological stress came from various sources: the isolated work environment, employer’s dominated control and much worse ones: the discrimination and poor recognition toward them and their occupation.
In terms of the first two stress, they expressed their loneliness feeling due
to being separated from the outside world for long time; Also, they complained about employers’ control over their personal lives- like no phone calls,
no long hair and not allowed to close the door of their living rooms
The most unbearable problems came from the latter two, which include
discrimination against their rural identities and poor social recognition of their
jobs-as a low status and no-skill occupation.
Similar to the global challenges faced by DWs everywhere, their work is
seen as a disgraceful job without skill because women are born with the ability
to do domestic works. (Dill, 1988; Wong, 2007) Further, the discrimination
toward their rural identity has already been recorded in many Chinese literatures on DWs (Sun, 2008; Feng, 2004 ; Yan, 2007). Besides the stigma of being
a DW, the rural migrant DWs always faced the discrimination of their urban
employers, who define them as stupid rural persons with low moral quality
(Suzhi in Chinese). Among 15 interviewees, 13 are rural residents, and most of
them expressed their resentment of being looked down upon as “rural”.
“I know I am a rural person lack of education. That is why I came to this city
doing this low status job. I did the job you (the urban employee) did not want
to take. I would understand why they look down upon on my job, but I do
not understand why they show their disdain towards us without any hide.
They thought we are stupid, with low moral quality”, said M (40s, from Hubei)
From this, we could see social norm and custom do affect their work. In
contrast to the limits brought by their rural identities, the two urban DWs use
their urban identity as an advantage when searching for jobs, suggesting that
they are civilized with good habits as the social custom sees. Further, their previous occupations also matter. For example, the two rural migrants who were
previously teachers said, they feel their previous occupation, to some extent,
helped to gain respect from the current employers. This would be explained by
the Chinese custom to see teachers as moral and worth respects.
Moreover, there are several other factors, which might affect their respective work condition, such as, DS experiences, age, original provinces, the companies’ location and the type of companies. More specifically, middle aged
women from 30s to 40s with longer working experience are more favourable
25
than young people under 30 or old people over 50, or their counterparts, who
lack DS working experience. This is because, compared to the youngsters,
women at this age are believed to have more experience with children and
household work , while in contrast to the elders, they are in the age at full energy ,having fewer chances of getting sick. In addition, their hometown is another factor-the workers who are from desirable provinces, like Sichuan province where the citizens are deemed to be hard working and having good
personality are more popular than others. Furthermore, the location and type
of DSC matter. If DWs look for their job in companies of Xi Cheng or Chaoyang, HaiDian Districts, economically more developed areas, they are more
likely to get higher salaries than they do in other districts. Then, an enabling
DS company which is formal with good reputation may also participate in the
wage negotiation, helping the workers to get higher wages13.
In brief, although live-in DWs enjoyed some degree of labour market security in terms of easy access to job opportunities, and income security, their
dissatisfaction toward their jobs came from the feeling of work insecurity that:
they do not own their time, their work, and also their personal lives as well as
lack of voice in defending their identities, pride of their occupation, etc.
4.3.3 Limited resilient space
At the very beginning, through comparing themselves to the people who are
still at their hometowns, DWs tried to get superior feelings in order to comfort
themselves and adjust to the new environment.
“Every night, I just told myself, you have to bear all the injustice and bitterness, think about the money you have made. One month salary is equal to 4
month incomes made by co-villagers at home”, said N (40s, from Sichuan).
However, time and experience gradually changed workers’ mindsets. Later,
instead of adjusting into the environment, most of them explored different
measures, trying to create a better working environment.
(1) New network has been formed
To combat their loneliness and homesick, they made great use of their one-day
rest, trying to meet other people like them, mainly the people who are also in
DS. The best place for them to make new friends is the place near DSC, where
they would meet other DWs. As J (40s, from Hebei) explained: “we share lots
in common, we did the same job, so we understood each other, and we made
friends with each other very quickly.” Also, the nearby park or public square
are also easy places for them to meet potential friends as they can easily recognise each other through the accent, dresses or behaviour.
13DSCs
can be grouped into governmental conduct, like the one run by labor and social security organs, women’s federation and community committees, and the nongovernmental conduct: such as share-holding enterprises, limited liability enterprises
and individually-funded industrial and business companies. The “governmental conduct” have greater chances to play an enabling factors in the negotiation for the interests and rights of DWs than the “non-governmental” conduct companies ((Wang,
2006)
26
This new social network they created helps them to release their psychological pressure. Also, they exchange tips and advice for getting better working
conditions, for example, tips for negotiating wages according to the size of the
house and the number of the family members. Moreover, in terms of asking
for higher wages when the market price is rising, it is better to get companies
involved in order to avoid direct confrontation.
(2)Training to enhance skill
It is common that sometimes they introduced each other to the “good” DSC,
which may provide free trainings. Though the training, they may learn more
cleaning skills or the skills to take care of children.
However, they noted the difficulties of converting their enhanced skills into higher pay, unless they move from general household duties to taking care
of children. The reason behind it might be the traditional social definition of
treating household work as an unskilled job, while taking care of children is
treated as a more skilful job. This fact actually reflects the lack of skill reproduction security in their jobs, as such skills are not valued.
Yet, they strongly believed that: no matter what they did, the most important factor in deciding their working conditions is to find a good employer.
“The employers’ attitude decides everything. If you met a bad one, you were in
a terrible condition, you may work 24 hours and even be abused. If you met a
good one, you may enjoy some freedom and respect. So, the employer is the
most important”, explained E (40s, from Shanxi)
(3)Building intimate relations with employer
As the employer’s attitude is the most important determinant, experienced
DWs tried very hard to build a good relationship with the employer. “You
must know how to deal with human relations, to some extent, how to please
the employer is more important than how to do the work.”(M, 40s, from Hubei)
It is true that establishing a close relation with the employer could lead to
some upgrading space in terms of working conditions. Yet, Gaetano (2004)
argued: “in order to pay back the employers’ care”, DWs need to be obedient
and show their respect and loyalty towards their employers. These hierarchical
relations would not be changed or challenged.
Therefore, although measures have been taken to upgrade their conditions, but results showed limitations. For instance, although they could form
their new network to decrease the psychological pressure resulted from isolated working environment, they could not change the isolated and privatized
character of their occupation. Also, tips and advice could be used to negotiate
better working condition, but the working condition is still mainly determined
by the individual employer’s attitude. Additionally, they could further strengthen their work skills, but they could not change the poor recognition defining
their jobs as unskilled. Thus, enhanced skill could not be recognized or converted into the economic benefit. Finally, they could make efforts to build a
good relation with employers in order to gain better environment, but they
could not change their inferior position in the relation.
27
Thus, it could be concluded that strategies they adopted could not be effective enough to change the work insecurity. Exploring the root cause for it, it
seems that all the respondents believed: it is their living status that leads to the
asymmetrical relation between them and employers, causing their lack of voice
over their work and their lives.
“Not only me, but also my peers, we discussed that all the problems are due
to the fact that we live in their home. They give us jobs, food, places to sleep.
So living in others home, you have to listen to them” said J (40s, from Hebei).
In light of this, it might be their aspiration for more security about their
work, more specifically, to gain some control and freedom over their work and
lives, that drove them to think about “getting rid of” their living-in status.
4.4 Live-out work
4.4.1 Preparing to move out
Having the desire for change is not sufficient to take the real action. Actually, it
was the successful stories of their peers, who gained more freedom through
being day workers, which stimulated them to seek change. The stories transferred two meanings. Firstly, they learned and believed that: by moving out of
employers’ home, they could acquire a bigger say in their own jobs and lives.
Secondly, those peers, serving as role models, greatly encouraged their confidence in their abilities to make the change.
In contrast to their previous comparison made between themselves and
their co-villages at hometown, they compared themselves with their peers and
tried to find out the reasons: why others would enjoy more work security, getting higher salaries or having better working conditions.
After they decided to move out, they started the preparation work. Thus,
although moving out may have the potential to provide some degree of work
security through improved working condition, the unsecured aspects of day
work, (such as labour market insecurity on whether they could find jobs quickly, getting enough hours of work, and employment insecurity in terms of their
abilities to find regular jobs), are real and need to be addressed urgently.
Saving money is the first thing needed to be done. They do not only need
money to pay for accommodation, but also to prepare for the case if they cannot work sufficient hours to support themselves. Unlike the black-American
DWs in Elizabeth’s (1985) literature, who normally spent six years saving, my
informants only need to save three month salary on average to gain the economic leverage to leave their live-in lives. This may due to the reasons that they
would save almost all their wages in living status, and they normally did not
need to send their money back home every month.
While saving money is a precondition, which is just a matter of time, the
most important priority is to form a SN helpful to job search. This is the key
determinant deciding whether they could move out or not and how successful
they would be as day workers. Normally, before moving out, the informants
already had at least one daily job offer to guarantee them some income to cover basic spending.
28
Also, the arrangement for housing is a problem in Beijing, as the rent price
is high for an apartment, especially in economically more developed districts.
However, in prosperous district, there are more jobs with higher salaries for
DWs than other areas. So, there is a trade-off between the housing location
and working location. If you live in distant areas with cheap house prices, there
are few jobs available and the salaries are lower, or you need to travel far to the
centre, which is time consuming.
In summary, none of them moved out without preparation. Before moving, they did a lot of homework, like collecting information, forming network,
planning the housing, starting the job search, thus, fully taking consideration of
the possible risks and challenges, in order to address the insecurities of their
new jobs.
4.4.2 Working condition-my time and my life
Preparations were made by all of them, but the real performances reflected diverse pictures, showing their different abilities to tackle the challenges. Some
adjusted to their role as day workers very quickly. With-in one month they
found places to live, and immediately get several jobs near their living places,
enjoying all the benefits brought by their live-out work, while addressing the
disadvantages of day work.
In contrast to them, several workers nearly gave up when dealing with the
unsecured aspects brought by their new jobs. They faced numbers of burdens:
firstly, the housing problem: they could not find affordable places to live in the
centre and had to live far way. So they spent one or two hours from home to
workplace. Secondly, they suffered from employment insecurity, in terms of
their place and regularity of their work. Their workplaces were diverse-which
means they may have to travel far from one job in the south to another in the
north. Also, they lack regular employers (which mean that they cannot predict
their next work and prepare for it). Moreover, this employment insecurity also
means they waste lots of time and effort finding the employers’ exact addresses.
Those challenges could even cost several of them half a year to learn how to
properly arrange their work and find regular jobs. The only good news, which
encouraged them to continue, was the tight labour market. It is not difficult to
find multiple jobs, which ensures some labour market security. However, the
problem of how to properly arrange their work caused troubles for some.
Those differences of coping with employment insecurity emerged in the
early period of moving out have a close relation to one’s arrangement skills,
but more importantly, to one’s SN, which will be elaborated in detail in the
next chapter. However, bolstered by the labour market security in terms of
easy access to jobs, after different learning processes, all informants could
eventually gain some degree of employment security, in terms of having regular
employers and places to work.
As a result, similar to the Black-American DWs, who saw their change of
moving out as “a step toward autonomy and independence, and away from the
dependency and indignity of live-in work” (Elizabeth, 1985: 26), in general, my
interviewees treated their transition to day workers as a road from work insecu-
29
rity to security in terms of control over their own time and lives comparing to
their live-in period.
The sense of security comes from the following aspects: firstly, there is
more autonomy over work time, which means they could decide on their
working schedule and the length of working hours. Like the Chicanas modernized DWs, who enjoyed the flexibility of their contract work (Romero, 1988),
my informants also take pride in the fact that they could arrange their working
time according to their specific needs.
“Sometimes I felt tired after one job, and then I informed my next employer
that I would cancel the work for one day. Generally, they did not ask me for a
reason but just rearranged a time for the next job. Also, another advantage of
the job is that: if my family came to visit me this month, I would only arrange
four hours a day. If next month, I need money to pay my daughter’s tuition
fee, I may work seven hours a day.” (B, 30s, From Anhui province)
Secondly and more importantly, through selling their labour according to
the time, they add value to the time. This is in sharp contrast to their living-in
experiences, that all their time seemed to be bought in a lump-sum by the employer. But now, a price is set for every hour. So this could explain: why doing
the same kind of task, live-in DWs are more likely to be asked to do it in the
most time-consuming way (like washing clothes by hands) ,while hourly workers are more frequently allowed to do the task in an efficient way (like a washing machine is used to wash clothes).
Thirdly, another advantage brought by the valued time is the shortened
working hours. The minimal hourly wage the respondents got is about 15Yuan,
a bit higher than the minimum statutory hour wage, which is 13 Yuan for parttime workers in Beijing. This means, if they work 8 hours a day, taking one day
rest as live-in counterparts, they would earn 3120 Yuan. Then after deducting
their average spending on accommodation (1000Yuan), their net wage is similar to their previous time as live-in DWs. Although this is just a rough estimation, my interviewees did report shorter working hours than before. Now, their
working time ranged from 6 hours to 8hours a day.
Fourthly, another important difference lies in control over the tasks. This
is different from the live-in period, when they did multiple tasks with vague
responsibilities. They specify their tasks mainly into two types, cleaning or
cooking. This is also different from the Chicana DWs (Romero, 1988), who
defined themselves as professional cleaners, who refused to do the work like
babysitting, laundry, or ironing. Because they thought, those tasks belonged to
“personal services”. Yet, in my case study, DWs cleaning tasks sometime include those tasks like laundry and ironing, and they saw these tasks more similar to the cleaning task than servicing jobs. Also, unlike the Chicana DW’s
opinion on cooking, who refused to provide cooking as it was also seen as another service job. DWs in my group took another different perspective. They
treat cooking as much more skill-full than general-cleaning, which is an effective tool to gain regular employers. Actually, some of them charge more to do
the cooking than the cleaning. Also, it not only brings them more regular employers and more working hours (as cooking tasks are usually daily based while
cleaning jobs are normally weekly based), but also increases their negotiating
power in job search.
30
These work security further transfer into employment security, as they
generally express enhanced satisfaction toward their jobs. One main reason is
that, they think, the nature of their work has changed from serving people to a
“real job”. This is in line with Glenn’s (1985) study of Japanese-American
women, whose non-residential domestic work bring the job similar to the other
industrialized wage work as it clearly separate the work and life. My interviewees all felt that they are now more like other workers who go to factories or
offices.
Besides owning their working time, they also gain autonomy in their personal lives. As they described: “I felt so happy to move out, as I decide what
am I going to eat and what I do after work”(C, 30s, From Henan)
It might be that, the security feeling that they can now control their time
and lives, made all my informants believe their moving out behaviour was
worth it, and do not want to go back to the live-in days. This accords with the
view of Katzman (1978) and Elizabeth (1985)- that transition from live-in to
live-out could lead to progress in working conditions.
4.4.3 Greater resilient space
The resilient forces continue to be seen during their live-out period. To be
more accurate, more strategies are now being used to bring more security in
various aspects. First, there are four common strategies used by almost all respondents:
(1) Expanded channels to seek jobs
Just as Pierrette (1994) indicated, although the employment mode of live-out
workers, which is multiple employers’ relations, may cut the dependency on
one employer for working and living, thus leading to better working conditions, it sets a priority for the DWs to seek multiple employers. This is quite
true, only with sufficient numbers of jobs or potential employers, can DWs
enjoy the freedom brought by their jobs. Moreover, only in this way can DWs
be empowered to negotiate higher pay and better working conditions with the
current employers or switch employers while leaving the least desired one.
Therefore, as job search is crucial, my informants used two ways to expand their channels. Firstly, and the most importantly, is to establish a SN for
job referral. They mainly rely on their connections with DSC, employers or
peers to get jobs- three types of network: an employers’ network, a DSCs’ network as well as a peers’ network. The role of these three types of network will
be elaborate more in the next chapter.
For those who do not have “enough” SNs, instead of giving up, they find
ways to promote themselves. For example, printing name cards or publishing
job advertisements online.
31
Social network
Employer’s network
DSCs’ network
Peer’s network
Job search
Name card
Self-promotion job advertisement
(2) Promote a monthly package to stabilize employers
After employers have been found, they often promote monthly packages to
attract their employers. In detail, after providing a service one time, they would
negotiate with the employers how many times they need the service per month
and the price. For some of them, the monthly package provides a little discount than calculating by hours.
Yet, this has several advantages for both employer and employees. On the
employee’s side, this helps to nurture employers’ consuming habits for DS, as
it encourages them to use it frequently. Secondly, this helps to avoid frequent
changes of employers. Thirdly, it may help to avoid wage loss. I (30s, from
Xi’an) explained “Some employers may cancel one time service in that month,
but they pay me the full wage. Maybe they thought the cancellation was due to
their reason, not mine, or they thought this is “month” wage, so no need to
calculate the time.”
According to my informant’s opinions, this is also beneficial for employers, as it provides them with security. At least, it means that, the employees
would work for them for a full month, and would not change them frequently,
diminishing employers’ task to search for employees. More importantly, this
also means, the employee would put this monthly job on a priority list, compared to temporary jobs. They would first set their timetable considering the
needs of their regular employers, allocating them the better time. All my informants rate their employers according the frequencies of the job. The daily
based job is the most important, and then the half-week one, followed by
weekly based and lastly the temporary one. Then, according to the importance
of their employers, they arrange their schedules, fitting the needs of employers.
(3) Minimize contact with employers
In contrast to their previous strategy of building a good relation with employers for improved working conditions, they now took the opposite strategy of
diminishing the personal relation with their employers. The reason is that: this
is beneficial to create a business-like environment, which enables them to negotiate better working conditions or leave the employer without emotional
consideration14. This is similar to Chicana DWs (Romero, 1988), who were
afraid that an intimate relation may lead to opportunities for exploitation.
Just as L (40s, from Sichuan province) said: “My principle is less contact with
the employer; just do my work and less talking. I do not want to be their family-member or friends; otherwise I cannot talk business. Only in this way, I
14
This is like an arm’ length relationship, which appears to be more equal.
32
can feel comfortable to leave them for higher wages or tell them my price increased.”
(4) Switching employers for better working conditions
This is also a common strategy used by live-out DWs. As they no longer depend on one employer, they would upgrade their working condition by replacing the previous most undesirable job with a better one offered by the new
employer without detrimental influence on their income. (Katzman,1978;
Glenn, 1985)
Also, my respondents further prove this phenomenon. Before negotiating
better working conditions with their current employers, they normally already
have better job offers from the next potential employers. So, if the current
employer could not meet their expectation, they will go directly to the next
one.
However, as mentioned before, among all DWs, some perform relatively
better in terms of higher pay or more control on their work. Exploring the
causes for their success, it is possible their additional strategies suggest their
better off.
(5) Work with partners to change the isolated working environment
Working together instead of alone has long been recorded in foreign literatures, like Chicanas household workers in Romero’s (1988) work and Mexican
DWs in Pierrette’s (1994) article. However, the arrangement is the outcome of
apprenticeship. It is a skilled worker, who subcontracts her work to the apprentice. The purpose was to show the new comer how to do the job. However, this involved a certain kind of exploitation as little pay for the green hand.
Half of my informants have that kind of working experience. They split
the money equally among the two persons. These two persons are normally
seen as couples or friends. The main purpose of working together is to change
the isolated working environment, as they feel much more comfortable to
work with familiars in others’ home. It helps to create a more favourable working environment, so, they will not feel lonely and isolated.
(6) Set up professional images to change the social definition of low
status and unskilled job
This strategy has also been used by Chicana DWs (Romro,1988), who defined
themselves as expert cleaners in order to gain the recognition and decisionmaking rights related to their work, including the arrangement, selection of the
tools and work process.
Two of the informants used this strategy not only to gain control over
their task but also further specify their tasks by refusing other tasks. For example, M (40s, from Hebei) mentioned that, by carrying a workbag with her, she
tried to show she is an experienced and professional cleaner, who knows how
to do the job. In the bag, she has shoe covers, oversleeve, cleaning gloves, and
apron, as well as some small tools such as window brush. She said normally,
after opening her workbag, the employers immediately knew she is an experienced worker, and then just told her the places to clean instead of teaching or
questioning her cleaning skills.
33
Another worker, L(40s from Sichuan) , brings a cook’s uniform with her,
to show that she is a cook not a cleaner, so she only accepts the job of cooking, not cleaning the house or even washing dishes. “No, I do not do that, because I am here only to cook”, this is what she normally says to employers, and
she said, with the uniform, it is easier for the employer to agree with her, due
to the professional image she establishes.
More importantly, the biggest advantage brought by the professional image is to challenge the poor social recognition of their job, trying to move from
the stigma of the low-status job and redefine it as a skilled job. Through the
professional images established, they show their professional skills and also
express their pride in their occupation.
“I want to show them, I do not feel ashamed of my job. Instead, I treat it seriously, because my job is just like theirs, it is a professional job, which is worthy of respect”, explained L (40s, from Sichuan).
(7) Move from hourly work to task work
As Pierrette (1994) indicated, task work is an improvement compared to hourly
work, as workers are paid by the task not by the hour. Chicana DWs share the
same views, as they believe task work could avoid the disadvantage of being
paid by the hour, because the employer may overload the tasks in an hour
(Romero, 1988).
In my case study, only two of my informants, L and N, (both 40s, from
Sichuan provinces) made the successful move from hourly work to task work.
They expressed their preference of being paid by a task. They said their speed
is quicker than their counterparts. Hence, if they were paid by the hour, actually they did more work than others. Therefore, they prefer task work, and they
negotiate with employers to finish a specific task for an agreed price. By this
way, they may save their time. Also, the employers do not need to be concerned about employee’s behaviour of cheating time, which means wasting
time deliberately.
For the other informants, task work is not common as the employer
thinks the market rule is to pay by an hour. Yet, these two informants did benefit from the transition toward task work. How they made the transition is further elaborated in the next chapter.
(8) Develop skills to upgrade their occupations
In contrast to their live-in period, when skills are not so valuable, DWs realize
the importance of skill during their live-out period. There are two kinds of
skills, the domestic work skill and skills beyond the occupation.
In terms of the work skill, they found cooking skill and computer skill
could easily transfer into real benefits. For example, while cooking skill is an
effective tool to attract employers, increasing their bargaining power in the occupation, computer skill could help them to publish advertisements online,
bring more job opportunities.
Besides of that, they also develop other skills with a view to expand their
career choices. Specifically in my research, five of them have taken other economic activities to cultivate other skills.
34
For example, B (30s, from Anhui) sells household cleaning product and
nutrition product of Amway Company to her employers. With the more successful result she gains from her sales, she uses the DS as an effective tool to
reach her customers.
“Well, I also sell household cleaning product, while I am doing the cleaning
job. It works very well. My employers do not refuse the product I recommended to them, because I show them how effective the products are. I have
trial ones. Later, when they like my product, I will further recommend the nutrition product. And gradually, I found myself more like a salesperson, and
doing DS is a good way to find clients. Do you know Amway? An international company! They have wonderful cleaning product and nutrition vitamins…..”
To sum up, the transition process may suggest that: with the desire for
more security about their work, in aspect of freedom and control over their
own time and lives, these women took action to move out. Then, they developed various strategies to show the possibilities of success in fighting against
not only the insecure aspects of live-out work15 , but also the disadvantages of
domestic work16, to gain back control over their own jobs and move the stigma
of the occupation and redefine the job as skilled. Moreover, besides the upgrade within their occupation, they also seek other opportunities to expand
their career choices to gain a more secure life in the future.
However, it is obvious that, not everyone can make the same success.
Therefore, the next chapter aims to find out what does the transition process
suggest in terms of commonalities, and also tries to explain their difference
with a view to explore what determines their upward mobility.
15
16
That is continuous employers seeking and complex arrangement.
Like isolated working environment and lacking of social recognition
35
Chapter 5
Case study: what does transition suggest?
This chapter covers three sections. The first section indicates, the transition
process suggests a pattern of changed power relation between employers and
employees. The second section analysis three types of SN in order to argue
that, the SN, in particular, the peers’ network, proves as a strong determinant
and a constraint to these DWs. The last section goes back to the leading questions and structure-agency debate, arguing there does not exist a yes or no answer for the research question, because the whole process could be seen as a
mixed picture between structure and agency.
5.1 Changed employer-employee relationship
From the earlier comparison between their living-in period with the living-out
time, it appears to suggest that the transition brought a more equal power between employers and employees.
In the initial period, the relation between the two parties is like many
scholars indicated: it is an employer-dominated relation, which is hierarchical
and vertical. (Anderson, 2000) Their relation is more like a mistress-servant
relation. This would be supported by the job description of the worker M, (40s,
from Hubei), which mentioned before that “how to please the employer is
more important than how to do the work.”
As a result of this hierarchical relation, DWs have no voice in the bargaining. They dare not voice their different opinion or express their concerns over
their task. This would be reflected in the previous remarks from K (40s, From
Shandong province) “When you live in other’s home, how can you not follow
their order? You cannot refuse……if you still want to keep your job”.
Therefore, they do not have any control on their working hour and tasks.
As explained in Chapter 4, they could neither specify their tasks nor decide on
how to do their tasks. What they do is just follow the employers’ instructions.
So, there is no bargaining happens between the two parities.
However, the relation changed in their move-out period. A type of bargaining reflects a more equal power relation appears to emerge. The evidences
are: DWs do gain control on their working hour, and have bigger voice on deciding what they do, how to do it as well as asking for higher pay and better
working conditions.
How does this happen? There are several reasons behind it.
Firstly, the multiple employer relation, which reduces their dependency on
one employer, enhances their leverage in bargaining. Having a potential next
employer, they can negotiate with the current employer without the need to
compromise. Also, it brings little lose from the switch, as they could immediately go to the next job.
36
(Employer)
(Employee)
(Hierarchy)
(More equal)
Other researchers share the similar opinion that “decentralized horizontal
networks established among domestics and their employers are key to the organization of domestic work” (Piore and Sabel 1984).
Secondly, constructing the jobs into hour jobs or task work greatly reduces
DW’s chances of being exploited by unlimited hours and endless work. Besides, hiring DWs just for hours or for specific tasks make the service more
affordable for middle-class families or for more women. Therefore, although it
requires DWs to find multiple-employers, which may face the challenges of job
limits, it is quite possible there will be increasing demand by more employers in
the market because the cost of hiring DWs has reduced for each employer.
Thirdly, their diminished contacts with employers, along with the strategy
of professional image, not only helps to increase their voice in bargaining, but
also helps to create a business-like environment with expert image, trying to
change the relation from a mistress-servant into a customer-vendor relation.
Mistress-servant
Customer-vendor
All these measures help DWs to enhance their leverage in bargaining with
their employers, changing the hierarchy relation more equal. Although we
could not prove they have successfully changed the relation into totally equal
or into customer-vendor relations, we do see they have moved from no voice
to a degree of implicit bargaining, which means having a bigger say in deciding
their working conditions.
5.2 Social network determines upward mobility
Pierrette (2004) found out the SN governs the entry of DWs and also internal
upward mobility. My research shows the similar result. The different performances of out workers could be explained largely by different types of social
network formed by them and the effectiveness of each network. To illustrate
this, followed the three types of SN will be analyzed basing on Adler and
Kwon (2002)’s model. While analyzing the benefits and risks involved in three
dimensions of each SN, it is argued, the SN, especially the peer’s network, is a
key factor determines upward mobility.
Yet, unlike the Mexican DWs in Pierrette (2004) work, who mainly depend on employers’ network for job search while using peer’s network to gain
tacit knowledge to upgrade working conditions, DWs in this case study develop three types of SN as mentioned before, employers’ network , DSCs’ network and peers’ network. Followed these three types of SN will be analyzed in
the three facets of SN: information, influence & control, and solidarity (as
summarised in Table 8), to see what role each SN plays and which SN is the
most desirable one.
37
Table 8
Benefits & risks of the three types of SN
Employer’s network
Information
+ job search
DSCs’ network
+job search
Peer’s network
+job search;
+Tips & advice
Influence
- economic cost
-
-
+
+
+influence: model
example
&control
+ control over work
Solidarity
- obey the rule
- increase dependency
-
+
+
+social support
+collective action
(+means benefits, - means risks)
First of all, in terms of the information aspect, three networks have been
used for job search. This is different from Pierrette (2004)’s case, peer’s network is ineffective in seeking jobs because of the competition among workers.
However, in this case, there are several motivations for DWs to introduce
job opportunities to their peers. Firstly, they do not see it as a zero-sum competition, which does not necessarily mean if others get the job, they lose one.
This is because, unlike the out DWs in other countries, who mainly do cleaning
task on a weekly or bi-weekly basis (Romero, 1988; Pierrette, 2004; Elizabeth,
1985), my interviewees’ main jobs are daily based, mostly cover lunch or dinner. As the times for meals are always overlapping among different employers,
most of the time they could not serve two homes during the same lunch or
dinner time. As a result, they would introduce their surplus jobs to their friends
without any lost. Actually, in contrast, it may bring potential benefits for two
reasons. One is that, as DWs are helping their employers to find workers for
their friends or neighbours, they are doing it as a favour to their employers.
This may lead to thanks from the employers’, which may cause a better attitude
towards them. Secondly, they see the peer’s referrals as reciprocal, which mean
if one day they need a job, their friends would also help them to get jobs as
they did before.
On the other side, DSC’s network has cost in job search. If DWs go to
companies for jobs, they need to pay 10-20% of their wages to the companies
as service fee.
Besides the job search, comparing to the other two networks, peer’s network provides broader information besides of job opportunities. As the respondents mentioned, they also exchange a variety of tips and advice on how
to better upgrade their jobs. Like the strategies mentioned in last chapter, they
learn from each other how to rent a house, how arrange and allocate jobs
properly, how to deal with employers as well as how to use tips for higher pay
and better working conditions.
Next, in the aspect of influence and control, peer’s work is more desirable
in terms of empowerment. Firstly, the successful stories of their peers’ could
38
lead to positive influence resulted from the model role. As mentioned before,
encouraged by the success of other day workers, my respondents decide to
move from live-in to live-out.
More importantly, compared to the other two networks, they might gain
more autonomy and control on their work through the peer’s network. There
are two reasons for this. (1) The tips and strategies exchanged among them
help them to leverage their bargaining power. (2) The jobs introduced by peers
allow more autonomy and upgrade spaces. The reason is that, if the job is got
from the company, DWs need to obey the rules of the company, which constrain their flexibility and bargaining power. Also if the job is from employers’
referral, this increase DWs’ dependency on the employer while on the same
time constrains their negotiation on working conditions.
As B (30s, from Anhui) explained, “If you got the job from a company, you
cannot be late or ask for a leave if you do not have a good reason. You cannot raise the salary before the contract end. You need to follow employers’
orders. You are not allowed to refuse the tasks they give to you, if the task is
belonging to housework. Unlike the job, which I found through my friends, I
negotiated that I need hot water for washing because cold water is not good
for my hands, and I do not wash underwear. When I want to go out with
friends, I just send them a message informing my absence, and that is all.”
The concrete constraints of employer’s network are as followed: if a DW
gets a job from her current employee, then she needs to keep a good relation
with the employer. If she fails to do that, she may encounter the risk of losing
jobs, not only from the current employer and also the ones introduced by
him/her. Another problem with employer’s network is that, it is a double
sword. On one hand, it is possible that just as Romero (1988) described, the
employer may inform the potential employer of the pay and working condition,
which may help to create an appropriate expatiations from the potential employers. But on the other hand, my informants expressed that it also means
they cannot raise the pay for the friend of the current employer. They could
not set their price for the new employer but keep it as the same as the current
one.
Compared with employer’s network, peer’s referral brings more security as
employers are not connected, avoiding the phenomenon of the chain lost. Also,
it allows DWs to freely exert their agencies, For example, they could negotiate
better pay and better working condition with the new employer without any
concern.
Lastly, in terms of solidarity, the respondents only relate it to their peers’
network. The advantage of solidarity reflects, firstly on the social support. As
mentioned before, their contact with their peers helps to release their psychological stress from isolated work as they are doing the same kind of job, easily
to understand each other. Furthermore, the social support is also seen in the
case of the two relatively successful workers L and N (both 40s, from Sichuan),
who has a close network with their co-villagers who do the same jobs. Their
peers support them in terms of renting a house together, helping them to adjust to the live-out role quickly.
Another important merit with solidarity came from the group gain resulted from collective action. However, this is only seen in L and N’s case, they
39
explained that: their improvement from hourly work to task work is due to the
collective action in their peer’s community. The collective action of their Sichuan community to request to be paid by task work instead of hours makes
employers easy to accept the rule.
Exploring why L and N would achieve relatively more success, it is quite
possible their special peer’s network could be a key factor. L and N belong to
the Sichuan community. The character of the community is that: the workers
generally easy gain recognition from employers as they cook nice Sichuan food
and work fast than others. Because of the Sichuan food which has a special
taste, there is a group of employers who only hires Sichuan workers as DWS.
Also, the Sichuan workers are well connected to each other. They live together,
introduce each other job opportunities. More importantly, they always exchange tips and learn from each other’s experience. After their jobs, one of the
most frequent topics in their spare time is to discuss, how to deal with problematic employers, how to negotiate for better pay and how to switch employers. Most importantly, once a successful measure has been proven to be more
beneficial, it is quite possible that all the others would follow the same strategy.
Their transition from hour work to task work is a best example. “The market
rule is to pay by hours, but if the employer change several Sichuan workers and
find out they all ask to pay by the task, they might be easy to accept the new
rule set by us.”Explained N, (40s, from Sichuan)
From L and N’s case, it is true that, there are other factors determine their
success, such as the special cooking skill the Sichuan community has, which
make them relatively irreplaceable in the market. However, the key determinant
still lies in their effective SN, which generates positive information, influence
and solidarity benefits for the group member to have the chances or to say to
be empowered to transfer their skill and tacit knowledge into real benefits in
terms of an upgrade in their working condition.
In brief, we could see SN plays an important role in DWs’ empowerment.
Particularly, the pee’s network seems to be the most enabled one, as it provides
broader information, positive influence and control, as well as generate solidarity. This result shows a slight difference from Pierrette’ (1994) research, which
indicates a peer’ network, on one hand governs up-ward mobility, but on the
other hand, also generate domination influence because the skilful DWs use
apprenticeship to exploit the new DWs. However, in my research, peer’s network appears to be positive only, unlike the DSCs’ network and employers’
network are found to be both enabling and disabling, as they provide job information, but also lead to cost and generate negative influence on DWs autonomy over their work.
5.3 The answer for the leading question
Back to the Structure-agency debate on the transition mentioned in Chapter 2,
the founding of this case study is more leaning to the agency’s views. It is true
that moving out brings more tasks, requiring DWs to arrange their own accommodation and job tasks. If they could handle it well, it might worse the
condition. However, my informants shows they develop different strategies to
cope with the disadvantages of moving out, such as expand channels to find
40
sufficient employers. In terms of arrangement skill, there shows a learning process, they might upgrade from the initial period with numbers of volatile employers to the stable period with regular clients. For example, they promote a
monthly package to stabilize employers, and arrange their timetable according
to the regularity of the services. After addressing these fundamental challenges,
they do enjoy the advantages brought by moving out, such as flexibility and
freedom. They cut their dependency on one employer, gain voice on deciding
their own work schedule, working hour as well as clarifying the job responsibilities. For the more successful ones, who fully utilize their SN, they exchange
tips and learn from other’s successful experience, they further develop other
strategy to upgrade their working condition. Such as set up professional images
not only show they know how to do their job, but more importantly to gain
the recognition from their employers, trying to move the stigma of this occupation through showing that this is an skilful job. At the same time, they strategy diminish their contact with employers, in order to create a business-like
environment to adjust the asymmetry employer-employee relations to become
more equal. Beside of their work, they enjoy more freedom on their spare
time, they could spend the time with other person as they wish. Another point
is the upgrade space beyond this occupation, as the structure perspective see t
as long as you are in this occupation, you are in low status. My case study also
shows the possibilities of upgrade chances beyond the occupation, my informants also actively perform other activities or try to develop their other skills
with a view to expand their career choices.
Although it shows a picture of exerting their own agencies, it could not be
summarized as moving out make their work more decent. This is because there
are structure limits and individual differences. Firstly, the labour market is an
important determinant. As in my case, there is a tight labour market, where the
demand for DWs is growing. This addresses the problem of job limitation. Imagine after moving out, if DWs could not find sufficient jobs to support their
basic living expenses, how could they enjoy the freedom of moving out? It is
worth bearing in mind, all the benefits of moving out depend on one precondition that DWs have sufficient numbers of employers. Therefore, whether DWs
could exert their agency also depend on the outside structure factor, such as
labour market.
Secondly, in the same tight market, an individual’ work experience or performance is still affected by many factors, such as the social norm, one’s past
experiences and skills, as well as SN one has. While, on the other hand, we see
one’s initiative and increased ability gain from a continued learning process is
also influential.
For instance, the Sichuan community’s success suggests an empowerment.
However we see, the social norm, their original places and their skills and SN
all have close links with their success. Whether their success could be coped or
imitated by other DWs or not remains a puzzle.
Besides, the research outcome could not be generalized to all DWs. Although living out status helps my respondents to better exert their agency, it
could not be neglect that there are also other DWs, who could not handle well
the moving out situation and might move back to live-in situations. It is just
that my group does not cover that kind of DWs.
41
Therefore, whether moving out make DWs’ work more decent or not is a
complicated issue. It could bring more upgrade mobility if there are beneficial
macro factors, such as tight labour market, as well as individual ability, especially one’s SN. It is an issue which could not be only looking at it from the
pure structure or agency perspective as the structure and agency factors are
intertwined together.
42
Chapter 6
Conclusions
The motivation for the author to conduct this reach comes from the slogan
“Nothing about us without us!” It means no policy should be decided without
listing to the voice or direct participation of the people, who are the target
group or the group affected by the policy. It makes the author to reflect what
are the feelings of DWs and what are their perspectives on their own work,
while there are so many outsiders, such as social movement actors, lawyers, or
NGOs, actively tries to raise the awareness that: we need to provide decent
work for DWs. Many scholars gave out mountains of evidence to prove DWs
are the vulnerable group. Then, they study the law framework or labour market
or the social norm to find out the constraints. They also put forward multiple
measures on how to enable the vulnerabilities.
Yet, how they see DWs as victims or pioneers is actually not so important.
The author would like to raise the issue that, it is also important to see how
DWs see themselves, how they feel at their wok, what do their desire and what
they have done for themselves. One aim of this research is to promote the idea
that: while considering the empowerment of DWs, it is also vital to include
those workers into participation, letting them speak for themselves.
43
References
Adler, P.S. and S.W. Kwon (2002) 'Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept',
Academy of management review : 17-40.
Anderson, B. (2000) Doing the Dirty Work?: The Global Politics of Domestic Labour. Palgrave Macmillan.
Anker, R. (2002) 'People's Security Surveys: An Outline of Methodology and Concepts', International Labour Review 141(4): 309-329.
Ashforth, B.E. and G.E. Kreiner (1999) '" how can You do it?": Dirty Work and the
Challenge of Constructing a Positive Identity', Academy of management Review :
413-434.
Bourdieu, P. (1986) The Forms of Capital. Wiley Online Library.
Briones, L. (2009) Empowering Migrant Women: Why Agency and Rights are Not
enough. Ashgate Pub Co.
Broom, L. and J. Smith (1963) 'Bridging Occupations', The British journal of sociology 14(4): 321-334.
Calvo-Armengol, A. and M.O. Jackson (2004) 'The Effects of Social Networks on
Employment and Inequality', The American Economic Review 94(3): 426-454.
Castillo, J. (2009) 'Snowball Sampling', Retrieved February 9: 2010.
Chang, G. (2000) Disposable Domestics: Immigrant Women Workers in the Global
Economy. South End Pr.
Cook S. and X.Y. Dong (2011) 'Harsh Choices: Chinese Women’s Paid Work and
Unpaid Care Responsibilities under Economic Reform', Development and
Change 42(4): 947-965
De Graaf, N.D. and H.D. Flap (1988) '“With a Little Help from My Friends”: Social
Resources as an Explanation of Occupational Status and Income in West Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States', Social Forces 67(2): 452-472.
De Haas, H. (2010) 'Migration and Development: A Theoretical Perspective1', International Migration Review 44(1): 227-264.
Decressin, J.W. (1994) 'Internal Migration in West Germany and Implications for
East-West Salary Convergence', Review of World Economics 130(2): 231-257.
Dill, B.T. (1988) 'Making Your Job Good Yourself: Domestic Service and the Construction of Personal Dignity', Women and the Politics of Empowerment : 33-52.
Elizabeth, C. L. (1985) " this Work had a'End": The Transition from Live-in to Day
Work. Vol. 2. Center for Research on Women, Memphis State University.
Elrick, T. (2005)'Migration Decision Making and Social Networks'. EU Marie Curie
Excellence Grant Project “Knowmig”
Feng X.( 2004) “Zhuanxinshehuizhong de baomuyuguzhuguanxi (Maid-employer relationship in transitional society),” in Meng, Xianfan (ed.), ZhuanxinZhong de
ZhongguoFunv(Chinese Women in Transitional Society), Beijing: China Academy of Social Sciences press, 25-47
Gaetano A.M. (2004) Filial Daughters, Modern women: Migrant Domestic Workers in
Post-Mao Beijing. On the move, women and rural-to-urban migration in contemporary China. Columbia University Press, 41-68
Garton, L., C. Haythornthwaite and B. Wellman (1997) 'Studying Online Social Networks', Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication 3(1): 0-0.
Glenn, E.N. (1988) Issei, Nisei, War Bride: Three Generations of Japanese American
Women in Domestic Service. Temple Univ Pr.
44
Granovetter, M.S. (1995) Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers. University
of Chicago Press.
Haas H.D. (2010) Migration and development: a theoretical perspective, International
Migration Institute University of Oxford. Accessed 1 September
2011<http://www.heindehaas.com/Publications/de%20Haas%202010%20%20IMR%20-%20Migration%20and%20development%20theory.pdf>
Hochschild, A.R., W. Hutton and A. Giddens (2000) 'Global Care Chains and Emotional Surplus Value', On the Edge Living with Global Capitalism : 130-146.
IDWN (2010) Domestic Workers Wordwide: Summary of available statistical data and
estimates
ILO (2009a) Fact sheet: domestic workers in China
ILO (2009b) Situational analysis of domestic work in China
ILO (2010) Decent Work for Domestic Workers: Fourth Item on the Agenda.
Irek, M. (1998) Der Schmugglerzug. Warschau-Berlin-Warschau, Berlin: Dus Arabische Buch.
IUF (2008) China: Growing unmet demand for household services, Respect and
Rights, Protection for domestic/household workers! Report of the international
conference held in Amsterdam, 8-10 November
Jordan, A.D. and Annie E. Casey Foundation (2006) Tapping the Power of Social
Networks: Understanding the Role of Social Networks in Strengthening Families
and Transforming Communities. Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Kantor, P., U. Rani and J. Unni (2006) 'Decent Work Deficits in Informal Economy:
Case of Surat', Economic and Political Weekly : 2089-2097.
Katzman, D.M. (1981) Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America. Univ of Illinois Pr.
Kumar, R. (1999) Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners / Ranjit Kumar. London [etc.]: SAGE.
Kurz-Scherf, I. (1995) 'Vom Guten Leben: Feministische Perspektiven Diesseits Und
Jenseits Der Arbeitsgesellschaft', Wege aus der Arbeitslosigkeit : 153.
Lan, P.C. (2003) 'Maid Or Madam? Filipina Migrant Workers and the Continuity of
Domestic Labor', Gender & Society 17(2): 187.
Laws, S., C. Harper, R. Marcus and Save the Children (2003) Research for Development: A Practical Guide / Sophie Laws ; with Caroline Harper and Rachel Marcus. London [etc.]: Sage ; [etc.].
Leana, C.R. and H.J. Van Buren III (1999) 'Organizational Social Capital and Employment Practices', Academy of management review : 538-555.
Lu D. and N.Wang (2004) Shehui de youcichengmian: Zhongguo jindai
nüyong (Another Dimension of Society: Female Servants in China’s NearModern Times). Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe.
Lutz, H. (2002) 'At Your Service Madam! the Globalization of Domestic Service',
Feminist review : 89-104.
Marsden, P.V. and J.S. Hurlbert (1988) 'Social Resources and Mobility Outcomes: A
Replication and Extension', Social forces 66(4): 1038-1059.
McDowell, L. (2011) 'Empowering Migrant Women: Why Agency and Rights are Not
enough', Feminist Economics 17(1): 163-166.
MOLSS (2003) White paper on domestic worker sector in China,
Morokvasic, M. (1991) 'Fortress Europe and Migrant Women', Feminist Review (39):
69-84.
45
Morokvasic, M. (1993) '‘In and out’of the Labour Market: Immigrant and Minority
Women in Europe 1', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 19(3): 459-483.
Nona G. and K. Joanna (1998) ''Frustrated and Displaced': Filipina Domestic Workers
in Canada', Gender and Development 6(1): 7-12.
Parreñas, R.S. (2001) Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration and Domestic
Work. Stanford Univ Pr.
Pearlin, L.I. (1989) 'The Sociological Study of Stress', Journal of health and social behavior : 241-256.
Perez F.P. (2008) Voluntarism and determinism in Gidden’s and Bourdieu’s theories
of Human agency, The Essex Graduate Journal Vol 8
Pierrette, H. (1994) 'Regulating the Unregulated: Domestic Workers' Social Networks',
Soc.Probs. 41: 50.
Pierrette,H. and A.Ernestine (1997) 'I'm here, but I'm there', Gender & Society 11(5):
548-571.
Piore, M.J. and C.F. Sabel (1984) The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity / Michael J. Piore & Charles F. Sabel. New York: Basic Books.
Portes, A. (2000) 'Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology',
Knowledge and Social Capital: Foundations and Applications.Boston: Butterworth Heinemann : 43-67.
Putnam, R. 'D. 1993 Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy',
Princeton University (“:”) .
Romero, M. (1988) 'Chicanas Modernize Domestic Service', Qualitative Sociology
11(4): 319-334.
Salzinger, L. (1991) 'A Maid by any Other Name: The Transformation of ‘dirty
work’by Central American Immigrants', Ethnography unbound: Power and resistance in the modern metropolis : 139-160.
Sandefur, R.L. and E.O. Laumann (1998) 'A Paradigm for Social Capital', Rationality
and society 10(4): 481-501.
Sedef, A, (1989) 'In the Privacy of our Own Home: Foriegn Domestic Workers as
Solution to the Crisis of the Domestic Sphere in Canada', Studies in Political
Economy, spring
Standing, G. (2002) 'From People's Security Surveys to a Decent Work Index', International Labour Review 141(4): 441-454.
Sun, W. (2008) 'Maid in China: Media, Morality, and the Cultural Politics of Boundaries'.
Wang Z. (2006) A study of legal issues concerning China’ Household Service Sector
Wong M. (2007) Domestic work and rights in China, Accessed 1 June
<http://www.amrc.org.hk/alu_article/focus_on_china/domestic_work_and_rig
hts_in_china>
Wu, H.X. and L. Zhou (1996) 'Rural‐to‐Urban Migration in China', Asian‐Pacific
Economic Literature 10(2): 54-67.
Yan H.(2007) The waged labour of domestic service, Waged Working in China Ethnographies of labour and workplace transformation, Routledge
Yeates, N. (2005) 'Global Care Chains: A Critical Introduction', Global migration perspectives 44: 1-19.
Young, G.E. (1987) 'The Myth of being "Like a Daughter"', Latin American Perspectives 14(3): 365-380.
46