Class mobility and social status in paid domestic work: Filipina local and transnational domestics

Janet M. Arnado

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

Behavioral Sciences

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Source Title

International Sociological Association

Publication Date

7-2002

Abstract

Using fieldwork data from the Philippines, this paper examines whether domestic service is a dead end or a stepping-stone toward a more comfortable life. It then moves away from this dichotomous conception and presents a three-pronged argument regarding class mobility and social status of Filipino domestic workers. First, the upward mobility of Filipino domestics is contingent upon their situated position in the international division of reproductive labor. Class mobility depends on whether Filipino domestics work in medium-sized cities in the periphery, in metropolitan areas of the periphery, in semiperipheral countries, or in core countries. Second, the extent to which Filipino women are accepted to overseas domestic work depends on their social status in their homeland. The closer to the middle-class level an applicant's class position gets, the more likely that she will be hired abroad. Third, the Filipino domestic holds a dialectical class position. In her homeland, First Word employment augments her social standing. The closer her workplace is to the core, the greater her upward mobility within her homeland. In the First World, however, her social status declines because "dirty" work is defined as "lower class," and she is racialized based on race/ethnicity, class, and nationality.

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Disciplines

Sociology

Keywords

Foreign workers, Filipino; Social status--Philippines; Transnationalism

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