Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan by Pei-Chia Lan

Migrant women are the primary source of paid domestic labor around the world. Since the 1980s, the newly prosperous countries of East Asia have recruited foreign household workers at a rapidly increasing rate. Many come from the Philippines and Indonesia. Pei-Chia Lan interviewed and spent time with dozens of Filipina and Indonesian domestics working in and around Taipei as well as many of their Taiwanese employers. On the basis of the vivid ethnographic detail she collected, Lan provides a nuanced look at how boundaries between worker and employer are maintained and negotiated in private households. She also sheds light on the fate of the workers, “global Cinderellas” who seek an escape from poverty at home only to find themselves treated as disposable labor abroad.Lan demonstrates how economic disparities, immigration policies, race, ethnicity, and gender intersect in the relationship between the migrant workers and their Taiwanese employers. The employers are eager to flex their recently acquired financial muscle; many are first-generation career women as well as first-generation employers. The domestics are recruited from abroad as contract and “guest” workers; restrictive immigration policies prohibit them from seeking permanent residence or transferring from one employer to another. They care for Taiwanese families’ children, often having left their own behind. Throughout Global Cinderellas, Lan pays particular attention to how the women she studied identify themselves in relation to “others”—whether they be of different classes, nationalities, ethnicities, or education levels. In so doing, she offers a framework for thinking about how migrant workers and their employers understand themselves in the midst of dynamic transnational labor flows.“This path-breaking study illustrates how boundaries—of race, class, gender, and citizenship—are imposed on migrant domestic workers. Pei-Chia Lan’s use of boundary-making as the lens through which to analyze the integration of migrant domestic workers is a very important contribution to the burgeoning field of the feminization of migration. This is a brilliant book.”—Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, author of Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes“We might imagine that the more contact we have with others across the globe the closer our social bonds. But, as Pei-Chia Lan so ably shows, we would be sadly wrong about that. In some ways the madams of Taiwan are ‘close’ to their maids from the Philippines, but in other ways they are very distant from them. Indeed, in some cases the closer we are, the more distant. Just how this works out is the subject of this clearly written, trenchantly argued, hugely important, must-read book.”—Arlie Russell Hochschild, coeditor of Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy“[T]he book is a major contribution to contemporary research in the relevant areas, including globalization. Its feminist outlook is radical, yet pays attention to the incredible difficulty for involved parties that are willing to undo the inequalities unfolding in the space of the private home. It may be used to compare other proliferating ‘maid economies’ in places like HongKong, Singapore, and the Gulf region.”(Ann Vogel Sociology)“This engaging and readable book shows how globalization affects urban spaces and household dynamics. It will interest students and scholars of Asian Studies, Women’s Studies, Globalization, Sociology, and Anthropology, particularly those studying the cultural construction of identity and the negotiation of interpersonal power.”(Michele Ruth Gamburd, Comparative Studies in Society and History)“This is a fine and challenging ethnographic project . . . . The book is a theoretically informed, sophisticated analysis of employment relationships in the era of transnational migration. Scholars in women’s studies, and international migration and globalization will find this book insightful and informative. It is clearly written, rich in ethnographic insights, and accessible to both undergraduate and graduate students in social sciences and Asian studies.”(Ping-Chun Hsiung Labour/Le Travail)

About the Author
Pei-Chia Lan is Associate Professor of Sociology at National Taiwan University.

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Duke University Press Books; annotated edition edition (April 3, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 082233742-8
ISBN-13: 978-08-2-233742-3
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds