What is the problem with western households employing Third World domestic labour and how can it be solved? Illustrate your essay with specific examples.

Western families are increasingly outsourcing the functions of domestic work, including the reproductive process of caring for children, to a cheap domestic labour market largely comprised of migrant workers from developing countries. This approach to raising children poses some significant questions about the potential of a rising generation to become productive members of society because society as a whole has decided to cut corners in the care and nurture they provide. An argument can be made that western families are losing a quality of care because their children are being raised through a market that provides poor compensation to caregivers and is somewhat volatile. Clearer, however, is the price that migrant mothers and their families pay in lost care for their children as a result of the time they spend as domestic labourers in western households.
In addition, domestic labourers and their families suffer from the abuses placed upon them because of an increasingly widening rift between a native western social class and a second rate migrant class. Despite the value of domestic labour that the migrant workers bring to western societies, this social stratification is exacerbating the opportunities of migrant women to utilize their education and skills to provide for the welfare of their own children. This social stratification is propped up by the laws and policies of western states that limit the economic and social mobility of domestic migrant women and their families. Government laws and regulations often treat migrant workers as invisible and relatively insignificant, creating an environment in which domestic labourers are abused or taken advantage of. The policy behind these laws and regulations are not taking into account the needs of western households for domestic labour and quality care or the needs of migrant workers for fill those domestic labour positions while providing quality care for their own children.
Therefore, a discussion of third world domestic labour in western households is essentially a discussion of motherhood and female migrant labour. The literature acknowledges that domestic work remains a female dominated activity (Mattingly, 2001; Ehrenreich and Hochschild, 2003; Romero, 2002; Perrenas, 2001). According to Ehrenreich and Hochschild (2003), the increase in the numbers of migrant women to western countries is at least in part driven by the liberalization of western women. Western women contribute to the skilled and professional work force to an unprecedented degree. As a result, the burden of domestic work that was once done by full time housewives is shifting away from primary caregivers (mothers) to secondary caregivers (nannies and maids). Mattingly (2001) states that traditionally women of color performed domestic work for the higher classes of society. However, as middle class women have entered the workforce, demand for domestic labour has increased and migrant labourers are meeting that demand.
Ehrenreich and Hochschild (2003) believe that liberated and empowered western women with the image of “doing it all” (4) – that is to say, be a career woman and raise a family at the same time – is a façade built on the labours of migrant women or what Mattingly calls the “cult of domesticity” (2001, 373). Western working women have achieved a prestige that overshadows significant yet largely ignored contributions of domestic labourers. As many as half of these migrant domestic workers today are women and a majority of them work in a domestic labour sector. It is also important to take notice that a majority of these women who are domestic workers have their own children and many of these women are raising their children without the assistance of husbands (Hochschild 2003). Ehrenreich and Hochschild contend that these conditions have significant negative consequences for western households and migrant workers.
Western families are influenced negatively in two ways that potentially erode the cohesion and wellbeing of western families. Firstly, Ehrenreich (2003) believes that the increased prevalence of maids in the homes of the middle class is creating a rising generation of domestic incompetents. This new generation is becoming lazy when it comes to the care of their households and learning that a certain type of work, domestic labour, is beneath them. This increases the social stratification between a supposed upper and lower class, exacerbated even more by the fact that foreigners are the ones typically doing the domestic labour. Social stratifications thus are created between native and foreigner, citizen and resident. This stratification has significant consequences for migrant workers and their families, which will be addressed later, but it also creates a generation of Europeans that lose a family connection. Ehrenreich argues that a family that does not sacrifice in the service of each other, especial parents for their children, never fully obtain that bond of love that is important for the growth of children.
Secondly, Mattingly (2001) explores a potential problem created by employing domestic care givers because she observes that employing mothers are losing their autonomy in the care of their children. Whether they receive assistance from other family members, a nanny, or daycare, they are opening themselves and their children to outside influences and sometimes more government intervention. Mattingly however fails to provide any substantial evidence for the negative effects this loss of autonomy may bring.
To further this argument, Cheever (2003) makes an argument that domestic labour inadequately provides the same quality of love and care than a child’s actual mother could. Nannies often create relationship with an employer’s children greater than their employer but this relationship is often fragile. In practice, many nannies employment in a particular household is temporary. Children raised in households with the help of domestic labour often have numerous nannies which can create attachment difficulties. It is also a reality that nannies are paid to care for another’s child. Cheever believes something is lost when the care of children becomes a part of a business transaction and not the genuine love and concern of a child’s natural mother.
However, Hochschild (2003) does not see this outsourcing of parenting as a problem for western households. The problem is not a lack of care giving for the children of western working mothers but the lack of care giving going to the children of the migrant care giver. Hochschild argues that the love that the employer’s children need from a loving mother is met by the love and care from their nannies. The loss of care does not come to the employer’s children but the migrant domestic workers children. A domestic working mother does not make enough money to pay a domestic worker to take care of her children as a result of her energies going toward the care of her employer’s children or other domestic needs. The result is a migrant domestic labourer, who is often a mother as well, must rely on other family members, friends, or even older children to take care of the needs of her younger children. This could have significant consequences for the migrant family and society as a whole should it be the cause of the children of migrant workers not becoming production members of society.
Migrant domestic workers and their families are also adversely affected because of social norms that undervalue the valuable work of domestic labour. In many western states the policy supporting immigration laws are working against the market demand of western households for domestic workers and the long term welfare of migrant workers (Kofman 2008). For example, Germany’s laws currently allow for three year work permits to immigrants to perform domestic work. Western households are looking for permanent domestic workers, especially in the case of child care. Legal immigrants with the help of employers go underground after the three years when the work permit expires in order to maintain domestic care relationship. Even worse, the UK only grants domestic workers a six month business visa and limits domestic workers to working for their original employer with no option to change employers should the employment relationship go poorly. Under this UK law, immigrants are even more likely to go underground in order to remain in-country. These types of immigration laws in western countries create a condition in which consumers of domestic labor find it difficult to find nannies that are experienced and legal (Cheever, 2002).
Furthermore, domestic labour in western countries is often not fully recognized or not recognized at all under employment law (Piper, 2008). Domestic labour can be divided into two general categories: domestic help and domestic care. Domestic help consists of household duties such as cleaning, washing, gardening, and cooking-duties one associates with the work of a maid, butler, or gardener. Domestic care consists of tending to the needs of children or the elderly-duties one associates with the work of a nanny or a hospice caregiver (Anderson, 2000). This distinction between domestic help and care has become blurred as an increasing number of middle class households seek domestic labour. In an attempt to keep costs low, western households offer cheap wages to migrant workers while demanding long hours in order to meet the domestic help and care needs of a family.
As a result, documented and undocumented domestic workers’ rights are easily infringed as they are taken advantage of. Satterthwaite (2008) highlights studies conducted in the United States that indicate domestic workers average $2.14 per hour, far below the minimum wage $5.85, and that most domestic workers do not receive overtime pay. Satterthwaite also observes that employers maintain significant control in the employment relationship with domestic workers. Employers are known to miscalculate pay or arbitrarily withhold earning. Kofman (2008) reports similar abuses occurring in Europe, to include employers unilaterally altering the terms of contract. Anderson (2000) goes further to describe physical, sexual, and verbal abuses of domestic workers. Foreign domestic workers fall under the radar of government regulation on account that they are considered second class migrant workers.
In light of the consequences for western households and domestic labourers and their own households, Hochschild (2003) presents four potential strategies for dealing with the problems of the current western household domestic labor situation and its problems. Firstly, society can take the approach that domestic labour is a market and it should remain a market. Any market will have ups and but in the end it is better for the invisible hand of a market economy to work out the kinks. This market approach coincides with Kofman’s (2008) recommendation that western governments should eliminate the immigration regulations that limit the free flow of foreign domestic labourers into western states. Laws should also allow for greater mobility of migrant workers once they have been admitted into a western country.
Secondly, western and migrant mothers can make the decision to stay at home to care for their own children and do other household duties. Hochschild admits that this solution seems a bit naïve, an attempt to turn the clock back on time to the days of distinct gender roles. The entrance of women into the professional workforce appears to be a permanent situation. This option seems unpractical in light of the economic incentives for western women to remain in the professional working world and migrant women to seek opportunities away from their economically struggling native country.
Thirdly, western governments can strive for policies that improve the economies of the developing countries where migrant workers come from. By improving the developing world’s economies, women will not have the financial incentive to leave their children while they search for better economic opportunities abroad. This solution falls short because it does not change the demand for domestic labour and the fact that working mothers will still need to hire domestic labour, other mothers.
Finally, society as a whole should respect the domestic labour market that is performing a needed service. Society should also recognize the value of domestic labour and provide pay which is more commensurate with that value. Solutions to these problems are multifaceted. The need is domestic labour. Homes need to be maintained and children need to be raised. Should primary care givers return to fulfilling the duties of domestic labour or should the market of domestic labour be allowed to continue with a few changes that make sense when western households and governments recognize a greater value that they should be placing on the care of children. Kofman (2008) also indicates that western households and governments should take responsibility for improving the opportunities of migrant workers so they can improve the care they are able to provide for their own domestic needs.
This final approach to solving the problems of western households employing migrant domestic workers is the most practical according to Hochschild (2003). Primary care givers are not likely to abandon their professional employment and return to being full time domestic labourers. The liberalization of women from the home is here to stay. Researchers and experts assert solutions to the problems of western households employing migrant workers that assume western women will continue working outside the home (Hochschild, 2002). Piper (2008) advocates solutions that focus on bringing state immigration policies in line with the demands for domestic labour and increasing the visibility of domestic workers by granting them the same employment and human rights that western citizens enjoy. She recommends that domestic workers receive better wages, receive time off to spend time with their families, and be allowed to bring family members with them to host countries.
The goal should be to create an environment and policy that given women greater resources to care for the domestic needs of their families. A component of relieving this domestic burden of native and migrant women is for men to become more involved in the domestic labour duties that have traditionally been the realm of women. Cheever (2002) believes men can and should take a share of the domestic labour burden than they have in the past. The idea that men are not natural nurturers is a misnomer and that they do not do domestic choirs archaic. Cheever calls for media to improve the image of men doing domestic work. Also, governments should hold men more accountable for the responsibility they should bare for caring for their children. The same could be said of children who should participate more in the choirs of house cleaning and maintenance in order to absorb some of the burden being placed upon women (Ehrenreich, 2002).
In conclusion, at the issue’s core regarding western households employing migrant domestic labour is that domestic labour is a necessity yet largely undervalued and performed by women. Women cannot both work outside the home and care for the domestic needs of their families. The idea that they can do these both with flying colors is a façade built on the domestic labour of migrant women. People’s lives suffer, whether it is western children, migrant children, or the increased stratification in western societies. The reality is that domestic labour has great value and should be compensated on its merits. When society comes to grips with that reality, policies and behaviors will change in order to achieve to a greater extent the value inherent in the reproductive process.