Triangulated motherhood : the impact of transnationalized domestic work on families in the global city

Abstract

This thesis explores the relational dynamics within families who hire migrant domestic workers (MDWs), with a specific focus on the relationship between the cared for children and the MDWs, as well as the intersecting gendered effects of growing up in such families. Families are ‘outsourcing’ childcare through the employment of migrant domestic workers (MDWs) for a number of reasons, including: the increase in women’s labor force participation, a lack of viable social welfare and family support policies, persistent economic inequality between women and men, differences in gender expectations related to who should do care work, and growing inequality among women globally. This care arrangement is particularly evident in global cities like Hong Kong, where many middle-to-high-status families are juxtaposed and stratified alongside lower-status individuals (often women from the Global South) into single familial units. For families who hire MDWs, gender arrangements become increasingly complex. Mother-employers often now share in the ‘breadwinning’ role with their male partners—something that has been suggested to encourage more flexible gender role socialization in children. At the same time, housework and childcare are now largely embodied by migrant women, who are often of a different class and nationality than their employers. While studies have addressed the intimacy and complexity of the interpersonal relationships within such contexts, the position of the care-receiving child has seldom been considered or explored. This PhD research addresses this gap by including these children’s voices. It includes a total of 48 interviews with children and young adults who grew up with a MDW, mother-employers, as well as migrant domestic workers. Drawing on gender theory and constructionist grounded theory, the study seeks to: 1) Increase our understanding of commodified care-relationships by examining children’s role and experiences within the ‘care triangle’ of mother-MDW-children interactions; 2) Demonstrate mother-employers creating and resisting ‘motherhood’ within the care-triangle that is produced when a family hires a MDW; and, 3) Analyze how this familial care model reinforces gender-stereotypes as they intersect with class and ethnicity.