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| CLARA Workshop Report: 'Domestic service and mobility' |
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5-7 February 2001, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Domestic service and mobility Domestic service has been, and still is, an important field of employment for many women. Yet, the ways in which it is organized have changed considerably throughout history and these changes have followed different trajectories. Conceptually and empirically, this workshop, which looked at case studies from Western Europe, South, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East involving scholars from Europe, Asia and America, brought a rich contribution to studies about domestic workers. The increased economic and political inter-connectedness of different parts of the world has enabled a rapid increase in the number of labour migrants amongst domestic workers. However, international labour migration cannot be seen in isolation from migration within national or local boundaries. With the close links between national economies and global markets, different kinds of migration - whether domestic or international, rural - urban, short- or long term - can no longer be regarded separately. Indeed, the most striking aspect of migration in different parts of Asia today is the close relationship between socio-economic development, occupational shifts within countries, and spatial mobility within a region. Geographic mobility of domestic workers is certainly not new. Domestic slaves in the Ottoman Empire, for instance, were often brought from the margins of the empire to the centres of power, while European women were employed in modernizing households in the periphery as part of a 'civilizing mission'. Elsewhere, both in nineteenth-century Europe and in Asia, a large number of domestic servants employed in the cities came from the countryside. In examining these developments historically, there were diverse trajectories found where one could see cycles of feminization and masculinization at the same time. In Italy, for instance, before the arrival of Asian immigrants, this sector experienced masculinization in the 1950s and 1960s. Some countries have also experienced a remasculinization, and in other countries one could clearly see a trend towards feminization. Also, countries that used to be 'sending countries' (Italy, Spain, and Greece, for instance) are now 'receiving countries'. Comparing how domestic workers and their work are defined served as a reminder of the various types of tasks that fall under the term 'domestic work', as well as of the different categories of workers involved. Different dimensions of the work could be conducted by nurses, governesses, live-in and live-out domestic workers, bonded labour, indentured labour, slaves, and foster children. And the work could involve cleaning, cooking, child rearing and child care, laundering, running the home, tending the garden. The question, then, is who defines the status and how are statistical categories defined? These have a direct impact on different state regulations and their status as citizens. The conditions under which domestic workers are defined as citizens are often linked to the larger political context (fascism, religion, and colonialism). Since this workshop was unique in that scholars from both sending and receiving countries came together, there was a clear need among the participants to maintain communication and exchange information regarding each other's work. A selection of the papers in this workshop will be published. Annelies Moors & Ratna Saptari Dr Annelies Moors is attached to the Department for Cultural Anthropology and Non-Western
Sociology at the University of Amsterdam
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