Escaping domesticity: the replacement and devaluation of the homemaker with the use of migrant domestic workers

Abstract

Domestic work is one cause for concern for feminist theorists and migration experts. Research indicates that women in the global north and predominately white women are solving the issue of housework and childcare through the extraction of domestic labour from the global south. The debate about who carries out domestic labour continues and the housework dilemma has not been solved. Instead, inequalities among women on a global scale operates through the extraction of care from the global south to the global north resulting in care deficits and global care chains. This article intends to examine the issue of housework while examining contemporary families, globalisation, and the upsurge in the migration of women.