Todos Sacrifican: Immigrant Organizing and the Meanings of (Domestic) Work. Issue 2 (25th May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rosenbaum, Susanna
• Is Part Of: Working USA. Volume 19:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 187
• Page End: 206
• Publication Date: 2016-05-25
• Subjects: Labor unions -- Periodicals; Labor -- Periodicals; Working class -- Periodicals; Labor unions -- United States -- Periodicals; Labor -- United States -- Periodicals; Working class -- United States -- Periodicals; 331
• DOI: 10.1111/wusa.12236
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1089-7011

Abstract

Abstract : Domestic service is one of the few available jobs open to Mexican and Central American immigrant women, individuals who have migrated to the US to escape poverty in their home countries. Economic inequalities between countries are mirrored in a growing split within the US, where immigrant women have become the serving classes that sustain the lifestyles of the (native‐born) professional and managerial workforce. In LA, immigrant women often take up domestic work, remaining in jobs where they do not earn enough and experience daily humiliations. In this paper, I examine two groups that seek to mitigate the most abusive aspects of paid domestic employment in Los Angeles. Although they address significant and enduring issues, neither group is entirely successful. I ask how immigrant domestic workers define themselves, their experiences in the United States, and their jobs—and how these understandings affect the functioning of both groups.