Migration and Domestic Work

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Migrating Women and Domestic Work: Starting Our Exploration

   • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

   Pages 1-16

3. Women Migrating to London, Berlin and Istanbul: A Research Study

   • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

   Pages 17-36

4. Dreams Dashed but Not Forgotten

   • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

   Pages 37-63

5. Migrating Women’s Working Lives, Rights and Social Protections

   • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

   Pages 65-103

6. Identity, Belonging, Discrimination, Racism, Sexism and Exclusion

   • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

   Pages 105-127

7. Gender, Family and Religion

   • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

   Pages 129-149

8. Family and Gender: Religion and Work

   • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

   Pages 151-179

9. Migrant Women’s Collectivism: The Diaspora and Community Organising

   • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

   Pages 181-203

10. Migrant Women, Collectivism and Trade Unions

    • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

    Pages 205-235

11. Prospects for Women Migrant Domestic Workers?

    • Gaye Yilmaz, Sue Ledwith

    Pages 237-251

12. Back Matter

    Pages 253-270

    PDF

With female migrants dominating low paid and ever-expanding domestic work worldwide, this book brings together the voices of 120 migrating women of 28 national identities and 10 different religious affiliations. Together they tell how patriarchal and religious gender codes in the family and at work shape their new lives in London, Berlin and Istanbul. Through their own accounts, the study explores the intersecting multiple and gendered identities women carry from their home countries and how these are reshaped, challenged, changed, or not, as they encounter different structures, traditions and cultural codes in their new countries. With women’s propensity for collective organising, whether via community, social movements or trade unions as a central theme, the authors also bring together issues of migration, work and identity with trade union and community organizing. Migration and Domestic Work is an important source for scholars and practitioners in each of these fields. 

• gender
• religion
• family dynamics
• identity
• culture
• community
• social movement
• trade union
• faith, spirituality and business

“The voices and lives of migrant women domestic workers are the central pillar of this book. … The book will therefore be of great interest to both scholars of labour studies, and labour and women’s movement activists who want to know more about how the intersecting aspects of migrant women workers’ identities shape their lives.” (Fenella Porter, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 56 (2), June, 2018) “The voices of migrant domestic workers resisting attempts to control their lives come through strongly in this book and provide deep insight into lives that are intersected by gender, culture, family, and religion. A highly recommended read.” (Jane Holgate, Professor, University of Leeds)

• Bogazici University , Istanbul, Turkey

  Gaye Yilmaz

• Ruskin College , Oxford, United Kingdom

  Sue Ledwith

Gaye Yilmaz is a scholar in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. While her academic work focuses on political economy she has also actively taken part in the struggles of vulnerable groups such as Kurds, workers, women and LGBTI. She worked for Turkish labour unions between 1996 and 2008.  She was also one of 1128 academics who signed a petition urging the government to make peace with the Kurdish people.

 

Sue Ledwith is Emerita Scholar in International Labour and Trade Union Studies, Ruskin College, Oxford, UK. Also an activist, Sue has researched and published in the field of gender democracy and labour movements for 25 years, recently re-addressing this work as a longitudinal, international study in her PhD “Prospects for Gender Democracy in Labour Movements”.

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