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University of California Press

Domestica

Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence, With a New Preface
by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (Author)
Paperback eBook
Price: $34.95 / £30.00
Publication Date: Mar 2007
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 318
ISBN: 9780520251717
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 4 line illustrations
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About the Book

In this enlightening and timely work, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo highlights the voices, experiences, and views of Mexican and Central American women who care for other people's children and homes, as well as the outlooks of the women who employ them in Los Angeles. The new preface looks at the current issues facing immigrant domestic workers in a global context.

About the Author

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo is Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2007 Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgments

PART ONE THE JOB TODAY
1. New World Domestic Order
2. Maid in L.A.

PART TWO FINDING HARD WORK ISN'T EASY
3· It's Not What You Know ...
4· Formalizing the Informal:
Domestic Employment Agencies
5· Blowups and Other Unhappy Endings

PART THREE INSIDE THE JOB
6. Tell Me What to Do, But Don't Tell Me How
7· Go Away ... But Stay Close Enough
8. Cleaning Up a Dirty Business

Notes
References
Index

Reviews

"Masterly, evenhanded, and rooted in the high-minded ambitions of its author . . . Doméstica raises questions that are hard to face if you have immigrants working in your home. "
— Atlantic Monthly
"Doméstica is a pathbreaking study. It opens our eyes to the hidden world of transnational care-work and calls on us to shape domestic and international policies that will bring basic principles of human rights and social justice into that world. Everyone who is concerned about care and equality should read it."—Lucie White, Professor, Harvard Law School

"Hondagneu-Sotelo challenges the reader to rethink the organization of caring work, the roles of race and immigrant status in the structure of domestic work, the importance of regulations, and the need for legal and personal recognition of the rights and human dignity of each worker."—Bonnie Thornton Dill, author of Across the Boundaries of Race and Class