Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan

by Pei-Chia Lan

Migrant women are the primary source of paid domestic labor around the world. Since the 1980s, the newly prosperous countries of East Asia have recruited foreign household workers at a rapidly increasing rate. Many come from the Philippines and Indonesia. Pei-Chia Lan interviewed and spent time with dozens of Filipina and Indonesian domestics working in and around Taipei as well as many of their Taiwanese employers. On the basis of the vivid ethnographic detail she collected, Lan provides a nuanced look at how boundaries between worker and employer are maintained and negotiated in private households. She also sheds light on the fate of the workers, “global Cinderellas” who seek an escape from poverty at home only to find themselves treated as disposable labor abroad. Lan demonstrates how economic disparities, immigration policies, race, ethnicity, and gender intersect in the relationship between the migrant workers and their Taiwanese employers. The employers are eager to flex their recently acquired financial muscle; many are first-generation career women as well as first-generation employers. The domestics are recruited from abroad as contract and “guest” workers; restrictive immigration policies prohibit them from seeking permanent residence or transferring from one employer to another. They care for Taiwanese families’ children, often having left their own behind. Throughout Global Cinderellas , Lan pays particular attention to how the women she studied identify themselves in relation to “others”—whether they be of different classes, nationalities, ethnicities, or education levels. In so doing, she offers a framework for thinking about how migrant workers and their employers understand themselves in the midst of dynamic transnational labor flows.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Pei-Chia Lan (Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Northwestern University, 2000) is Professor of Sociology at National Taiwan University. Her fields of specialty include gender, work and migration. She is the author of Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan (Duke 2006), which won the 2007 Distinguished Book Award from the Sex and Gender Section of the American Sociological Association and the 2007 ICAS Book Prize: Best Study in Social Science from the International Convention of Asian Scholars.

Reviews

[Xiao Ke · Rating 5 out of 5]

what amazed me most is that, as a qualified dissertation, it contains almost not a single MALE!!! i felt so comfortable reading it and decided it as a rule for my dissertation 10 years after...wow, a world of all women is so fascinating @v@

[I-Chen Tsai · Rating 5 out of 5]

這本書有個特色：即使中文流暢、內容有意思，但讀不快。主要的原因是，知識與思考密度相當高。

社會學的紮實訓練，讓本書在各種故事的描述，角度兼具關懷、同理與冷靜。尤其那個「冷靜」的部分，甚至會看到很多「光描述出來都顯得直白」的細節。例如第 214 頁的這段，將第四章「跨越國界與性別藩籬」的諸多觀察，作了總結：

「在故鄉擔任家庭主婦的女性移工，出國幫傭後成為主要的養家者。她們雖然賺了錢，卻賠掉道德形象，因為她們無法負起照顧自身家庭的責任。面對成為經濟獨立女性，卻跨越性別界線（女人養家、不顧家）的困境，女性移工試圖重新建構家務與母職的意義與實踐。她們透過匯款、簡訊、信件和包裹來傳送愛與關心，並藉此操持「跨國持家」與遠距母職。」

這樣的中性描述，你幾乎看不到作者本人的「立場」，但就是這種中性，才讓人看到一個社會學者的專業素養，讓「觀察力」，化作字裡行間的「威力」。

這也是我在讀這本書時的內心小劇場，一開始，會覺得移工實在弱勢，在國家發展的巨大差異下，成為不得已的受害者。但進一步，到本書中後段，佩嘉教授又提醒我們，其實移工並不是單純的「受害者」，在這樣的過程中，她們主動追求了人生價值，也找到許多對抗策略，而且，移工與家鄉之間，有時也不是我們想像的那麼天真簡單。

https://i-chentsai.innovarad.tw/2016/...

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book successfully discusses the author’s ethnographic study on global labour movements and its effects on the inequality and self-identity of migrant domestic workers and their employers in Taiwan. It is extremely engaging, well-written and readable.

Hence, it is strongly recommended for anyone with an interest in international labour migration, or students and scholars of Domestic Labour, Globalisation, Asian Studies, Sociology and Women’s studies.

[Shawnnnnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

去台湾的旅行中读完，确实街头巷尾能看到中介们打的广告
本来以为是class related跟宏观，读完发现是gender roles, work-home, stigma，和微观的流动
removed one star since the writing is so...academic. 透过书都能随时带入不得不在discussion和future implication不断总结重复的自己。。

[Pei-chi · Rating 4 out of 5]

論文改寫的書，研究時間大部分已經是20年前了，但是還是可以刻畫出在台移工的狀況。

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

把女性主義理論和外籍移工的現實處境結合的好好，引用一個話是“ 理論是聚光燈”照到現實中。關係分析的很清楚，也是很不錯的社會學和女性主義入門讀物。

[junjie · Rating 5 out of 5]

好书，一看就完全的吸引了我。尽管我不是新贵只是一个普通的人，但仍然被这本书吸引

[Reading]

《跨国灰姑娘》蓝佩嘉。

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Global Cinderellas because most of the literature I’ve read in respect to domestic labor has been limited to the United States. Within the United States context, domestic labor is highly raced with stereotypes running through very much like in East Asia. The main difference between these two locations is the shift in the US from women of color from within its borders to women of color from aboard. The use of boundary theory is particularly interesting particularly when discussing the creation of spaces by the laborers inside and outside the workplace. However, there could have been more discussion of the construction of space by the laborers inside the workplace, specifically in the home of their employers.

One of the interesting aspects Pei-Chia Lan found was the use of technology and cell phones to promote friendships and relationship between the migrant laborers. In The Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization, by Rhacel Salazar Parrenas found that the Filipina laborers used their cell phones to communicate with each other, but other with their families back in the Philippines. However, there was no discussion of this in Global Cinderellas.

[Abby W · Rating 5 out of 5]

有賴於家務勞動的女性化，地球村的一部分女性跨越國界線到不同種族的家庭幫傭以獲得高薪，而這也解放了她們所幫家庭中的女性抵抗父權，託管母職以回歸自我的工作。在這種家務勞動的連續性裡，女性並未能成為互幫互助的好姐妹，階級與種族的差異使她們不停地再複製著權力關係的不平等。作者很厲害的把這三個因素融合在一起來表現跨國女性移工與雇主之間的暗流湧動，最喜歡的部分是僱傭雙方的劃界工作——也再製和挑戰著社會不平等的日常。兩個「原來是這樣」的小知識：菲律賓原來不可以離婚；4年前常常經過的台北車站，巨大挑高的廣場上坐著的嘰嘰喳喳的面孔原來是東南亞移工。

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-done research study of migrant maids and caretakers in Taiwan.