“They Think You're as Stupid as Your English isâ€: Constructing Foreign Domestic Workers in Toronto

K England and B Stiell
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K England: Department of Geography, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada
B Stiell: School of Education, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, England

Environment and Planning A, 1997, vol. 29, issue 2, 195-215

Abstract: In Canada, paid domestic work is often associated with (im)migrant women from a variety of countries of origin. We critically analyse Canada's foreign domestic worker programmes, noting the shifting definitions of which nationalities should participate. We note how gendered, racialised, and classed constructions of national identities infuse these programmes. We then turn to an empirical analysis of how foreign domestic workers are constructed in Toronto, where demand is the highest in Canada. In particular, we investigate how the practices of domestic worker placement agencies reinforce images about which national identities supposedly have qualities that make them best suited to certain types of domestic work. Finally, we explore how domestic workers' constructions of their occupation are interwoven with their own national identities, the (partial) internalisation of others' images of them, and how they define themselves in relation to other domestic workers.

Date: 1997
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:29:y:1997:i:2:p:195-215

DOI: 10.1068/a290195

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