Disposable Domestics: Immigrant Women Workers in the Global Economy

Description

In a society with an unprecedented history of immigration, those who are often seen as a drain on America's resources cross borders in search of equal opportunity. Grace Chang's vital account of immigrant women - who work as nannies, domestic workers, janitors, nursing aides and homecare workers - proves the opposite: women who perform our least desirable jobs are crucial to our economy and society. Disposable Domestics highlights the unrewarded work immigrant women perform as caregivers, cleaners and servers and shows how women actively resist exploitation.

Grace Chang is a writer and activist, joining in struggles for the rights of migrant women and women of color in the United States. She teaches about social science research methods and ethics; women resisting and surviving violence in all forms; and grassroots, transnational, feminist social justice movements. She is founding director of WORD (Women Of color Revolutionary Dialogues), a support group for women and queer and trans people of color building community through spoken word, political theater, music, dance and film. Foreword by Alicia Garza writer and Oakland-based activist. Garza is one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, an organization founded in 2013 after the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. Afterword by Ai-jen Poo is the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the codirector of the Caring Across Generations campaign. She is a 2014 MacArthur fellow and was named one of Time 100's world's most influential people in 2012. She is the author of The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. Follow her on Twitter @aijenpoo

"Since Grace Chang's Disposable Domestics was first published fifteen years ago, it has not only become a major classic in feminist studies, but has helped to make transnational analyses of reproductive labor central to our understanding of race and gender in the twenty-first century." -Angela Y. Davis "Grace Chang's Disposable Domestics is as timely and relevant now as it was when it was first written. As debates rage over 'immigration reform,' Chang exposes the outlandish myth that corporate interests, big agriculture, and liberal Democrats represent enlightened voices standing against mass deportation and xenophobia. Instead she reveals a long history of collusion between the U.S. government, the IMF and World Bank, corporations, and private employers to create and maintain a super-exploited, low-wage, female labor force of caregivers and cleaners. Structural adjustment policies force them to leave home; labor, welfare, and educational policies deny them basic benefits and protections; employers deny them a living wage. But as Chang also shows us, the forces of racism, misogyny, and neoliberalism have never succeeded in denying these women dignity, personhood, or power. A decade and a half later, they are still here and still fighting for the workers of the world." -Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor of History and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in United States History, UCLA "[Disposable Domestics] offers a much-needed understanding of the multifaceted linkage between global and local issues in today's world." -Elizabeth Martinez "Grace Chang's nuanced analysis of our immigration policy and the devastating consequences of global capitalism captures the experiences of poor immigrant women of color. Disposable Domestics reveals how these women, servicing the economy as domestics, nannies, maids, and janitors, are vilified by politicians and the media." -Mary Romero, author of the The Maid's Daughter: Living Inside and Outside the American Dream "Since Grace Chang's Disposable Domestics was first published fifteen years ago, it has not only become a major classic in feminist studies, but has helped to make transnational analyses of reproductive labor central to our understanding of race and gender in the twenty-first century." Angela Y. Davis "Grace Chang's Disposable Domestics is as timely and relevant now as it was when it was first written. As debates rage over 'immigration reform,' Chang exposes the outlandish myth that corporate interests, big agriculture, and liberal Democrats represent enlightened voices standing against mass deportation and xenophobia. Instead she reveals a long history of collusion between the U.S. government, the IMF and World Bank, corporations, and private employers to create and maintain a super-exploited, low-wage, female labor force of caregivers and cleaners. Structural adjustment policies force them to leave home; labor, welfare, and educational policies deny them basic benefits and protections; employers deny them a living wage. But as Chang also shows us, the forces of racism, misogyny, and neoliberalism have never succeeded in denying these women dignity, personhood, or power. A decade and a half later, they are still here and still fighting for the workers of the world." Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor of History and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in United States History, UCLA "[Disposable Domestics] offers a much-needed understanding of the multifaceted linkage between global and local issues in today's world." Elizabeth Martinez "Grace Chang's nuanced analysis of our immigration policy and the devastating consequences of global capitalism captures the experiences of poor immigrant women of color. Disposable Domestics reveals how these women, servicing the economy as domestics, nannies, maids, and janitors, are vilified by politicians and the media." Mary Romero, author of the The Maid's Daughter: Living Inside and Outside the American Dream