Here are some starter questions. Please answer one, or make up a question and answer it yourself. If you happen to think of a really good question, we might answer. :-D
1.At one point in the reading, N noted that many female workers feel obligated to remain “inside” and stick to domestic work in the manner perpetuated by their cultural traditions. What other factors might cause an undocumented worker to feel trapped in particular working situation?
2. There is a distinction between those who can hire and those who are hired. What is your take on this class difference situation as of now and then? Has there been any improvement since the publication of this reading? What factors do you think cause these differences? Do you have any personal experience with this issue?
3. In what ways do organizations such as Sakhi help the immigrant laborer? What should we focus on improving?
1. As mentioned in the article, most undocumented workers such as N and C tend to stick to domestic work not only because of cultural traditions, but mainly for the fear of being discovered as an illegal immigrant. Furthermore, the workers need to maintain the strongest relationship they can with their employers, as indicated in the article, they often needed reference letters from previous employers to move on to another job. Also, the salary. The salary in some jobs was fairly stable, and no matter how exhausting/tiring the work was, the workers knew that in the end, if paid completely, they were earning more money than they could have back home. The desire to send money home is definitely something that kept them at their jobs, despite any negative aspects of the working situation.
ReplyDelete2. This article was very interesting in that the employers were also Asian American, though would be considered middle to upper middle class. This is really significant, as it highlights divisions within Asian Americans, and describes how even intraethnic lines can lead to large issues. It is also interesting to see how these workers believe that this upper/middle class would not exist if it were not for the availability of cheap labor. Furthermore, there are also significant differences between these employers. It seems like some believe in paying these workers minimum wage, giving them fair holidays, while others are simply there to take advantage of the ignorant. Organization like Sakhi are important in educating these employees. As seen by N and C, when they asked for holidays or wages, they were usually given them. But they had to demonstrate that they understood the rights they should have been given in the first place.
2. It comes as no surprise that these female migrant workers would prefer to work at South Asian homes, despite their lower wages and longer hours than working in a Caucasian household. Food was mentioned by C and N to be one of the factors for choosing a South Asian household. There is also that language convenience. They would have to learn English if they were to work at a Caucasian household. As seen in this article, there are class distinctions even amongst Asian Americans in the United States. Those who can hire must have gone through the same experience as those who are being hired at some point. Rarely do we see immigrants coming to the United States wealthy and well-established already. Those who can hire probably did the same type of domestic work, or worked as factory employees before rising up to a middle class status. As we saw in the reading about Pilipinos in the Alaskan canned salmon industry, several cannery workers themselves rose to the status of contractors. When these Asian Americans have risen to a higher status, they may feel superior to other Asian Americans, especially those who are still working menial jobs. Perhaps one of the reasons why they pay domestic workers of their same race extremely low wages is their insecurity. On one hand, they want to feel superior and “assimilated.” However, seeing domestic workers may trigger their fear of having to return to working minimum-waged jobs, hence cutting back on the maximum wages they pay their own domestic workers.
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ReplyDelete-Undocumented workers will of course worry about the legal situation they are in. They fear they may be found as illegal immigrants if they venture 'outside'.
-They also may feel trapped in a particular working situation because they have nowhere else to go, or nowhere to turn for help.
-They feel trapped because their employers may put them in that situation in the first place. The employers can mistreat them so that they do not have any time for themselves. Since the workers do not know any better, they are stuck with a job that is horrible and does not pay well.
one reason domestic laborers feel trapped is their lack of other places to go. working in a domestic environment isolates the worker from being able to find other job opportunities or meet people who could help them. workers also are prevented from leaving by having their passports or papers withheld from them. another reason workers feel trapped is the fear that they may not be able to find other employers willing to hire undocumented workers, or that their former employer will report them as undocumented.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Indra had to say, many times undocumented workers feel trapped in a situation because if they speak out about their poor conditions, they fear retaliation and intimidation from their employers. A similar situation occurs in most occupations not just in the United States but in other countries as well, including most South Asian countries, especially with domestic workers. However, focusing on local issues but not on domestic workers, a similar situation happened at the Claremont Colleges back in 2000 when dining hall workers tried to unionize with Unite HERE. As for distinctions between the employer and the employed, it's the same concept that Freire talks about: the oppressed becoming the oppressor when they begin to gain some sort of privilege, whether material or otherwise. In this society, that power switch happens all the time and is really easy to exploit; it's basically buying into the system.
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