Wasana Handapangoda. Telling standpoints: Intersectionality, migration and social reproductive labour from the perspective of the Global South

Description

Driven by extreme poverty and inequality in their home countries, thousands of women in the Global South migrate each year to developed and more affluent countries worldwide to take up various forms of paid domestic and care labour. Migration and paid social reproductive labour thus highlight and amplify the gendered, classed and racialised distinctions inherent in the long-standing maid−mistress relationship while introducing new divisions along axes, such as nationality, immigrant status, religion and language, whereas the historically troubled image of the ‘maid’ has been increasingly replaced by the ‘migrant maid’. Therefore, in my talk I look at how systems of inequality based on gender, class, race, nationality, immigrant status, religion, etc., intersect and interact to produce unique dynamics and effects. I draw on the migration of ‘particular’ Sri Lankan women as live-in migrant domestic workers to the oil-rich Arabian Gulf, a well-established migration corridor in the Global South.

Period	20 Nov 2023
Event type	Guest talk
Location	AustriaShow on map