Publication Type

Book Review

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

3-2018

Abstract

From Singapore and Tel Aviv to Rome and Vancouver, Filipina domestic workers have captured the hearts of international employers, thanks to their English proficiency, educational attainment, and cosmopolitan outlook. Though confined to indentured servitude in nearly every country, Filipinas trot the world scouring for higher salaries, job security, and even pathways to citizenship. Their Indonesian counterparts likewise undertake multinational journeys, beginning in neighboring Malaysia and concluding in high-wage economies like Taiwan. But while Filipinas view employment in newly industrial economies as a springboard for the West, Indonesians display limited interest in settlement outside origin communities, content as they are with circular migration within Asia. How Filipina and Indonesian domestics attain material welfare through incremental migration projects forms the subject of Anju Paul’s Multinational Maids: Stepwise Migration in a Global Labor Market. Juxtaposing the constraints and opportunities created by the global demand for reproductive labor, and tracing women’s spatial mobility across variegated national landscapes, this book is a refreshing rejoinder to scholarship that overemphasizes the structural forces that disempower migrant agency.

Discipline

Asian Studies | Demography, Population, and Ecology | Race and Ethnicity

Research Areas

Sociology

Publication

Gender and Society

Volume

33

Issue

1

First Page

165

Last Page

167

ISSN

0891-2432

Identifier

10.1177/0891243218801267

Publisher

SAGE Publications (UK and US)

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0891243218801267

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