Global divisions, local identities: Filipina migrant domestic workers and Taiwanese employers

During the last two decades, substantial flows of transnational migration have occurred in Asia, and most migrant women are employed as contract domestic workers. The number of Taiwanese households hiring migrant live-in maids has rapidly increased in the 1990s, despite employer qualifications being highly regulated by the government. With a focus on the migration linkage between Taiwan and the Philippines, this dissertation examines the transnational division of domestic labor in an era of globalization, and its local consequences in the formation of family and identities for both Taiwanese employers and Filipina domestic workers.;My research methods include one-year participant observation in a Filipino migrant community in Taipei, and in-depth interviews with 46 Taiwanese employers and 58 Filipina migrant domestic workers. I also collected historical archives and survey data, and interviewed government officials, recruitment agencies, and migrant-oriented activists in Taiwan and the Philippines.;I structure my findings with a framework that consists of three connected levels of analysis: The first level identifies two macro processes and structural mechanisms that transform domestic labor in contemporary Taiwan: (1) The expansion of dual-income nuclear households in Taiwan has created a growing demand for commercial domestic services (commodification); (2) State intervention and commercial recruitment agents have facilitated labor migration across borders (globalization). The second, the intermediate level, documents the impact of these macro processes on the institution of family---I examine how Taiwanese employers and Filipina migrants redefine family boundaries and the public/private spheres in response to domestic employment and transnational migration. The third level explores the micro-politics of identity formation. I analyze how Taiwanese employers and Filipina domestic workers construct class and racial/ethnic boundaries during their daily interactions, and how they negotiate their gender identities to bargain with the structural and ideological constraints imposed by marriage and motherhood. Through a combination of macro and micro analyses, this dissertation reveals a dynamic and contentious process of constructing social differences and inequalities, infused with symbolic domination and resistance enacted in these women's everyday lives.