Sotelo's Dometica & Domestic Workers in Thailand

       In this week’s reading, Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence, Sotelo discusses the ethics and moral ambiguity of hiring immigrant workers to do housework. She believes that the employers of domestics tend not to recognize their home as a workplace and the domestic workers as formal employees. As a result, the workers are often treated without dignity and respect. Also, Sotelo notes that the laws pertaining to domestic work are weak and the domestic workers' community remains to be one of the most disenfranchised group in the American society.

      The observations made by Sotelo were hardly a surprise for me. I lived in Thailand for 3 years where hiring full time maids are customary. The majority of maids in Thailand are from Myanmar and nearby developing countries. Thus, despite mistreatments, they are bound to the jobs because their wages are the only support available for the family back home. Though many employers do not have careers or any difficulties with doing housework, they hire maids to do the everyday chores and babysit. And because such has become so customary in Thailand, the moral ambivalence or questions of having hired help in homes is rarely discussed. Hence it appears that the cultural values dictate our perception of "domestic work" as well.