The Plight of Immigrant Domestic Service Workers

Professor Mary Romero’s (Justice Studies, Arizona State) classic book Maid in the U.S.A. (10th commemorative ed. 2002) documented the invisible lives of domestic service workers.  AP reports that, today, many

“hundreds of thousands of foreign-born women, many of them in the U.S. unlawfully, who work in America’s homes as nannies, cooks and housekeepers, changing diapers and scrubbing floors. . . . They are jobs of last resort for those with few other options. The lucky ones earn decent wages, and build a promising future for their families. The less fortunate, isolated and apprehensive, suffer a dismaying array of abuses – from exploitively low wages to sexual harassment. Some are forced to sleep in closets; others are threatened with deportation if they complain about overwork.”

KJ