Abstract

This paper draws on ethnographic research on the experience of Slovak au pairs living and working in the London area. It attempts to connect three areas: theories related to visibility and social recognition, debates on cities as public places enabling political action, and paid domestic work. Focusing on a specific group of migrant domestic workers, I analyze how various aspects of being visible or invisible relate to the empowerment, disempowerment, and resistance of paid domestic workers. I demonstrate that host families invisibilize au pairs and their work in order to both diminish their role in children’s lives and secure the myth of the exclusivity of the nuclear family. Au pairs counter this process of invisibilization by making themselves visible in their rooms and in the city. I interpret au pairs’ usage of visibility and invisibility as enabling au pairs subtle gestures of resistance without openly challenging the inequalities of the au pair scheme.

摘要

本文借鉴了对在伦敦地区生活和工作的斯洛伐克互惠生的经历进行的民族志研究。它试图将三个领域联系起来：与知名度和社会认可相关的理论、关于城市作为促进政治行动的公共场所的辩论，以及有偿家务工作。我以特定的移民家政工人群体为重点，分析了可见或不可见的各个方面与有偿家政工人的赋权、剥夺权能和抵抗之间的关系。我证明，寄宿家庭将互惠生及其工作隐形，以减少他们在儿童生活中的作用，并确保核心家庭的排他性神话。互惠生通过让自己在他们的房间和城市中可见来对抗这种隐形的过程。