ABSTRACT Ethnic and racial differences comprise barriers faced by some domestic workers who endure hardships in foreign countries as they support their families overseas. What complicates the situation for such workers is when they face racist employers, who impose cruel conditions on them. In such situations, many employees are forced to accept such harsh circumstances, and hold on to jobs that feed the mouths of hungry relatives. The Middle East is a great attraction for foreigners who dream of making ends meet and support their families. Many of them work as domestic workers who sometimes find themselves being victimized by a racially discriminatory system. Saud Sanousi’s The Bamboo Stalk (2012) captures social and ethnic differences embedded in Kuwait, as he unveils stories of a Filipina domestic servant and her son José, born of a Kuwaiti father. José questions the norms of Kuwaiti society, but fails in making an impact because of the overwhelming prejudice, which views the two cultures in an unequal master–slave relationship. This paper uses Sanousi’s novel to examine this scenario represented by the fictional Kuwaiti family of the Taroufs, illustrating how prejudice is used against domestic workers in the real world, because of racial and class differences.

中文翻译：

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种族中心主义和阶级壁垒：中东对家政工人的歧视

摘要 民族和种族差异是一些在国外忍受艰辛的家政工人在海外养家糊口所面临的障碍。使这些工人的处境复杂化的是，当他们面对种族主义雇主时，他们对他们施加了残酷的条件。在这种情况下，许多员工被迫接受如此恶劣的环境，并坚持工作，以养活饥饿的亲人的嘴巴。对于梦想维持生计和养家糊口的外国人来说，中东是一个极具吸引力的地方。他们中的许多人担任家庭佣工，有时发现自己成为种族歧视制度的受害者。Saud Sanousi 的 The Bamboo Stalk (2012) 捕捉了嵌入科威特的社会和种族差异，因为他揭开了一个菲律宾女佣和她的儿子 José 的故事，出生于科威特父亲。何塞质疑科​​威特社会的规范，但由于压倒性的偏见而未能产生影响，这种偏见将两种文化视为不平等的主奴关系。本文使用 Sanousi 的小说来考察这个以虚构的科威特塔鲁夫家族为代表的场景，说明在现实世界中，由于种族和阶级差异，偏见是如何对家政工人使用的。