This talk addresses the ways migrant domestic workers form social justice movements in support of their communities of fellow migrant domestic workers and migrant families in four distinct national contexts: Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines.

Through ethnographic research among communities of migrant domestic workers, Ethel Tungohan argues that the forms of activism that migrant domestic workers engage in, are distinct from other social justice movements. In that their efforts are fundamentally rooted in notions of caring citizenship, which are grounded in an ethos of care and solidarity.

Despite differences in ideological orientation, organizational goals and strategies, and history, as well as variations in national contexts, the organizations led by migrant domestic workers are united by their embodiment of ‘care activism.’

Bio

Ethel Tungohan is a Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism and an Associate Professor of Politics at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her forthcoming book, “Care Activism: Migrant Domestic Workers, Communities of Care, and Movement Building,” which will be released by the University of Illinois Press in the summer of 2023, won the National Women’s Studies Association First Book Prize. Her research looks at social movements, immigration policy, social and public policy, and Canadian and comparative politics.