Respect for all: The political self-organization of female migrant domestic workers in the European Union

Abstract

This contribution focuses on the empowering political practices of RESPECT, the European network for migrant domestic workers. The paper contrasts RESPECT's empowering approach with that of other actors in which migrant domestic workers are presented as victims and in which the struggle is situated within the discourse of combatting illegal immigration and trafficking in women. The central hypothesis of this paper is that this distinction between female migrant domestic workers constructed as victims of trafficking or as migrant women with subjectivity, voice, and agency is crucial in determining the type of advocacy strategy and (self-)representation of the women.