Les expatrié·e·s face à leurs employé·e·s domestiques à Pondichéry (Inde)

Abstract

This article explores the positioning of expatriate employers vis-à-vis their domestic workers. It is based on 28 semi-structured interviews and has an auto-ethnographic component. It characterizes the expatriates’ experiences in different situations: finding themselves in a dominant social position and becoming employers; living with full-time staff in a foreign country; fitting into hierarchical relationships; and being confronted to their employees’ poverty and “misfortunes.” While maternalism predominates, the positioning of expatriate employers is constructed by combining it with liberal, racist, and solidarity models.

Keywords

• India
• care
• inequalities
• domestic work
• expatriate
• exploitation