?Caucasian? female labor migration in contemporary Russia ...

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turns out in a low paid work, even when it is realized by non relatives - neighbors, friends or members of social network. c. One more thing about culture that is worth attention: in Europe women from certain countries may be preferred by European employers as child care or domestic workers – in comparison to the home state women. These preferences are based on ethnic or racial stereotypes envisioning certain migrant women as more apt for care work due to the "warm family ties, strong community life and long tradition of patient maternal love of children" in their home country and culture (Hochschild 2002:23). In Russia there is no need for it: Russian culture itself is treated as having those traditions of “warm family ties” and “maternal love for children”. Nevertheless this believe has an age specifics: it is rather characteristic for elder generations, than for youngsters. Therefore elder Russian females fit this stereotype and are seen as the best domestic workers; “old babushkas” reminding to the employers – young parents - their own parents, are therefore are seen as the best baby sitters or child care providers. 4) Moral reason: employees, hiring old Russian babushkas feel that they help old poor women who are forced to live for their very small pensions or wages; so the notion of exploitation though might seem to be clear for Marxist oriented scholars, is not a part of the public discourse; in contrary this activity (hiring old women as baby sitters) is estimated usually as morally positive and approved. 5) Ethnic/racial reason is the last but far not least: on the on hand, many scholars stress that domestic worker is "one of the family", and I think that to a great extent this is a case in Russia 4 . On the other hand, due to high level of xenophobia and racism, migrants, especially “Caucasians”, are associated in Russia - in discourses and in minds – with the concepts of “dirty” and insecurity – in all senses (Brednikova, Pachenkov 2002). They are seen as people not at the bottom of social pyramid (like poorly paid women and “babushkas”) but under or out of the social order; in some sense they are treated sometimes as a caste of “untouchable” who you only interact with in certain limited number of contexts (at open air market or at construction or repairing work), and one’s own home, privacy, intimacy, child care – is definitely not a case. Therefore Caucasian migrants have low chance to be employed as domestic workers. I think these listed reasons are interesting from the point of view of the discussion on domestic work. Marxist approach claims that domestic work is nothing more than a sort of capitalist exploitation, because, like for all other types of capitalist employers “it is in the interest of those who hire domestic workers to increase productivity by demanding as much labor for as low wages as possible (Romero 2002:8). This point of view seems to be pretty popular and dominating in the discussion on domestic work. However there are alternative approaches to the domestic work, claiming that it is more complex and complicated phenomenon. The above listed factors show the importance of non economic reasons – cultural, ethnic, moral. This leads us to treating domestic work as complex interpersonal process producing work, class, ethnic groups etc., and viewing “…domestic workers as active subjects who are nevertheless operating within a culturally and economically constituted structural inequality” (Özyegin 2002:58). Taking all the above mentioned reasons into consideration, I would say that female migrants from Byelorussia, Ukraine and ethnic Russians form Moldova seem to have higher chances to be employed as domestic workers in Russia within the next few years, since they are seen as “Slavic” and therefore “our own”, “non strangers” from racist and cultural perspective (and there 4 For instance, friends told me a story about the family of their relatives, there was a woman, ethnic Armenian, who was a nanny for children for ore than ten years; she became old, children grew up, but she kept coming as a nanny. Finally it turned out in a comic situation: not she took care of the children (who became teenagers at that time) but all the family members helped her to dress and to shoe when she had to leave their apartment. 6
are some examples of them being employed as domestic workers and baby sitters at Russian middle class families already). On the other hand, very rich people (first of all – in Moscow) reproduce international patterns and are hiring Philippines as domestic workers and well educated English or French ladies as child care workers. Post Scriptum. The Caucasus female migrants’ perspectives in the domestic work sector However there is a niche were Caucasian female migrants also could be employed as domestic workers and waged child care providers. The demand is formed by the Diaspora people. This is especially the case for Armenians who are well known for their Diasporas existing all around the world. Armenians have very big Diaspora in Russia and in St.-Petersburg in particular, since it is the second biggest city on the country. In according to official data of the recent Census, Armenian Diaspora in St.-Petersburg consists of about 25 000 people officially registered. Moreover there are for sure some who are not willing to be officially registered as “ethnic Armenians” in the Census or other documents, due to ethnic hostility and xenophobia which are characteristic for contemporary Russia; so the number of the members of Armenian Diaspora is even larger. There is no reliable data but in according to expert estimations majority of the Armenians who immigrated to Russia many years ago and who are well integrated St.-Petersburg citizens now, could be attributed to the middle class. Therefore they seem to share values, needs and patterns of the way of life of contemporary St.-Petersburg middle class people; and my personal observations prove this hypothesis. These new patterns include weakened family ties and lack of support from family members (which is complicated by the immigration status – meaning that part of the family stays in Armenia, especially elders who do not want to change way of life by immigration and who prefer southern climate to northern one). As a result the very pattern of hiring waged domestic workers and child care workers are also adopted by middle class Diaspora Armenians. Above I just analyzed the factors preventing Russians from hiring Caucasians as domestic and child care workers; but the effect might be totally different when we think about chances of recent migrants from Armenia to be employed by St.-Petersburg Armenians from Diaspora: • Even though long-standing migrants and recent migrants often have separate networks, still these networks overlap partly (especially in case of Armenians for who Diaspora way of life is a part of culture and often – a part of a family experience). So domestic workers could be recruited by long-standing migrants among recent migrants through social networks; or newcomers might migrate especially to be hired as domestic worker. There are also examples when child care workers – paid and unpaid (recruited among relatives) are invited by their relatives. There are examples when people who live in St.-Petersburg invite friends or relatives from Armenia to St.-Petersburg to stay at their family as lives-in and to do child care and / or domestic work. • There is no place for ethnic hostility in this situation, since it is obvious that members of Armenian Diaspora do not share ethnic prejudices of the local Russians towards their compatriots. Moreover, due to the attention paid by Armenians to ethnic solidarity issues (mainly due to genocide experience) they seem to be ready to make a co-ethnic person “a member of the family” (the way that domestic workers are often seen). There are still some cultural (urban/rural), regional and class boundaries and prejudices that compete with the ethnic solidarities, as our study of Azerbaijanian or Armenian Diaspora in St.-Petersburg has shown (Bredniova, Pachenkov 2003; Damberg, Chikadze 2000, Chikadze 2000, Brednikova, Chikadze 7
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?Caucasian? female labor migration in contemporary Russia ...

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