Slavery in The 21st Century

illegal immigrant. The pressure to send remittances from abroad to the source country is
felt more strongly by these women, who tend to remit a greater proportion of their
income than their male counterparts. Their wages are also used to pay back recruitment
agencies and cover basic costs of family members in their home communities, including
their health care and education. This, in a way, binds them to their jobs and is a
disincentive to repatriate or quit. When they are required to be officially sponsored, such
as in the Kafala system of some Middle Eastern countries, the migrant domestic worker
becomes legally and economically bound to their sponsor, creating an environment in
which these particular workers are encouraged to be more loyal and more under the
control of their employer.
Racial Stereotypes of “Ideal” Domestic Workers
Many individual employers reportedly express a preference for domestic workers with
(assumed or real) behavioral, cultural, linguistic or religious traits thought to influence
the quality of service provided. Research of the perceptions of employers have shown
that racial stereotypes identify certain nationalities as ideal domestic workers. In the
United States, for instance, Mexican maids and Peruvian nannies are seen as
‘submissive’ workers and ‘natural mothers’ respectively. These perceptions play out in
the levels of compensation for these workers. In the United Arab Emirates, for instance,
a college-educated domestic worker from the Philippines is seen as more of a status
symbol and earns significantly more than her equally skilled counterpart from India; this
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