ABSTRACT

This book explores the transnational mobility, everyday life and digital media use of childcare workers living and working abroad. Focusing specifically on Filipina, Indonesian, and Sri Lankan nannies in Europe, it offers insights as to the causes and implications of women’s mobility, using data drawn from ethnographic research examining transnational migration, work experiences, family, and relationships. While drawing attention to the hidden, largely invisible and marginalized lives of these women, this research reveals the ways in which digital media, especially the use of mobile phones and the Internet, empower them but also continue to reinforce existing power relations and inequalities. Drawing on a wide range of perspectives from media and communications, sociology, cultural studies and anthropology, the book combines theoretical perspectives with grounded case studies.

chapter 1|18 pages

Minorities and the Digital Media

chapter 2|27 pages

Global Nannies

A Global-Historical Perspective

chapter 3|13 pages

Mobile Phone for Empowerment?

Work Life, Power and Freedom

chapter 4|16 pages

Digital Media for Intimacy?

Family Life and Transnational Mothering

chapter 6|33 pages

The Care of the Self

“As a Woman, Not as a Mother or a Nanny”

chapter 7|27 pages

Racism, Ethnic Media, and Home

chapter 8|22 pages

Cosmopolitan Hospitality