ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the gender politics of care in families and households at both ends of the global care chain, and across the class spectrum. It begins with exploring the dual class-differentiated care strategies in the more developed Southeast Asian economies of importing migrant domestic workers as paid care labor, as well as drawing in migrant wives as unpaid care labor. The chapter discusses the gendered care strategies among households at the southern end of the care chain that are affected by a significant outflow of parents – particularly mothers – as labor migrants. It provides attention to the care strategies of more privileged Southeast Asian families as they navigate transnational migration circuits. In Southeast Asia, the development of global care chains has resulted in a 'feminization' of migration to meet the gender-differentiated demand for care labor in order to plug care deficits in the family.
