Inequalities

Abstract

In parallel with the development of the scholarship on migrant domestic work, the feminist approach of intersectionality of differences has gained traction in the social sciences in recent decades. I do not have the space here to account for the different understandings of intersectionality and their methodological implications for research (see Collins & Bilge, 2020; Lutz et al., 2016; Romero, 2017). Certainly the fact that some of the sociologists occupied with domestic workers’ issues have also used intersectionality in their work (for instance Helma Lutz in Germany, and Mary Romero in the US) has had profound repercussions. An intersectional approach requires that we avoid homogenizing views on people’s experiences, and seek a deeper understanding of the real elements of commonality or difference between them. In other words, an intersectional perspective tells us that between people who apparently share the same experience, or the same social conditions, there may also be key differences. In the study of migrant domestic work this occurs at two different levels.