Language, Discrimination and Employability: Employers’ Othering and Racist Representations of Domestic Migrant Workers on Social Media

Ladegaard, Hans J.

doi:10.1177/0261927x211046644

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(47 reference statements)

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“…Questions regarding the definition of laziness and the number of hours the MDW worked per day remain unaddressed. This is consistent with the findings of Ladegaard (2022) that MDWs in Hong Kong are often denigrated as indolent or lazy by their employers. Within the narrative frame the perceived shortcomings of MDWs appear to be among the causes of the mistreatment, again encouraging moral evaluation and helping to legitimate both the mistreatment of the MDW and the media representation of it.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Exploring mediated representations of migrant domestic workers in the Chinese-language media in Hong Kong

Ho¹,

Sewell²

2023

Ethnicities

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Since the 1970s, local residents in Hong Kong have been employing migrant domestic workers (MDWs) for caregiving, cooking, and housekeeping. The vast majority of MDWs are women from the Philippines and Indonesia. Despite their long-standing and numerically significant presence in Hong Kong, many MDWs are still experiencing prejudice or being mistreated. This study focuses on Chinese media coverage of MDW mistreatment cases in Hong Kong and contributes to a growing body of research on the media representation of MDWs. Critical discourse analysis was conducted on 398 articles published between 2010 and 2019 in three popular Chinese-language newspapers, and the discursive representations of perpetrators and victims in the reports were examined. Adopting the conceptual tools of social control and structural inequality, and tracing their connection with the discursive representations, the study highlights the three significant phenomena of perpetrator exoneration and victim blaming, narrativization, and sensationalism. Findings reveal that MDW mistreatment becomes a secondary concern as the articles often highlight the academic achievements and emotional suffering of the perpetrators, relying on entertainment values and neglecting the deeper roots of the issue. The article then examines the ways in which media discourse arises from and shapes prevailing perceptions of MDW issues, showing how the potential for gender-based violence towards MDWs arises from the intersections of inequality across dimensions such as gender, ethnicity and class.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Exploring mediated representations of migrant domestic workers in the Chinese-language media in Hong Kong

Ho¹,

Sewell²

2023

Ethnicities

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“…Mitchell (1996) considers how agricultural guest workers in California have been treated as animals in sites of social reproduction. Ham and Ceradoy (2022) explain how dehumanization is expressed by depriving migrant domestic workers of food, while Ladegaard (2022) emphasizes the more general dehumanizing practices inflicted upon domestic migrant workers. However, geography and related social sciences literature have only sparsely conceptualized the interrelation of dehumanization and labour migration throughout the labour process (Mezzadri, 2019).…”

Section: Dehumanization and Migrant Labourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migratory birds: Dehumanization of migrant workers in West Hungary

Jankó,

Czirfusz,

Berki

2024

Population Space and Place

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The region of West Hungary surrounding Sopron has experienced large migrant worker inflows from rural Hungary and neighbouring countries into low‐skilled jobs in pre‐COVID‐19 years. This research interviewed workers, labour market intermediaries, employers, and hosts to explore how the fundamental humanity of migrant workers is denied in the labour process. The paper draws on geographical research examining the embodied agency of workers and analyses the literature on dehumanization to highlight the construction of dehumanization narratives in the social relations of migrant recruitment, training, employment, and accommodation. Theoretically, the paper argues that production and reproduction sites require consideration when examining the dehumanization of migrant labour. The empirical part of the paper contributes to the literature by unpacking various dehumanization strategies involving social boundary‐making based on nationality, ethnicity, and gender.

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“…However, this might also be the result of racial hierarchy. In a different example, a Filipino/Filipina or Indonesian child in China looks different from a Chinese, so they are not hidden immigrants in China, but they likely face prejudice (Ladegaard, 2022: 113–114). This is because in China, white supremacy and Han Chinese ethnocentricity hold power in the society.…”

Section: Growing Up With Different Cultural Identity and Double Consc...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unseen experiences of non-white third culture kids: Exploring cultural hierarchy and social consciousness in transnational spaces

Chiu

2023

Missiology

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The growing number of people in global transit are often families, which means that children are greatly impacted as their family moves. Many of these children are known as third culture kids (TCK), who have grown up in multiple countries. This term was coined by Ruth Useem in the 1950s but attracted more attention in the 1970s when David Pollock and Ruth Van Reken conducted seminars and workshops about TCK. They found that TCKs had similar issues such as rootlessness even though the countries they had been to were different. TCKs became a unique people group that breaks the normal boundaries of cultural and ethnic boxes. However, in recent years, children of expatriates from minority communities in the West or the Majority World have been raising concerns that their experiences growing up in global transit are different from the traditional TCK narratives due to classism and racism. This article seeks to examine the different experiences of non-white TCKs growing up and bringing voices to their untold stories as part of the larger set of TCK issues. TCKs are not a homogenous group. There is a need to have more voices from non-white TCKs to care for this growing trend of global mobile families from the Majority World/Global South. Non-white TCKs face different kinds of complexity in cultural identities as they move between countries. Race, ethnicity, nationality, language/accent, education system, family culture, moving portfolio, and socio-economic status are all factors affecting the TCK experience according to the cultural hierarchy in the locations they are in. International organizations should consider the unique stories of non-white TCKs to help their workers serve effectively in their overseas assignments and return to their countries with smooth re-entry.

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Language, Discrimination and Employability: Employers’ Othering and Racist Representations of Domestic Migrant Workers on Social Media

Cited by 7 publications

References 39 publications

Exploring mediated representations of migrant domestic workers in the Chinese-language media in Hong Kong

Exploring mediated representations of migrant domestic workers in the Chinese-language media in Hong Kong

Migratory birds: Dehumanization of migrant workers in West Hungary

Unseen experiences of non-white third culture kids: Exploring cultural hierarchy and social consciousness in transnational spaces

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