The California legislature is now considering the Household Worker Equity Bill (AB2536). The purpose of this bill is to provide equitable employment benefits for household workers such as equal overtime protection, protection of health and safety, and accountability for employers hire household workers. Domestic workers are currently exempted from the overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and they are also excluded from state Labor Codes.

According to the California Domestic Worker Project, over half the domestic workers who work overtime do not receive overtime pay. 16% had faced non-payment (such as a bad check), 22% had been paid less than agreed, 9% had been sexually harassed, and 20% had been insulted and threatened on the job. Live-in workers are highly exploited since employers tend to disregard boundaries between working and personal time, and workers often have no place to go if they want to leave. Most workers are Latina, immigrant women with families to support.

If you live in California, you can help further the cause of social justice by letting your elected representatives know you support fair treatment of domestic workers!

In college two of my roommates were immigrants from China. One day we were talking about the fact China is regarded as a source of “successful” immigrants in the U.S. This led to a lively discussion of stereoptypes of Chinese immigrants in California from Chinese laundries in the Wild West to Bruce Lee smashing the “No Chinese or Dogs Allowed” sign in Fist of Fury. I learned that the image of the smart, professional, “model” Chinese immigrant is relatively recent, and one of the costs of projecting that image was increased stratification among the immigrants themselves. For instance, “F.O.B.” (Fresh Off the Boat) had become a common insult, implying a whole set of low status traits: poverty, illiteracy, unfamiliarity with the social codes that are the key to masquerading as high status in the U.S.

As the political leaders of the U.S. fight tooth and nail over the fate of illegal immigrants (widely perceived to be poor, needy outsiders), they are issuing engraved invitations for sports heroes and highly skilled technology professionals. Countries all over the world are tailoring their policies to select the good immigrants. The irony is that by denying opportunity to the poor and friendless, the U.S. adds incentive to the international corruption that currently distorts the distribution of visas. While grandstanding politicians justify special visas as an opportunity to reel in only the best and the brightest, what we get in the end is the people who had the money and connections to cut to the front of the visa line. Does the U.S. public really want the over-privileged brats who bribed and cheated their way into the country more than hard-working people who, while they may have been denied the opportunity to develop specialized skills themselves, will raise children who could flower in the U.S. education system? The U.S. already opens the door for science and technology students just on the assumption that they may contribute to the U.S. economy when they graduate. Gambling that the education system will cultivate talent may prove to be a safer bet than letting people who bought their H1-B visa build our banking, health care, and military systems.

For decades the U.S. has struggled to find a balance between the sanctity of the family and protecting women from domestic abuse. Imagine the difficulties faced by immigrant women, who aren’t protected by the same laws as U.S. citizens. Immigrant women may also face language and cultural barriers that discourage them from seeking help. Furthermore, they can easily be threatened with deportation or a bureaucratic break up of their family.

While the corporate exploitation of immigrants has garnered much public attention, there seems to be very little concern about domestic abuse. Part of the problem is that these woman are ensconced in the “private sphere” of the family, and thus they have no voice that can be heard in civil society (beyond the occasional chivalrous journalist or charitable organization that offers to speak for them). They are trapped in their Nobody status until the police come to process the handling of a dead body. Only through death and red tape do they actually become a Somebody: documented in a file, registered in a database, and preserved as a statistic.