Boundary Work in Paid Caregiving: How Do Nannies Understand their Roles and Identities of Care Workers?

• Authors: SOURALOVÁ Adéla
• Year of publication: 2015
• Type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
• Description: Many scholars focusing on the delegation of domestic work argue that caregiving work and reproductive labour are hardly recognized as a regular work—no matter whether performed by family members or „hired hands“ (Lutz 2008, Hondagneu-Sotelo 2001, Anderson 2000, etc.). Drawing upon the in-depth interviews with Czech women who work as nannies in Vietnamese immigrant families in the Czech Republic, the paper looks into the emic definition of caregiving work. How do the nannies make sense of this activity? What is the meaning of paid caregiving in their lives? How do the nannies construct the borders between productive and reproductive labour, between home and workplace, between private and public space, and between love and money? To answer these questions, I argue that caregiving work is a “boundary work” (Lan 2006) which includes daily negotiations over one’s role and position within the caregiving relationships. From the point of view of nannies, there are two radically different sets of relationships: between nannies and parents (the employment ties based on the exchange of money and service) and between nannies and children (the emotional ties based on the proximity and intimacy). Addressing the nannies’ perspective and experience with caregiving, the paper looks into how the boundaries between work and non-work are reconfigured in everyday life.