This book analyses the changing face of work, gender equality and citizenship in Europe. Drawing on in-depth research conducted in nine different countries, it focuses on the discourses, social relations and political processes that surround paid domestic labour. In doing so, it rethinks the vital relationship between this kind of employment, the formal and informal citizenship of migrant workers and their employers, and the cultural and political value of gender equality. Approaching these as fluid, complex and interrelated phenomena that change according to local context, it will appeal to sociologists, political scientists, geographers, anthropologists and gender studies scholars.

“This collection is indispensable reading for anyone interested in domestic work. It offers one of the richest accounts of employer-employee relations, convincingly showing how the legal regimes as well as the everyday interactions that embody employer-employee relations advance the interests of the employer and rarely those of the employee. It challenges readers to reimagine domestic work from a rights-based perspective centered on the interests of the marginalized domestic worker.” (Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, University of Southern California, USA)

“This impressive collection on the shifting conditions of migrant au pair and domestic workers across much of Europe takes us to the front-line of the uneven and continuing battles around the gendering of inequality and citizenship today. As national welfare systems are eroded and care facilities privatized, we see how policies addressing paid domestic workers, and issues of care more generally, are intrinsic to ongoing debates over power, gender and citizenship. An essential book for our times.” (Lynne Segal, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)

“By using an intersectional analysis this excellent compilation of articles brings to light central dilemmas of the commercialization of care in Europe. The book makes visible the relaunch of neocolonial practices, like servitude, in the private household and calls into question the achievements of gender equality politics. A must read for gender studies scholars and students.” (Helma Lutz, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany)

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