Migrant Domestic Workers during the Pandemic – Challenging Media Narratives of Deprivation By Recognising Women's Agency

COVID-19 highlighted, reproduced, and exacerbated various forms of inequality. Compared to other groups, migrant domestic workers (MDWs) were especially hard-hit. In Switzerland, as in other European countries, such women occupy the lowest rungs of the social ladder in terms of class, gender, and race. The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the livelihoods of migrant domestic workers, many of whom were undocumented and informally employed. And yet, this work is essential to the functioning of society insofar as it compensates for a lack of public services for the care of young children, the elderly, and the sick. In Switzerland, media portrayals of these women as destitute victims exposed them to social risks. This article challenges such representations by adopting a decentered perspective and emphasising the varied experiences and social position of these women. Our analysis contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted dimensions of vulnerability in the context of migration and agency as two interrelated and mutually constituted phenomena.

Based on 49 interviews with MDWs in four Swiss cantons, we discuss how intersecting structural vulnerabilities associated with legal status and employment conditions shaped the exercise of critical agency. In this way, MDWs were able to cope with hardship and manage risk while constructing their subjectivities in alignment with or opposition to prevailing discourses.