Care Activism and Communities of Care

Abstract

In the introduction, the author outlines the framework of care activism that came out of the extensive ethnographic research that she conducted between 2009 and 2021 in Canada; at the International Labour Conference meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2010 and in 2011; at the International Migrants Alliance meetings in Manila, Philippines, in 2011; and in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore in 2010, 2011, and 2017. By defining care activism as the distinct ways that migrant domestic workers care for themselves, for each other, for fellow migrant care workers in their immediate circles, and for the larger, transnational community of migrant care workers, the book highlights the affective dimensions of the migrant domestic workers’ movement. The introduction also addresses the author’s methodological approach and an overview of the book.