Revisiting the Devyani Khobragade controversy: The value of domestic labor in the global south

Abstract

ABSTRACTOn December 13, 2013 the high-profile media coverage of Devyani Khobragade, the United States-based Indian diplomat, who was allegedly underpaying her maid, brought into sharp focus unequal employer-employee relations. This ‘Voices’ commentary directs us to the interstices of global inequalities, domestic labor, and care-giving between the genders. With the globalization of domestic labor, migrant care workers around the world face commonalities. However, in a time of global recession, privileged western expatriates relocating to destinations such as India, Singapore, China, and Dubai have access to cheap yet highly skilled domestic help. The latter phenomenon that has hitherto been under-contextualized raises contrastive differences in wage rates and the way domestic labor is ‘valued’ in the global North and South. Drawing upon anthropological fieldwork on the international expatriate community in India’s Capital city, race and class entitlements are accentuated in the context of global hierarchies.