ABSTRACT
This study aims to discuss the new subjectivities of the migrant women workers in Istanbul, produced in relation to the encounter with the householders in the house as a place of encounter at the new stage of global capitalism. It focuses on the ways in which the care work – that is conceptualized through the terms such as globalisation, transnational migration, space of flow, informal networks, informal labour etc., – have been perceived by the migrant women worker and the householders in the micro level. It questions the forms of self-reproduction performed by the migrant women domestic workers mostly from former Soviet Union countries with regard to their relations with householder women and the children they look after, and new forms of subjectivities produced by the householders through these encounters. Herein, the notion, ’emotional labour’, comes into play, in order to analyse the role of emotions as a form of politics for survival and legitimization. Thus, this study aims to highlight, the influences of the women circular migration on personal human relations and emotions, a phenomenon, rendered invisible by the mainstream macro narratives, which basically focus on the money, markets and flow of labour yet say only a few on the emotional dimension.
Keywords : Migrant Women, Domestic Work, Female Labour, Emotional Labour, Micro-Politics.
