Book Review: The Politics of Compassion: Immigration and Asylum Policy

instead gives meaning to paid labor. The sharp difference between middle-class and working-class immigrant women is one that Rosenbaum traces to their varying constitutions of self, with the former giving equal credence to motherhood and careers and the latter “defining themselves as mothers first” (117). For working-class immigrant women, the challenges of securing stable productive labor as domestic workers and the difficulties that these challenges impose on their ability to fulfill their reproductive labor responsibilities define their overall experience in the labor market. We do not learn of the labor conditions of domestic workers until chapters four and five. Overall, the book establishes that labor conditions do not seem to have improved as the informal structure of employment continues to haunt domestic workers in the twentyfirst century. As described by Rosenbaum, this is despite the rise of worker cooperatives and growth in advocacy efforts. Mistreatment, degradation, and humiliation define labor standards, despite the presence of some good employers. Aggravating this is the challenge of securing employment, which often leaves domestic workers dependent on unscrupulous agencies that overcharge for their services. Tolerance of domestic workers for substandard labor conditions also increases due to their absence of choice. Domestic Economies provides a novel angle for examining domestic work through its focus on the identities of those who hire and do domestic work, rather than on employer-employee relations, as do most other studies. But what if the narratives presented by employers and domestic workers disagree with each other? In Domestic Economies, we learn that employers attempt to equalize their relationship with domestic workers so as to minimize their privilege, but we also learn from domestic workers that the job remains sub-standard and oppressive. These two contradictory findings still beg explanation as they remain unresolved in the book.