Living in the Shadows Latina Domestic Workers in the Texas–Mexico Region

Living in the Shadows Latina Domestic Workers in the Texas–Mexico Region

Living in the Shadows Latina Domestic Workers in the Texas–Mexico Region

 

 

In 2016, three community-based organizations that operate in the Texas–Mexico
border region collaborated on a participatory research project. A.Y.U.D.A. Inc., Fuerza
del Valle Workers’ Center and Comité de Justicia Laboral/Labor Justice Committee
trained 36 women from the local communities as surveyors. The surveyors, most of
them domestic workers themselves, interviewed 516 housecleaners, nannies and
care workers for people with disabilities or for the elderly who work in private homes.
The survey was conducted in Spanish and was composed of a standardized set of
questions focused on work arrangements, working conditions, the impact of low pay
on workers’ lives, injuries and abuse on the job and citizenship status.
This report, the result of the surveyors’ hard work knocking on doors, gaining
trust and gathering data, is the very first quantitative study of a sizable number
of domestic workers in the Texas–Mexico border region.1
The data provides us with
a fact-based portrait of the difficult conditions domestic workers in the region
face. The report findings will be used to shape ongoing organizing and advocacy to
improve conditions and end workplace abuse. Our hope is that it will also shape the
thinking of policy makers and encourage further research about working conditions
along the border.

 

See more here.