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The Discourse of Powerlessness and Repression: Life stories of domestic migrant workers in Hong Kong book cover

1st Edition

The Discourse of Powerlessness and Repression Life stories of domestic migrant workers in Hong Kong

By Hans J. Ladegaard Copyright 2017
230 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

242 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

242 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Drawing on a large corpus of narratives recorded at a church shelter for abused domestic helpers in Hong Kong, this monograph explores how the women discursively construct themselves in sharing sessions with other helpers. They see themselves as ‘helpers’ who have come to Hong Kong to help their families, to help the people in the city, and to serve God. A wide variety of competing identities are... Read more

1. Introduction

2. Methodology and Theoretical Frameworks

3. Poverty and Dependence: Discourses of Inferiority and Social Deprivation

4. Global Servants and Servants of God: Sacrificial Mothers, Daughters and Wives

5. The Destructiveness of Distance: Unfaithful Husbands and Absent Mothers

6. Trauma Narratives: The Destruction of Self

7. ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: Discourses of Resistance, Agency and Peer Support

8. Demonising the Cultural Other: Depersonalisation and Dehumanisation of Foreign Domestic Helpers

9. Research and Social Activism: Working On, For and With Domestic Migrant Workers

10. Conclusion

Biography

Hans J. Ladegaard is Professor and Head of the Department of English, at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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