Transforming the Borders of Citizenship: Domestic Worker Organizing from the Ground Up

263 Pages·2013·8.71 MB·English

UCLA
UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Transforming the Borders of Citizenship: Domestic Worker Organizing from the Ground Up
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1894r13f
Author
Purtill, Maureen Gaddis
Publication Date
2013

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library
University of California
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA

Los
Angeles


Transforming
the
Borders
of
Citizenship:


Domestic
Worker
Organizing
from
the
Ground
Up


A
dissertation
submitted
in
partial
satisfaction
of
the


requirements
for
the
degree
Doctor
of
Philosophy

in
Urban
Planning


by


Maureen
Gaddis
Purtill


2013

ABSTRACT
OF
THE
DISSERTATION


Transforming
the
Borders
of
Citizenship:


Domestic
Worker
Organizing
from
the
Ground
Up


by


Maureen
Gaddis
Purtill

Doctor
of
Philosophy
in
Urban
Planning

University
of
California,
Los
Angeles,
2013

Professor
Leobardo
Estrada,
Chair


Domestic
workers
are
the
workers
that
make
all
other
work
possible.
They
are
nannies,

housekeepers,
and
caregivers
for
the
elderly
and
for
people
with
disabilities.

Despite
the

importance
of
this
work
with
our
families
and
our
homes,
domestic
workers
and
their

labor
are
often
undervalued.
Because
of
the
historic
and
systemic
devaluing
of
domestic

workers
and
domestic
work,
domestic
workers
are
organizing
at
multiple
scales
for
dignity,

membership,
respect,
and
recognition
as
real
workers,
and
as
full
and
valid
members
of

society.
Their
organizing
efforts
transform
what
it
means
to
be
a
citizen
in
the
United

States,
and
challenge
common
assumptions
within
the
urban
citizenship
literature
about

which
sites
of
contestation
are
most
important
in
the
neoliberal
era.


ii
Despite
the
fact
that
the
majority
of
domestic
workers
today
are
immigrant
women
of

color,
who
may
be
among
the
least
likely
to
have
access
to
formal
citizenship
rights,
many

are
organizing
at
the
forefront
of
“transformative
organizing”,
an
organizing
model
that

seeks
to
heal
the
world
by
healing
ourselves,
and
by
building
power
fueled
by
love
and
a

recognition
of
our
interdependence.
These
contestations
not
only
demand
rights
and

responsibilities
associated
with
citizenship,
but
invite
us
to
view
citizenship
as
a

relationship
between
people
based
in
our
interdependence
and
mutual
respect
as
human

beings
on
this
earth.
I
argue
that
these
organizing
efforts
offer
a
new
set
of
practices
and

conceptualization
around
transformative
citizenship,
at
a
time
when
US
society
is
grappling

with
questions
of
who
should
belong,
and
who
should
be
excluded
from
formal
citizenship.


ALMAS,
Alianza
de
Mujeres
Activas
y
Solidarias,
or
The
Women’s
Action
and
Solidarity

Alliance,
is
a
domestic
worker
organization
that
has
been
organizing
around
domestic

workers
rights
since
2005
in
Northern
California.
ALMAS
is
the
domestic
worker
project
of

the
Graton
Day
Labor
Center,
and
is
a
member
of
the
steering
committee
of
the
California

Domestic
Workers
Rights
Coalition
(CDWRC),
and
a
member
of
the
National
Domestic

Workers
Alliance
(NDWA).
Through
participant‐observation
in
the
domestic
worker

movement
as
an
organizer
and
researcher
with
ALMAS,
I
incorporate
an
intersectional

analysis
to
questions
around
domestic
work,
contestations
around
membership
and

citizenship,
and
the
impact
of
intersecting
identities
and
scales
of
influence
on
ALMAS

members
in
their
struggles
for
justice.


iii
A
focus
on
primarily
unauthorized
immigrant
women
of
color
organizing
along
a
shared

point
of
unity
as
domestic
workers
helps
to
shed
light
on
the
multi‐scalar
nature
of

citizenship
as
it
is
contested
by
people
who
lack
both
formal
citizenship
status
and

substantive
worker
citizenship,
and
workers’
rights,
at
the
intersection
of
the
gendered

immigration
and
racialized
sector
of
domestic
work.


This
dissertation
is
an
in‐depth
case
study
of
the
organizing
efforts
of
ALMAS,
in
the

1
context
of
its
work
as
a
member
of
broader
local,
state ,
and
national
groups,
coalitions,
and

alliances.
Their
organizing
efforts
challenge
some
of
the
major
assumptions
within
the

Urban
Citizenship
literature,
which
suggest
that
the
city
or
local
is
the
most
relevant
scale

where
citizenship
and
membership
are
being
contested
in
the
neoliberal
era.
While
the

assertion
that
the
local
is
important
is
not
incorrect,
it
does
not
fully
explain
the

transformative
citizenship
and
organizing
practices
of
domestic
worker
groups.
The
city
or

local
is
important,
but
considering
the
multiple
ways
that
domestic
workers
are
excluded,

organizing
efforts
to
expand
citizenship,
membership,
and
women’s
and
workers’
rights

must
happen
at
multiple
scales
simultaneously,
with
the
city
being
only
one
of
many
sites

of
contestation.
Important
sites
and
scales
of
contestation
also
include
the
body,
the
home

as
workplace,
the
state,
and
the
nation,
among
others.



1

At
times
I
use
the
term
“state”
to
refer
the
national
state,
or
the
state
level
(i.e.
California).

When
not
clarified,
I
am
referring
to
the
national
state.


iv
The
dissertation
of
Maureen
Gaddis
Purtill
is
approved.

Jacqueline
Leavitt

Laura
Pulido

Chris
Tilly

Leobardo
Estrada,
Committee
Chair


University
of
California,
Los
Angeles

2013


v
For
Maria
Guadalupe
Guzman
Gutierrez
and
Ivis
Susana
Sanchez
Morales,


my
sisters
in
struggle,
you
have
made
this
project
possible
in
more
ways
than
you
know


For
ALMAS,
and
for
all
domestic
workers
who
have
worked,
lived,
created,
and
organized
at

the
intersections
of
racism,
patriarchy,
and
a
broken
immigration
system
in
the
United
States


vi
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS


LIST
OF
FIGURES
AND
TABLES………………………………………………………………….
x


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………………………..xi


AUTHOR
BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCH…………………………………………………………….
xiv


CHAPTER
1:
INTRODUCTION………………....................................................................
1

• Locating
myself
in
this
research

• Overview
of
the
Dissertation


CHAPTER
2:
STATEMENT
OF
PURPOSE
……………………………………………………
16

• Rooting
this
study
in
Urban
Citizenship

• Transformative
Community
Development
and
Transformative
Community

Organizing

• Transforming
the
Borders
of
Citizenship


• Systems
of
oppression

• Grounding
this
research
in
the
voices
of
domestic
workers:
Narratives,
Testimonies,

and
Storytelling

• One
of
Divina’s
stories


CHAPTER
3:
URBAN
CITIZENSHIP
LITERATURE
REVIEW………………………….
34

• Domestic
workers
and
Citizenship
struggles
in
multiple
disciplines

• Urban
Citizenship:
A
Review
of
the
Literature

• Agreements
within
Urban
Citizenship

• Remaining
debates
in
Urban
Citizenship

• Gap
to
be
filled
in
the
Urban
Citizenship
literature

• Operational
Definition
of
Citizenships

• Inserting
an
Intersectional
analysis
to
contestations
around
citizenship
at
multiple

scales

• Intersectionality,
Urban
Citizenship
and
Immigration


CHAPTER
4:
RESEARCH
DESIGN
AND
METHODOLOGY……………………………...75

• Research
Design
and
Methodology


• Case
Study
Selection
and
Rationale

• Summary
of
Data
gathered

• Phase
/
Year
1)
Develop
trusting
relationships
as
an
organizer
with
ALMAS

• Participant
Observation
and
field
notes

• Considerations
for
Participatory
Research

• Critique
of
whiteness

• Archival
data

• Phase
/
Year
2)
Participatory
Action
Research


• Intersectional
approach
and
rationale
behind
interview
questions

• ALMAS
Profiles
and
Analysis

vii
• Reflection,
Evaluation,
and
Validity
Concerns

• Locations
of
Participant
Observation

• Overview
of
Findings
Chapters


CHAPTER
5:
THE
LANDSCAPE
OF
DOMESTIC
WORKER
ORGANIZING


IN
THE
UNITED
STATES
AND
CALIFORNIA……………………………………………….106

• Leading
with
Love

• Not
your
traditional
labor
movement

• SOL
‐
Strategy.
Organizing.
Leadership.


• Key
Terms
and
Definitions
offered
by
the
organizers
of
SOL

• Taking
somatics
and
transformative
organizing
home
to
ALMAS

• Somatics,
Centering
practices,
and
Embodied
Commitments

• The
Arc
of
Transformation:
Current
Shape,
Openings,
and
Intended
Shape

• The
California
Domestic
Workers
Bill
of
Rights,
and
the
California
Domestic

Workers
Rights
Coalition


CHAPTER
6:
ALIANZA
DE
MUJERES
ACTIVAS
Y
SOLIDARIAS
(ALMAS)………135

• Overview
of
ALMAS:
Internal
and
external
goals

• Personal
and
Collective
goals
of
ALMAS
in
their
own
words:
“¡Que
seamos
mas

unidas,
mas
fuertes,
y
que
sigamos
creciendo!”


• Personal
goals

• Collective
goals

• Domestic
Work,
and
the
“Home”
as
a
site
of
contestation

• Positive
feelings
towards
domestic
work

• Power
dynamics,
vulnerability
and
exclusion
from
labor
laws

• Multi‐scalar
organizing
efforts
of
ALMAS:
Contesting
and
defining
citizenship
and

membership

• Key
Components
of
ALMAS’
multi‐scalar
organizing
efforts
and
citizenship
practices


• Challenges
and
conflicts

• Conflicts
rooted
in
intersecting
oppressions
and
identities

• Organizational
infrastructure
and
Financial
sustainability


• Space,
geography,
and
logistics
of
organizing
in
a
rural
area


CHAPTER
7:
INTERSECTIONS
AND
ORGANIZING
……………………………………...185

• Experienced
and
Ascribed
Identities
of
ALMAS,
in
their
own
words

• Chapter
Overview

• Intersecting
Identities
and
Domestic
Work,
Personal
Goals,
and
Collective
Goals

• Intersections:
Economic
Situation
x
Language
Ability
x
Race
x
Immigration
Status

• Positive
impacts:
Personality,
Gender,
Education,
Mobility,
Capacity,
and

Relationship
Status

• The
Optimism
of
ALMAS

• Intersecting
Identities
and
Multi‐scalar
Organizing

• Weaving
it
all
together:
Transforming
the
Borders
of
Citizenship



viii