The domestic sphere can be an ambiguous place to work. As the host quoted in the beginning of this chapter stressed, au pairing is in many ways risky business. I asked him why he thought this was so. He then compared situations in which au pairs are exploited with domestic violence and child abuse – that which goes on within the walls of private homes is very difficult to control or see for those outside the household. This
is similar to the views and experiences of many researchers on domestic work (see e.g. Anderson 2006; Cox 2006; and Stenum 2008). It is also here the ambivalences in the au
pair institute becomes most visible: au pairs do domestic work and look after children, yet their efforts and daily activities are regarded as part of the family’s reproductive labour rather than as the work of an outsider. Moreover, it also suggests that the rela- tionship between au pair and hosts are of an intimate kind, something which is also underpinned by the living arrangement. Sørhaug (1995:23) argues that “the home is organized on the basis of a labour-contract which by no means can be fully articulated in the language of love”. This point is clear in Norwegian matrimonial law, he points out, where it is settled that partners are duty-bound to contribute to the reproduction of the family through both economic and other means (Sørhaug 1995:23).
The use of kinship terms to define the relationship between au pair and family reinforces a view of care work as a gift one gives to family members. Care work is thus indirectly defined in the European agreement and in Norwegian legislation as ‘the labour of love’ (cf. Borchgrevink and Holter 1995). In this sense, au pairs do what they are expected to do as a member of the family (depending on the gender), because their food and lodging have been provided for. Hess and Puckhaber (2004:74) think the “’big sister’ image” of au pairs in fact “promises a more malleable domestic servant because being seen as a member of the family allows employers to use the logic of the moral economy to expect more than they could from a paid employee”. While this can enable hosts to expect the au pair to put in extra hours or demand a greater degree of flexibility than they otherwise would have done, au pairs exchange their service “for gratitude and kindness“ (Hess and Puckhaber 2004:74).
In the cases where the au pair feels the placement is working to her or his advantage, or where there are no conflicts with the host family, this exchange is experienced as fair. However, the fact that the au pair works within a family home can worsen their situation in the cases where the au pair wants to be treated as a member of the family but is not; wants to experience what she or he had imagined as cultural exchange, but realises the family just wants a nanny or a maid; where the placement period started out well with a good relationship with the family, but where relatively small misunder- standings became large problems; or where the host family’s need for flexibility creates a situation where an au pair works from early morning to late at night. All categories of respondents could relate abusive situations where work hours had been breached or the au pair’s responsibilities had not been well defined from the start, and where the host families ended up adding more and more duties to the au pair’s list. These stories are reflected in hearsay as well as in the personal experiences of au pairs, host families, police or others who have been in direct contact with cases where au pairs have been wronged or abused.
Hard work and isolation
Stella came to Norway from Singapore. She had worked there as a domestic and nanny for several years. When she first arrived here she was in a family with three children and had a long way to take them to kindergarten and school. Finding it difficult to communicate with the children who did not listen to her, she found the work challeng- ing. Also, the house was large and cleaning took a lot of time. She stayed only for a few months with the family, as her hosts split up. While waiting for her new work-permit application to be processed she found work with a cleaning company. After a couple of months she moved in with her new host family, although the permit had not been granted yet. She had given them power of attorney, and she trusted them to deal with the application process for her. It turned out however that they did not send the papers before she had stayed with them for a while. It was now December, and they told her that because the application papers were not complete, everything had been dragged out. She ended up having to go and hand in the application at the police station herself. The hosts were surprised that she was granted the visa, and Stella took this as proof that they had abused her situation. During this period she had worked for board and lodging alone. Things got worse over the winter and early spring. Stella had been under a lot of pressure and worked far more than had been agreed in the contract. She was regularly babysitting at night and worked extra when one of the hosts was travelling. Most nights she got up to comfort the youngest child as his parents did not respond to him crying. Stella could not stand the child being left on his own, although she felt it should not be her responsibility to take care of him at night.
In the end she felt tired all the time and she explained she could barely stand on her feet. Stella chose to go to emergency ward (Legevakten). She had no permit to show for her, and when the doctor asked her who her GP was, she could not answer. Neither did she dare give her address as she knew she was working illegally while her application was being processed. The doctor left her as he went to discuss her case with other people. She was afraid as she thought they would call the police. When he came back he told her she was seriously ill, and that she needed to go to hospital immediately – he had called the ward and told them she would be coming. Stella discussed her worries with him over her work and that she had nothing with her. He repeated that she needed to go at once, but instead Stella went home to digest the news about her health. The doc- tor called her several times to check on her and the day after she went to the hospital. Her ‘employers’ did not bring her to the hospital, because they had planned a trip to their cabin that weekend. She stayed in hospital several days, and then with a friend for another few days. Her host family expected her to go straight back to work when she returned, although it was a Saturday. Stella reminded them she was supposed to have Saturdays off and went to a friend as she needed the rest. When she arrived back at night she could not open the door with her keys. The security chain was on. She rang the door bell, and they still did not open. When they finally did, they told her
they had agreed she had to find another family. They wanted her to get all her things there and then. She had a friend in the neighbourhood and tried to call her while her host was screaming at her. She gathered the stuff she could and ordered a taxi. When the taxi driver arrived he asked her what had happened, did she want him to take her to the police? Stella was afraid as she still had not received her permit, so she said no. He told her whatever situation she was in, she should seek help. The morning of the day after she received an SMS from her female host explaining that she needed to come and pick up the rest of her things as soon as possible. They had put everything outside the house.
I met Stella on several occasions, and in our conversations she repeatedly expressed how afraid she had been. The worst part was that she did not have anyone to turn to: she did not consider going to the police or UDI, and she was also afraid medical staff would turn her in. Since all of the services available to her in one way or another were connected to the authorities, she was uncomfortable with contacting them. However, Stella’s story did not end there. She stayed on in Norway six months following her conflict with the family, surviving first by doing domestic work for another a person in her community who offered her food and lodging for her services, later by cleaning shops and by staying with different friends. Because of the situation she was in, Stella was dependent on her social networks. She told me she was worried about gossip, and that she tried to manage on her own as much as she could. She told of situations where social control and sanctions connected to behaving in a morally proper way were exer- cised among the migrants she knew in Norway. It is particular in relation to sexuality and money these issues emerge, and Stella thought it necessary to protect herself from such sanctions. Two of the women who had offered to help her were other female migrants married to Norwegian men, but in the end she felt they took advantage of her circumstances. Stella explained: “the people who helped me here didn’t do it for free, they were using me also”. In the end she was able to return to her home country, where she applied for a visa to go Denmark as an au pair.
Stella did not want to report the host family to the police, but other au pairs told of situations where they had gone to the police to file formal complaints against their host families and had been told that there was little chance they would get anywhere as it was a word-against-word situation. Instead they were encouraged to change families. As far as issues and conflicts related to the domestic sphere are concerned, they can be easily dismissed as difficult to prove. Often it will only be the au pair and host family who know what has been going on. Those who come with an agency, might get support to find a solution with the host(s) or to change families altogether. However, since the majority of au pairs come without an agency, this is not an option – nor do they feel it is safe to contact the police or UDI. Au pairs and hosts both have to give one month’s notification, and au pairs have approximately the same time for finding a new host
family after their contract has expired. Regardless of this, many au pairs are afraid that they will lose their right to stay in Norway immediately after a contract is ended.
The dependency on the family to keep the permit is thus another indicator of the uneven power balance between au pairs and hosts. This dependency may result where au pairs avoid “raising issues that might result in a disagreement” (Hess and Puckhaber 2004:73). It creates a situation in which some hosts also abuse their position. Miriam was one of the au pairs who had tried to file a formal complaint against her host family, without any success.
Nursing the host and heavy-duty cleaning
Miriam was in her early twenties and from an EU country. She had been working as an au pair for two years in the UK where she had enjoyed the experience. She stayed with the same family for the whole period and felt she they treated her as an equal. They did not have a lot of space, only a small apartment. Miriam had not had much privacy during her time as an au pair in the UK, however, she felt the living arrangement had worked well because she had been incorporated into the family. Most important for her was that she improved her English language skills. Before going to the UK she had studied one year at a university in her hometown, but had felt pressure from her parents to study subjects /a subject she did not care for. Miriam herself wanted to become a nurse, and she liked being an au pair as it gave her experience in childcare. She had friends living in Norway and after visiting them she made the decision to move here when her period in the UK was over. She found the first family through a Norwegian agency, but it did not take long before she realised the host family had not been honest about her responsibilities. Instead of looking after the children, she had to nurse thefemale host who was seriously ill with cancer. One night they woke her around midnight, telling her to change the mother’s bed. The woman was very sick, but when Miriam asked the husband to help her lift his wife he refused to help, leaving her to do the work on her own. In addition, she did heavier kinds of housework such as cleaning windows, too. She knew for sure that other au pairs did not perform the same tasks as her.
When she went to the police to report the family they were unable to help her because she did not have a contract. Because Miriam was from an EU country, she had not needed to apply for a work permit or visa. There was thus no proof that she had been employed to be their au pair. Also, the host family was still registered with their former au pair. This now became a problem by way of not providing her with any protection. Seeing that she would not get any help from the police, she went back to the family telling them that she would not work as a nurse anymore. The same night, they told her she should leave the following day as they had found another au pair. Miriam was shocked, but remembered having seen an ad at a cultural centre from a family that
needed a baby sitter. They gave her work and a place to stay until she found a new host family. The Norwegian agency she had used to find this family in the first place told her they could not help her, she claimed. Despite her troubles, she wanted to stay longer in Norway, and she decided to change agencies. They quickly found her a new family, and her advantage was that the new family did not have to wait for her. Since she did not need to apply for a work permit through UDI, she could move in with them immediately, after she signed a contract with them. As for her relationship to the new host family, she described them as being OK, “But it wasn’t an au pair they were looking for”. “It was a domestic worker?” I asked. “Yes, because it is not light housework I have to do. It’s actually to clean the whole house, to do laundry and ironing, and if I don’t do it I’m in trouble”. As several other au pairs had told me, Miriam also had the responsibility of looking after the family’s pet and because that cat had been ill over Christmas, she had to stay at home in the days around New Year’s to look after it as the family had been travelling. Miriam had decided that when her time in this family was over she would not work as an au pair anymore, but she would like to take the Bergen’s test9 to continue working and living in Norway, but in some other context.