No Country for the Low-end? −An Intersectional Analysis of the Status of Migrant Women Workers as Domestic Helpers and Relevant Laws in China

Abstract

‘Low-end population’, which refers to people working in low-paid industries in China, has become a taboo word for public discussions and in official documents due to the inconvenient truth it indicates. To look into the ‘low-end’ society, this study uses intersectionality theory to analyse how the social categories of gender, social origin and occupation creates overlapped disadvantages for migrant women workers as domestic helpers in China. Before, little attention has been paid to these invisible building blocks of the great economic success of China, hence the multiple inequalities they have experienced in their lives and work are untold stories. Using intersectionality analysis, the study describes in detail the status of migrant women workers as domestic helpers. It further introduces Chinese laws and policies on Hukou regulation, on women’s rights and on regulating the domestic service market, with a conclusion of the concrete problems faced by this group of people.