Quiz

1. True or False: In Geraldine Pratt's article, Filipina women get paid more than nannies of other nationalities in Canada.

2. Why aren't Canadian nannies used more widely in Canada?

3. What is one perceived benefit and one perceived difficulty  of having a British Nanny?

4. How is the Filipina nanny in Canada an example of a global care chain?

5. True or False: Geraldine Pratt's article was inspired by her own inner turmoil over hiring a nanny for her new born.

As women in the global North move into the work place, the unpaid work of child and family care is increasingly attended to by Asian, African, Carribbean and Eastern European women

Nanny diaries

The live-in caregiver program was started in 1992

Applicants must complete 24 months of work

Since the 1950, Canada has made attempts to diversify the applicants for domestic jobs starting with the 'Caribbean Domestic Scheme'

1993-2009 2.1% of immigrants entered Canada under the live-in caregiver program.

While Filipinos are the majority of applicants, the program is starting to see increasing numbers from India.

-Toronto Immigrant Employment Initiative 

Post-Colonial Theory:

Europe and to a much smaller extent, the United States involved colonial conquest during the 19th and 20th century.  Domination was achieve through military, social, and ideological means.

Post-colonial scholars look at the colonial and post-colonial period (now) to understand ongoing issues.

Important within these text are the following concepts:

Differancé

alterity

Hybridity

Subaltern

Post-Colonialism and International Relations

Post-colonial scholarship not only looks at past relationships between the colon and the colonized but also analyzes contemporary shifts in colonial practice. For theorists the colony and colonial practices are not past. 

For Post-colonial theorist, IR has remained ignorant of the construction of its categories of analysis, of conditions of power, and issues of representation.

Edward Said and Orientalism

Said writes the book Orientalism in 1979

1. The Interactions of European engagement with the Middle East and South Asia is based on the assumption of radical difference. 

2. This difference is one of superiority: the East is painted as perverse and backwards. This belief undergirds political and religious missions in the region.

3. Orientalist thought is not isolated to politics  but can also be found in art, literature, travel writing. 

Discussion

1. How do stereotypes work? to what degree are they truthful? In what way are ethnic stereotypes shaping the work opportunities for nannies in Canada? 

2. Based on your reading of the article, what type of person would make the perfect nanny? What is their gender? race?nationality? parental and relationship  status?

3. What does Pratt mean by introducing ambivalence into our understanding of the live-in nanny program?

4.  In Pratt's article she writes that nannies that ask for higher pay are seen as ungrateful by Canadian agents. What is the role of 'gratitude' in the relationship between migrants and their host country? Should migrants be grateful?