The Au Pair program in the United States, in which Latin American women have predominated for more than two decades, is officially presented as a model of “cultural exchange.” Through this program, young people –mainly women with higher education– temporarily join American households to help with childcare tasks in exchange for room and board, a weekly stipend (pocket money), and the opportunity to improve their English.
However, behind this discourse, upheld both by au pair agencies and by the entities that regulate the program in the US, two conditions frequently hidden or made invisible in these young women’s experiences emerge: their status as workers and as migrants. The literature on the subject, at the global and regional levels, highlights these young women’s participation in flows of female migration to the US, as well as in global domestic service and global care chains.
These hidden conditions within the Au Pair program allow for several critical analyses. Among them: the discourse and concept of “cultural exchange” within a context of marked social inequalities between host American families and young Latin American women; the racial and gender stereotypes about these young women in the discourses and practices of the various agents involved –especially agencies and families– and how they operate in selection and recruitment processes; the invisibility, conditions of vulnerability, and labor abuse to which they are exposed by not being formally considered workers; as well as the contrast or paradox between the criminalization of Latin American migration in the US and the promotion of this program.
In this symposium we propose to open a space for discussion on these dimensions based on empirical research and critical approaches that allow us to analyze the experiences of Latin American au pairs, questioning the “cultural exchange” and the “American dream” tailored to the aspirations of young Latin American women.
