Au PairISBN: 978-0-7456-5011-1
Hardcover
240 pages
August 2010, Polity
Other Available Formats: Paperback
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Many families leave their children for years to be looked after by
young people about whom they know next to nothing, from places they
have barely heard of. Who are these au pairs, why do they come and
what is their experience of this arrangement? Do they, for their
part, find that they are treated as one of the family, and would
they even want to be? After a year of careful research, this book
shows how most of our assumptions and expectations about au pairs
are wrong.
This is the first book devoted to the lives of au pairs, their leisure as well as their work time. We see this world from the eyes of the visitors, and their unique perspective on what lies at the heart of our family life. The book does not flinch from documenting the realities of the situation Ð the racism and the problematic behaviour of the au pairs themselves, as much as the ignorance and exploitation they can be subject to. The book is a case study in how to come to feel modern life empathetically from the viewpoint of one of those many migrant groups we take for granted and rely on but rarely try to understand.
This is the first book devoted to the lives of au pairs, their leisure as well as their work time. We see this world from the eyes of the visitors, and their unique perspective on what lies at the heart of our family life. The book does not flinch from documenting the realities of the situation Ð the racism and the problematic behaviour of the au pairs themselves, as much as the ignorance and exploitation they can be subject to. The book is a case study in how to come to feel modern life empathetically from the viewpoint of one of those many migrant groups we take for granted and rely on but rarely try to understand.