Introduction

Domestic work and the embodied emotional labour it entails have been widely documented in the literature (see for example: Parreñas 2000, 2001a; Anderson 2000; Huang and Yeoh 2007). Women as domestic workers were noted as integral to not only nurturing the emotional well-being of their own family of origin, but also in the households of their employers, where they are often considered to become ‘one of the family’ (Parreñas 2001a: 364). As Lan (2003: 536) noted, this notion of ‘familial belonging’ for domestic workers contributes to the idea that their work represents a ‘labour of love’. Reproductive labour, with which domestic workers are so intricately involved, is not only a form of corporeal labour but also invested with emotion, as they care for children and/or the elderly, prepare family meals and pack school bags (Anderson 2000). Domestic workers, who are almost invariably women, must also negotiate their own often complex sets of emotions as they often leave family and communities behind, situate themselves within a foreign household (in every sense of the word) while attempting to forge a livelihood for themselves. In addition, women also have to negotiate the degraded social status that domestic work often entails (Parreñas 2000) as a 3D (dirty, difficult, and dangerous) occupation.

By exploring the emotional subjectivities of Indonesian foreign domestic workers (FDWs), this chapter gives a specific focus on a recent policy development for FDWs residing in the city-state of Singapore. The Day Off policy, as it has become known, provides domestic workers who signed or renewed a work contract after 1 January 2013 the right to a weekly day off, or financial compensation in lieu of time off.