Domestic Workers Talk

Set in a multilingual cleaning company that serves Anglophone customers in the upper-(middle) class suburbs of New York City, this book presents an ethnographic study into power, language policy and communication from the perspectives of the BrazilianAmerican employer as well as the companys Hispanophone and Lusophone employees. Power asymmetries in internal communication demonstrate the employers legitimated domination over her employees and her L1 Portuguese as a form of linguistic capital. Employees resourcefulness and multicompetence rather than quantifiable levels of English-language proficiency determine the extent to which they rely on language brokering to facilitate communication with their customers, directly impacting their agency. The book contributes to current debates on extra-linguistic modes of communication in multilingual settings and thematic analyses of care work, migration, communication and the role of English.