“The Dark Childs Burden”
In my anthropology class, my professor introduced some literature to us that would make us closely examine globalization in one are. The particular literature he introduced us to highlighted the plight and immigration patterns of nannies and caretakers. It tells the story of Josephine, a nanny from Sri Lanka who is currently taking care of a 2 year old in Athens, Greece. It highlights her ability to be very active and the freedom is has is something that her mother neither has nor ever will imagine in her lifetime, but the true story is what has happened to her own children in Sri Lanka. The three children, ranging from a child to teenager, already showcase different affect that not having their mother has been on them. Josephine left behind her own children to take care of someone else’s half-way across the globe. I have rarely seen or heard of this kind of action taken by a male.
Josephine’s situation is one that is not new or unheard of but rarely is similar stories given the same amount of media coverage due to various reasons such as race and the nature of the work that is being done. It is common in western culture to take heavy pride in individualism, so any display of outside help is usually hidden or downplayed for personal benefit.It demonstrates the sacrifices that many mothers have to make to provide for their families. The more affluent mothers have to work very long hours away from home and their children and thus have to hire someone else to watch and care for their kids. Meanwhile the ones hired to care for those kids are often leaving behind kids of their own to raise those children.
The suggested roles and necessities listed for being a mother has also changed as time has elapsed. At a point in time sitting down and being wealthy was enough for a women but now the focus has shifted to a women that can do it all, take care of the home, work, and raise successful and bright children, and be a good wife and so many other things. The overwhelming societal pressure has pushed many to seek assistance from outside caretakers to fill the emotional void and connections that are often lost since they are never around.
One of the most interesting points that the reading distinguished was how the use of nannies in a household enables the man “to continue avoiding the second shift” and the “second shift” (Ehrenreich and Hochschild) https://books.google.com/books?id=PtlZhM2kAXYC being the duties that the women has to carry on at home even after a days of work such as cooking and cleaning etc. It almost does not even have to be mentioned (but I will mention it anyway) that many of the women that fulfill these nanny positions are also subject to intense and unwanted sexual advances from their employers and are unable to fight against them because they know how badly they need the job. The many employers feel they have the right to sexually assault their nannies because most of the nannies are women of color and for those two reasons alone they are hyper-sexualized and taken advantage of (Davis).
The title of the article is an ode to the poem “The White Man’s Burden” which we all have most likely heard or read somewhere before, but in case you haven’t, it describes the duty that the white man has to civilize and save the perceived uncivilized people of the world. The Dark Childs Burden instead turns the spotlight onto the children of those immigrants who have had to leave them behind in order to create a better life for them. I admit I have rarely given thought to the movement of women from poor countries to rich countries but now knowing the consequences, it is easy to see how detrimental this can be on future generations.
