This article inquires the individual and collective agency of female migrant domestic workers in Spain. I use fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2023 to examine the interplay between the migrant workers’ individual coping strategies, the claims-making strategies of the domestic workers’ trade union Sindihogar, and the structures they operate within and attempt to challenge. Drawing on contemporary research about precarious workers’ movements, I aim to explore to what extent this social movement union has the potential to reduce the power of structural constraints and increase the power of agency. Implicit is a broader, more provocative question: To what extent is substantial change possible within the current political-economic order, here defined as late neoliberalism? I found that while the movement’s community-building approach may empower activists at an individual level, there are significant structural barriers to its potential to accomplish change in terms of better job conditions for this highly precarious workforce. In addition, I suggest that an increasing focus on precarious workers’ “resilience” risks undermining narratives of structural transformation.

中文翻译：

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斗争、退出、“韧性”——或者说不稳定的工人如何应对晚期新自由主义。西班牙女性移徙家政工人的个人和集体机构


本文询问了西班牙女性移徙家政工人的个人和集体机构。我使用 2013 年至 2023 年间进行的田野调查来研究移民工人的个人应对策略、家政工人工会 Sindihogar 的索赔策略以及他们在其中运作并试图挑战的结构之间的相互作用。借鉴对不稳定工人运动的当代研究，我旨在探索这个社会运动工会在多大程度上具有减少结构性约束的力量并增加能动性力量的潜力。隐含的是一个更广泛、更具挑衅性的问题：在当前的政治经济秩序中，在多大程度上可能发生实质性的变化，这里被定义为晚期新自由主义？我发现，虽然该运动的社区建设方法可能会在个人层面赋予活动家权力，但其实现变革的潜力仍然存在重大的结构性障碍，即为这些高度不稳定的劳动力提供更好的工作条件。此外，我认为，越来越关注不稳定工人的“韧性”可能会破坏结构性转型的叙述。