Home Linguistics & Semiotics Multilingualism, Migration, and Domestic Work
book: Multilingualism, Migration, and Domestic Work
Book Open Access

Multilingualism, Migration, and Domestic Work

On the Sociolinguistic Situation of Filipina Domestic Migrant Workers in Spain
  • Sandra Issel-Dombert
  • Funded by: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2025
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

About this book

Open Access

How do Filipina domestic workers experience multilingualism in their daily lives? To whom do they ascribe or deny agency in their narratives of language and migration? This study explores the intersection of multilingualism and transnational migration in the global sector of domestic work in Spain, the second largest labor market in the EU. Over the course of three years, a corpus of field notes, narrative interviews, focus groups, language portraits and language maps was built with 25 Filipina domestic workers (FDWs) in Madrid, partly collected through participatory approaches. The analysis focuses on three main aspects: first, spatial repertoires; second, the multilingual everyday life and lived experiences of languages; and third, the agency of FDWs. The aim of this study is to better understand the dynamics that emerge from inequalities of multilingualism in the feminized sector of transnational domestic work.

The book expands our understanding of multilingualism and transnational migration in the feminized sector of paid domestic work. It is a pioneering contribution to the growing field of language and migration, offering new insights into the sociolinguistic aspects of migration from Spain’s only former colony in Asia to Spain. Theoretically, the study adds a postcolonial and critical approach to language and migration, using a variety of methodological techniques.

Author / Editor information

Sandra Issel-Dombert, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany.

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 20, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9783111714288
Hardcover published on:
October 20, 2025
Hardcover ISBN:
9783111714127
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
386
Illustrations:
3
Coloured Illustrations:
9
Tables:
17
Downloaded on 1.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111714288/html
Scroll to top button