Ultra-Intensity Emotional Management: Migrant Domestic Workers in Chile

Abstract

Domestic work is a highly demanding activity, not only because of the volume of household and care tasks for children and older adults that it usually entails, but also due to the intense emotional labor it requires. It is an undervalued occupation, historically associated with logics of servitude and slavery, which in Latin America are rooted in a colonial past that exploited racialized and undervalued populations. Within this context, and drawing on the analytical framework of the sociology of emotions, this article examines the emotional management carried out by migrant domestic workers in Chile in order to adapt to an emotional culture that prescribes submission, obedience, and docility. Based on in-depth interviews, the study analyzes the strategies these workers employ to manage emotions in a highly demanding labor context. The findings indicate that emotional labor is intensified by the intersection of multiple inequalities, as well as by the need to adapt to an emotional culture that is not their own. This process is conceptualized as ultra-intensity emotional management.