Author Talk: Rhacel Salazar Parreñas

Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, in conversation with Martina Vandenberg, presents her book “The Trafficker Next Door: How Household Employers Exploit Domestic Workers.” Registration requested, not required.

This book launch is offered in recognition of Filipino American History Month. Learn more about this observance through the Filipino American National Historical Society’s website.

About the Book (from the publisher):

“Kaya mo ba?” Can you take it? An instructor asks this of a group of migrant workers in the Philippines, as they prepare for domestic work in wealthier countries. Can you take the grueling work? “Kaya,” the women say. “We can.”

The phrase “human trafficking” often conjures nightmarish images of sexual exploitation, but Rhacel Salazar Parreñas reveals that the vast majority of trafficking victims are domestic workers who suffer abuse not at the hands of shadowy crime lords but rather “ordinary” family employers.

Drawing on twenty years of groundbreaking research across three continents, Parreñas exposes the grim realities faced by migrant workers ensnared in forced labor due to poverty and debt bondage. She uncovers how entrenched social and legal norms, coupled with a patronizing “employer savior complex,” foster a troubling sense of ownership among employers over “their” domestic workers.

Through powerful firsthand accounts—including harrowing stories of workers living in hot, windowless rooms, experiencing food deprivation, having their makeup, jewelry, and phones confiscated, and having their wages stolen—Parreñas illustrates the migrants’ desperation, and the power dynamics that lead to a global network of exploitation. Parreñas’s urgent narrative challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about everyday household arrangements and calls for justice and fair treatment for all workers.

Presented in partnership with the Princeton Filipino Community and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.