Migrant Domestic Workers and Human Trafficking in Greece: Expanding the Narrative

ABSTRACT

Despite existing evidence of widespread exploitation of migrant domestic workers, hardly any case of human trafficking in domestic work has ever been documented in Greece. The vague labor-law regulations on domestic work and the dysfunctional migration regime have effectively left unchecked the power asymmetry between domestic workers and their employers to the detriment of the rights of the former. At the same time, the relationships between employers and migrant domestic workers are embedded within a wider social context of prejudice that has sustained tolerance and apathy toward migrant labor exploitation in the domestic services sector.

KEYWORDS:

• Human trafficking
• domestic work
• migration
• relational autonomy
• southern Europe