
The Trafficker Next Door
How Household Employers Exploit Domestic Workers
Rhacel Salazar Parrenas(Author)
WW Norton & Co (Publisher)
Published on 14. October 2025
Book
Hardback
176 pages
978-1-324-02030-1 (ISBN)
Description
The phrase "human trafficking" often conjures nightmarish images of sexual exploitation but Rhacel Salazar Parrenas reveals that the majority of trafficking victims are domestic workers-who suffer abuse at the hands of "ordinary" family employers. Drawing on twenty years of research across three continents, Parrenas exposes the grim realities faced by migrant workers ensnared in forced labour due to poverty and debt bondage. She uncovers how entrenched social and legal norms, coupled with a patronising "employer saviour complex", foster a troubling sense of ownership among employers over "their" domestic workers.
Through powerful firsthand accounts, Parrenas illustrates migrants' desperation and the power dynamics that often lead to modern-day slavery. Parrenas's urgent narrative challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about everyday household arrangements and calls for justice and fair treatment for all workers.
Through powerful firsthand accounts, Parrenas illustrates migrants' desperation and the power dynamics that often lead to modern-day slavery. Parrenas's urgent narrative challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about everyday household arrangements and calls for justice and fair treatment for all workers.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 218 mm
Width: 147 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
308 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-324-02030-1 (9781324020301)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
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E-Book
09/2025
W. W. Norton & Company
€21.99
Available for download
Person
Rhacel Salazar Parrenas is the Doris Stevens Professor in Women's Studies and professor of sociology and gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University. The award-winning author of three previous books on labor, exploitation, and human trafficking, she lives in Princeton, New Jersey.