Libby Gordon Cohen’s scientific contributions

Live-in foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Singapore are an essential part of the economy but are socially marginalized as outsiders. In a reality of rapid demographic ageing and low fertility, Singaporean families usually engage a foreign domestic worker as a home-caregiver. There is almost no research literature on the experiences and education of women FDWs. This qualitative, exploratory case study was designed to investigate the question: What influences the development of live-in FDWs caregivers’ lay knowledge? The literature review examined perspectives on (a) transnational migration and domestic work; (b) government policies and home caregiving in Singapore; (c) migration and adult learning and development; and (d) care ethics, knowledge, and practice. Participants for this study were five Filipina live-in FDWs, who are also volunteer teachers, teaching caregiving classes to fellow domestic workers. The setting for the study is a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the Republic of Singapore, which relies on volunteers from the domestic worker community to provide non-formal education programs. Data were collected over a six-month period including two individual interviews and one focus group, conducted in a natural setting where people are actually engaged in the process under study. Data were analyzed using a three-step ethnographic process of direct observations combined with interviews, emphasis on local knowledge and context, and direct personal engagement of the researcher with the community of FDWs. The FDWs’ complex personal, societal and cultural factors were linked to learning and knowledge development, suggesting a pluralistic epistemological framework, which was influenced by colonialism, current conditions in the Philippines, life in Singapore, and globalization. The findings shed light on the challenges and ways FDWs manage and implement care-work and improve their learning and personal development through migration experiences. The influences on their learning processes highlight how individuals construct lay knowledge in real life. The study highlights the value of a non-Western notion of learning-communities, where adults organically teach and learn from each other to solve real-life problems, empower each other, and transform their roles and identities. The study results indicate a gap in the process of articulating and expressing knowledge by FDWs, reflecting a gap between the FDWs’ lay knowledge and the formal caregivers’ knowledge in the context of Singapore. Recommendations emphasize the importance of education and training for live-in care-workers and the need for creating supportive and nurturing environment for caregivers and care recipients. By encouraging a systematic involvement of FDWs in the development of education and training programs, caregivers’ lay knowledge may be recognized and influence the development of home-care practice to close the gaps. Recognition of the caregivers’ lay knowledge is an important step in creating a new channel for social mobility of migrant domestic workers.