The Governmentalization of the Trade Union and the Potential of Union-Based Resistance. The Case of Undocumented Migrant Domestic Workers in the Netherlands Making Rights Claims
| Author | Anja Eleveld,Franca Van Hooren |
| Published date | 01 October 2018 |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0964663917725145 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The Governmentalization
of the Trade Union and the
Potential of Union-Based
Resistance. The Case of
Undocumented Migrant
Domestic Workers in the
Netherlands Making
Rights Claims
Anja Eleveld
VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Franca Van Hooren
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract
Ambivalence about rights is well known: rights may both challenge existing injustices
while simultaneously re-enforcing sovereign regulatory control over citizens. In this
article, we focus on the paradox that potentially radical and transformative claims to
rights are made at a site – civil society – that under liberal governmentality has
increasingly become a site of government. By exploring the unionization of undocu-
mented migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in the Netherlands, we aim to show how
rights claims are shaped and controlled by civil society. Using the analytical category of
(in)visibility, the case study discloses the dualistic role of the union. On the one hand, the
union operated as a site of resistance supporting undocumented MDWs to make their
rights claims. On the other hand, it operated as a site of government of the same
undocumented MDWs by selectively promoting work-related rights claims and
excluding more radical claims for the right to come and go.
Corresponding author:
Anja Eleveld, VU Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands.
Email: anja.eleveld@vu.nl
Social & Legal Studies
2018, Vol. 27(5) 596–615
ªThe Author(s) 2017
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0964663917725145
journals.sagepub.com/home/sls
Keywords
Governmentality, labour rights, migrant domestic workers, performative rights, trade
union
Introduction
Ambivalence about rights is well known: rights may both challenge existing injustices
while simultaneously re-enforcing sovereign regulatory control over citizens (e.g.
Golder 2011, 2015; Hoover, 2013; McCann, 2006; McNevin, 2013; Perugini and Gor-
don, 2015; Scheingold, 1974). In this article, we focus on the paradox that potentially
radical and transformative claims to rights are made at a site – civil society – that under
liberal governmentality has increasingly become a site of government (i.e. the ‘govern-
mentalization of civil society’, Pyykko¨nen, 2010).
1
This paradox has not yet received
sufficient attention. Critical schola rs studying rights performances of undocu mented
migrants generally rely upon one of two explanations: Rancie`re’s understanding of rights
claiming practices as staging a dissensus between the included and the excluded (e.g.
Anderson, 2010; Schaap, 2011)
2
; or Arendt’s understanding of a rights claim as a
political act that potentially reconstructs the political space (e.g. McNevin, 2013; Parekh,
2014; Zivi, 2012). By contrast, we argue that an exclusive Rancierian or Arendtian
perspective on rights claiming practices by undocumented migrants is at risk of over-
looking the factthat these emerging politicalagents may also become subjected togovern-
mental practices arising from within civil society (see, e.g. Barron et al., 2016). By
exploring the unionization of undocumented migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in the
Netherlands,we aim to show how rights claims are shaped and controlled by civil society.
Due to the absence of a legal status, undocumented MDWs often prefer to remain
economically ‘invisible’, working in private homes where the risk of getting caught by
the police is substantially lower (Kraamwinkel, 2016). However, a considerable number
of undocumented MDWs worldwide, including the Netherlands, have chosen to become
visible as political subjects by publicly claiming potentially transformative rights (Ally,
2005; Anderson, 2010; Schwenken, 2013). In 2006, undocumented MDWs joined one of
the largest Dutch trade unions. This article investigates how the paradox of civil society
as a site of conduct and site of resistance has played out in relation to rights claiming
unionized undocumented MDWs in the Netherlands. It exposes, in particular, the dua-
listic role of the union. On the one hand, the union operated as a site of resistance,
supporting undocumented MDWs to make their rights claims. On the other hand, it
operated as a site of government of the same undocumented MDWs by selectively
promoting work-related rights claims and excluding more radical demands, such as the
right to ‘come and go’.
Our case study is based on interviews and participa nt observations. We attended
several meetings of MDWs at the office of the trade union and we conducted 19 in-
depth interviews with currently or formerly unionized MDWs, union officials, represen-
tatives of associations of (among others) undocumented MDWs and representatives of
NGOs advocating migrants’ rights.
3
We also drew on observations and interview data
gathered in 2009 and 2010 by Gu
¨nther (2011).
Eleveld and Van Hooren 597
To continue reading
Request your trial