abstract: 'Belgium had a long tradition of direct informal employment in paid

  domestic work, which has undergone formalisation through the

  introduction of the `service voucher system''. This policy triangulates

  the employment relationship between workers and clients through

  introducing third-party employing agencies, and guarantees workers''

  access to labour and social security rights. Up until now, most

  international studies of paid domestic work have focused on direct and

  privatized worker-employer relationships (Anderson, Doing the dirty

  work?: The global politics of domestic labour, 2000); Hondagneu-Sotelo,

  Domestica: Immigrant workers cleaning and caring in the shadows of

  affluence, 2001); (Lutz, The New Maids: Transnational women and the care

  economy, 2011); Moras (Sociology Mind, 3(3), 248-256, 2013); (Romero,

  Maid in the U.S.A., 1992). This literature has shown that paid domestic

  work often features `personalised'' (emotionally-loaded) worker-employer

  relationships. The goal of this article is to analyse the impact of the

  introduction of the service voucher system on personalisation processes

  affecting paid domestic work in Belgium. Is personalisation bound to

  disappear with the sector''s formalisation or is it intrinsic to paid

  domestic work?We show that personalisation is not threatened by

  formalisation policies which do not challenge the structural

  inequalities underpinning paid domestic work (and to which

  personalisation develops as a remedy). In the Belgian case, the service

  voucher policy did not challenge the crucial role of personalisation for

  finding and keeping jobs, as well as improving working conditions. The

  article shows that personalisation is an informal social protection

  strategy which developed in the exploitative conditions of informality,

  but is likely to survive formalising policies. Indeed, formalisation did

  not eliminate the need for personalisation, as it did not substantially

  improve working conditions in the sector, failed to recognise workers''

  qualifications and to challenge the gendered and migrantized character

  of domestic work employment.'
affiliation: 'Safuta, A (Corresponding Author), Fonds Rech Sci, FNRS, Brussels, Belgium.

  Safuta, A (Corresponding Author), Univ Bremen, Unicom, Off 7-1090,Mary Somerville
  Str 7, D-28359 Bremen, Germany.

  Safuta, Anna, Fonds Rech Sci, FNRS, Brussels, Belgium.

  Safuta, Anna, Univ Bremen, Unicom, Off 7-1090,Mary Somerville Str 7, D-28359 Bremen,
  Germany.

  Camargo, Beatriz, Univ Libre Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.'
article-number: '14'
author: Safuta, Anna and Camargo, Beatriz
author-email: anna.safuta@uni-bremen.de
author_list:
- family: Safuta
  given: Anna
- family: Camargo
  given: Beatriz
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1186/s40878-018-0111-5
eissn: 2214-594X
files: []
journal: COMPARATIVE MIGRATION STUDIES
keywords: 'Domestic work; Domestic workers; Belgium; Formalisation;

  Personalisation; Migrant workers; Informal social protection; Service

  voucher'
language: English
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '36'
papis_id: ac068ca5125e24d0ea714ef0c41b7a5c
ref: Safuta2019morethings
times-cited: '7'
title: The more things change, the more they stay the same? The impact of formalising
  policies on personalisation in paid domestic work - the case of the service voucher
  in Belgium
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000701892100014
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '4'
volume: '7'
web-of-science-categories: Demography
year: '2019'