Between Intimacy and Intolerance

Greek Cypriot children's encounters with Asian domestic workers

Bibliographic Data

ID3112644
AuthorsSpyros Spyrou (0000-0003-0493-1403, Centre for the Study of Childhood and Adolescence, Cyprus, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume16
Issue2
Pages155-173
Publication date2009-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChildhood (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0907-5682 • E-ISSN: 1461-7013
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0907568209104399
OpenAlexW1975029315
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited24

This article explores how Greek Cypriot elementary school children construct their identities in relation to Sri Lankan and Filipino women who come to Cyprus as domestic workers. The article focuses primarily on the views of children whose families employ these women; however, the views of children whose families do not employ domestic workers are also explored to illustrate how these women are popularly constructed in children's imaginations and in the absence of direct daily interaction with them. The study reveals that children access different cultural discourses and construct identities that are often ambivalent and contradictory and are revealing of new forms of nationalism and racism. For the children whose families employ domestic workers, the home becomes an arena for renegotiating their status as children in their interactions with these women. Thus, the encounter between Self and Other becomes critical to understanding reconstituted definitions of childhood and adulthood

Ambivalence · Childhood studies · Developmental psychology · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Contemporary and Historical Greek Studies · Cyprus History, Politics, Society · Gender Studies · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Psychology · Social Psychology

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