Student Stories
IS student Tanaya Parmar studies employment dynamics in Kenya
By Tanaya Parmar
Receiving the International Studies Graduate Travel Award enabled me to travel to Kenya, where I embarked on a research journey to explore how race, gender, and class shape employment relationships between Black female domestic workers and Indian employers.
My study is rooted in a longstanding interest in race relations in Sub-Saharan Africa and particularly focuses on the complex dynamics within domestic work in Kenya - a largely informal and unregulated sector where the line between professional and personal relationships is often blurred due to the work’s intimate nature.
As a middle-class Indian woman who was raised in Nairobi by two Black female domestic workers, I have always been fascinated by these relationships. I refer to these women as my second mothers, a relationship that feels far from formal. However, I recognize that my experience is shaped by my position of privilege, while they come from a position of seeking employment. This complex dynamic has driven me to explore how these employment relationships are experienced differently by the people involved in them.
While conducting preliminary research, I discovered that most postcolonial studies highlighting domestic work in Kenya focused on relationships between Black domestic workers and White employers. While these studies offer important insights into the complex employer-employee relationships that unfold within domestic work, they often overlook other significant race relations in the region. Notably, the sizable Indian community in Kenya, which has played a crucial role in the country's economic, political, and social spheres, is largely absent from these discussions. This gap in existing literature drove me to pursue this study which looks beyond the binary of Black workers and White employers to include the diverse racial and ethnic relationships that characterize Kenya's social landscape.
While in Nairobi, I conducted 28 interviews—15 with domestic workers and 13 with employers. I chose Nairobi for its significant Indian population and its status as a major urban center, which attracts domestic workers from across the country. These factors made Nairobi an ideal research setting, given the abundance of potential participants. Additionally, as a long-time resident of Nairobi, I am familiar with the local context, which helped me ensure a diverse sample of research participants from different neighborhoods, socioeconomic backgrounds, and social groups. I focused on Black female domestic workers because they represent the majority in this sector. To provide a comprehensive view, I included participants from various tribes, such as Kamba, Kikuyu, Luhya, Meru, and Kalenjin, as well as middle and upper-class Indian employers from diverse backgrounds, including Gujarati, Ismaili, Shia Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu-Punjabi. Furthermore, participants ranged in age from their mid-twenties to their nineties, adding another layer of diversity to the study.
This study provided a platform for both domestic workers and employers to express their views on how race, class, and gender impact employment relationships within Kenya – a nation shaped by racial hierarchies established during British colonialism. This colonial legacy, which placed Whites at the top, followed by Indians, and Black people at the bottom, has left lasting impressions on social structures within the nation. The interviews not only allowed for an exchange of perspectives but also prompted participants to reflect on their own experiences within this employment dynamic. Most participants found the study intriguing, noting that while these unequal relationships are a daily reality in Kenya, they are seldom questioned or examined in depth. This process of reflection and dialogue reinforced my belief in the importance of this research, as it highlighted the ways in which historical and social factors continue to shape personal and professional relationships in contemporary Kenya.
Earlier in my master's program, my cohort and I worked on a project to map out ways to further decolonize SFU’s School for International Studies. We emphasized moving away from the zero-point epistemology that places an outside observer as the preferred neutral body to conduct unbiased research. We argued that being an “insider” can equip researchers with the local knowledge and context that can, in fact, supplement research. This perspective inspired my approach to this project, as I have personal ties to the subject matter.
This research not only allowed me to explore a critical social issue but also connected me to my roots and the lived experiences of my fellow Kenyans. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to return to Kenya and gain firsthand insights into the perspectives of those involved in these employment dynamics.