'My home is my castle?'. The Norwegian home in times of paid migrant domestic labour

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the cultural meanings attached to the home in contemporary Norway, by way of studying the recent and rather contested increase in paid migrant domestic labour. Based on qualitative interviews with Norwegian au pair host parents, the article explores the ways in which this new monetised and globalised organisation of housework and care work influences both the cultural ideal of the Norwegian home and everyday life within it. Does the increasing occurrence of paid domestic labour bear witness to and contribute to the production of new perceptions of the Norwegian home, or does it instead protect the Norwegian home from societal changes in regard to gender and labour?