Domestic Work, Affective Labor, and Social Reproduction in South Asian America: A Tribute to Laxmi Soni

Like my parents, many post-1965 professional Indian migrants to the United States brought with them live-in domestic workers who were formative in the raising of second-generation South Asian diasporics like myself, often referred to in the literature as ABCDs, or "American-Born Confused Desis." Yet, both in explorations of second-generation South Asian diasporic identity and in more recent work that implicates class in the formation of NRI (Non-Resident Indian) subjects, this population has received little to no attention. Weaving together autoethnography with scholarly literature on both diaspora and domestic work, this article explores the role of domestic work and affective labor in the social reproduction of the Indian American diaspora through the story of Laxmi Soni (via my recollections), who worked as a nanny in my family for over eighteen years. I suggest academic approaches to nannies and other care workers that complicate the class- and race-based analyses that currently exist within the literature on globalization, the feminization of labor, and the so-called "chain of care."