NEW FORMS OF PRECARIOUSNESS THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY AU PAIRS From cosmopolitanism to low cost care work

Au pair mobility originally was conceived as a form of cultural exchange. Without a clear legal basis this program has become a way for middle-class families that can outsource housework, getting cheap and very flexible care work. First, we describe how in a context of increasing of the vital precariousness, the dominant discourses on human capital and cosmopolitanism prescribe as desirable the mobility in order to increase the employability. Second, by analysing in-depth interviews we approach to the experiences and representations of women that were employed as au pairs. The results highlight the use of this program to address the absence of labour expectations. This use intensifies the pressure felt by the au pairs in their everyday relationships with the families and favour the emergence of forms of exploitation, hidden under the guise of family relations, where the exchanges are guided by the logic of reciprocity and emotional rewards.