Domestic work in a gendered moral economy of reciprocity: Gift, counter-gift and sacrifice in Filipino/Thai-Belgian couples in Belgium

The literature on domestic work unveils the moral economy into which it is integrated. In this economy, a moral contract regulates the relations between the person carrying out the domestic work and the one who benefits from it. In a conjugal setting, the moral contract that binds the partners to each other may propel the woman in the couple to do unpaid domestic work, and this work fulfilment may have symbolic signification. Carrying out domestic work may also be contingent on her social position. To find out, the article examines the cycle of gift/counter-gift exchanges in Filipino-Belgian and Thai-Belgian couples in Belgium. Drawing from a qualitative study conducted from 2012 to 2015, it discloses that these couples’ divisions of labour are inscribed in a moral contract of reciprocity underpinning their relationships. In their cycle of exchanges, the interviewed couples framed domestic work as gift, counter-gift and sacrifice. Nationality, economic condition, gender, age and health condition influence who gives a gift of what kind, who receives it and who reciprocates it in what form. Interestingly, migrant women fulfil an ex/implicit obligation to give a (counter-)gift in the form of domestic work, which feeds the gender inequalities in their couples.