A
domestic worker may live at his employer's home or outside of it.
"Many of the international
domestic workers and caregivers who leave their homes to care for others abroad also have their own children and elders to look after. Migrant women usually either pass on this responsibility to other female relatives - or, with their higher foreign earnings, hire lower-income
domestic workers to manage their own households. This phenomenon is known as the ‘global care chain,'an international system of caregiving stratified by class and, often, ethnicity."
(United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),
A Mighty but Silent River: Women and Migration, 2006, visited 2011-02-22)
"Recent ILO estimates [in 2011] based on national surveys and/or censuses of 117 countries, place the number of
domestic workers at around 53 million. However, experts say that due to the fact that this kind of work is often hidden and unregistered, the total number of
domestic workers could be as high as 100 million. In developing countries, they make up at least 4 to 12 per cent of wage employment. Around 83 per cent of these workers are women or girls and many are migrant workers."
(International Labour Organization (ILO),
ILO News, 2011, visited 2011-06-23)