The semiotics of agency websites and the exploitation of domestic workers: A chronotopically grounded critical discourse analysis.

In addition to the micro and macro-scaled material and institutional structures that shape domestic workers’ experiences of exploitation within the global care chain (Liao & Gan, 2020; Constable, 2009; Ho & Swell, 2023), semiotics also plays an implicit but profound role in shaping migrant workers’ experiences of marginalization (Ho, 2022, Razzaq, 2012, Ladegaard 2013). Among the studies examining semiotic portrayals of domestic workers, few have examined the semiotics and discourses of employment agencies, which is the purpose of this study.

The employment agencies examined in this study are for-profit businesses that facilitate the placement of migrant workers with private employers in Hong Kong. This study examines the websites of 10 employment agencies for domestic workers in Hong Kong, paying particular attention to how these agencies use images and texts to advertise their services and portray domestic workers. We apply critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2013) and chronotopic analysis (Bakhtin 1981; Agha 2007) to this data to explore how these agencies use multimodal semiosis to invoke various imagined space-times and stereotypes to depict domestic workers.

Our findings show that the semiotics used on agency websites objectify and create unrealistic expectations for domestic workers. We show how this is achieved through the semiotic invocation of imagined space-times (i.e. chronotopes) associated with idealized servitude, and standardized products. We discuss the implications of these semiotically produced images on the relationships between employers and domestic workers, and on the various forms of exploitation that domestic workers experience.