From KCRW, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is unfictional.

They would not include me.

I would just stay in my corner while they ate or did whatever they were doing as a family.

On this episode, The Rescue.

Have you ever heard of the word slave, which is a leapin in our language?

And so what do you think when people say you're like a slave?

Unfictional is a program of true stories, personal documentaries, and radio movies.

A person living as a slave in a suburb in America doesn't seem possible, but it happens.

And sometimes a situation can start out as something more straightforward and above board.

For example, in the Philippines, there's an historical cultural tradition of helping

out your family and extended family.

So in the Philippines, the patronage system in which a wealthier family member brings in a much poorer

member of their extended family to their household. It's quite common. I spoke to Risele Parenios and I'm a professor of sociology

and gender and sexuality studies at the University of Southern California. And she

studied the migration of domestic workers from the Philippines.

So I know that in the Philippines there is this strong extended kinship and so your sense of family extends way beyond your nuclear

family. So let's say a Filipino family comes to the United States to start a

business. They can bring over a member of their extended family to work not for a salary but for

something even more valuable. That's how they would give them a visa so they would

bring them into their household. Among Filipino domestic workers here in the United States there's actually a sizable number that were quote-unquote sponsored by a

Filipino family.

But in the wrong household, a situation can turn darker.

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