History Main / EthnicMenialLabor

* ''Webcomic/{{Polandball}}'' comics often have Polandball working as Britain's plumber.

* ''Literature/EccentricNeighborhoods: In 1950s Puerto Rico, wealthy matriarch Clarissa cannot find household help among locals because she is a MeanBoss. In the end, she hires a Guatemalan maid through an agency, but it does not occur to her or anybody that Xochil might be indigenous. Clarissa is floored when Xochil arrives in her traditional Mayan dress.

* ''Literature/TheHouseOnTheLagoon'': Whenever any of the Mendizábal daughters has a baby, she must have a nanny. These nannies and additional posts are filled by members of Petra's family. Petra, a Puerto Rican descendent of enslaved Africans, has been working for the Mendizábal since the beginning.

* ''Literature/ALongPetalOfTheSea'' takes place in Chile, a Spanish-speaking country. Here, the ethnic menial labor is of Indigenous ancestry. Juana Nancucheo, a woman of Mapuche ancestry starts working for the Vizcarra family when [[ChildLabor she is around six or seven]]. Then when daughter Laura Vizcarra marries Isidro del Solar, she brings Juana with her. Juana stays with the family for decades. After a centenarian Laura dies, Juana moves in with Laura's son Felipe.

* ''Film/TriangleOfSadness'': On the cruise ship, the passengers and "upstairs crew" of servers and attendees are predominantly Caucasian, while the "downstairs crew" of cleaners are predominantly Filipino. It becomes played with when they are stranded on a deserted shoreline and the Filipino cleaner Abigail is the only one with any survival skills, eventually ending up in charge of the mostly-white upperclass Caucasian survivors.

In modern incarnations, the ethnic group is often one of the AcceptableEthnicTargets.

Throughout history, there have been stereotypes that certain ethnicities are more prevalent in menial labor such as line cooks, maids, cleaners, nannies, and farmhands, often in service to white characters. This stereotype is often an exaggerated case of the truth: Certain minority groups ''have'' indeed been over-represented in menial jobs due to a variety of factors, such as colonial history, refugee status, and the immigration patterns of the creator's country. In PoliticallyCorrectHistory this will be carefully sidestepped, but in accurate or exaggerated {{Period Piece}}s and HistoricalFiction, the older versions of this trope can still be found.

In American works, an early propensity for Irish and {{Chinese|Laborer}} laborers in fiction as been replaced by Hispanic and Southeast Asian characters in contemporary times. Black workers were common post-slavery, and remain today in modern examples of {{Mammy}} and (occasionally) MagicalNegro. Western European works will feature Eastern European or North African characters in blue-collar jobs. Works set in Latin America might have indigenous menial labor to the Spanish-descended upper class. For the specific reasons, see [[Analysis/EthnicMenialLabor the analysis page]].

Reasons for choosing blue-collar work might be TheIllegal (they don't want to risk deportation by working for a reputable employer) or WorthlessForeignDegree (they are professionals in their home countries, but these credentials aren't recognized).

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': Prior to their more stable jobs as [[VideoGameSuperMarioBros1 plumbers]], Italians (Italian-American in the old American continuity) Mario and Luigi worked several blue-collar jobs among the [[NewJobsAsThePlotDemands many]] they've done. Mario debuted as a [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong construction worker]], while he and Luigi would go on to do [[VideoGame/GameAndWatch factory work]], [[VideoGame/MarioBros pest control]], and [[VideoGame/WreckingCrew demolition]].