Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East: The Home and the World

208 Pages·2014·1.002 MB·English

by  Bina Fernandez, Marina de Regt

Migrant Domestic
Workers in the Middle East
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Migrant Domestic
Workers in the Middle East
The Home and the World
Edited by
Bina Fernandez and Marina de Regt
migrant domestic workers in the middle east
Copyright © Bina Fernandez and Marina de Regt, 2014.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United
States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New
York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of
the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan
Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above
companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978-1 -1 37- 48210-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data
Migrant domestic workers in the Middle East : the home and the
world / edited by Bina Fernandez and Marina de Regt.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1 - 137- 48210- 5 (hardback)
1. Women household employees—M iddle East—S ocial conditions.
2. Household employees—M iddle East—S ocial conditions. 3. Women
foreign workers—M iddle East—S ocial conditions. 4. Foreign workers—
Middle East—S ocial conditions. I. Fernandez, Bina. II. De Regt, Marina.
HD6072.2.M628M54 2014
331.4'81640956—d c23 2014024785
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: December 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To all migrant domestic workers in the Middle East:
that care work may be valued and borders won’t be barriers anymore.
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Contents
1 Making a Home in the World:
Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East 1
Bina Fernandez and Marina de Regt
2 Forging Intimate and Work Ties:
Migrant Domestic Workers Resist in Lebanon 27
Amrita Pande
3 Degrees of (Un)Freedom: The Exercise of
Agency by Ethiopian Migrant Domestic
Workers in Kuwait and Lebanon 51
Bina Fernandez
4 Immobilized Migrancy: Inflexible Citizenship
and Flexible Practices among Migrants in the Gulf 75
Pardis Mahdavi
5 The “Mama Mary” of the White City’s
Underside: Reflections on a Filipina Domestic
Workers’ Block Rosary in Tel Aviv, Israel 95
Claudia Liebelt
6 Creating a “New Home” Away
from Home: Religious Conversions
of Filipina Domestic Workers in Dubai and Doha 117
Naomi Hosoda and Akiko Watanabe
7 Caring for the Future in the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia: Saudi and Filipino Women
Making Homes in a World of Movement 141
Nada Elyas and Mark Johnson
viii ● Contents
8 “Shall We Leave or Not?”: Ethiopian Women’s
Notions of Home and Belonging and the Crisis in Yemen 165
Marina de Regt
Notes on Contributors 187
Index 191
CHAPTER 1
Making a Home in the World
Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East
Bina Fernandez and Marina de Regt
For nearly half a century, the Middle East and, in particular, the Ara-
bian Peninsula has become a major migration corridor for domes-
tic workers from Asia and Africa. The large- scale employment of
migrant domestic workers began following the oil boom in 1973. As a
result of rapidly growing oil revenues, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf
states financed development projects in infrastructure, industry, and agri-
culture, which attracted migrants from neighboring Arab countries and
other parts of the world. Initially, the majority of migrants were single men,
with women migrating for family reunification. The increasing demand
for paid domestic labor led to an increase in the number of autonomous
women migrants (Castles and Miller, 2003; Moukarbel, 2009). Domestic
workers came predominantly from South and Southeast Asia (e.g., the Phil-
ippines, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Indonesia), yet in the
past decade, an increasing number of African women have also migrated to
the Middle East. Most of them come from Ethiopia and Eritrea, but there
are also women from Nigeria, Cameroon, Madagascar, Benin, and other
African countries who work as domestics. In addition, while the major-
ity of migrant domestic workers can be found on the Arabian Peninsula,
they are also present in Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Syria (before the civil
war), and Yemen (e.g., Jureidini, 2009; Moukarbel, 2009; Liebelt, 2011;
Frantz, 2008; de Regt, 2008).
The hierarchy of domestic workers at these destinations is often distinctly
organized according to class and race. Upper- class families tend to employ
Asian women and in particular Filipinas or Indonesian women, whereas