Questioning the Discursive Construction of Trafficking and Forced Labor in the United Arab Emirates

Mahdavi, Pardis; Sargent, Christine

doi:10.2979/jmiddeastwomstud.7.3.6

Cited by 23 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The TIP is a report the US Department of State produces each year. For more information see Mahdavi and Sargent (2011) or www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/. 06.…”

Section: Concluding Thoughtsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, labour and the law: the nexus of domestic work, human trafficking and the informal economy in the United Arab Emirates

Mahdavi

2013

Global Networks

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Based on ethnographic fieldwork with female migrants in the United ArabEmirates, the focus of this article is on the confluence of human trafficking discourses, gendered migration, domestic work and sex work in the UAE. I explore three main findings. First, domestic work and sex work are not mutually exclusive. Second, women choose to enter sex work in preference to domestic work because of poor working conditions in the latter. Third, global policies on human trafficking that seek to restrict female migration have inspired female migrants in the Gulf in search of higher wages and increased autonomy to look for employment in the informal economy. Employing a theoretical lens that emphasizes structural violence, the article chronicles the individual and macro social factors structuring the transition of female migrants from the formal economy of domestic and care work into the informal economy of sex work.

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“…The TIP is a report the US Department of State produces each year. For more information see Mahdavi and Sargent (2011) or www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/. 06.…”

Section: Concluding Thoughtsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, labour and the law: the nexus of domestic work, human trafficking and the informal economy in the United Arab Emirates

Mahdavi

2013

Global Networks

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“…The control of domestic worker sexuality relates to all kinds of 'dangers' that she supposedly poses to the social fabric of the host society (Chang and Groves 2000). Financial desperation might make her vulnerable to prostitution, even trafficking (Mahdavi and Sargent 2011). Relationships with local or other migrant men risk the possibility of pregnancy, which may become grounds for dismissal, where policy explicitly prohibits such an occurrence (Ullah 2010).…”

Section: How To Make a 'Successful' Migrantmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Supermaids”: Hyper-resilient Subjects in Neoliberal Migration Governance

Chee

2020

International Political Sociology

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Resilience is a concept in world politics that emerged as a way to respond to the impossibility of guaranteeing security in an era of complexity. Without a central authority to provide security, risk is devolved to the individual. Those who cannot secure themselves are enjoined to constantly adapt to the unknown. Where control over complex systems is now thought to be impossible, the path to managing risks is through self-control. This paper demonstrates how such a subject is produced, and indeed whose production, I argue, is crucial to the functioning of a global labor market that is governed “without government.” Migrant domestic workers acutely instantiate the kind of human subjectivity called forth by neoliberalism—a “resilient subject.” The paper describes how this ideal worker is produced through resilience training in various stages of the migration trajectory—during recruitment, training prior to deployment, and while on their overseas residency. This paper demonstrates how managing the insecurities of migrant domestic work means working on the “self” rather than addressing gaps in legal or regulatory mechanisms. In resilience training, the worker becomes the necessary component of neoliberalism as a governmental rationality, one that is enjoined to transform risk into opportunity.

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“…Although the type of kafala system existing in Lebanon has its peculiarities, recent scholarship has found parallels not only in sponsorship systems in many other Gulf States but also in "guest worker" programs across the world (Baldwin-Edwards, 2005;Lan, 2007;Gardner, 2011;Mahdavi and Sargent, 2011). The "guest worker" migration program, adopted by many Asian host countries, permits migrants in the "unskilled jobs," or, what are aptly termed the "three D" jobs (dirty, dangerous, and difficult), to come into the country but only as temporary workers.…”

Section: From the Household To The State: Migrant Domestic Worker Under Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“The Paper that you Have in Your Hand is My Freedom”: Migrant Domestic Work and the Sponsorship (Kafala) System in Lebanon

Pande

2013

International Migration Review

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A recent report on migrant domestic work in Lebanon has cited psychological disorder among Lebanese “Madams” as the leading cause of violence against their migrant maids (Jureidini, 2011, http://www.kafa.org.lb/StudiesPublicationPDF/PRpdf38.pdf). This report typifies much of the existing scholarship on the experiences of migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in the Middle East, where the focus is on employer–employee relationships, especially the abusive Arab “Madam.” In this paper, I argue that the portrayal of violations of MDW rights as abuse of one set of women by another is inherently problematic on several fronts. It privatizes the structural problem of workers’ and immigrant rights violations, delegates it to the household, and absolves the state of its responsibility. Moreover, the focus on abusive employers takes attention away from the root of the problem – the inherently exploitative system of migration and recruitment in the region, the sponsorship system. The sponsorship system not only creates conditions for much of these violations, but also systematically produces a new population of readily exploitable worker – the category of “illegal workers.” Oral histories and interviews with individual workers are employed to analyze the process by which illegal workers are “produced” in Lebanon. Finally, focus group discussions highlight critical policy recommendations made by the workers themselves, which address the systemic bases of their exploitation in Lebanon.

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Questioning the Discursive Construction of Trafficking and Forced Labor in the United Arab Emirates

Cited by 23 publications

References 10 publications

Gender, labour and the law: the nexus of domestic work, human trafficking and the informal economy in the United Arab Emirates

Gender, labour and the law: the nexus of domestic work, human trafficking and the informal economy in the United Arab Emirates

“Supermaids”: Hyper-resilient Subjects in Neoliberal Migration Governance

“The Paper that you Have in Your Hand is My Freedom”: Migrant Domestic Work and the Sponsorship (Kafala) System in Lebanon

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