Representations of migrant domestic workers : challenging oppressive visibility of foreign house maids in Lebanon.

Abstract

The estimated 250,000 migrant domestic workers (MDWs) operate under the prevailing kafala sponsorship system in Lebanon – a system that endows the sponsor legal guardianship over their house maid after paying for their travel and contract expenses. Beneath kafala, these laborers cannot quit their job at will, nor change employers or leave the country throughout their contract period. Wishing to avoid taking responsibility for their employee’s actions outside of the domestic sphere, some employers engage in informal practices such as locking their house maid within the home. Moreover, the 1946 labor law excludes MDWs from its protection, denying them a minimum wage ($450-month), a mandatory day off per week and the right to unionize. Although the high abuse and mortality rates characterize MDWs in Lebanon as vulnerable, individual and collective acts of resistance demonstrate that these workers can (and do) challenge the prevailing system. The media gives disproportionate attention to their status as victims of modern-day slavery. In “Maid in Lebanon I” (2007) and “Maid in Lebanon II: Voices from Home” (2011), the Sri Lankan subjects becomes visible through a humanitarian lens which deploys narratives of victimhood while reproducing the sponsor-employee hierarchy. The notion of ‘giving voice’ dominates “Shebaik Lebaik” (2016) where African migrant workers perform their critique of the kafala system in ways that sometimes subvert, but oftentimes reproduce, stereotypical conceptions. “Maid for Each (Makhdoumin)” (2016) adopts a radical representational tactic of invisibility where MDWs remain unseen and unheard throughout his fly-on-the-wall observation of a maid recruitment agency. While Mansour and Daccache believe that their cultural productions can lead to material change for the plight of MDWs, Abi Samra expresses pessimism in that regard.