Migrant infrastructures in Beirut

Abstract

Migrant workers in Lebanon are subject to a sponsorship (Kafala) system that ties their work and everyday living conditions to a local sponsor. As a result, their social and physical mobility are severely limited. However, one can see in Beirut places where migrants clearly defy and overcome these restrictions. One such place is Dora, a bustling multi-ethnic neighborhood where migrants find places to live, work, and socialize. My research explores the alternative infrastructures that Beirut’s migrant workers (re)produce and sustain in the course of their everyday lives. It looks into the different ways of inhabiting the city that such infrastructures enable. My aim is to examine the lifeworlds of migrant workers in Beirut focusing on the infrastructures that support them, meaning the infrastructures that allow these worlds to materialize and endure. The notion of infrastructure is employed here in ways that depart from the traditional definitions of the term; it includes both the material and non-material surrounding. Using participant observation and ethnographic interviews, I investigate how different elements, including bodies, things, and signs of various kinds, function as infrastructures for migrant workers in Beirut and how such alternative infrastructures give migrants access to the city and in the process, take part in shaping the social and material landscape of this city.