Ethiopian Migrant Domestic Workers - Migrant Agency and Social Change

This book tells the stories of the Ethiopian women who migrate to work as domestic workers in the Middle East. Drawing on qualitative research in Ethiopia, Lebanon and Kuwait, the author reveals how women's aspirations to migrate are constituted within unequal gendered structures of opportunity in Ethiopia and asks us to consider how gender, race, class and nationality intersect in the construction of migrant subjectivities and agency. By analysing the impact of migration on social reproduction both in Ethiopia and the destination countries, the book offers fresh empirical and theoretical insights into the largest stream of women's autonomous international migration from Africa.

List of contents

1. The Will to Change.- 2. 'We are like oil to our government'.- 3. (De)constructing docility at the destinations.- 4. 'We Ethiopians are more sociable people - we cannot live alone'.- 5. 'Now we welcome the birth of daughters'.- 6. On the 'Cutting Edge of Change'.

About the author

Bina Fernandez is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Summary

This book tells the stories of the Ethiopian women who migrate to work as domestic workers in the Middle East. Drawing on qualitative research in Ethiopia, Lebanon and Kuwait, the author reveals how women’s aspirations to migrate are constituted within unequal gendered structures of opportunity in Ethiopia and asks us to consider how gender, race, class and nationality intersect in the construction of migrant subjectivities and agency. By analysing the impact of migration on social reproduction both in Ethiopia and the destination countries, the book offers fresh empirical and theoretical insights into the largest stream of women’s autonomous international migration from Africa.

Product details

• Authors: Bina Fernandez
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2019
• EAN: 9783030240547
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3024054-7
• No. of pages: 156
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 215 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 315 g
• Illustrations: XI, 156 p.
• Series: Mobility & Politics; Mobility & Politics
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Comparative and international political science; Migration, Afrika, Naher Osten, C, Women, Africa, Middle East, biotechnology, Identity Politics, Politics & government, Migration, immigration & emigration, Political Science and International Studies, Gender studies, gender groups, African Politics, Emigration and immigration, Politics and Gender, Middle East—Politics and government, Middle Eastern Politics, Africa—Politics and government, Gender studies: women & girls, Women's Studies