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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BROKEN SPACES; BOUNDED REALITIES;

FOREIGN FEMALE DOMESTIC WORKERS IN THE UAE

Rima Sabban

submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

of The American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree

of Doctor of Philosophy

Sociology / V Chair Kenneth C^-.Kusterer

Samih K. Farsoun

Vidvamali Samaraslnghe

Dean of College of Arts and Sciences

Dale 1996

The American University

Washington, D.C. 20016

m AMEBICAB CHIVEBSITY LIBBAHY

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UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103

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RIMA SABBAN

1996

s. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To my father.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BROKEN SPACES; BOUNDED REALITIES:

FOREIGN FEMALE DOMESTIC WORKERS IN THE UAE

RIMA SABBAN

ABSTRACT

This dissertation studies the phenomenon of foreign female domestic workers

(FFDW) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), within the context of the feminization of

migration. It examines the impact of the migration process on the lives of the FFDW, their

working conditions, and their interaction with their social and spatial surroundings. This

study is based on a field work conducted in Dubai, the second largest city in the UAE.

The field work consists of 51 extended interviews with the FFDW, and 34 limited

interviews with their employers. The questionnaire is semi- structured and comprises

open-ended questions that cover the period from the beginning of the migration joumey to

the FFDW’s interview.

The FFDWs migration journey is reported as a narrative that combines the

quantitative and qualitative inquiry into research design. This inquiry was based on four

aspects of the migration journey called the Four Cs. These aspects are: the composition

factors of the FFDW in the sample; the causes of their migration joumey; their working

conditions; and finally the consequences of this trip on their lives, their situated selves, their

families and children, and finally on UAE society at large.

i i

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, for their continuous emotional and practical support, I would like to

thank my husband and my sons, Khalid and Gaith, whom without their patience and

understanding, I could not have completed this project. (When I began this joumey, Gaith

was only four months old and Khalid was four years old.) My husband has had to go

through tremendous social pressure, compromise, and adjustment, while my children, as

young as they are, have been willing to understand continuously why so much of my time

has been devoted to this dissertation. For their struggle to comprehend and accept this, I

am grateful.

Also, I wish to thank, my parents, especially my father, whose devotion to

women's education has made me who I am. Sadly, he passed away when I was working on

this project. Yet I know that no one would have been prouder to see me receiving my PhD

than he would have been. I also would like to thank my brothers and my sister for their

continuous encouragement.

I would like to thank Mumtaz, the Indian domestic worker who strongly inspired

this project, and I would also like to extend a special thank you to Patricia Watkins, who

has greatly supported me during this endeavor.

Academically, I wish to thank Dr. Kenneth Kusterer for his help and guidance

throughout this research. It has been a privilege to work with such a person, gifted with

rare sympathy for women’s issues and with such remarkable professional integrity. I also

iii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. would like to thank Dr. Samih Farsoun and Dr. Vidyamali Samarasinghe for their time in

reading this dissertation, and for their insights and suggestions.

I also wish to thank all my friends and teachers. It is impossible to individually

name them all for they have been many, but I would like to specifically mention my thanks

to Judith and Mahmoun Fandy, Mary Habib and Oya Acikalin.

Finally, without the help of Blanca Madani and Stephanie Reich, who edited this

paper and worked with me under the pressure of deadlines, I probably would not have

completed this project on time.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...... iii

TABLE OF CONTENT...... v

LIST OF TABLES...... vii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS...... ix

INTRODUCTION...... 1

CHAPTER ONE: FEMINIZATION OF MIGRATION...... 10

I. WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION...... 12

II. CONCEPTUALIZATION OF FEMINIZATION OF MIGRATION...... 31

CHAPTER TWO: THE UAE...... 40

I. UAE BACKGROUND AND CHARACTERISTICS OF OIL STORY...... 42

II. THE UAE MIGRATION POLEMICS...... 58

CHAPTER THREE: METHODS OF RESEARCH...... 78

I. FIELD WORK AND CHARACTERISTICS OF AN AREA STUDIED...... 79

H. SAMPLE COMPOSITION...... 95

CHAPTER FOUR: CAUSES AND CONCRETE CASES OF MIGRATION...... 114

I. DECISION INITIATION/REASONS TO MIGRATE...... 115

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. II. RECRUITMENT...... 131

III. THE JOURNEY: CONDITIONS, EXPENSES, AND MEANS OF

PAYMENT...... 147

CHAPTER FIVE: WORK PLACE AND WORK CONDITIONS...... 169

I. THE NEW PLACE...... 172

II. THE WORK ITSELF...... 196

III. BENEFITS AND DAMAGES OF THE WORK...... 219

CHAPTER FIVE: APPENDIX...... 237

CHAPTER SIX: THE CONSEQUENCES...... 241

I. CONSEQUENCES AFFECTING THE FFDW SELF...... 244

II. CONSEQUENCES ON UAE SOCIETY...... 271

III. THE SITUATED FFDW...... 306

CONCLUSION...... 321

PROFILE OF THE FFDW IN THE SAMPLE...... 337

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 340

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Tables

2.1.1 Comparative Economic Indicators O f UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan 49 2.1.2 Population Growth In UAE, And National Composition Since 1900 ...... 55 2.2.1 Percentage of UAE Women's Participation In (Public Sphere) Workplace In Comparison to None-UAE Women's Participation ...... 71 2.2.2 Domestic Workers In The UAE. By Sex (1975-1985) ...... 74 3.1.1 Population Distribution Of alM im zar Neighborhood By Citizenship ...... 79 3.2.1 Nationality Of FFDW Within The Sample Population ...... 98 3.2.2 Percentage Of Household, By Stratum, Employing FFDW, By Nationality ...... 99 3.2.3 Percentage Of FFDW By Nationality Within Each Category Depicting Time Duration of Employment With A Specific Household...... 101 3.2.4 Age Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 103 3.2.5 Marital Status Of The FFDW In TTie Sample ...... 104 3.2.6 Number Of Children For The 51 FFDW Interviewed In The sample ...... 105 3 .2.7 Age Of Children Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 106 3 .2.8 Religious Background Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 107 3 .2.9 Urban And Rural Background Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 107 3 .2.10 Family Background Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 108 3.2.11 Educational Background Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 109 3.2.12 Language Background Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 110 3.2.13 Knowledge O f English Language O f The FFDW In The Sample ...... 111 3.2.14 Knowledge Of Arabic Language By The FFDW In The Sample ...... 111 3.2.15 Previous Work Experience Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 112 3.2.16 Previous Work place Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 113 4.1.1 Decision Initiation Of Migration Trip Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 116 4.1.2 Migration Reasons Of Sample FFDW According To Ethnic Background...... 118 4.1.3 Reasons For Migration Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 122 4.1.5 Social Reasons For Migration As Stated By FFDW In The Sample ...... 124 4.1.6 Family Reasons Cited By FFDW AS Causes Of Their Migration Trip ...... 124 4.1.7 Ethnic Factors In Relations To Financial Reasons Of FFDW Migration ...... 125 4.1.8 Personal Reasons That Led To The Migration Of The FFDW In The Sample 126 4.1.9 Personal Reasons Of Migration Controlled By Education Of The FFDW ...... 128 4.1.10 Personal Reasons Of Migration Controlled By Nationality Of The FFDW ...... 128 4.2.1 Means Of Coming In To Dubai For The FFDW In The Sample ...... 133 4.2.2 Means Of Coming To Dubai, By The Country Of Origin Among FFDW ...... 134

vii

N. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4.2.3 Problems With Agencies Of Recruitment As Reported By FFDW ...... 142 4.3.1 Expenses Paid By FFDW To Recruiting Agencies Before Entering ...... 156 4.3.2 Person(s) Paying Expenses Of FFDW To Agencies Of Recruitment ...... 157 4.3.3 Means Of Pavement For The Recruitment Expenses Of FFDW ...... 165 5.1.1 First Encounter And Rest After FFD Ws Migration Joumey ...... 173 5.1.2 Perception Of FFDW On Permission To Maintain Aspects Of Their Previous Lifestyles...... 177 5.1.3 Changing Environment And Different Types Of Adjustments FFDW Had To Go Trough ...... 185 5.1.4 FFDWs Adjustment To Separation From Family And Loved Ones ...... 187 5.1.5 Number Of Friends FFDW Had During Their Employment In The UAE ...... 194 5.2.1 Hours FFDW In The Sample Worked, According To Their Own Description 197 5.2.2 Daytime Rest Periods Allowed FFDW During Their Working Day ...... 202 5.2.3 Night Time Rest For FFDW During A 24-Hour Time Span Including Working Day...... 202 5.2.4 Monthly Wages Of FFDW, Measured By UAE Dirhams ...... 204 5.2.5 Salary Of FFDW In Relation To Nationality ...... 205 5.2.6 Salary Of The FFDW In Relation To Educational Background ...... 205 5.2.7 Days Off In The Week, And Permission To Leave Employer’s House ...... 206 5.2.8 Status Of FFDW Spatial Privacy In UAE ...... 208 5.2.9 FFDW Perception O f The Quality And Amount Of Work They Do ...... 2 11 5.2.10 Work Demands As Perceived By The FFDW In The Sample ...... 212 5.2.11 FFDW Comparisons Of Work Done In The UAE With That In Their Home Countries ...... 213 5.2.12 FFDW Perceptions Of Their Monthly Wages ...... 213 5.2.13 Types Of Heaviest Work, As Perceived By FFDW ...... 215 5.2.14 The Most Boring Types of Work, As Perceived By FFDW ...... 216 5.2.15 Types Of Irregular Work Done During A Month's Time By FFDW ...... 217 5.2.16 FFDW Perception Of Help Received In Doing Housework...... 218 5.3.1 Benefits And Tips Received By FFDW During Their Work In The UAE ...... 221 5.3.2 Different Forms Of Abuse Reported By FFDW ...... 226 6.1.1 Material Accomplishments Of Sample FFDW At Time Of Interview ...... 245 6.1.2 Material Accomplishment Of FFDW With Time Factor Indicated ...... 246 6.1.3 Amount Of Savings By FFDW, Calculated In Dollars ...... 247 6.1.4 Amount Of Savings By FFDW In Relation To Time In The UAE ...... 248 6.1.5 Amount Of Salary FFDW Sent Home and/or Saved ...... 250 6.1.6 Future Life Goals Of The FFDW In Sample ...... 265 6.1.7 Type Of Future Goals For FFDW In Sample ...... 265 6.1.8 Future Goals Of FFDW, By Ethnic Origins ...... 268

viii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6.1.9 The Dream Attainability Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 269 6.1.10 FFDW Commitment To Migration "Then," If I Jtilizing Experience Of "Now" ...... 270 6.2.1 Number Of Rooms In House Where Sample FFDW Were Interviewed ...... 276 6.2.2 Number Of Maids In Households Where sample FFDW Were Interviewed...... 276 6.2.3 Number Of household Members In Families Of Employers Interviewed...... 278 6.2.4 Reasons For Hiring Domestics As Reported By Employers Interviewed...... 279 6.2.5 Employers' Perception Of Domestic Work As Socially Low Valued...... 284 6.2.6 Gender Of House Workers In Households Of Employer Interviewed...... 285 6.2.7 Salary Of Male Domestic Workers In Household Of Interviewed Employer...... 286 6.2.8 UAE FE Opinion On Allowing FFDW To Care For Their Children ...... 296 6.2.9 UAE FE Perception Of FFDW Impact On Children ...... 296

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Types

Picture 1. Backyard Of Separate Housing Quarters For FFDW Working For A Middle Class Family...... 278 Picture 2. Typical upper-class home in Al-Mimzar, Dubai ...... 280 Picture 3. Upper-class Home In AI-Mimzar, Exemplifying New Trend Toward Reflecting IJAF Identity (see Chapter Two) ...... 280 Picture 4. Typical Middle-Class Home in Al-Mimzar ...... 281 Picture 5. Lower-Class Home In The Welfare Neighborhood Portrayed In This Study ..281 Figure 1. Comparative Perspective Of Household Changes On Both Sides Of Migration.. 333 Profile 1. Profile Of The FFDW In The Sample ...... 337

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION

This dissertation deals with female labor migration to the United Arab Emirates

(UAE) within the general context of globalization and feminization of migration, an

unfolding phenomenon of recent decades. The actual focus of this study is on one segment

of the UAE's female immigrant population, namely domestic workers, i.e. housemaids and

nannies (Weinert 1991: 5; ILO 1984). Specifically, this study investigates the impact of the

migration process on these female domestic workers' lives, conditions of work, and

interactions with the surrounding social environment. Two distinct theoretical frameworks

guide this research. The first deals with the migration process, including the feminization

of migration. The second covers gender issues with a particular emphasis on household

structure and domestic work.

I. Statement Of The Problem

Since the early 1980s, the rise in the number of foreign female domestic workers

(FFDW) in the UAE has become a sensitive and controversial issue there because of three

interrelated problems. The first two problems relate specifically to the UAE, whereas the

third is related to the growth in international concern about the treatment of the FFDW.

The problems that the presence of FFDW in the UAE present to that society itself are

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 demographic. First, the increasing number of immigrant workers in general has been

changing the composition of the population of the UAE. Second, there is the particular

impact of the FFDW on the structure of the family and of UAE society. Many analysts of

these two issues conclude that FFDW are negative influences on UAE families,

particularly on children. (Al-Jirdawi 1990; Al-Khalaf et al. 1987; Khalfan 1985; Abd Al-

Jawad 1985). The third problem, relating to international concern about the treatment of

FFDW, is the maltreatment and abuse that the FFDW face in the UAE specifically. This

issue received considerable exposure during the Gulf War and has since become a serious

concern of NGOs and human rights organizations. Weinert, in a study on international

female domestic workers, points out that the case of the Gulf countries is critical in terms

of the increasing numbers of domestic migrants choosing to work there, and the

maltreatment that they receive (Weinert 1991.25-26).

Based on these concerns, this study explores (and thus defines) some important

aspects of these workers' lives— including their relationships with members of their

families, with their employers, and with their home societies and with those of their host

countries. The field research forming the basis of this study examines how female

migration for domestic work enhances or detracts from the lives of the FFDW within a

specific social context, namely, that of UAE society, which is defined as Islamic,

patriarchal, and tribal. However, this study is not limited to descriptions of the migration

process; it also looks at the content of the employer-employee relationship by examining

the conduct of women both as employers and as employees in an exploitative context, i.e..

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 the domestic work situation. With the guidance of feminist literature, this research

critically assesses some of the Western liberal feminist assumptions that downplay the role

of race, nationality, and class in regard to relationships among women. In other words, by

studying the reality of the FFDW and their interaction with UAE women, both as domestic

workers in the UAE household and in society at large, this study is an observation of how

females interact when they occupy different strata within the overall framework of

international capitalism, international patriarchy, and international household and familial

dynamics.

II. Research Question

The central question that this study poses is that of what the migration process

contributes to or takes from a female migrant domestic worker's life in terms of material

wealth and social relationships.

In addition to this central question, this study also raises a set of correlated

questions aimed at the exploration of the life and work experiences that FFDW encounter

in the UAE as a result of the migration process. These questions are related to factors of

migration dynamics such as: Why do the FFDW decide to migrate? Why do FFDW

choose to leave their home countries, families, and children? Why do some FFDW choose

to stay in the UAE while others develop a pattern of moving back and forth? How do the

FFDW arrive at the migration decision, and what are the important factors in this

decision? What are the FFDW experiences during their joumey from their home countries

to the UAE? What is the role of middle range agencies in these experiences?

with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Other central questions are: What are the living and working conditions that

FFDW face? What are the different types of pressure that FFDW face in the UAE in

general, and in their work places in particular? Do FFDW suffer from abuse on the job? If

so. what forms does this abuse take? How do FFDW adjust to the new life style in the

UAE? Can they bridge the cultural differences and overcome various restraints imposed

upon them? How do FFDW perceive their future? Do FFDW have a clear understanding

of the process of migration and its consequences? Are they conscious of the changes that

they have created within their environment?

III. Relevance Of The Study

The focus of this study is a theoretically complex and relatively new topic, on

which little research has been conducted previously. Hence, this study is treating a

relatively unknown topic, and is thereby adding something new to the study of

international migratory labor, and to the dynamics of relations among women belonging to

different social strata. This study also differs from others in terms of the approach it takes

toward the specific subject of FFDW as well. Most earlier works that examined the life,

family and society of FFDW were conducted in the migrants' home countries, and in most

of those studies migrant women are interviewed as returnees (Brochmann 1993; Arnold

and Shah 1986). Studies conducted in the UAE emphasize only the negative impact of the

FFDW on the children of the UAE employers, and on family and societal structure

(Abdui-Jawad 1985; Al-Jardawi 1990; Al-Khulfan 1985; Khalifa 1986; Madkor 1992;

Ministry of Work and Social Affairs 1990; and Yussef 1990).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 This study has taken up the challenge of engaging in field work that examines the

conditions that the FFDW face in the process of migration and at work and has made it a

point to interview these women during their actual employment in a given household.

From that perspective also, this study is original, in that it reveals the realities of this issue

in its exact space and time frame.

Further significance of this research lies in its conceptualization of the subject

being analyzed. Most previous studies have either viewed FFDW as victims or as abusers.

This study, by contrast, is neither aimed at blaming victims nor at forcing the subject to

conform to some victimization model. Rather, the FFDW that make up this study's sample

population are shown to be dynamic, active actors, evaluating their situations at each

moment, and attempting to adjust their lives accordingly.

In addition, my own position as researcher for this study had a considerable

impact upon the thrust of this study. Like the FFDW themselves, I was in the UAE as an

"outsider within” (Collins and Gimenez: 1990). Originally, I am Lebanese, currently

married to a UAE citizen. I have lived for three years in the UAE, as part of an extended

family in which women are the major decision-makers in the household. My own position

in the UAE made me at least partially able to understand the psychological pressures

involved in adjusting to a closed and segregated society, since I grew up in the more

liberal society of Beirut, Lebanon. My living situation in the UAE introduced me, for the

first time in my life, to the intimacy of a UAE household. This particular household was

representative of the changes in status and life style that most UAE families have

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 undergone. This family was originally poor, with a subsistent living standard. As a result

of oil wealth and the state welfare benefits that developed in relation to this wealth, this

family was able to rise economically and adopt a middle-stratum lifestyle, and many of its

members became professionals. These changes have transformed UAE society in general,

and family structure in particular from a premodem form of social existence to modernity.

I believe that my living experiences in the UAE and my subjective conclusions

about it have given me additional resources with which to approach this study. This is

particularly true given the fact that since 1992,1 had been living with two FFDW who

were cousins from Tamil Nadu in South India. These two women had originally come to

the UAE as FFDW, but then left the Emirates to accompany me with my two sons to the

United States, where they continued to work as housekeepers. The first FFDW lived with

us for a year but then had to go back to India. The second worked with us from January

1993 until July 1996. Tracing the life joumey that these two women made from Tamil

Nadu opened my eyes, soul, and consciousness to the inner suffering they endured.

Through listening to their life stories I become conscious of the realities of an entire

emerging female, international social group called “domestics.” As a matter of fact, it was

this living and learning experience that led to my choosing to write a dissertation about

domestic workers in the UAE, about their realities and aspirations. Thus my perspective

on the study of FFDW in the UAE is based on a subjective as well as objective

consciousness, and my aim is to make these invisible women more visible, to explore both

in relation to the transformations that UAE society has undergone, and to examine these

x Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 women's motivations and plans for the future.

The first chapter in this dissertation relates this study to feminist literature,

placing the concept of “globalization” and “feminization” of migration, within this context.

These two concepts form the framework under which this study was conceived and

conducted. This conceptualization of this study dictated the analysis of “the four Cs,” or

component characteristic of the FFDW studied, i.e. the concrete cases, the causes of their

migration, the conditions under which they worked, and the consequences of the migration

process.

Chapter two placec, this study in its own spatial framework, namely, the dynamics

of UAE society. It furnishes the background information concerning a society which has

its own particular ethnic composition, and considers the effects of its dependency upon

domestic labor. Currently there is an average of 2.2 domestic workers employed per

household.

Chapter three examines the conditions under which the field interviews were

completed. For this research, fifty one FFDW were interviewed in “Al-Mimzar,” a

neighborhood in Dubai, the second largest city in the UAE. These interviews were based

on a semi-structured questionnaire which contained sixty four open ended questions. Data

was analyzed and represented both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this chapter, the

sample is introduced, in terms of its composition and general background.

Chapter four focuses upon the factors that led the FFDW in the sample to

migrate. Factors analyzed as impacting this decision include the FFDW own familial,

N Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. economic or personal reasons, and such external forces as the recruitment policies of both

the home countries and of the UAE. This chapter also discusses the conditions that FFDW

faced during the migration journey, and at Dubai airport upon their arrival in the UAE.

The activities of recruitment agencies, and how tney interacted with the FFDW, both in

the home countries and in the UAE are likewise covered.

Chapter five covers the work conditions with which the FFDW in the sample

were contending. It measures their working hours, wages, and work responsibilities,

providing a general assessment of the FFDW satisfaction with work, leisure, extra

benefits, and privacy and with their sense of fulfillment. It also describes other situations

involving exploitation, sexual harassment, and other forms of abuse.

Chapter six is a general assessment of the FFDW's migration journeys and some

of the consequences that the migration decision engendered. These consequences are

studied in terms of how they affected the FFDW themselves as objects and subjects of

change. Specifically, this chapter analyzes how this work experience raised the

consciousness of the FFDW concerning work reality, and the social construction of

housework, child rearing, and household management under patriarchy. Consequences

that UAE society has been facing in relation to increased dependence upon domestic labor

are also addressed in this chapter, as are consequences that households in the sender

countries face, in relation to the growth of the migrant domestic labor phenomenon.

Finally the conclusion relates this study to the different aspects of change around

the lives of the FFDW: their own selves, their families, and their household's changing

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. structure. It also looks into the impact they leave on UAE society, and households. The

last part is a presentation of the major theoretical and policy implications.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER ONE

FEMINIZATION OF MIGRATION: A FRAMEWORK OF RESISTANCE

Even women who have learned how crucial it is to always ask feminist questions-about welfare, science, hus routes, police procedures-have found it hard to ask feminist questions in the midst of a discussion about the international implications of Soviet perestroika or Britain's trade policies in the European Economic Community. We are made to feel silly. Many women find it tempting to build up credibility in this still- masculinized area of political discussion by lowering their voices an octave, adjusting their body postures and demonstrating that they can talk 'boys’ talk’ as well as their male colleagues. One result of women not being able to speak out is that we may have an inaccurate understanding of how power relations between countries are created and perpetuated. Silence has made us dumb." (Enloe: 1989).

Introduction

This chapter considers how the issues of gender, household, domestic work, and

international migration are interrelated. The overall framework—feminization of

migration—forms the base of this study. It was developed to explore how women affect,

and become affected, by migration. Feminization of migration (FM) denotes a process

through which women become more visible, determined, and empowered in the course of

migration (Morokvasic 1984; Boyd and Taylor 1986; Abella 1990; Gasmuck and Pessar

1991; Hondagneu-Sotelo 1992; Bilsborrow and Zlotnik 1994). Castles and Miller note

that “[i]n the past, most labor migrations and many refugee movements were male-

dominated, and women were seldom observed except as part of family reunions. Since the

1960s, women have played a major role in laboi migration” (1993 :8-9). Given all the

discrepancies and biases, the available data suggest that 48 per cent of international

migrants are women (United Nations Secretariat 1990, qtd. in Zlotnik, 1994). Similarly,

when Taylor controls her data for sex, she finds a high participation of women in

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11

migration to Canada (1986).

Consequently, FM does not mean that women have achieved gender equity in a

certain domain, namely, migration. On the contrary, this framework underscore* women’s

historical marginalization that has been exacerbated by the modem system of capitalist

development. However, women were never silent about these injustices, and when their

exploitation exceeded a set level of tolerance—preceded by shifts in the division of labor

and a greater marginalization of domestic work—women proceeded to organize open

resistance. This is clearly seen in the development of feminist movements (Eisenstein

1979; Millet 1970; Mitchell 1973).

Additionally, this study perceives of FM as the phenomenal change introduced by

women through their daily life stories. The individual female migrants is presumed to have

an active role as a prerequisite for her participation in open resistance to the system of

male dominance—a system that has historically marginalized and precluded them from

power sharing. 'The power relations generated among subordinate groups are often the

only countervailing power to the determination of behavior from above” (Scott 1990:27)

Another important characteristic of the FM framework is its distinction from the

“universal” western definition of patriarchy (June Nash in Smith et al 1988). While it is

true that male dominance is a reality shared by women everywhere, each region, culture,

or social grouping has its own dynamics and patterns of male dominance (Afshar 1985 and

Mies 1985). It is therefore crucial to differentiate among those diverse patterns if one is to

understand female resistance. Imposing generalizations from the outside is not useful.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12

FM looks at the present status of women in international migration as a historical

phase in women's long struggle for social change. As a phase, it has its own components

and characteristics that are neither clear nor easily defined; in fact, they are quite

paradoxical and controversial. It is this very complexity that is so central to the

construction of the FM framework. Additionally, the construction of the framework

incorporates other systems of social conflicts and inequalities such as racism, colonialism,

capitalism, and globalism.

I. Women In International Mieration-In Search Of Meaning

This theoretical framework was developed in two stages, one preceding the field

work, and one following it. Observing and reading about the lives of migrant women and

personally living through conditions of geographical mobility and displacement have

helped me attain a better understanding of the meaning of migration in the context of

resistance and liberation. People have always migrated as a demonstration of their

resistance, even when the direct causes of the migration have been natural disasters, wars,

or other turmoil. The very act of migration is a form of resistance. It is transcendental and

imaginative in nature. It could be as liberating and empowering as it could be alienating

and demeaning. While engaging in the act itself the migrant may not fully understand these

implications. Reality has its own ways of masking itself, and resistance is an act that

demystifies some aspects of control while simultaneously creating others. The unraveling

process is continuous, historical, and interrelated. One thing can be said for certain:

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. globalization is creating greater mobility for women.

It is interesting to observe how a dominant discourse hopes to eiadicate "the

other” simply by ignoring it. While trying to trace the “laws of migration,” Ravenstein,

"the Godfather” of migration theory, declared that women are "greater migrants than

men” (Ravenstein 1889, cited in Brettell and Simon 1986). In spite of this, "women have

essentially been left out of theoretical thinking about migration, whether internal or

international” (Brettell and Simon 1986). Feminist studies are increasingly showing that

women did not become visible in migration literature until recently (Bilsborrow and

Zlotnik 1994; Morokvasic 1984, Hedwig and Morokvasic 1994) despite the fact that

women outnumbered men as immigrants to many parts of the world, the U.S. among them

(Tyree and Donato 1986). Indeed, countries that favored permanent settlement during

their early age of modernization, such as the US, Canada, and Australia (Zlotnik 1995;

Houston et al 1984) had more women immigrants than men immigrants. Many authors

believe that the marginalization of women in the migration discourse is attributable to male

dominance. Emphasizing the prominent position of women in the history of migration,

Morokvasic (1984) and Pedraza (1991) point to the missing gender revolution in

migration theories. The marginalization of women is related to the existing bias in the

construction of meaning, knowledge, and practices of international migration.

To provide insight into the reasons for this lack of impact, one would have to discuss the

minority status assigned to this issue as a 'women issue' in migration theory and research,

as well as in social science inquiry in general.... Women who joined the migration streams

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. from the beginning were confronted with the dominant Western ideology where a

breadwinner is a man.... Female migrants have been assigned to this state of dependent,

whether this dependency was real or not (Morokvasic 1984:900).

In a more recent text, Hedwig and Morokvasic explained how women fall into

certain categories that lead to their gradual and continuous marginalization. For instance,

women, more often than men, join spouses for family reunification. They are routinely

classified as unpaid labor in family business and disregarded in the process of economic

restructuring. Consequently, they wind up with a limited access to equal positions in

society and in the labor market (Hedwig and Morodvasic 1994).

Outmoded "blame the victim” theories attributed women's marginal position in

migration to their limited life experiences and cultural preparation. In contrast, a new

brand of studies on female migration has recently been forming that adopts a gender-

centered approach. These studies are engendering a different understanding of the role of

women in migration. This diversity is the result of the interaction of many discourses on

migration, and the consequent deconstruction of the western male dominant discourse.1 In

an illustrative example of this new approach, Giovanna Campani (1994) shows how

Filipina domestics in Italy are very nonessential in the construction of social and economic

value in the market economy. However, when it comes to their own associations and

networking, they become highly active, autonomous, and able to improve their lives and

1 As in any process of change one could remark a transitional period of change that could uphold traits of both times.

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those of others.

A. Modem International Migration: A Western “white male” Construction

1- Modernity as a discourse of mobility

Migration is an old phenomenon, as old as humanity itself. “One could reasonably

claim that mankind's entire history has been a history of migration” (Rystad 1992:1169,

Bohning 1978: 11). Despite this, scholars of international migration consider it a

phenomenon of western modernity (Shami 1994). Hanna Arendt states that “uprootedness

and superfluousness have been the curse of modem masses since the beginning of the

industrial revolution and have become acute with the rise of imperialism at the end of the

last century and the break-down of political institutions and social traditions in our own

time” (Arendt 1975:475).

Talal Asad develops the meaning of the interaction between modernity and

mobility more analytically. To be successful, modernity has to delegitimize the previous

modes of life and build new ones. Uprootment and mobility are part of the process of

change. They form a moment in which an act is subsumed by another. In other words,

when people are easily uprooted, they are also easily rendered “physically and morally

superfluous.”

From the point of view of power, mobility is a convenient feature of the act subsumed, but a necessary one of the subsuming act. For it is by means of geographical and psy chological movement that mod e m power inserts itself into preexisting structures. That process is necessary to defining existing identities and motives as superfluous, and to constructing others in their place. Meanings are thus not only created, they are also redirected or subverted-as so many novels about indigenous life in the colonies have poignantly depicted (Asad 1993: 11).

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The Marxist theory of capitalist development associates the story’ of modernity

with cheap labor exploitation, which is the basis of all surplus value in the Marxist sense.

Similarly, the concept o f‘‘social mobility” is regarded by Marxists as one of forced

uprootment (Portes A. and Borocz J. 1989). Bohning (1978) addressed an interesting

concept of migrant labor exploitation, applying the term, Gastarbeiter, which means “be

my guest, work hard, but do not stay.” It is a term that was adopted in the western

hemisphere in early modem times and was later transported to other developed and

developing countries. “Gastarbeiter” eventually became an important part of the

mercantilist mentality, workers are welcomed but are not supposed to stay or bring their

families.

The modem western stories of migration and nation-state building, as narrated by

Bohning, were linked together under a neo-mercantilist movement which viewed

population size and economic strength as key yardsticks of power (Bohning 1978). During

the period of early mercantilist development migrants were welcomed with their families

as long as they could easily be assimilated in the receiving societies, especially the U.S.,

Austria, and Canada (Rystad 1992). However, the hospitality did not last long in many

other countries after the discovery that migrant labor would be socially cheaper if workers

did not stay. The “Gasterbeiter,” or guest worker, concept was revived, and it has since

become a rising trend in cheap labor traveling around the world.2

2 To quote Bohning words: “Governments did not need cost-benefit calculations to

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Two categories of migrants are usually not welcomed by the modem nation

state. those who are not readily exploitable and those who are socially costly. People who

fall in those two categories range from migrant family members and children to the elderly

and the handicapped, as well as people of other races, colors, beliefs, ideologies, or any

“other” social groupings. South Africa was for a certain time one of the most successful

states in implementing “guest worker” policies. The U.S. does it successfully with

Mexicans, France with North Africans, and Israel with Palestinians from the West Bank.

2-Modemitv as a discourse of male dominance

Classical theorists of modernity viewed women either through their family roles

as wives, therefore dependent and inferior to men (Comte, Durkheim, and the Parsonian

functionalist school), or as “victims” inside a stratified system of inequality (Marx and

Weber). For Marx the exploitation of women has economic foundations; it is defused and

perpetuated through the capitalist system that shapes the whole society within its structure

of class-based hegemony. The emancipation of women is therefore part and parcel of the

abolition of classes. Marxist theory of capitalism places a higher priority on the production

mode than other aspects of societal development. In so doing it has contributed to the

know that their countries would gain from the productive employment of people whose upbringing, education and training had cost them nothing; whose health care would cost them almost nothing; whose wives and children would cost them nothing, if they could be kept abroad; whose housing requirements might be neglected, as the worker was highly cost-motivated during his temporary sojourn; and whose old-age pensions would not have to be paid for, if the worker's length of residence was insufficient to qualify” (Bohning 1978, 16-1: 16).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. mystification of women's role in other aspects of society, especially the household. For

Weber the disadvantaged position of women is tied to the construction of the system of

power and prestige. Unfortunately, affected by the Comte and Durkheim methodology of

objective science, Weber adds another mystification to women’s position that triggers a

whole tradition of social theorists, including the functionalist school lead by Talcott

Parson. Through the conquest of the objective over the subjective, and the consolidation

of the objective as the only legitimate practice of sciences, Weber excludes women’s

subjective experiences, and renders them “unscientific” (Ollenburger, and Moore 1992).

Women, on the other hand, were never obsequious about their subjugation. “[T]he

dominant group never controls the stage totally, their wishes do” (Scott 1990: 4). Women

in modernity have been able to raise their unmasked voices when they become active on

the stage, i.e. when they became more active in the construction of market economy and

the development of scientific knowledge (Harding 1991; Flax 1990a; Fraser 1989). The

western male-dominated discourse of modernity—essentially contradictory in its very

construction of liberty and development (Asad 1993)—came under attack first by western

women, and later by many women of the world. This movement known as “feminism” is at

the basis of feminizing a consciousness of female international migration as well as

women's involvement in modernity and post-modemity.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B. Feminism—A Reproductive Discourse Of Diversity And Feminization

1-Feminism-A conceptual contribution

Among the most creative conceptual constructions of feminism as a women’s

liberating ideology and a breakthrough in modernity are patriarchy, gender theories, and

subjectivity (as initiated along the critical concept of “personal is political”). Despite the

existence of multiple strands of feminism, two assumptions have been common to them all,

albeit to varying extent and under different time periods, and these are the assumptions

that sisterhood is global and patriarchy is universal.'1 “Patriarchy is a fluid and shifting set

of social relations in which men oppress women, in which different men exercise varying

degrees of power and control, and in which women resist in diverse ways” (Collins and

Giminez 1990; Hooks 1984; Kandiyoti 1988; BacaZinn et al. 1986 in Hondagneu-Sotelo

1992: 393). The following is a summary of those conceptualizations.

2- Feminism as a branching paradigm

Feminism as an intellectual endeavor, or even as a social movement is fairly new.4

Moreover, feminism as a paradigm (Stacey and Thom 1985), or as a challenging

epistemology (Smith 1987), continue to grow. During the last 20 years, feminism has

1 Feminist theories did affect each other. Later in this text, I will present a review of those theories. Yet not all divisions are clear cut among them, especially conceptually.

4 It goes back to the 60's. However, one could find traces of feminism that could go back long before that.

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undergone a ''revolutionary boom.” One can no longer speak of a theory of feminism.

Even the major trends of theories5 have branched into new-theories, sub-theories, and sub

trends: liberal feminism,6 Marxist feminism,7 radical feminism,8 socialist

feminism,’psychoanalytical feminism,10 cultural feminism,11 epistemological and

5 Divisions and labels are not always clear and final. It is interesting to see how feminist theories took from each others, and constructed their thoughts on top of each others readings and criticism. A concept, that could start as a "blue-print” of a theory, would than shift, to another and be adopted as essential to another. Feminism is intellectually very dynamic, and changing very fast, this is one of the reasons, probably that theories are losing their peculiarities, and dividing clarities.

6 Liberal feminists do not see anything inherently wrong in the system. For them just laws, improved status, and the education of women would ultimately lead to their equality (Mary Wollstonecraft, Jessie Bernard, Betty Friedan).

7 Marxist feminist viewed women's reality as an issue for class and power relations. Women’s oppression is associated with the emergence of private property and capitalism (Heidi Hartmann, Michel Barrett, Nancy Hartsock).

8 Radical feminist viewed women's oppression as embedded in the patriarchal system. Patriarchy is essentially a male system of women's oppression and dominance that is reflected in all structures of the system (Kate Millet, Suzan Miller, Susan Grimfin, Mary Daly).

9 Socialist feminist merge issues of class, patriarchy, and race in their approach. They emphasize interrelation of production and reproduction, and the criticism of the private-public system (Shulamith Firestone, Sheila Rowbotham, Juliet Mitchell, and Rosalind Petchesky).

10 Originated in the criticism of Freud and the misperception of the female sexuality. Psychoanalytical feminists address issues of female sexuality, the socialization of girls and boys, separation, mothering and so on. (Nancy Chodorow, Gayl Rubin, Jane Flax).

11 Concentrate on women's culture and resistance to dominance. Under cultural feminism one could group some of the emerging feminisms today, such as the phenomenologists, the ethnomethodologists, and the critical theory feminists, among others. For them the unit of analysis becomes more complex, interrelationaL and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. methodological feminism,12 gender theories of feminism,13 post-modern feminism,14 post-

structural feminism,15 post-colonial feminism, among others. These are only some of the

subgroupings that are emerging along the feminist epistemological shift. As a matter of

fact, one could also speak of exchange theory feminism Frankfurt school feminism, neo

liberal feminism, neo-Marxist feminism and so on. It often seems that each theory out

there has a feminist version.

embedded in the historical, the symbolic, the meaning, the imagined, and the taken for granted. (Dorothy Smith, Mary Daly, Julie Peteet).

12 Challenge the whole body of existing knowledge. First, they redefine the content of knowledge. Secondly, they are developing an alternative epistemology. ( Shulamith Reinhartz, Dorothy Smith, Sandra Harding, and Fonow and Cook).

L' Gender theories are diverse and like feminist theories based on the concept of social inequity between man and women. “With few exceptions, feminists blame society, not the body, for producing women’s subordination” (Bloch, 1993:79). “Feminist theories of gender, like other social theories, have suffered from apparently having to choose between explanations of gender as epiphenomenon of nature (of sex), or of the political economy (“materialism,” “power and wealth”) as a fully autonomous symbolic system that floats free of any systems of contingencies in nature and social structure” (Harding, 1993:121). Harding sees gender as “it appears in many different forms within social relations. It is first, an ancient and widespread system of dichotomous meanings that assigns femininity and masculinity to objects and processes that have no literal connection to human biological differences.. Second, as one important element in individual identity, and, third as a component of social structure... Some societies are more gendered than others in the structural sense that they assign a greater proportion of human activity by gender” (Harding, 1993:123-124).

14 Is based on the criticism of the modernism and its assumptions embedded in the enlightenment, such as. 1-Objectivity, 2-Linear development, 3-Science as power and control, 4-Essentialism 5-Contradictions. ( Flax, Nichelson and others).

15 As an impact of the French post-structuralist school, Lacanian, Foucauldian, and Deridian feminism. They use a highly complex language, and a semiotic of feminism. (Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray, and Julia Kristeva).

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The feminist movement was not only successful in creating its own version of

almost every male dominated theory, but was also prolific in its resistance discourse. It

branched from the traditional issues of family16, work17, and socialization into all other

genres of human science, computer science, medical science, ecology, armament,

pornography, peace, micro18 or macro issues19, or both.20

16 Family seems to be one of the issues that started with feminism and will continue with it; however, under different shapes and questions. As a matter of fact, the structure of the family and its definition is changing women’s position in the society changes, and as intimate relationships of man and women change. With the emergence of capitalism, family shifted from the extended to the nuclear. The family now is changing to a single parenting, or parenting over distances. Also family is not a father, mother, and children any more. It could be two males or females couples with or without children. Also the development of technology, has affected the structure of family, especially in new areas like “procreation.” This is why the literature is shifting more towards the use of “householding” instead of family.

17 Work was one of the term linked to women's studies since early capitalism and continues to be addressed, although under different questions, and social realities. First the issue of women's work was more concentrated on the causes that let women to participate in the paid work and the socio-economic consequences of that participation. Then the issue shifted more towards the realities and the sexual division of the work place. At one historical period it seemed that any writing on women must be related to the work place. Feminist literature in that area has grown, and made lots of contributions in terms of redefining the role of women in the economy: redefining the meaning of market economy and household economy, redefining the meaning of production and reproduction, redefining the role of the reproduction in the whole process of production, etc. Feminist literature on women and work have also lead to changing the realities of women's work place and changing the previous images, and stereo-types of working women. Most importantly, the growing feminist literature on women and work is affecting policy making decisions in terms of laws, rules, and conditions of work, to better accommodate the interests of women, in general, and in terms of race, class, and ethnicity in particular.

18 The intimate or micro-issues, such as love, sex, marriage, single mothering, carrier mothers, breastfeeding mothers, double carrier women, abortion, adoption, AIDS,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3- Feminism as an interlocking power of internationalism and globalism

In addition to the divergence in theory discussed above, feminism has also spread

geographically. In its earlier days, feminism was largely confined to one part of the world;

it was an exclusive western domain. A much more defused feminism is now reaching the

smallest nooks of the globe. Similarly, feminism is no longer one centralized version. It has

decentralized into French, Latin American, African, Brazilian, Muslim, Christian, and so

on. Feminism is becoming spatial, locational, and communal. Feminism is different in each

of the 168 states of the world, and perhaps even different in each of the tens of ethnic

groupings forming these countries Women in the new globalized feminism are producing

daily “discourses” of feminization and liberation. In so doing they seem to have ruptured

"the embryonic membrane” of their silenced voices in the western discourse. But the

“newborns” have yet to deliver the dream. All they have managed to do thus far is

intensify the problematic, polemical nature of the discourse. This raises several questions.

Are we heading towards more equality and justice for women in the world, or are we

witnessing a widening gap among women themselves? Is the growth of the feminist

etc.

19 The very macro issues address issues of women and state, women and multinationals, women and development, women and international migration, women and international division of labor, etc.

20 The micro-macro-issues combine the politics of state or international politics with aspects of the very intimate life of women. (E.g. the role of state policy in the life cycle of career women, or the impact of international politics of contraception on female migration in a tiny village in Southern India (Tamil Nadu).

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discourse another version of the modem discourse, and will this eventually lead to the

control of one group over another? Those and other questions posed by dedicated women

of color, women of the south, and women of global poverty are affecting the whole

feminist enterprise.

International migration is another of those areas that is posing controversial

questions. If feminism has not been able to devise a liberating theory for women in the

South, how could it be expected to help construct a framework for the study of

international migrant women? How could the existing theories of feminism, including

gender equity, help in the understanding of the uprooting suffered by women in the South?

How could western feminism, whose analysis of migration has not revealed the

marginalization of black women in the United States, be effective in appreciating the

contribution of poor migrant women elsewhere?

Another problem is that those who are asking these and similar questions of

global concern about women and international migration are either elite women from the

south, or western women interested in issues of women of the south. In both cases, they

do not have any other alternative; there is no other theoretical framework to rely on. Like

western women before them who had to embark from, and build on, the male dominant

discourse, women of the south and their allies to the north now find that the best they can

do is benefit from the western feminist experience without copying it. Here women of

color and women of the south are raising issues that are more interesting than the attitude

toward men. They know they should not antagonize men, and are therefore trying to

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devise a new framework wherein men are brought into the picture but not allowed to

dominate the discourse. They have also devised, together with other interested women of

the west, new methods for studying reality and for empowering women by letting them

speak (life stories, narratives, etc.).

C Women's Discourse In International Migration

In the construction of modem international migration (IM), women have been

among the marginalized groups, as pointed out previously. It was only with the emergence

of the women's movement—which triggered many international forums including the

International Women's Year of 1975—that women were accredited the status of “female

migrants” instead of “migrant wives” (Dumon 1981). Before that, women were not

accounted for in international statistics, even when they had migrated individually. In the

early nineties the UN introduced gender as a new variable of migration (Bilsborrow and

Zlotnik 1994). Most studies of international migration before the mid-seventies had

ignored the presence of women. The very few that controlled for sex variables found that

an impressive number of women migrated often more than men (Johnston 1965; Beijer

1966; Appleyard 1968; Dumon 1976; Appleyard and Amera 1978).

Other international women of color had a different agenda that has started to

appear since the mid-eighties in the aftermath of the “Nairobi conference.” Studies on IM

of women from the South are getting more academic attention as a result of the increased

international visibility of women as migrants.

N Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In short, IM is changing as a result of long female resistance to marginalization

and domination. These changes are taking place on levels of theory, praxis, and methods

of research. This long resistance and dominance is reformulating the reality of international

migration. But it is not as yet necessarily making IM more humane or more just.

D. A Deconstructed Meaning Of International Migration

IM, as a field, has always suffered from the continuous dominance of the

economic and statistical approach to its body of analysis.21 Even when sociologists study

migration, as Petersen remarked, they see it from an economic perspective. "Though most

who have written on migration are sociologists, most of what they have offered as theory

might better be classified as economics, geography, or demography” (Petersen 1978: 555)

The main theory of push and pull factors that has dominated the study of migration for

decades, concentrate mainly on economics. Theories of IM are continuously criticized for

overruling and marginalizing other factors besides the market. Indeed, those theories often

present migrants as neutral economic players who are neither socialized nor culturalized.

1- Mystifying history and objectifying migrants

Individual migrants as globalized into the supply and demand side of the

international economy were either objectified or reduced to mere numbers. They seemed

21 Only recently this trend seems to be changing towards more pressure to include sociological theories of gender, cultural theories of race and identity, all along the consolidation of existing class analysis.

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to engage in IM only as profit-driven actors, not as socialized, culturalized, or even

historicized actors (Salt 1992, Cox 1985, Petersen 1978, Ritchey 1976). The push and pull

theory also overrides the role of history and the previous contact between sending and

receiving countries. Studies of international migration have shown how this type of theory

mystifies the role of the state, state policies, and the role of history. Massive migration

from poor countries to rich ones does not happen spontaneously, as the push and pull

theories imply. Massive “international migration requires previous penetration of the richer

to coerce labor.”

[T]he emergence of regular labor outflows of stable size and known destination requires the prior penetration by institutions of the stronger nation-state into those of the weaker sending one. Politicla and economic conditions in the latter are then gradually molded to the point where migration to the hegemonic center emerges as a plausible option for the subordinate population. The process of external penetration and internal imbalancing of labor-exporting areas has taken very different forms, however, during the history of capitalism (Portes and Borocz 1989:608)

2- Neglecting the family and ignoring the state

The very quantitative, statistical, and reductionist theories of international

migration have, for a long time, left this field unable to generate a grounded theory of

migration or to offer some structural and institutional analysis that transcended pure

economics. Until the early nineties, IM theories neglected the role of family and networks

in the mobility of migrants (Boyd 1989). The role of the state was also discarded. It is only

recently that some scholars o f international migration have began stressing the need to

study the state’s role in migration. Zolberg relates the neglect of the state’s role in IM to

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the founding father Ravenstein (1889). “Whatever the reasons for Ravenstein's omission,

he thereby erroneously concluded that international migrations were governed by the same

laws as migrations within countries. The result was a theoretical tradition which bore only

a tenuous relationship to reality” ( Zolberg 1989: 405; Freeman 1992).

3-Anti labor and profit driven IM attitude

IM is growing as a profit-driven, inhumane activity. “Japan has steadfastly

refused to import unskilled or semiskilled foreign workers to alleviate labor shortages,

preferring instead to invest heavily in labor-saving technology and to move labor-intensive

industrial activities off-shore to nearby countries containing ample supplies of low-cost

labor” (Appleyard etal 1992a:58, Appleyard 1993; Sarmiento 1991).

4-Sexist and biased attitude towards female labor

Female labor is assumed to be unskilled even in areas that do require skills such

as housework.22 Even if they do have skills, women are treated as if they did not. “The

source countries of unskilled and semi-skilled foreign labor in Japan include a large

number of both legal and illegal female workers from the Philippines who work in the

"entertainment industry” and illegal male workers (mainly from Pakistan, South Korea,

Bangladesh the Philippines and Thailand) in the construction and manufacturing sectors”

(Appelyard, Nagayama; Stahl 1992a:59).

22 Contrary to popular wisdom, housework does require skills, and when faced with housework, most men show a total lack of skills in performing chores that are standard fare for women.

s Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appleyard, one of the prominent writers in IM, points out that as soon as women

enter the migration process they become potential prostitutes and sex objects. Citing a

study by M. Fukushima presented at a conference on Asian migrant labor, he reports that

more than 50,000 females from Southeast Asia are recruited through official channels for

work in Japan on an annual basis. These women come principally from the Philippines,

although several thousand also come from Thailand. Most of the women are employed in

the “entertainment” industry, while others are domestic servants and nurses. Because these

women are recruited through official channels, they are recognized as official immigrants

who negotiate work contracts prior to their departure. They therefore presumably have

some legal recourse if their contracts are violated. However, the Conference learned that

there is extensive recruitment of illegal female workers who are promised high-paying

respectable jobs, but end up in the underworld prostitution racket” (Appleyard et al.

1992:65).23

In short, theories of IM have undergone many changes and continue to do so. At

the start, they reflected the modem male dominated discourse of the settlers, colonizers,

and unilinear developmentalist. Neo-Marxist and post-colonial theories are shifting the

dominant micro- or macro-economic paradigm. Feminist theories did leave a great impact

Appleyard did report the story of a woman recruited and then sold to a bar manager for more than $20,000. She was promised money but never got anything. The manager who paid a lot for her, forced her into prostitution to repay. The manager also confiscated her passport and return tickets. Women, as reported in Appleyard’s article, are ill-informed about the identity of their recruiters and their bosses. In addition of their complete lack of knowledge of the Japanese language. If they report their case, they are not treated better legally, but are considered criminals.

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on migration theories and brought the women’s agency to the center of interest and

accountability.

All these theoretical transformations were moving along changes in the

categories of migration.24 “Contract workers” is the latest development of migration

categories, and the most controlled. Activities of contract workers are limited in space and

time in the receiving society. They are expected to leave as soon as the contract is over.

Receiving countries are increasingly designing more regulative policies in order to restrain

migrant “contract workers” from getting integrated in the receiving societies. They are

considered the “invading hordes” (Benmayor and Skotnes 1994:1).

The FFDW in this dissertation fall under the category of “contract workers.” This

means their very existence, movement, and work conditions are limited by the will of the

sponsor, as explained in Chapter Two. The contract of an FFDW in the UAE is not made

to protect her Its function is confined to limiting her movements in the UAE. No contract

is binding in terms of FFDW rights, and the case studies will clearly reflea this.

24 International capitalism, as a dynamic system, readjusts itself continuously. Increased globalization seems to be shortening the migration period, intensifying exploitation and tightening controls.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 31 n . Conceptualization Of Feminization Of Migration

Feminization of migration (FM) is taking place as a result of complex structural and

ideological factors that led to a series of changes in international migration. These changes took

place on the level of theories, policies, practices, institutions, and, most importantly, the

construction of knowledge and meaning of IM.

As continuously criticized, IM lacks a good theoretical ground. It suffers from a

certain theoretical emptiness, especially in regard to issues of “mobility and migration” which

are considered essential to international capitalism and technological development. The lack of

appropriate theory, and its substitution by a mystified, invisible mechanism such as “push and

pull,” reveals a tendency to silence main agencies and beneficiaries. “[S]ilence and secrecy are

a shelter for power” (Foucault 1981: 101). Existing theories of international migration, as

explained earlier, disregarded roles of the historical and cultural factors shaping the migrants

and leading them to their decision. International migration was an issue of adaptation more than

of interaction. The assumption that the poor left their countries to escape poverty and search for

a better life always eclipsed and mystified the price paid by the individual migrant and the

sending society.1 Migrants were accounted for as workers, and were only measured as such.

Consequently, other factors of relevance to the formation and sustainability of the worker, such

as the household, family members, and social network, were easily dismissed.

The women's movement introduced to international migration a set of feminizing

approaches such as the inclusion of the household theories (Brochman 1993; Hondagneu-

Sotello 1992; Gasmuck, Sheri, andPessar 1991; Pedraza 1991). Household theories did not

1 The overw helming emphasis of migration theories on settlement and adjustment has many underlying assumptions. First, it mystifies the underlying role of international capitalism that consistently uproots needed

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. only provide the contextual framework for studying the agency of women in migration, but all

active agency in IM regardless of sex (Smith Wallerstein et al. 1992; Gasmuck and Pessar

1991; Smith et al. 1988; Smith and Wallerstein 1989). Feminization also brought in gender

roles and gender identity as contingencies to the structure of international migration. Gender

inclusion and feminization of theories of migration opened an understanding of a whole array of

different female roles, such as the double role of working and mothering, the “gatekeeping”

role, the transformational and transactional role, and others which led to a more focused

understanding of displacement, and misery women migrants suffer (Shami 1995; Brettell and

Simon 1986).

Policies of states—both sending and receiving—and those of the international

organizations, including the World Bank and the IMF, are also becoming more sensitive to

women’s reality. More women are writing on women and migration from a feminization

approach. All these changes, however, are not sufficient to achieve an acceptable level of

equality. Women are still not judged against the same benchmark used for men, and deep lines

of inequality—related to gender, ethnicity, class, and race—still map the practice of

international migration policies of states and organizations. Despite the increased mobility of

women throughout the world, and despite their distress from decision-making to housekeeping,

from management to mothering, from “double working” to “gatekeeping,” they are still

underpaid, underrepresented, mistreated, exploited, harassed, and silendy resisting.

Feminization of migration in the theory of IM has transformed meanings, ruptured old

conceptions, and introduced dynamic new axioms. Yet it is still falling short. Feminization of

labor. Second, it represents migrants as the “anomalies" of the settled-receiving societies, which in many cases would be far horn being settled.

N Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 33

migration, like feminism, has generated destabilizing questions and raised decentralizing issues.

It is breaking the already fractured conception of international migration. It is introducing a

more humanistic approach—one that is grounded in social and micro interests, and cast within

a woman-centered understanding. Feminization of migration is engendering the cognitive

perception of migration, desegregating the phallic discourse, and reconstructing an embracing

subjectness.

Feminization of migration is not as much about introducing the female identity as it is

about introducing the female interactive domains in the process of international migration.

Feminization of migration is more than a theoretical and conceptual crack; it is a complete

epistemological break in the way women are perceived in IM. Feminization of migration is a

situation of the self and other in the framework of migration. It does not necessarily mean

women's liberation or women's equality. In fact it is just the opposite. More female involvement

in international migration seems to be producing more exploitation, objectification, and

degradation for women, and this is due to their being continuously treated as sexual objects in

migration.

The study of international migration was reduced to a tale of numbers and

demographics. As such, it continually missed the inner story. With women writing the discourse

of migration, situation became closer to the subjective involvement of the researcher.

Feminization of migration is bringing more complexities to the study of women's reality . Under

feminization of migration, the subject as an object of study is situated in both the subjective and

objective consciousness of the author. Feminization of migration is therefore a subjective

inquiry on migration.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The conceptualization of FM in this study is therefore an attempt to capture the

female moment, historically silenced under the structure of male dominance, and frame it

through the migration trip. This moment is textualized and therefore transformed into a

conscious discourse of resistance that is reflective, interactive, and multidimensional. It adopts

both the quantitative as well as the qualitative design in reporting the story; it does not,

however, use the framework of objective statistical science for validation and generalization.

Numbers in this text are descriptive elements in the story and are used only as an added

resource of meaning to the text.

Four dimensions are thus used to construct a narrative of the feminization of

migration. They are the composites, the causes, the conditions, and the consequences of the

migration trip. These four dimensions are constructed in a framework that permits the study of

migration as a process of real life, and as a complicated decision in which the migrant plays an

active role. However, this very construction that attempts not to be too inclusive on the

reported story allows space for the migrant to reflect, and inject the impact of the constructed

social structure around her. The importance of this construction stems from the legitimacy

given to the migrant herself, from allowing her to recall her own story and her own version of

the meaning of that story.

In short, feminization of migration in this text goes beyond accounting for women in

international statistics, and beyond admitting them as active migrants, not just as family

members. Feminization of migration in this dissertation is an attempt to feminize meaning and

perception; it is an attempt to give women migrants—in this context domestic workers—the

space to construct their own versions of the story.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This construction is communicated, however, through my interpretation, whereby lies

the very coherence of this text. Ontologically, this interpretation reflects the approximation of

their studied reality. Methodologically, on the other hand, the added feminized meaning is the

projection of my subjective self in telling their stories.

A. The Four Dimensions To Analyzing The Feminization Of Migration

1- Composites Or Compositional Factors

Demographics are part of the above described composition, albeit not a dominant

part. The demographic aspect has been central to the study of migration since its modem

emergence (Bilsborrow and Zlotnik 1994; Buijs 1993; Castles and Miller 1993). Because

demographics have been utilized for many years to report on the status and changes in the

migration process, its inclusion is important in the context of the feminization of migration.

Statistical situation is only one part of this discourse, and it is limited to the descriptive position

of female migrants. The numbers of migrant women are increasing and, in some cases, their

socio-economic status is improving. In this study where the FFDW are the main actors, their

statistical situation confirms this trend.

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2- Causes Of Female Migration

This part involves the integration of the micro and macro processes of migration. The

“micro process” refers to interaction and decision-making on the level of individual migrants

and their households on both sides (the sending and the receiving). The macro process entails

the structure of world system, the state system, and globalization of postmodemity in the

construction of the dynamics of migration.

Traditionally, theories of migration were divided between the two levels of

conceptualization. The classical theories of migration, such as the “push and pull” theory and

the rational choice theory, emphasized the micro structure, whereas the structural Marxist

theories stressed the macro process.

One of the most important contributions of the feminist and gender theories of

migration is their ability to provide the crucial link between the micro and macro structures of

migration. This linkage was conceived through the household as the central unit in the process

of migration (Gasmuck and Pessar 1991; Pedraza 1991; Smith 1994). Joan Smith succinctly

points out how the separation of the household from the market economy was at the basis of all

types of hierarchical domination, which includes women's subordination. For Smith:

Wealth is transferred both between various members of the household ordered by both age and gender, and between various members of the household ordered by class and nation. The household is the constellation o f relationships that makes that transfer possible.. .Women producers were subordinated in household production that itself was a product of the world economy (Smith 1994: 30-35, emphasis added).

In her composition, the state and the household become two universal and inseparable

institutions of the capitalist system. The household is the unit where the system of resistance

against the dominance of the state and against other aspects of public institutions of capitalism

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. begins. This research considers Smiths conceptualization of household to be a useful tool for

understanding the dynamics of migration on both the micro as well as the macro levels.

Pessar (1991), however, sees the construction of gender and household crucial to her

understanding of the female-male differentiation in the migration process. Migration for Pessar

gives women a better opportunity to liberate themselves from the old construction of

patriarchy.

In contrast to men, migration does not rupture the social sphere in which women are self-actualized' that of the household and family, hence not only was gender at the center of the decision to emigrate it was also at the center of the reluctance to return, as women struggled to maintain the gains that migration and employment had brought them (Pedraza 1991:309)

3- Conditions Of Work Under Migration-Domestic Sphere

Feminization of migration put the feminist and gender theories of work at the center

of the migration process. Most feminist theories, especially Marxist and radical ones, had

attributed the devaluation of women's work, particularly housework, to the nature of the market

economy. Subsequently, unpaid housework came to be seen as a central link in women's

oppression. Romero (1992), in Maids in the USA, discusses this devaluation through the

relationship of minority housemaids and their employers. In fact, this phenomenon of

devaluation can be observed in different cultural settings, despite the variation of contexts. It

can be detected in the case of the FFDW in the UAE as well as that of Latina migrant

houseworkers in America. Some of the observations that Romero notes will be used as

variables of this study (such as feelings of isolation, low payment and longer hours of work,

seclusion through way of dressing, matemalism of the employer, and devaluation of the

houseworker as a result of the devaluation of housework). Nevertheless, the conceptualization

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of the migrant houseworkers in this study is in opposition to Romero who views the

houseworker as totally victimized by the patriarchal system. Contrary to her opinion, this study

assumes a more active role of the FFDW in the sense that they are both objects and subjects of

change. They are subjects of change because they do change the existing social order around

them, and on both sides of the process of migration. They are objects of change because they

themselves are changed as a result of this process. This perception will be the main theme of

this research to be traced through the direct experience and observation of the FFDW in their

new space.

4- Consequences Of Migration—The Feminized Self

One of the consequences of applying the feminization of migration approach is to

conceptualize of the FFDW as the main actors of migration. The underlying assumption behind

bringing women into the center of analysis is based on Stacey and Thom's definition of

“gendered” relationships, which attributes a significance to “gender organization and relations

in all institutions and in shapmg men's as well as women's lives” (Stacey and Thom 1985:305-

6). The other assumption behind the use of the FFDW as central actors is that the engagement

of the FFDW in the process of migration is an act of situating themselves in the realm of social

action and empowerment of themselves as subjects.

Another conceptualization of the female migrant as a subject, an agent of self

empowerment and control is the following: once the female subject leaves home, she occupies

a space outside the walls of the city in a host country, in a different social reality (Benhabib

1992: 227). This movement puts the subject in a distant situation from the social reality that she

was in. She becomes conscious and maybe critical of the former social relationships.

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Consequently, she may become nostalgic, but alternatively, she may be able to deconstruct the

social reality at home that she previously took for granted. She may also deconstruct the new

social reality that she is in a position of criticizing as a result of her different acculturation.

Would this apply to the FFDW? Do their status (as single female migrant workers)

empower their construction of social meaning and social consciousness? Or do they improve

only their material well-being and levels of consumption, as Brochmann (1993) concluded in

her observation of the domestic migrants to the Gulf countries? Do those women migrants

become more “autonomous”0 Or will the socially acquired meaning of domestic worker (i.e.,

the docile soul and body) negatively affect their views of themselves? It is questions such as

these that this study will consider.

s Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER TWO

PART ONE: UAE

In UAE. the family is still the one refuge where an individual can feel secure, and within whose confines most of the activities of men as well as women, apart from education and work, take place. (Maicom Peck 1986: 65)

INTRODUCTION

UAE is a challenging sociological story yet to be narrated. Factors like the

identity mix of the country’s groupings, the sustainability of its contradictory modes of

existence, ethnic stratification, wealth allocation, and demographic composition are all

still open to much inquiry. UAE society is an amalgamation of structures, where the early

tribal has blended with the Islamic and both have been juxtaposed by a more recent

expatriate formation. All modes are divided along socio-economic, religious, and ethnic

lines. Class divisions are very obvious. They are ethnically and nationally shaped with

UAE citizens ranking first. Other nationalities are not without influence, especially those

who hold high economic and political positions either as business owners or as foreign

advisors to ruling Sheikhs.

UAE is a striking picture of contradictions. It is simultaneously accommodating one of

the most advanced patterns of urban development (80 to 90 percent of the population is

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urban) along with some of the oldest systems of social interaction, gender segregation,

and tribalism. In UAE today tribalism, Islamism. urbanism, modernism, consumerism,

and the welfare state are vital components of the socio-institutional structure. The

conservatism-versus-Iiberalism formula works in an opposite fashion to that of the United

States or other industrialized countries. In UAE the government is politically

conservative. It denies citizens both the freedom of expression as well as civil and

democratic voting rights.1 Its social policies, however, are very liberal and

developmental. Citizens of the Emirates enjoy free full schooling, free full Medical care,

welfare housing, subsidized electricity and water, and other sporadic services as may be

offered by each sheikdom, or Emirate, separately.

When the federation was declared in December 1971,2 most of its neighbors,

including other Arab Gulf states, were skeptical of its ability to survive. UAE is now

considered a success story, and an illustrative model of federal coexistence in the whole

Middle East. This has not been without a high price—one that may even be life-

threatening. The very elements of its success—the federation, the social services, the fast

development, the ability to survive social contradictions and multiethnicity—could all

lIn that sense, the UAE government is conservative, and oppressive. People were banned from speaking, writing, or even simply calling for democratic representation such the one in Kuwait. Women as well as men do not have the right to vote. Government representatives are appointed by major tribal figures in the country.

2 When UAE was declared, a year after Abdul-Nasser’s death (ex-president of Egypt), Arab Nationalism was still in its zenith.

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become the reasons behind its breakdown. How the story will unfold, including future

challenges and risks, is yet to be seen.

I. UAE: Background And Characteristics Of An Oil Story

The UAE, a federation of seven Emirates—Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Shaija, Ajman,

Um-al-Quiwain, Ras al-Khaima, al-Fujaira—were the Trucial states until December of

1971.3 Like most Arab Gulf states, UAE is considered an oil based country. Oil is the

vital means of existence. The federation was established a mere nine years after oil began

to be exported. Until then, there had been no boundaries, no roads, no newspapers, no

telephones, and no electricity (Tomkinson 1975; Taryam 1987; Codrai 1990).

No doubt oil is solely responsible for positioning UAE. a previously marginal,

peripheral, and deserted place at the center of world economy, modernity and wealth.

Before the advent of oil, UAE was a sparsely populated desert where the whole

population did not at best exceed a hundred thousand. Now the country attracts a hundred

thousand visitors each year alone. (Whelan 1990; Metz et. al. 1994). The inhabitants have

recently approximated two and a half million.

Before oil, life in UAE was harsh, depressing, and based on subsistence

standards of living. Desert life had molded the inhabitants into a nomadic lifestyle.

3 Trucial states come from the treaties, which were signed by five rulers in the early 19th century. The treaty of Maritime Peace Perpetuity 1853 and a series of other treaties, gave Britain full hand over the natural resources of those states. Under those treaties, rulers could not make any outside connection or agreement with any foreign agent without British consent.

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forcing them to migrate to better settled and more urbanized places such as southern Iran

or neighboring Gulf regions (Taryam 1987). Life then resembled conditions in the misery

belts that one finds around most third world cities today. If not for oil, UAE people today

would still be suffering from illiteracy, poverty, hunger, misery, and lack of proper

sanitation or clean water. But they would also be much more resilient to natural

conditions.4

During the pre-oil era, UAE households were more integrated in the economy.

In the pearl diving, mode of production, men left their households—the essential unit of

social and economic sustainability—for more than three month. Women were in charge

not only of caring for children and elderly, but also of the subsistence economy— making

clothing, food, building houses3, caring for animals, and making instruments to be used in

fishing, pearl diving, and food storage. The household, then, was the fundamental social

unit for sustaining the entire economy. With oil production, the household became more

marginalized, from the central national economy, its role becoming mostly centralized in

the reproduction of labor.

Households in the pre-modem UAE era, were not only actively involved in the

market economy, they were also based on the extended family structure. It was a

patriarchal, hierarchical, and totally gender segregated order. The father or male figure

4 For previous UAE mode of life, and historical background, see Heard Bey 1982; Codrai 1990; Peck 1986; Abdulla 1985 ; Hanzal 1994; Taryam 1987 ).

’Houses use to be made of palm leaves, and or animal skin.. Women were experts at the weaving and coloring of palm leaves.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. was the highest authority in the household. Women, as in most Arab Islamic societies,

had their own order in the “harem.” Socialization in gender role was very clear and

divided. Women took only their roles inside the household, and men grew to design the

power dynamics, inside and outside. They had to be in charge since they were

theoretically the protectors of the household.

Oil made the UAE one the richest countries in the world today. In 1980, its

population was rated the world’s wealthiest with per capita GNP reaching $28,000 for the

whole population and closer to $100,000 for citizens (Peck 1986; Abdulla 1985). “Oil

income accounted for 88 percent of total government revenue over the period 1975-85”

(Faris 1995). Despite the decline in oil prices, and the latest Gulf war,6 UAE still counts

among the highest per capita GNPs in the world, with figures estimated at $24,000 and

$21,430 in 1993 (World Fact Book 1995-1996; World Development Report 1995). Oil

gave UAE the opportunity to break regional—even international—records in urban

development and fast economic growth. Today UAE has the highest urban construction

rate in the Middle East (Abdulla 1985). Dubai was elected in 1992 as the best Arab city.

Dubai is home to the largest golf court in the Gulf. UAE also holds a world record in

airport density. There are five airports in this small coastal strip area of 77,700 km2,

averaging a monthly load of 148,936 arrivals and 148,975 departures. Dubai's is the

6 The rate of growth of the UAE economy between the years 1992 and 1994 had witnessed a major decline as a result of the Gulf war. Between the decline in the oil prices in the eighties, and the war, the average annual growth dropped 4.4% from 1980 to 1993 (World Development Report 1995).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. busiest. Alone, it accounts for 85 to 90 percent of all air traffic (130,049 arrivals, and

131,0 i 3 departures). Other airports recorded the following: Abu Dhabi 15,474 arrivals,

and 10,786 departures; Shaija 3,212 arrivals, and 7,058 departures; Fujeira 142 arrivals

and 62 departures; Ras al-Khaima 59 arrivals, and 56 departures (Ministry of Labor and

Social Affairs 1993).

If we look at some of the comparative statistics of UAE between the years 1970

and 1993, we can deliver yet another picture of the country’s modernization story. From

the establishment of the state in 1970 to 1993—a twenty-three-year period—urbanization

increased from 57 percent to 83 percent, and to 90 percent of the population, according to

Helen Metz (Metz 1994). During the same period infant mortality decreased from 68 to

18 per one thousand live births, and the population skyrocketed from 180.000 to two

million—a staggering population growth by world standards. Developments in human

resources have been as impressive: the UAE that sent pupils to neighboring Arab

countries due to the lack of schools in the fifties and early sixties had by 1990 succeeded

in reaching literacy levels that were the highest in the region. In 1970, “the total number

of pupils, boys and girls, was 27,745 and rose to 107,604 in 1982 and to 193.633 in the

following year” (Taryam 1987 :264). The UAE, which had eschewed female education

until 1970 now has the highest rate of female education in the whole Arab world.

According to the 1995 UN Development Report, the UAE has the “highest level of

female literacy in the Arab world-68 percent-and overall illiteracy fell from 56.55 percent

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in 1975 to 16.8 percent in 1992. The government is campaigning to achieve 100 percent

literacy for both males and females by the year 2000.” (EIU 1995 4th quarter: 9). Women

in the UAE national university represent 75 percent of total enrollment, and the state's

educational policies openly encourage and promote female education. In 1970 educated

females represented only 4 percent of the whole population; in 1993 the proportion had

reached 80 percent (Abdulla 1995). Gender sensitive statistics collected by the World

Bank show that UAE is doing much better in female education and certain social

indicators, such as life expectancy at birth, than in female employment. While the ratio of

female-male enrollment in primary education in 1993 was 93:100, the corresponding ratio

for secondary education was 105:100 in the same year. However, when it comes to work

outside the house, participation of UAE women in the labor force was 4 percent in 1970

and still only 7 percent in 1993 (World Development Report. 1995).

It is no doubt that for the most part UAE's social and human development

achievements have been driven and shaped by oil. To the average Emirati, oil is a

blessing, a the gift of God for him to enjoy after long decades of deprivation and

suffering. Indeed, oil is a powerful catalyst for change that is unique to UAE and other

Arab Gulf states. This very uniqueness, however, could be as destructive as it could be

propitious. This was clearly demonstrated by the Gulf War and the invasion of Kuwait. A

good understanding of this feature is therefore vital to the unraveling of the UAE

developmental story and the contradictions lying behind it.

X Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 47

A. Oil: A Blessing and a Curse of UAE

UAE is the second oil producer in the Gulf region after Saudi Arabia. Oil

resources have been preeminent in UAE since 1973, which is when the two words—oil

and Gulf—became almost synonymous. Over the last 20 years oil has become a

recognizable global force and an equally important factor for all development in UAE. As

most scholars of the Gulf agree, it was the oil price boom of 1973 that significantly

boosted the economy. “Oil revenue has been the dominant factor in economic growth,

and has provided the government with the opportunity to undertake ambitious economic

development programs” (Faris 1995: 3). UAE—one of many oil producers in the world—

alone accounts for 15 percent of global reserves. In the last 25 years, oil has enabled UAE

to generate a wealth of some $ 500. 000 billion, making the country the second richest in

the Gulf, in terms of overall wealth, and the first in terms of per capita wealth. Some

comparative indicators with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Japan, reflect a closer picture of

UAEs position in its own regional context, and in comparison to a world super economy

such as Japan. (Table 2.1.1)

As for oil exports, it is noteworthy that Japan and a few other Asian countries

have been the UAE's dominant trading partners for the last 15 years. Japan is also the

leading source of consumer good imports for the UAE. Indeed, Japan has taken over both

British and US roles as a major trading partner for the country. Details on UAE oil

exports and the overall trade balance appear in tables 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 in the reference

section.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table 2.1.1 Comparative Economic Indicators Of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan.

Countries UAE SA Kuwait Japan GDP ($bn) 39.91 125.7 24.21 4.591 GDP per person ($) 16,549 7,003 13,228 36,719 Oil production ('000b/d) 22,000 8,095 2,035 0 Export of goods ($bn) 25.28 42.23 11.89 384.2 Imports of goods ($bn) 19.85 21.5 6.67 238.2 Source EMI M M

This UAE produces a total of 2.2 million barrels of oil per day (EIU 1995-96).

Abu Dhabi (the capital) is by far the largest oil producer of the seven emirates. Figures

for 1994 show that Abu Dhabi's production exceeded that of Dubai’s by almost twelve

times, with Dubai producing 375.000 bd (barrels per day) and Abu Dhabi producing

1,906,000 bd. In comparison, the production of other emirates like Shaija (40.000 bd) is

marginal. In the seventies, the difference in oil production between Abu Dhabi and Dubai

was less than one fifth. In 1975, for instance. Abu Dhabi had a total annual production of

580.49 million barrels compared to Dubai's 114,85 million barrels. This gap has been

increasingly widening since. Yet, Dubai seems to be doing better in several areas of

development.

Dubai's vision of emulating Hong Kong’s role in the region is a dream come

true. “It has built a sound reputation as a regional trading center and is now trying to

attract modem, capital intensive industry, in particular to its Jebel Ali Free Zone” (EIU

1995-96: 15). “Arriving in Dubai, 160 kilometers north from Abu Dhabi, the very air one

breathes is different...Dubai could be a model of how individuals can influence the

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collective personality in these Gulf societies, where the tribal structure remains

primordial and numbers are still very small” (Graz 1990:184). Indeed, Dubai's

importance in the region has been growing, especially since the Gulf war. Dubai alone

accounts for 82 percent of the whole country re-export (EIU 1995-96). Most of the re

export of UAE (39.2 percent) is directed towards Iran (see table 3.1.4 in reference).

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the two giants among the seven emirates. Together

they account for 80 percent of the GDP, and 70 percent of the whole UAE population.

(Faris 1995) Each enjoys its own pillar of strength. Abu Dhabi’s is oil, and Dubai's is

commerce. One of the best descriptions of Dubai's commercial dynamism in comparison

with Abu Dhabi was captured by LiesI Graz.

The spirit of Dubai remains one of optimism and sparkling imagination. Dubai was not entirely spared the economic downturn after 1982, but while the people in Abu Dhabi were cursing their bad luck, in Dubai new ideas crackled like fireworks. Some of them even seemed a little mad, like the idea of building a huge complex pompously named the “World Trade Center” while office space stood empty all over the Gulf. Yet the tower, which sticks up like a light house in the flat Dubai desert, manages to attract tenants even as other buildings are losing theirs. Fairs, exhibitions, special events follow one another in rapid succession, including some surprising ones like the 1986 “Chess Olympics” (Graz 1990:186).

The balance of power between Dubai and Abu Dhabi is not free of tensions, but

it is still managed within a system of subtle, economically-and politically-bounded

competition. This internal tension has, in fact, survived centuries of transformations. A1

Maktoums, the rulers of Dubai, belong to al-Falassi, an original branch of Bani Yas.

X Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. which is the mother tribe of al-Nehian, the current ruler of Abu Dhabi. Historically, when

al-Maktoums found themselves sandwiched between two strong tribes, the Qawassim to

the north7 and Bani Yas to the south, they affiliated themselves with England and sought

its protection (Heard Bey 1982). Dubai started its early life as a port, in what is until now

called the Creek (Graz 1990). The Creek is still fairly busy and important to Dubai's

commercial life although it has been eclipsed by two other more modem ports: Port

Dubai and Port Jabal Ali. It is the central port of commerce with neighboring countries,

especially Iran. The Creek is also a vital coastal point for illegal immigrants smuggled in

small ships in and out of Dubai. In short, Dubai is the commercial engine of UAE. and its

talented merchants are the ones that dare and gamble, and in so doing generate some of

the wonders of the area. They were the first to encourage the importation of cheap foreign

labor-Indian among others-and the first to support the family reunion programs for

migrant workers in UAE. But now they stand hand in hand with all Emiratis in their

growing fear of foreign labor.

Of course, foreign labor is only one of the challenges presently facing UAE.

There is a long list of other problems that could transform the course of events in the

country: the undemocratic regime; the uneven distribution of wealth; the growth of

7 A1 Qawassims of Shaija and Ras A1 Khaima, were the real militant tribes, called “pirates” by the British colonials, because they fought them, and stood strongly against the colonizing power of the Empire. They had the strongest marine power in the region, and were the ardent nationalists (Omran).

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Islamic movements; envious neighbors; border disputes8; the fear of surrounding giants;

and the hidden divisions among the federal partners, to name a few. So, like most Arab

oil states, UAE is not merely swimming in a pool of oil and wealth, but also precariously

positioned over a web of internal,9 regional,10 and international11 conflicts, any one of

8 In particular, the Islands of Tumb (biggest and smallest), and the Abu Mussa's.

9 Internally, and since the discovery of oil, the ruling families have controlled all wealth generated. It is the ruling Sheikh that own the natural resources, and not the state. Indeed, the state and the people are dependent on them. Sheikh Zaid, ruler of UAE, considers himself the divine protector of this wealth. “The wealth generated by oil discoveries is indeed increasing every day. Of course, God did not give it all to Zaid. though he made me supervise it” (Abdulla 1984: 136). This direct personal control over the wealth have created a big gap, not only between the ruling families, and the people, but also between merchants and rulers, and between rulers themselves. “Oil revenues, controlled by the ruling families, have widened the gap between the ruling families and the old merchant class” (MERIP Report 1985:5) In this federation, as mentioned earlier, wealth is not equally divided among Emirates, and this very situation has created favoritism. Despite all the wealth UAE enjoys, some of the Emirates that has no oil resources such as Ras al-Khaima or Um al-Quwain are living a very primitive mode of life! No good roads, no clean water, no full time electricity, and no equal services. Housing, and welfare services in UAE changes according to being from a particular Emirate, not only according to being a full citizen of UAE. Social stratification, and classism is therefore not only experienced between indigenous and expatriates, but is a fact of life among all citizens, along lines of tribes, family backgrounds, family origin, and place of belonging i.e. the individual Emirate.

10 Regionally, and since its very creation, UAE have survived out of fear of its strong neighbors especially Iran and Saudi Arabia. In fact the very creation of the GCC “Gulf Cooperation Council was based on a protective measures from the threat represented by Iran. Dubai, however, and as seen earlier has historical commercial links with Iran, and understands the Iranian mentality better. This subtle balance of power, has until now been played very successful by UAE. The Gulf war has been a good opportunity to show how UAE among all Gulf states was the best in handling the problematic of the Arab-Arab relations, Arab-Iraqi, and Arab-Western relationships. UAE, insists to always express its Arab and Palestinian links, and its anti-Zionist anti- Israeli policies. An observation was made in that context, by UAE intellectuals, who

\ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. which could explode and drastically disrupt the lives of Emiratis and expatriates alike. By

far the most devastating and challenging of those problems is that of demographics and

foreign labor. Emerging out of oil and development, the issue of migrant labor is fast

eluding Emiratis' control. The 1995 EIU report on UAE sees this problem as a major risk

to internal stability. “One of the potential threats to internal security is the minority status

of the indigenous population. Despite efforts to redress the balance by introducing

programs to employ more UAE nationals, this problem is not going to go away and is

likely to get worse. (EIU 1995-96: 7)

The development of UAE has been characterized by an abundance of capital on one hand, and a dearth of domestic labor on the other. Imported labor has compensated for the poor human resources—a compensation that has shaken the demographic makeup of the country and created a fluid, vulnerable social structure unmatched by any except those in other Gulf states. The following are statistical and the socio-political descriptions of the problem.

point out that no UAE big official representative has visited the United States. This they emphasized could reveal a great deal about UAE officials, and where they stand from the latest peace initiative.

11 One of the most serious problems UAE, could face internationally is the issue of treatment of foreign workers. The case of the Filipina FFDW has been highly interesting, and generates high international pressure on the government, which came out finally with a working solution. Issues of foreign labor, and especially domestics, are expected to be on the highest priority of UAE foreign relations.

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B. UAE Population Characteristics

UAE population at the turn of the century was around 80,000.12 Almost all were

citizens of the region and the rate of population growth was slow: during the following

sixty years it increased by six thousand inhabitants only. Since the early sixties, however,

a very visible growth has occurred. In eight years the population doubled. In another

seven years it more than tripled (see table below). Then it doubled again in only two

years—an unprecedented increase that coincided with the oil price boom. Since then, the

population has been steadily increasing. At the same time, the relative proportions of

nationals and expatriates have shifted wildly and in a sociologically hazardous manner.

Statistics show that in the early years of oil production (1968). and three years before the

declaration of the federation (1971), the indigenous inhabitants made up 63 percent, and

expatriates 37 percent of the total population. In less than four years, the relative

proportions had shifted to 36 percent for citizens and 64 percent for expatriates. This

year’s estimate is 28 percent for citizens and 71 percent for expatriates—a composition

that is expected to continue until the year 2000. ( UAE-General information authority

1994; Faris 1995; Taryam 1987; al-Hamad 1994) (table below).

12 Most of statistics on that period, are not accurate, and only reported as general estimation.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table 2.1.2 Population Growth In UAE, And National Composition Since 1900

Year Total N Nationals ( percent) Ex-patriots percent) 1900 80,000 NA NA 1958 86,000 NA NA 1968 180,000 114,000 (63) 66,000 (37) 1975 557,000 201,000 (36) 356,000 (64) 1977 862.000 215,000 (25) 647,000 (75) 1978 950,000 222,000 (23) 787,000 (77) 1979 1,015,000 228,000 (22) 787,000 (78) 1980 1,042,000 290,000 (26) 751,000(74) 1985 1,379,000 396,000 (28) 983,000 (72) 1992* 2,012,000 580,000 (29) 1,433,000(71) 1995* 2,222,000 642,000 (29) 1,580,000(71) 1996* 2,297,000 664,000 (29) 1,633.000(71) 2000* 2,623,000 762,000 (29) 1,861,000 (71) Sources: UAE-General Information Authority 1994; Faris 1995; and Taryam 1987. *UAE Official estimation.

This demographic gap has many social, political, and even security implications.

When UAE policy makers designed their migration policies in the seventies, they were

not fully aware of its implication. Labor was imported under temporary contracts, and

short-sighted vision. Semi-skilled and unskilled workers who constituted the bottom of

the lower class were denied political,13 civil, and naturalization rights, yet granted

educational and medical benefits. (MERIP Report 1985)

UAE citizenship is not granted automatically to any resident of UAE. At the time

of establishement of the federation, it was given to any person who could prove affiliation

13 The indigenous of the UAE are denied political rights. They could move upwardly in a career or a political position ladder if they are from a strong family, tribal background, or with strong affiliations with the ruling Sheikhs.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to one of the tribes, indigenous families, or Sheikhs. Citizenship is stratified as follows:

full citizen, citizen by law, and citizen by naturalization. Only holders of the former types

are considered full citizens. Immigrants could spend generations in UAE without getting

any form of citizenship, unless granted by a ruling Sheikh.14 Under the male-centered

kinship system, UAE citizenship is only automatically granted to children whose fathers

are full citizens. UAE women who are not married to citizens cannot confer citizenship

upon their children unless they are divorced, widowed, or if the father is unknown. In that

case, the children have only their mother’s national identity to follow.15 Another distinct

precondition for citizenship is that no one may hold any other citizenship or passport

besides the UAE's; and when applying for naturalization, a prospective citizen must

relinquish any previous citizenship in order to be granted the UAE’s. In short, UAE laws

of nationalization, or naturalization, have generated additional problems and

controversies for a society that already has its fair share of dichotomy and conflict.

Turki al-Hamad. a Saudi scholar, has recently criticized the abnormal

composition of the Gulf societies that are supposedly operating on the basis of modem

nation-states16 (al-Hamad 1994). Similar criticism has been voiced by other scholars and

14 The case of a UAE child molestation and murder (summer of 1995) by a UAE citizen from Pakistani origin has raised questions over the facility of some Sheikhs in granting citizenship.

15 Laws are ambiguous in some areas, and their social implications have not been considered as some lawyers have pointed out. Some of these regulations are very preliminary, and exceptions are often made.

16 His argument is based on the nature of the modem nation-state that the Gulf

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intellectuals from the region who fear a total loss of national control over the growing

presence of foreign labor. Daily news paper articles, talk shows, and serious academic

studies are filling oil Gulf state archives with analysis of, and advice about, the social

predicament awaiting these states as a result of the total reliance on foreign labor.

The government itself is in support of more analysis and creative solutions to

these unyielding phenomenon. Abdul Razak Faris, a UAE economic analyst, has

addressed the rising demographics of the foreign bom children in UAE. (Faris 1994) A

study that was adopted, as a base of a recent UAE migration law (summer of 1994), that

denied family reunion to all low income workers in UAE (less than $2,000), and along

side regulated the influx of foreign female domestic workers (FFDW) to UAE by non

UAE citizens. Inauspiciously, all citizens, and Sheiks of the UAE wish to solve the

problem, or to have it solved for them, without agonizing over their personal sacrifice. As

a UAE government figure has succinctly said17: “no migration policies would limit the

problem before the Sheikhs themselves start limiting their personal luxurious ambitions.

Most of the FFDW imported to UAE are for the ruling families.”

In short, the problem of foreign migration to UAE is growing perilously. "The

societies are attempting to apply. This form of state assumes and or generates a form of identity melting and an integration of its society. Arab Gulf states, however, are growing in a manner that will never accommodate a unifying identity to all foreign labor on its land.

17 That was during a short interview I inducted while I was doing my interviews in UAE. during the summer of 1994.

\ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UAE's security forces maintain a close watch on all foreign communities, and the

government has made it clear it will not tolerate intercommunal tensions or political

movements.'’ (EIU 1995-96: 7) Needless to say, security alone has been historically

proven dysfunctional before massive popular movements. Hence, UAE, and most Gulf

states would only survive precariously, as long as their demographic composition is

lopsided, their migration politics unhumanistically bounded, and their development

strategies unsustainably administrated. A closer look at the politics of migration in the

Gulf region, and its interrelation with the issue of female migration to the UAE, and the

contextual framework of the FFDW in UAE is to be furnished in the following part

entitled UAE: and the migration polemics.

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II. The UAE: Migration Polemics

Oil, and later, migration politics have both created a peculiarity to the social

structure of the Gulf states that was unprecedented.1 In one year 1973 the oil Gulf states2

received $25,000 billion (Beauge et Buttner 1991)—an income that made them the

worlds' richest states. This sudden money was simultaneously an immediate source of

power conveyed to oil monarchies and a developmental process that was neither internally

accessible nor futuristically sustainable. Apart from Saudi Arabia, the population in most

Gulf states was characterized by its youthful demographic composition and low female

participation in the labor force. After the oil embargo of 1973, “the trickle of Arab and

Asian foreign workers turned into a flood” (Addleton 1991: 510) This story is shared

among all GCC sisters, who found themselves not only sharing overnight wealth, but also

embracing a peculiar social reality and migration policies.

A. Migration As A Regional-Oil Context

The exportation of oil raised the Arab Gulfs consciousness of the ailing social

formation. The dearth of indigenous labor to sustain projects of growth made them rely

heavily on labor imports. In two years, the number of foreign workers rose to 1.3 million,

of which 65 percent were Arabs 22 percent were from South Asia, and 1 percent from

East Asia. In less than ten years, the number of migrant workers in the Gulf rose to five

1 The only exception is Black migration, or slave importation, where they were denied throughout generations the possibilities of being socially promoted or fully integrated.

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million, of which only 30 percent were Arabs, 43 percent South Asian and 20 percent East

Asian-’ (Addleton 1991). A geographical shift is very clearly depicted in the preference of

labor.

Arab Gulf states are also different from other new societies who build their

development on labor import, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia. They are

very peculiar in their total reliance on the outside in all aspects of development (Beauge et

Roussillon 1988). Capital is a foreign creation, a form of rent,4 very unstable and perhaps

short-lived.5 Labor is, contrary to other new societies, imported only under limited terms

and for a limited time. Thus, from a migration perspective, naturalization and adjustment

were not intended to be fully permitted. These small lightly populated states opt to control

wealth among themselves. They, therefore, came up with unique migration policies and

formulas.

Migration politics in the Arab Gulf have many shared characteristics. First, they

all proceeded through similar stages of labor import trends. Secondly, they all adopted a

similar safety valve in the form of labor import, such as "contract workers.” Finally, they

2 Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE. ' The countries of South Asia are: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. East Asia includes the Philippines, Indonesian Thailand, and others.

4 Arab Gulf states are also theoretically differentiated as "rentier states," because their wealth was generated from a rentier act, as opposed to a process of industrialization and internal development generated by the individual states themselves. If not for foreign companies, oil could not be extracted and sold in international markets (Sid Ahmed Abdelkader in Beauge et Buttner, 1992) 5 Capital and wealth are guaranteed only as long as oil is needed and sold in the

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all designed a similar social system of local sponsorship — Kafala or a local sponsor as

Kafil —in order to extend state power over the expatriates and insure constant control

over the massive foreign army of labor. Furthermore, migration characteristics have had a

peculiar impact on the Gulf. Thus, the study of migration in these states is framed around

their unique socio-historical formation and their conditions of existence in the world

market. The above stated characteristics will be, for obvious reasons, illustrated in this text

through the specific case of the UAE.

1-Stages of labor migration

The UAE, like the rest of the Arab Gulf, has been shifting preferences,

nationalities, and policies in terms of labor imports One can distinguish four main periods

that affected labor import and policies in these states, particularly the UAE. The first

period was before the oil embargo (1960s to early 70s) and is characterized by high Arab,

Indian, and Pakistani labor import and low female migration and labor participation.6 The

second was after the oil embargo (1970s through early 80s), and this period experienced a

deluge of labor from Arab and Asian countries. However, a growing Asian labor force

started shaping not only the labor force, but the entire Emirati society. Two trends became

world market. It's life, therefore, is limited and uncertain. 6 Migrant women were the only women in the labor force, concentrated mostly in the service sector, in teaching, and in office work. Female participation in the labor force was the lowest in the world then. In 1975 it reached 3 percent. Figures for this period are not available. Most of the available data is generated from the UAE 1975 census.

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visible during this period—the Asianization and the feminization of the labor force.7

The two other periods—before the Gulf war and after—have both similarities

and differences. Their similarities include the continuous Asianization and feminization of

the labor force. This trend continued through both periods; however, it was politically and

socially uncertain. The differences involved the Arab labor force that was already

shrinking before the war, more for economic than political reasons. Yet after the war,

government actions throughout the Gulf region were aggressively evicting Arabs from

different nationalities: Jordanians, Palestinians, Yemenis, and others. Thus a serious

movement for the nationalization and feminization of labor in the UAE has been taking

place since the Gulf war. Kuwait set the example for other states in policies of labor

control. The UAE and most other states are caught in a vicious circle. On the one hand,

there is the extreme shortage of Emirati labor force. On the other hand, there is a

continuous growing dependency on domestics, especially as Emirati women become more

involved in work outside the home.

7 The 1985 census shows that the number of Asians in the population was twice as much as that of all Arabs from outside the Emirates, and it was also double the number of Emiraties themselves. The total number of Asians in the UAE was 644,823, while the number of all Arabs, excluding Emiraties, was 300,987. The indigenous population in 1985 totaled only 396,114, a number that is almost equal to that of only one ethnic group Indians (322,193). These equations become even higher for the labor force: the indigenous labor force is only 190,718 compared to an expatriate labor force of 747,910. The only positive aspect officially reported is that the UAE female labor power o f93,491 is projected to be almost equal to the male labor power o f97,227.

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2- Contract workers as safety valve to migration control

“Contract workers” is a concept developed worldwide in order to ensure the

maximum exploitation of labor without paying a high social or political price for welfare,

reproduction, and well-being (see Chapter One). A contract worker does not usually have

the time to press for demands. (S)he is usually bounded within the terms of benefits to

clear rights and responsibilities. A contract worker arrives with the singular idea of

improving her/his economic possibilities and the status of the family in the home country.

A contract worker labors resolutely, focusing only on securing enough money with which

to return (George, 1976). The concept of contract workers, as a system of labor

employment in the Gulf, goes along with the entire construction of an internal, foreign-

directed economy of rent. Contract workers are complementary to the accelerated capital

economy that necessitates a similar rapid rotation in labor (Beauge et Buttner, 1991).

When the Arab Gulf states, including the UAE, adopted the system, they were concerned

about the political price more than the social. These days, contract workers are shaping

life in the UAE (discussed in the next section): economically, socially, culturally, and even

spatially. The Gulf is being transformed into Asian migrant labor states.

3-"Kafala” Or sponsorship system

The sponsorship system in the oil states is one of the most peculiar systems

developed affecting migrant labor power. In the UAE, as well as other oil monarchies, the

law requires that each foreign laborer have a sponsor “Kafir from the citizenship of that

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. state (Beauge et Buttner, 1991). This system also extends to business and all economic

and merchant activities. No business can operate in the UAE without a sponsor, a

shareholder, or a Kafil. This system, established originally by state engineers in order to

insure more control over foreign labor, became by itself an opportunity for foreign labor

trade by nationals, who make fortunes from sponsoring foreign workers, companies, and

businesses. Needless to say, this system in itself has encouraged the economic non

productivity of the indigenous population and increased the class gap between nationals

and expatriates.

The sponsorship system has been one of the power generators of migration

politics in the Gulf Ominously, it has created and configured the shape for a polemic

location that breeds disparities and forges calamities. The sponsorship system has

embraced the migratory system, casting and creating policies for the UAE which create

the dichotomous oppositions of “insiders vs. outsiders,” “dogs vs. watchdogs,” “workers

vs. policymakers,” “citizens vs. expatriates.” Beyond the fascination of making fast money,

no one seems to be overtly pleased with this form of reality. Foreign migrants complain

about the citizens’ racist attitudes, while nationals lament their peripheralization in their

own country.

B. Migrant Labor: Shaping Boundaries And Casting Space

Most studies on the impact of foreign migrant labor on the UAE is concentrated

on economic and demographic figures. None has yet addressed the socio-cultural impact

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of migrant labor on the construction of daily life in the UAE. The impact of foreign

migrant labor on the UAE is diffused in all aspects of existence, top-down or bottom-up.

Foreign and, particularly, Asian labor is found in the homes, workplace, and among the

daily regular social interactions of all Emiraties, from those among the ruling families to

the lowliest fishermen. From the center of the most developed cities of Dubai or Abu

Dhabi to the farthest areas of Ras-el-Khaima, Fujeira, Jabal Haffitt, Daba, Hatta, Hilli, or

any other place in the UAE, foreign laborers can be found.

Even mosques, the proudest place for Muslims, especially male citizens, to be on

Fridays or during regular prayers times, are attended by a majority of Asian workers.

Furthermore, the religious sheikh himself, who prays or calls for prayer, is in most cases

an Asian from India or Pakistan. His voice does not sound like the pure .Arabic of Najd or

Al-Azhar. The accent in his call for prayer every time he opens the speaker to pronounce

"allah akbar ” reminds the indigenous congregation of their total dependence on

foreigners.*

Despite the proximity of Asian labor to all aspects of Emirati life, a general

appeasement, a sense of normality and consent overwhelms the place. You drive through

the streets of a city in the UAE, at any time of day, you observe dark-skinned (mostly

Indian, Pakistani, Punjabi, and sometimes Filipino) workers in their orange uniforms,

planting flowers on side walks or watering trees, or even dusting, cleaning, or newly

8 Five times a day, his voice keeps them aware that they had to import their M ua’zin (the caller for prayer) from another country to perform this Muslim tradition.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. paving the streets. In the crowded fish and vegetable markets, salesmen are either

longtime immigrants9 from India or Pakistan, or lower caste Yemenis.10 Other very poor

Indians and “new arrivals”11 work as porters and fish-cleaners. Similarly, in malls and old

markets, salesmen are Indians, Iranians, or other immigrants. The image of an ethnic

division of labor repeats itself in all aspects of life and social interaction in the UAE.12 Yet

life continues very peacefully.

Citizens, to complete the picture, are generally consumers, government workers,

and Kafils. They are clustered in their neighborhoods, living a unique lifestyle. One could

think of them as the bride and groom at a big wedding.1’ Andre Bourgey, in an interesting

study of Gulf cities, describes them as living in the “Babel Tower,” recognized only by

9 They are recognized by their tendency to speak Arabic with a heavy accent.

10 The only indigenous picture left in the market is represented by some elderly Emirati Bedouin men and women selling crafts, herbs, and old-fashioned, home-prepared food, such as dried fish and mahyawa.

11 Usually they appear intimidated, do not know how to speak the native language, and only follow directions from the Arbab (the local terminology for master), not arguing over their payment, accepting whatever they are given.

12 Gourmet restaurants are run by Lebanese and, sometimes, Syrians. Servers are Filipinas. In hospitals, most nurses are Filipina and Indian, but doctors come from everywhere.

L' They are nervously enjoying themselves, welcoming greetings, yet with a sense of being lost amidst a large, foreign crowd.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their white dishdasha14 (Andre Bourgey in Beauge et Buttner, 1991). Among all these

disparities, life moves on rapidly, construction never stops. Mushrooming malls, markets,

parks, and towers highlight the Gulf cities a peculiarly interesting urban development.15

The overwhelming existence of foreign nationalities and ethnicities is converting

Gulf cities into sub-cities and spatial entities bounded by different cultures and subcultures

For example, a Friday afternoon in the old market of “Bar Dubai” feels like a crowded

street in Bombay—lights and colors, Urdu writings, and Indian expatriates packed in like

sardines. It is a completely Indian ghetto.

1-Ethno-spatial division of cities

Only citizens and rich foreigners can live in villas. For examples, Jumaeira, once an

old beach city inhabited by local fisherman, is now a central residential area for British

residents of Dubai. It has also developed new beaches, houses for indigenous citizens, and

some large villas and palaces for old merchants and members of Al-Maktum, the Dubai

ruling family. Old houses in the center of the city are rented by Indian and other Asian

workers. They are usually male, sharing the quarters with several others. Owners are still

Emirati citizens who obtained government grants and moved themselves to newly

developed areas, such as Al-Hamriya, the subject area of this study.

14 This is peculiar for both men and women. They are recognized by their long dress and the abba, a sort of black covering similar to the Iranian chador.

15 In 1994, Dubai was chosen as the best Arab city, and last year the mayor of Dubai was chosen as the first man from the Middle East to receive the international

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Foreign middle class families from India, Pakistan, Korea, and other areas live in

migrant labor buildings.16 Arabs from middle class families also live in these buildings.

Somehow, those of a particular nationality cluster and live close to each other.17 Very

poor migrant workers, such as porters and fishermen, usually live in shanty towns. Some

cities, like Dubai, are gradually destroying these shanty towns and granting them better

lodging.

Socially clustered cities are also shaped by clustered cultures that interact only on

a very superficial level. For example, a citizen of the UAE will speak Urdu in the market

place; however, it is clear who is in charge when this language is spoken. English seems to

be the most dominant language of the market place as a result of the colonial legacy,

inherited not only by the Gulf region but also by most of East and South East Asia.

2-Spatial identity in a social marginalitv

If oil and wealth is the only privilege the UAE and its ruling families have over

the invading massive labor power, this wealth must be used to form an identity of power

Habitat's first price. 16 Citizens do not live in these buildings. Those who under limited circumstances have needed to live in these structures, consider it a momentary period, and then move on. It is socially degrading for a citizen to live in migrant labor buildings.

17 It is natural to see buildings housing either only Indians, Pakistanis, or Arabs. Similar nationalities, even specific Emirati, cluster not only in the migrant labor buildings, but also in neighborhoods. Shaija is recognized by its high Arab population. Even the streets in Shaija have Arab names such as Jamal Abdul Nasser Blvd., King Faisal Blvd., and so on.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. over foreigners. This appears to be occurring through “cultural-construction.” Organizers

from the UAE and its cities are zealously eager to project 2 cultural image of themselves

via their modem urban development. This necessity did not exist during the early

development period. Yet, the increasing suffocation of their Bedouin and Arab culture is

creating a new necessity to address their identity, history, and cultural idiosyncrasies.

Their culture is projected nowadays through new construction. Construction built during

the early development period is exemplified by monuments built on a circle, such as the

“Clock Round About” (Dawar a l Sad).

Lastly, monuments are exemplifying cultural symbols. They borrow their

architectural form from Islamic construction, ancient local towers, and houses, such as the

“Baijils Tower.18” Monuments representing the “Arabian coffee pot,” al-dala , or the

“pearl sea shell,” maharat al-dana , are spread in street comers and intersections.

Museums in each Emirate are competing over reflecting lifestyles and the culture and

peculiarities of the particular Arab Gulf state. Even parks and play areas for children have

a touch of history and the indigenous lifestyle.19 Any outsider can easily recognize Dubai,

Abu Dhabi, and Shaija, even though (s)he is surrounded by a mixed worldwide

18 This design may include an archaic method of air-conditioning. It is adopted from an Iranian technique, which allows air to circulate inside the house. This design is adopted nowadays for building houses and city structures for its shape, without its outmoded function of air cooling. 19 One of the biggest parks in Dubai has representative playhouses from different parts of the world. Among them are the different types of housings and lifestyles in the UAE and the Arabian Peninsula. Other playgrounds are filled with cultural symbols, i.e., camels, sea-shells, etc.

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community.

3-Genderization of cities and societies

If migration policies have ethnicized the UAE, they have also genderized it. The

UAE is increasingly becoming a male society. As a result of individualized migration and

denial of family reunion for lower income earners, a high proportion of males is overriding

the existence of females in the UAE. According to the UAE national census of 1975, for

every 100 females, there were 225 males. This ratio did not change with the national

census of 1985, in spite of an increase in the feminization of foreign labor. This means that

only 31 percent of the entire population of the UAE is female. On the opposite end, the

proportion of indigenous males is also decreasing. A non-published study by the UAE

Ministry of Planning indicates that the ratio of 113 UAE males to 100 UAE females in

1975 dropped to an equal number for both sexes in 1985. This depreciation in the UAE

male ratio was related in the study to naturalization factors. UAE citizenship was indicated

by family, not individual males. These gender changes are not without a social price for

the society. Increasing complaints of sexual crimes—rape and child molestation—

committed by migrant males against indigenous females and children is arousing social

anger.

C. Feminization Of Migration In UAE

Along with the ethnization and genderization of the UAE, a feminization

movement among foreign migrants was taking place. A study has shown that from Egypt

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alone, the rate of individual migrant women has reached 30 percent of total migration to

the Gulf region (Aisha Bin Diab in Beauge et Buttner, 1991). The fast-growing society,

formerly without a female work force, required female workers for many posts, especially

feminized ones, such as teachers, secretaries, and waitresses. In fact, opportunities of

work in the Gulf as teachers have encouraged many single Arab women to migrate,

despite the stria structure of Islam and patriarchy in the Arab world.

As addressed earlier, women before the establishment of the state were not even permitted to attend middle school. Learning to read the Qur’an was enough learning for a woman in the UAE, before the federation. Women's participation in the work force has been increasing since 1975. Recent studies based on UAE census data indicate that women’s participation in the workforce reached 13 .6 percent in 1985, as compared to 5.7 percent in 1975. If we project a similar rate of increase for the following years (a very modest approximation), it should currently have reached 20 percent. Most working women in the UAE, as noted previously, are migrants. Only 2.1 percent of the women citizens were working in 1985. Not more than 6 percent of the UAE female population are working outside their homes in the 1990s.

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Table 2.2.1 Percentage of UAE Women’s Participation In (Public Sphere) Workplace In Comparison to None-UAE Women’s Participation* Years Work Force 1975 1980 1985 UAE Nationals 22.1 18.9 17.2 Males 41.5 35.2 31.8 Females 1.1 1.3 2.1 Non-Nationals 69.6 67.2 62.6 Males 85.4 84.1 79.9 Females 11.6 14.5 21.2 Source: Ministry o f Planning, Population censuses 1975, 1980. 1985, sited in Abdul Razak Faris. 1994. * This data looks at the depicted work force units relation to its own specific population. For example, while only 1.1 percent of female UA E nationals in 1975 were part of the workforce. 11.6 percent of female non-nationals were in the workforce.

D. FFDW As An Offshoot Of The Feminization Of Migration

The internal as well as external factors together rendered the feminization of

migration in the UAE a peculiar international phenomenon. Domestic workers (FFDW)

made this phenomenon a unique international reality to study. This uniqueness is not a

statistical or numerical one in absolute terms. It is related to their spread horizontally as

well as vertically. FFDW in the UAE, as well as other Gulf states, are to be found in

homes, across all class and socio-economic lines—a unique circumstance found nowhere

else in the world today, or as widespread in previous history.20

This peculiarity was only achievable as a result of the unique social structure of

the UAE, and the ethno-class divisions give this phenomenon a distinctive tangibility. The

unusual construction of citizens and expatriates, along with the high benefits provided to

20 Even when serfdom was widespread in Medieval societies, it was not found among slaves, for example. Even in early US history when slavery was abundant across most social classes, it was not available among poor migrants, especially non-Europeans.

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citizens, created an unprecedented social grounding. Nowhere before could a porter, living

on welfare, hire someone else to do the job for him (or her) and still make a profit.21 The

class system was constructed along not only internal divisions and differences, but also

according to external cleavages and affiliations. Externals or expatriates are part of this

historical moment of social development. They live, exploit the situation/market/labor and

are exploited as well; yet they will never be integrated, and they are furthermore expected

to leave when this situation ends.22

1-FFDW statistical conception

In the UAE today, there is an average of two hundred visas granted every day to

domestic helpers. Official Ministry of Interior statistics for 1992 reported 65,043 domestic

helpers working in the city of Abu Dhabi alone. Of these, 4,263 work for Arab families.

Other statistics show that the number of visas given to DHs in a month's period reached

5,419. They were allocated as follow: Al-Ain, 1,492 thousand; Dubai, 1,157 thousand;

21 In the UAE, a porter at a school, a poor women on welfare, granted Dhs 2,000 a month, can hire an Indian migrant worker to do her job for only Dhs 500. She can stay at home and enjoy herself. It is very uncommon in the UAE to fire a citizen from a job, even if they are found taking advantage of their positions and not maintaining a creditable performance. Jobs for citizens are a national given. It is not until very recently, as a result of serious criticism of the system, that stricter rules have been put in effect.

22 Elisabeth Longueness identified three socio-economic divisions or classes: (1) the internal division between rulers and regular citizens, a class division resulting from the unequal distribution of rent. (2) the citizen-expatriate division that is based on system- based privileges for citizens, especially the Kafala. (3) the internal division of expatriates themselves, situated according to the level of exploitation of their world force in the

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Abu Dhabi, 1,075 thousand; Al-Sharika, 916 hundreds; Ras Al-Khaima, 427 hundreds;

and Fujeira, 352 hundreds (Al-Shamsi, 1993).

A 1984 study of domestic helpers indicates that the average number of DHs in

Emirati households is 2.2. An average, obtained by multiplying the average number of

families by DHs, raises the number of DHs to 103,000 (Al-Jardawi 1990: 59). If we add to

this number an average of 50,000 workers for expatriates, then the figure for domestics in

the UAE increases to double that of official figures reported in the official 1985 census

(87,159). This difference is possibly related to the methods of data collection on

domestics, which does not classify them as a separate group or categorize them by their

differing professions inside the house. As most UAE scholars point out, it is not easy to

secure exact numbers and accurate and specific data on domestics. This is an issue that is

still under-studied, requiring a vast institutional effort to manage the deficiency.

Statistics on FFDW suffer similarly. There are no official updated statistics.23

However, a comparison on the number of FFDW between the years 1975 and 1985,

according to the official census, shows an increase of 30,794. The table below indicates

that while domestic work in the UAE was mostly a male domain, it was dramatically

feminized in the 1980s, and this trend continuos to the present. The average increase in the

market (in Beauge et Buttner, 1991:125-126). ^ Statistics on FFDW is difficult to obtain in the UAE. Internationally and on the UN publication level, only the 1975 census is available. Internally, through personal connections, one can acquire the results of other census, such as those from 1980 and 1985. The results from the 1990 census, on the other hand, are kept secret. The only information an insider can obtain at this point is a general number for citizens vs.

N Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. feminization of migration in the mid-1980's was 2,398 percent, while the average increase

of male domestics was only 649 percent. This high number, as this study will later

demonstrate, is related to the hiring of drivers and cooks, occupations once performed

primarily by males.

Table 2.2,2 Domestic Workers In The UAE, By Sex (1975-1985) 1975 1980 %Inc.b. w. 1985 % Inc.b.w. % Inc.b.w. 1975-80 1980-85 1970-85 Females 1,340 7,348 548 32,134 473 2,398 Males 8,477 34,343 405 55,025 160 649 Total 9,817 41,691 424 87,159 209 887 Source: General Population Census o f the I ’. IE. 1975, 1980, 1985

Statistics on FFDW in the 1990s are crucial for analyzing the high trend of

feminization. Indeed, if one attempts to calculate the rate of increase, applying it to 1995,

it is easy to see how the number of FFDW alone is higher or at least equal to that of the

indigenous population. They are everywhere—in all homes, in all cities, large and small,

and even in desert areas, helping Bedouins milk their goats and make yogurt and cheese.

They are situated in huge mansions as well as in poor welfare houses. They are easy to

acquire, change, and exchange. They come from diversified nationalities, in various colors,

from different religions and levels of education, and with varying levels of expertise, etc.

This FFDW human glut comes, however, with a high price, a price almost anyone

in the UAE today laments. Negative reaction against heavy reliance on FFDW is

increasingly witnessed in newspaper articles, TV programs, government studies, and

expatnates.

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scholarly work. Even the police department is publishing informative booklets to alert

Emiraties to the danger of complete dependence on FFDW. Yet, it appears beyond their

abilities to combat this problem.24

2-FFDW as socially perceived bv Emiraties

All academic writings on FFDW in the UAE and other Gulf states, from a local

and Arab Gulf perspective, see them as a problem. No published study described them as a

necessity for the area's changing lifestyle. No one emphasized their integral part in

development, and furthermore, no one put their lives at the center of the study. Issues

addressed in these studies included the negative impact on children, language of children,

values of children, defected socialization of children, maltreatment of children, abuse of

Islamic norms and values, health hazards, and others (Khalifa 1986; Khalaf et al. 1987; Al-

Omar Badr 1987; Al-Rifai Hussain 1987; Al-Omran Hala 1987; Al-Kazim Amina 1993;

Al-Khalfan Hanan 1985; Abd-Al-Jawad Issam 1985; Ministry of Work and Social Affairs

1990; and Al-Jirdawi 1990).

The above studies go into details describing how these nannies negatively affect

the children of nationals. Most of them placed the main responsibility for this problem on

the mothers, themselves. They portrayed UAE women as careless and superficial in their

24 In this study, we also approached the issue by speaking with female employers; yet it seems the problem is bigger than their ability to determine an end to it. See Chapter Six, on consequences.

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preference for a luxurious life over the well-being of their children.25 Only a few studies

mentioned the relationship between women's higher participation in the workforce and the

existence of FFDW (Al-Omar Badr 1987). The most rigid approach of all on FFDW is the

police studies. They based their conclusions on studies conducted on FFDW criminals and

UAE women's perception of FFDW crimes. Their statistics show that most crimes

committed by FFDW in Dubai in 1991-92 are related to adultery (up to 50 percent). The

second highest crime reported was theft (30 percent). The third is the violation of

immigration laws (10 percent), and the rest are less representative, yet sometimes quite

severe (for example, murder) (Najib et al. 1993).

However, when it comes to newspaper articles, the picture is more embracing.

Articles include negative images but also present a wider perspective. Some of them

address a very human dialogue and invite nationals, women and men, to treat these FFDW

in a more humane and respectable way (Al-Dari’ 1994). English magazines in the UAE

usually reflect the expatriates' point of view, although they attempt to be objective and

address all viewpoints. They present the problems resulting from a modem lifestyle and its

effect on working women themselves (Rout 1994).

In short, FFDW in the UAE have their own problems, brought with them in the

migration process. These problems, however, are aggravated and mishandled on all levels

25 It is an interesting to note that Hanan found women to be harsher on Arab Gulf women. She studied the case of FFDW in Bahrain and concluded that the mother’s role is the more crucial one in this situation. She did not mention the role of the father as missing in the children's development. She only mentioned the family role and the necessity of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. inside the UAE. Who is responsible? Who is to blame? Is it national poverty? Is it

international poverty? Is it the UAE's social context? Is it the UAE's laws cf migration and

its foreign labor regulations? Is it the individual employers? Is it the FFDW and their lack

of knowledge and experience of this society? The questions are endless. The situation is

highly complicated, and it is not easy to uncover all the facts. This dissertation, however,

attempts to address the issue from the FFDW own perspective with their own version of

the story while still experiencing these conditions at work, living as expatriates, uprooted

from their country and family. The stories are very telling, informative, and enlightening.

having the family linked together in order to bring up healthy children (Khalfan 1985).

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METHODS OF RESEARCH

From a hermeneutic point of view, stones are based on tile, and life is expressed, articulated, manifested and modified in stories. Stories make explicit the meaning that is implicit in life as it is lived...In telling stories we try to make sense of life, like we try to make sense of a text when we interpret it. (Ruthellen Jossclson and Amia Lieblich. cd. 1993:9)

INTRODUCTION AND DATA SOURCE

This research is based mainly on fieldwork. The fieldwork includes non

participant observations and face-to-face interviews with 51 FFDW of a predominantly

Arab middle-class neighborhood of Dubai, the second largest of the seven emirates of the

UAE. A total of thirty four employers were also interviewed, and the information provided

by them was partially used in the study. The dearth of secondary data sources on the UAE

and this topic presented considerable difficulty to this research, as it has to previous

studies on UAE. The available data, scarce as they are, were used to construct a general

context to the field-work.1

1 They are the three official censuses: 1975, 1980, 1985. The studies and field-works conducted by individual researchers, and government agencies on the impact of FFDW on UAE society. Police studies on crimes committed by FFDW. Official documentation on migration policies and regulations related to FFDW in the UAE. Newspaper articles, and interviews written on the FFDW.

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The research was based on a non-probability stratified sample drawn from three

types of households: the upper-class households (mansions), middle and upper-middle-

class households, and lower class (or welfare based) households.

I. FIELD WORK AND CHARACTERISTICS OF AN AREA STUDIED

The field-work was conducted in a neighborhood of Dubai which is officially

called “a/-Mimzar,” but popularly known as “a/-Himreya a/-Jidida.” This neighborhood is

a new residential development that has been growing since the mid-1980s. The peculiar

characteristic of a/-Mimzar in this migrant-dominated society is its demography. This

small region of Dubai is relatively heavily inhabited by UAE citizens: 82 percent of total

households are UAE citizens, However, in terms of the total resident population, a little

more than half, 58 percent are UAE citizens (see table £ 1.1). Of the non-citizens, 43

percent are females, most of whom must be FFDWs.

Tn^jleXJUn^ogulationDistribution^OfaLMin^ ______UAE Citizens ______Non-citizens ______Total Residents 1,322 964 2,286 Households ______207______45______252 Source: Dubai Municipality. 1994.

Residents of a/-Mimzar are heterogeneous in terms of their class, kinship, and

ethnic backgrounds. They are from upper-, upper-middle- and middle-classes; from tribal

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and non-tribal backgrounds; from Arab and non-Arab ethnic origins. They represent

mostly the new professional class that has formed as a result of growing state and

government activities. The majority of the heads of households in which the interviews

were conducted were professionals working with the government, private sector, or rising

merchant class. Many were merchants themselves with long family legacies and prominent

class standings.

In summary, the area is highly representative of the rising middle class in UAE.

The residents are educated, enlightened, eager to develop and prosper, and intent on

making a good use of this passing wealth. They are also highly aware of their national

identity, status, and future role. As most rising middle- and upper-middle classes, they

enjoy their socioeconomic exclusiveness. They seem to be proud of their neighborhood,

homes, and new status.2 Most of them were given the land on which they live and

probably a construction loan by the government/ "a/-Mimzar” is peacefully situated on

21 personally sensed this feeling during the field work. Residents of a/-Mimzar talked proudly, of their neighborhood. They saw it as one of the cleanest, safest, and most exclusive in the city. For them it is definitely better than the surrounding other neighborhoods such as the old Himriya, and Hor a/-Anz, which contain the market, and the cooperative shopping center are. These two neighborhoods are considered lower status, mainly because they are surrounded by immigrants' buildings, and poor UAEs welfare housing.

? In UAE, any university graduate, a head of family, a military member, or even a widowed or a woman abandoned by her husband could get a house, and land, or land and a loan to build the house. By law all citizens of the UAE are entitled to a house or a place to live. Some would get better housing depending on their status, educational achievement, closeness to ruling families and so on. A male university graduate can get land, as soon as he graduates if he applies for it. The assumption behind this too is that the male is the future breadwinner of a family.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the sea shore, surrounding an old port that has been reduced to a place for fishing and

ship-building. New entertainment parks, swimming pools, and an amusement center were

recently built in the area.4 All neighborhood houses are one- or two-story villas. Each is

surrounded by a wall, to ensure privacy, safety, and exclusiveness. Status is reflected

through the quality and elegance of each villa. Some are particularly rich, with mansion-

style architecture. Those are mostly by the shore, forming what one resident referred to as

the A VIPs” neighborhood. Their residents tend to be high-ranking government employees

or advisors. Ironically, the very entrance of this new, affluent development crosses the old

Hamriya port where the fishing and ship-building take place, and where a sprawling

population of very poor Indian men work and live in shanty towns.

Across the street from a/-Mimzar is another housing development known as

"Shaabiyat Hamdan,” or the "Hamdan’s welfare neighborhood.” Sheikh Hamdan, one of

Sheikh Rashid's sons who share the ruling status of Dubai, is in charge of Dubai's internal

affairs. The "Shaabiyat Hamdan” neighborhood was included in the sample as a

representative of lower class UAEs and to shed light on a striking feature unique to the

UAE: unlike any other welfare recipients around the world, UAE citizens who poor

enough to be on state welfare rolls can also afford to have imported live-in maids.

A. Field Work: A Prelude

4 This park is originally public, yet the entrance fee is made very high, just to keep the flow of poor immigrants out. During the last Holidays, this park invited Disney characters from Disney Florida exclusively to entertain children of the region.

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The fieldwork for this study was conducted in June, July, and August of 1994.5

This is a stifling part of the year during which sultry temperatures and very high humidity

levels make outdoor conditions almost intolerable. Those who can afford it—almost half

of the population—usually leave the country to spend the summer abroad.6 The rest have

to contend with temperatures that often exceed the 45° C (around 120° F) mark

established by the 1LO as the maximum acceptable working temperature.7 If it were not

for air conditioning which is abundant in homes, cars, shopping malls, and almost

everywhere else other than the streets, life in the UAE in summer time would approximate

hell. It was during this time that this survey was administered door to door, house to

house, in the mornings, afternoons and evenings.

Apart from the physical stress that I experienced,8 choosing to do this during the

5 This choice was dictated by family reasons; I had to wait until the children finish school, so I could travel.

6 During a certain period in the month of July and early August, most of the ruling family members and premier government workers, especially of Dubai, reside in London England. In fact, the country is almost run from the outside at that time. Militarily this is a vulnerable period for the Gulf states; they could be over run easily by any outside occupier, as it happened in the case of Kuwait.

7 In theory most of businesses and construction projects should stop in summer or at least during these periods. This rarely happens. One could see foreign construction workers active most of the time. It is becoming more common these days however, to see construction workers, especially in the public sector, working late night shifts i.e., 12:00 AM to 8:00 AM.

8 1 used to go walking at first. Later I started driving. However, the stress of this weather was never easy. Getting in a boiling-hot car, at 1:00 PM, or waiting at the door until somebody opened was a serious challenge. My cup of iced water was always there to save me from dehydration. Besides, I had to put ice on my head from time to time when I was home just to relief it from the excess of heat, especially that I could not take a shower

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summer had its merits for the research in terms of the accessibility of the information.

Some of the FFDW, including my interpreter and another woman who worked at the

home of relatives, were left alone while their employers vacationed abroad. This gave me

the opportunity to have long extended interviews with them. In fact, my interpreter

brought two of her friends along and we all had a focus group discussion. Even FFDW

who were interviewed in their employers' houses were not under the same kind of

pressures they usually face during winter time. In winter, the short length of the day and

children’s school schedules place additional pressures on FFDW to do more in less time.

In addition, I organized my interviews in a such a way that I could take

advantage of the summer break and traveling patterns. I used the first week to conduct my

interviews in the nearby houses where I gained confidence and practice. Then I moved to

the rich neighborhood. My assumption, which was also based on information collected in

the field, was that residents of the rich neighborhood traveled more and tended to take

their domestics with them. On the other hand, residents of middle class neighborhoods

traveled less and were less inclined to take their domestics with them; and finally, the poor

traveled least and rarely took their domestics along if they did.9 This strategy allowed me

to cover enough house numbers, as I intended, in order for the sample to be at least

during the day, because the water would be boiling too.

9 The welfare neighborhood, or Shaabiyat Hamdan, looked the least empty of all. The streets contained people most of the time, coming in and out. Even cars are parked usually in the streets not sheltered from the heat inside fancy garages.

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representative of the neighborhood chosen.10

B. Modes Of Administration

Dealing with sensitive issues in the field has its methodological and ethical

difficulties that are heavily reported in literature. Interviewing FFDW in UAE is a delicate

issue and one that could create unnecessary complications.11 Therefore, I had to design my

interviews in a way that would not offend employers, or citizens of UAE, but would still

provide me with the information I needed. The anonymity of the FFDW was another

necessity. This I ensured through the use of code numbers instead of names. The following

addresses some of the integral parts of the fieldwork: access to subjects, the actual field

story, and some critical moments.

1- Access to FFDW

101 stopped all my interviews around the tenth of August. Then I took the last two weeks of the journey to call embassies, agencies, government officials, and also to take some pictures of the different housing styles, and FFDW rooms, in the three stratified neighborhoods.

11 If any citizen, especially those with a high connection to the ruling families is unhappy with the work and reported to a ruling Sheikh, this could mean not only the end of the research, but probably the scholarship too. A similar incident took place with a group of UAE social scientists. They were studying teenage behavioral problems. They distributed questionnaires to schools asking students about many things, including whether they attempt or receive calls to/from the other sex. Once this matter was reported, the whole study was considered unethical, and hurting the essential Islamic values. The study was never accomplished, and all group effort vanished. This incident, on the other hand, does not mean UAEs do not appreciate sciences, or scientific approach. A growing western educated population of UAEs, and new ruling Sheikhs do emphasize the need for more scientific knowledge, yet the personal nature of the government is the cause behind those sudden and irrational policies.

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Having access to FFDW in UAE households, interviewing them, and obtaining an

insider look at their lives could get complicated. Therefore I opted to conduct the research

myself in order to get the holistic, first-hand picture of their work conditions. The intimacy

and privacy of the UAE household, and the harem structure, required a previous

knowledge that I had. Knowing the power relationship between employers and employees,

I had to be keen in introducing myself, and I had to go first through the employer’s channel

to get into the household.

My first key, therefore, was the employer interviews. Interviewing employers first

was designed to fulfill many objectives. To start with, it raised the employer’s comfort

level about me and my work. This provided me with a better opportunity to gain more

information and a better access to employees. Secondly, it gave me better understanding

of the situation, salary, and treatment of the FFDW, which in turn allowed me to check on

FFDW answers. In practice, this scheme did actually work. Many employers allowed me

to be in separate room with the FFDW in order to talk freely. Others granted me

permission to come during the afternoon rest time, so I could have more time (up to two

hours) for the interview. The only hurdle that remained in these cases was the reluctance

of some FFDW to talk freely. In order to overcome this shortcoming I had to reintroduce

myself again to each employee once we were alone, and explicitly reveal my interest in

their situation.12

12 I explained how I came from a somewhat different background, and how I understood some of their problems. I emphasized how important these types of research were in the

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2- Field report

At first I started with the surrounding houses. Although I had a letter from the

education ministry requesting residents’ cooperation and support in gathering the data, I

decided not to use the letter from the outset. I introduced myself as their neighbor

studying in America and doing my research on FFDW. I was warmly welcomed and easily

introduced to FFDW. Time was limited in most cases, not because the employer did not

want me to stay longer, but because the FFDW themselves were very busy. The average

interview length was one hour. Some took less time, and those were the very flat

interviews with minimal amount of probing or elaboration on most issues.

Those interviews that took longer time were the more interesting cases in which I

got to developed a relaxed relationship with both employer and employee. In some

instances, I was allowed to come back for more probing. In others, I left the questionnaire

with the employee to answer at her convenience and leisure. The cases that answered in

writing were all from the Philippines. Those who I got to see again -either through another

visit to their place or by having them over at my house- were mostly Sri Lankan. The

longest time spent over an interview was with my interpreter, a Sri Lankan FFDW who

lived and worked across the street. Her employer was out of town which allowed her

process of changing their lives, enhancing their position in the future, and helping provide them with better working and traveling conditions.

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greater mobility.

Following ten days of positive response, my self-confidence was much boosted. I

decided to use the official letter 1 had and introduce myself as a professional. The

residence 1 approached that day was not too far from ours. An old lady opened the door. I

showed her the letter, but as soon as I said I was a researcher studying the FFDW she

replied that they had none working there and aggressively shut the door. I was later

informed that they had four FFDW in addition to a driver and a cook. Thereafter, I

decided to stick to my earlier strategy, and attempt to identify myself with the place as

much as possible.

The average interview went as follows: I would knock on the door; if it were

opened by a maid or a child, as often the case, I would ask for the lady, or Amama.@u

They would let me in where I would introduce myself and the purpose of my visit and

request an interview with the lady, and later with the housekeeper. I would give a brief

introduction to the content of both interviews if need be. I would politely mention that the

second interview must take longer due to the nature of the research. The style and content

The time spent with her was not over the interview per se. It was more about developing closer links, learning about the issue more, about logistics of interviewing others, information about other FFDW in the neighborhood. Sometime we just talked about daily issues, I listen to her complains about the coworkers, or the boy working at the next door convenience store who gave her a hard time. When she got sick, her friends came to me to ask for help. In short, it was a regular familiarity, and mutual support.

14 Employer or lady of the house is locally called “mama,” or mother in English. This term is used by FFDW to call their female employer. Children's of the employer would be

» l/*/\ W Tm 4 isllJ A «« I «*»!>% •<* +1*A oidv vcumig uwt tiioitta. ut »» woiwi iuz.wu nr uwi w ^ngiuti u jpvawt* language between employer and employee, the employer is called “Madame.”

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of the introduction would differ according to the situation, background, age, and

education of the employer. In most cases I felt very much at ease in making the

interviewees receptive, supportive, and involved. My previous background as a journalist

served me more than I expected.15 While doing the interviews, I was observing all issues

around the FFDW situations, mainly how they looked, how they were addressed, where

they sat, how they were dressed, and so on. I would not write my observations directly,

unless I was in the process of recording the interview itself. I tried not to give the

impression of someone who was observing. All my concentration was on the interview

and the questionnaire. When I got into the car to leave, or later at home, I would write my

own observations about each case on the back of the interview sheet.

3- Critical moments

Not all the interviews were smooth, peaceful, or successful. Two were

particularly problematic: I was humiliated and cursed in one episode, and kicked out and

almost beaten in the second. Both cases happened in the welfare neighborhood where

people’s socio-economic backgrounds and levels of frustration were very clear in the way

they dealt with each other and, at times, with me. For the most part, I was treated warmly,

15 During my ten years of work as a journalist in Lebanon, I worked for four years in a woman's magazine and was in charge of the main interview, a background that put me in contact with many female personalities, and gave me an ease of social interaction, even in a place that was culturally different than Lebanon. Another journalistic skill that served while administrating the interview was the ability to write while interviewing. In fact, I was directly translating and writing in English, unless I did not know the right translation, right away; then I wrote it in Arabic. I was ready to use the tape recorder, but I did not find a need for it.

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even given gifts and food to take home, despite the relative poverty of this district. Also to

my advantage was the fact that the social boundaries with employers were less rigid and

the possibility of interaction with FFDW was higher. In fact, the neighborhood itself is

spatially structured in a way that allows closer communal links. Houses are closer to each

other. More kids, teenagers, and FFDW are often seen in the streets and at doors talking

to each other, and neighbors exchange visits more frequently. Overall, the communal

proximity leads to more social interaction, and sometimes to more conflicts.

The two problems I had were a direct result of this social setting. The first was

in a household that seemed to be suffering from a dysfunctional family structure. The

employer, divorced, in her fifties, very clean and well-groomed, rarely left her room. She

welcomed me warmly. Her housekeeper came in for the interview. She was sweating and

smelled of food.16 In the middle of the interview, the employer’s daughter, a teenager,

came in. She interrupted the interview and aggressively asked her mother what I was

doing there. The visibly embarrassed mother attempted to calm her, but the girl, who

obviously harbored a lot of anger, lashed out cursing. She wasted no time claiming that I,

a Lebanese, had no business interfering in their life, and asked me to leave the house

immediately. I thought for a minute, then said, AI know Emirati girls are extremely polite

and respectful. You are misrepresenting them. I am here because your mother gave me

16 She was cooking in the heat of this weather, around noon, in a kitchen with poor air conditioning.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. permission, and you should at least respect her word.17 To my surprise, she left the room

with a very unhappy face, her mother apologized, and I was able to finish the interview.

The housekeeper complained about them all and the hard work she had to do. She said the

only thing that was keeping her there was the lady of the house, who gave her gifts and

treated her well.

The second was the toughest experience of them all. The setting was also

interesting and peculiar. The employer, originally from India, had been wed to an old UAE

man at a very young age.18 Now she was in her late thirties, spoke Arabic very fluently,

and seemed to be smart and very much in control of her children.19 While interviewing the

employee, also from India, the old man came in. He was a fisherman. In his hand was the

traditional stick that UAE men carry. He asked me angrily who I was and what I was

doing there. I explained calmly and showed him the letter I had. He became more agitated

and asked me to leave immediately. I agreed but tried to set another time with the wife. At

that point he threatened to hit me, and there was nothing left for me to do but leave,

especially since the wife was signaling me to do so before he became even angrier. I was

17 My voice was firm, tough, and confident. As I was speaking, all I had in mind was saving the interview I had already started.

18 Elderly UAE males marrying young Indian women, is another social phenomenon, arising after the oil boom. The worst impacts of this phenomenon is on children. They grow up abandoned by the father, living on welfare, and suffering from tremendous problems, such as drug addiction among others.

19 Her older son was studying engineering in America. Her youngest daughter was a toddler walking around. Her other daughter was studying inside. She seemed determined to improve her life and that of her children. Her hands were full of gold bracelets.

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never able to finish that interview.

C. Data Report

Data collected from the 51 interviews was reported, coded, and analyzed both

quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data are descriptive and can only be

interpreted as part of the FFDW migration story. The qualitative narration is supported by

the FFDW direct stories. The need for this combination was prompted by the approach, as

well as the constructive framework of the study—’’feminization of migration.” This

approach emphasizes the whole. As such, it is normally better served by quantitative than

qualitative research. Yet my thesis also attempts to get a closer look at the particular life

and work experiences of individual FFDW. To do this it is more relevant to resort to

qualitative data. Also, the reality of the FFDW in UAE is so phenomenal that the subject

deserves to be studied from both perspectives. The combined quantitative-qualitative

approach was pursued in order to blend the general in the particular and the particular in

the general in such a way that neither could detract from the meaning or relevance of the

other. Stated differently, a victimized FFDW could be as much a symbol of all FFDW

victims as a happy FFDW could be a symbol of all other satisfied FFDW.

The semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire provided the opportunity for

telling the story of each interviewee (see questionnaire in the annexes). The story is

narrated from the beginning of their decisions to migrate until the time of the interview.

Yet the report fused them in one set and categorized the whole group under a migration

chronological construction of the (4 Cs): (1) the composition of the FFDW; (2) causes of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their migration; (3) conditions of their work in the UAE; and (4) the consequences of the

process of migration. Each of those categories included a set of variables. 1) composition

of the FFDW (nationality, age, education, previous occupation, marital status, number of

children, rural/ urban background, religion, language); 2) causes and concrete cases of

migration to observe the essential reasons behind migration, recruiting process, expenses,

trip, and the adjustment process; 3) conditions of work: salary, regular and irregular

responsibilities, hours of work, quality of work, perception of work, leisure, privacy,

sexual harassment, satisfaction; and 4) the consequences of the micro processes of

migration—the impact on family and household on both sides, i.e., the senders (employee

families) and the receivers (employer families), the projections on the future, and the

perceived impact on the UAE society in general.

This chronological setting served two purposes. First it allowed me to be closer

to the meaning of the FFDW life stories while I interpreted their answers. Secondly, it

kept the work closely linked to the theoretical and previously studied female migrants.20 A

holistic understanding was my aim, in order to ensure more meaning to the interpretation.

The combination of quantitative description with qualitative narratives gave this

interpretive task more dimensions and depth. Through these narratives, I had the

opportunity to see how the FFDW are the individual agencies of the wider structural

creation and to connect their position as they change, and are changed by, the new global

20 Increasingly, more and more theories and approaches of migration are emphasizing the need to study migration as a life process (see chapter one).

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reality of feminized migration.

D. Representativeness of the sample

Despite the limited number of the sample (51 FFDW), it is representative of the

al-Mimzar neighborhoods it was drawn from. In this selection I went into one tenth of the

middle strata households, and one third of the upper strata. I chose houses by going from

door to door. Only in the welfare neighborhood did I use any particular structure by

covering all houses in two parallel streets, which appeared to be the poorest of the

neighborhood. In that way, I made sure I had a frame of reference to compare with the

middle, upper-middle, and upper classes.

In the middle and upper-middle class neighborhood, I would knock on each door.

I interviewed FFDW wherever the door was opened and I was let in. In some houses I

would take more than one FFDW, this choice based again on the field dynamics. In other

words, the actual details were a function of how the employer reacted to my presence and

my research.

Al-Mimzar is a district that is in many respect a miniature of the citizens of

Dubai. It is a home base for the middle and the upper class of Dubai that are

predominately occupied by citizens of the Emirates. Unlike others, this neighborhood is

newer, and has attracted more attention to its conspicuously built houses and villas. The

number of households in al-Mimzar region exceeds 200 households (see table 3.1.1) The

current survey covered 32 of those households in al-Mimzar neighborhood, that is more

than 15 percent, which certainly fulfills the representativeness adequacy for a survey

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In addition, al-Mimzar neighborhood is mostly representative of the new modem

elites in Dubai, who are mostly professionals and direct beneficiaries of the modem

structure of the state, i.e., the last 25 years. Those are usually more modernized,

westernized, and educated than other groups. Presumably they also treat their domestics

much better.

Not all residents of this neighborhood are professionals. A proportion of them are

from merchant families. In those houses in general, I observed that a more hierarchical and

racial treatment was assigned to FFDW. It was easy and clear to see that FFDW in these

households were treated as no more than servants. It is quite telling that those households

used to old forms of slavery treated their maids less humanely and more oppressively.

This sample could be considered even more representative when we look at the

issue of treatment. Here, we see that the sample is more representative of the UAE's in

their treatment of FFDW, than the FFDW in their existence and composition in the UAE.

Issue of representativeness in this study could not be approached from one angle. The 51

FFDW, recounting 51 stories, are actually relating more than their stories. They are

reporting a total reality of this region.

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II. Sample Composition

The purpose of Chapter Three is to introduce the sample population by

describing its ethnic makeup, its religious composition, its age composition, the marital

status of its members, the sizes of their families, their educational background, their

habitat background (urban or rural), their language backgrounds and proficiencies, and

their previous employment experience. Regarding ethnic composition of the FFDW

population in the UAE. Three mentions recent trends and uses the sample population

selected for this study to relate the ethnic composition of the UAE's FFDW population to

the strata to which UAE families employing them belonged, and to the length of time that

the FFDW lasted on a given job before changing employers. The end of this part of

Chapter Three mentions the motivations that these women expressed for choosing to be

domestics in the UAE. The base line data given in this part of the study, which tells who

FFDW in the UAE are as a group, permits greater understanding of other things about

them that this study will analyze, such as why they decided to come to the UAE, how they

got there, and what happened to them after they arrived, in terms of the work they ended

up doing, their relations with their employers, and the positive and negative aspects of

their employment in the UAE as FFDW.

A. Nationality

The sample population selected for this study contained 51 respondents who

came from four major national groups. Specifically, this sample population largely

consisted of Filipinas, Sri Lankans, Indians and Indonesians. The Sri Lankans constitute

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the largest nationality in the sample population, or 37 percent of the whole (see Table 1).

In relation to the large number of Sri Lankan domestics now employed in the UAE,

authors of other studies have, in recent years, observed an increase in the number of Sri

Lankan and Filipinas, who constituted 31 percent of the sample population, who were

coming to the UAE to work as FFDW, and a decrease in the number of Indians arriving

for that purpose. These authors have traced this trend to two factors. The first is change in

the preferences of UAE employers, and the second is change in the laws and regulations

that are applied in the sending countries, in relation to whether they encourage or

discourage the migration of female nationals for employment as domestics. Filipinas

constituted the second largest contingent in the sample population.

UAE employers tend to prefer Filipinas as domestic employees over all other

nationalities except for the more recently-arrived group of Indonesians. This is because the

Filipinas are generally better educated than the FFDW from other nationality groups. UAE

employers also perceive Filipinas as being cleaner in their habits, more reliable, and more

trustworthy with their children. The Sri Lankan employees rank second to the Filipinas in

terms of employer preference. Indians rank at the bottom. (This phenomenon of

preference by UAE employers of FFDW from certain nationality groups over others will

be covered more thoroughly later in the study, with emphasis on the question of just which

characteristics in a domestic employee UAE employers are seeking. This factor will also

be discussed in relation to the history of the development of the domestic worker stratum

in the UAE).

N ...... Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Indian FFDW comprised the third largest group in the sample population, i.e. 22

percent of the whole, or only 11 persons out of 51 persons in all. This low percentage of

the UAE FFDW that Indians comprise is significant, given the fact that India was once the

country that supplied the largest number of domestics to the UAE. This decrease in the

number of Indian FFDW migrating to the UAE has been a trend since the UAE's market

for domestic workers has opened more to FFDW of other nationalities, and is also due to

restrictions imposed by the Indian government.

Indonesians, though increasing in numbers, still comprised the smallest nationality

group in this study. This is because their increase in number as FFDW in the UAE is a

recent development. Indonesian domestics, who represented only 6 percent of the FFDW

sample population in this study, were found to have their own features and characteristics.

Previous Indonesian FFDW had been more inclined to seek employment in Saudi Arabia

than in the UAE, but their shift away from employment in Saudi Arabia may be occurring

as an outgrowth of the increasing incidents of abuse and sexual assault that some

Indonesian FFDW report encountering there. More Indonesian FFDW have also begun to

migrate to the UAE because of UAE citizens' increasing collective demand for a more

skilled group of domestic workers, which is also Muslim, and which is socially

conservative.

Within this study's sample population, there were two women who were not

included in any of the larger nationality classifications. One came from Morocco, and the

other from the Mauritius Islands.

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There were some differences between the data that this sample presented and that

provided in the UAE's National Census of 1985. While in this sample, the Philippines were

represented as the second most significant source of FFDW migrating to the UAE, the

UAE's 1985 National Census revealed that country had actually been the third most

significant source. The difference between this particular sample and the National Census

in this respect stems from the peculiarity of the “Al-Mimzar” region of the UAE, from

which this study's sample population was drawn. This region contains much of the UAE’s

elite, and its people generally belong to the more educated and modernized state of UAE

society.

However, other important trends in nationality representation within the UAE's

female domestic worker population that this study indicates are reflected in an extensive

study that the Ministry of Social .Affairs conducted in the UAE. Like the data provided by

the sample population in this study, that in the National Census and in the report of the

Ministry of Social Affairs reflects that the UAE's FFDW population contains a growing

number of Filipinas, and of Indonesians, along with smaller representations of other

nationalities.

Table 3.2.1 Nationality Of FFDW Within The Sample Population Nationality ______Number ______Percentage Philippines 16 31.4 Sri Lanka 19 37.3 India 11 21.6 Indonesia 3 5.9 Others 2 3.9 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

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Table 3.2.2 Percentage Of Household, By Stratum, Employing FFDW, By Nationality Nationalities Upper ______Medium______Lower Philippines 44.4 38.5 12.5 Sri Lanka 22.2 30.8 56.3 India — 23.1 31.3 Indonesia 33.3 — — Others — 7.7 — Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Table 3.2.2. shows the relationship between the FFDW nationalities and the

strata to which their employer households belonged. One striking feature of this table is

that it shows that all of the Indonesian FFDW in the sample were employed by upper-

stratum families. In reality, however, middle-stratum households also employ Indonesian

domestics, but not as frequently as upper-stratum households do. In gathering the sample

population, I met two Indonesian FFDW who were employed in a middle-stratum district

of Dubai, but they preferred not to participate in the study. I encountered no Indonesian

FFDW who were employed by lower stratum families. Indonesian domestics form a

preferred employee group in the UAE. They are Muslims, and therefore, conform more

readily to the religious and social mores of the UAE than do the Filipinas. They are also

better trained to do housework than are the Indian FFDW or Sri Lankans. This is because

they undergo special training for one to six months before migrating to the UAE as

domestic workers. During this training period they learn specific methods of housekeeping

in the Arab Gulf countries, along with basic communication skills in Arabic. This training

makes them better paid, and therefore more expensive to hire than are FFDW from other

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nationality groups.1 However, this research did not reflect that Indonesian FFDW were

better adjusted than those from the other nationality groups.

Table 3 .2.2. also indicates the low status of Indian FFDW because it shows that

no upper-stratum families employed them, and that a greater percentage of lower-stratum

than middle-stratum families did so. Most Filipinas, who were also valued as domestic

workers, were largely employed by upper or middle-stratum families as well, with upper-

stratum families taking a slight lead in terms of percentage. In fact, Table 3 .2.2. shows that

among members of the sample population employed in upper-stratum households, the

Filipinas comprised the greatest percentage. Because Filipina domestic workers are

considered to better educated and more reliable than Indian ones, employing a Filipina

FFDW is considered a sign of higher status for the employer than is the hiring of an Indian

one. Filipina FFDW, therefore, can get higher pay as domestic workers than can Indians,

and therefore cost more to hire.

FFDW from different nationality groupings also vary in terms of their duration on

the job with a given family, as illustrated in Table 3.2.3.

1 During one of my visits to one of the most prominent agencies in Dubai, I met a modem working woman who complained about her current unreliable Filipina housekeeper. As a replacement, she requested someone who would not go out at all. The agency manager advised her to “get an Indonesian. They are very religious and do not date or get in trouble like Filipinas.”

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Table 3.2.3 Percentage Of FFDW By Nationality Within Each Category Depicting Time

Duration Of Employment With A Specific Household

Nationality/Time 0-6 month 7m-2yrs 30m-4yrs 4yrs-up Philippines 22.2 33.3 30.0 35.7 Sri Lanka 55.6 27.8 50.0 28.6 India 11.1 22.2 20.0 28.6 Indonesia 11.1 11.1 ----- Others 5.6 ------100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Table 3.2.3 confirms a common understanding in UAE society, and especially

among the rising elite, and modernized social groups that the Filipinas make particularly

consistent and reliable housekeepers, since their percentage increased with the length of

each employment time duration category. Also, within the category depicting the longest

time period of employment with a single household, Filipinas represented the highest

percentage.

The percentage of Indian FFDW present within each employment time-duration

category also increased with the length of the time period depicted. This confirms that

Indian FFDW have been working as domestics in the UAE for a longer time than have

FFDW from the other nationality groups. It also lends credence to the general view of

them in the UAE as docile employees. This trend may also indicate that one contract term

is insufficient to provide the Indian FFDW with the finances they need to support children,

and accumulate a dowry for their daughters, and might consequently suggest a tendency

to renew contracts with their employers. Their small percentage within each time

category, however, does, indeed, confirm that their numbers are diminishing in the UAE.

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The Sri Lankans, on the other hand, fluctuate in terms of their representation

within each employment time-duration category. While they constitute fully 55.6 percent

of the FFDW within the 0-6 month category, they make up only 27.8 percent of the seven

months-two years category. However, they again comprise as much as 50 percent of the

21/2 to four years category, but only 28.6 percent of the 4 Vi years or more classification.

This fluctuation makes it difficult to generalize about them. However, they may be more

mobile than the FFDW from other nationality groups, as suggested by their large

representation in 0-6 months category, because there are more of them employed in the

UAE in the first place. This fact may enable them to form a job availability information

network which generally allows Sri Lankan FFDW to change employment situations more

often than other FFDW do. Also, more of the Sri Lankan FFDW than the Indian ones, for

example, tend to be single. This factor, too, would contribute to job mobility.

B. Age Of The FFDW In The Sample

Age is a relevant variable in the analysis of this sample population, but it needs to

be approached with caution as some of the FFDW who claim to be eighteen years of age

or slightly older may in fact be under eighteen years of age. (This was the case with one

FFDW, who this researcher is convinced could not have been older than fifteen.) Hence,

the number of FFDW below eighteen years of age may be higher than that which this

study officially registered.

Nonetheless, data on age provided in Table 3.2.4. confirms that reflected in

previous sample studies (Brochmann). The FFDW respondent in this sample are mostly

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young women between 25 to 34 years old (26 respondents, or 51 percent of the sample

population. The other half of the sample is almost equally divided between respondents

between who were 18 to 24 years of age, and those who were 35 to 44 years old.

Table 3.2.4 Age Of The FFDW In The Sample Age______Number ______Percent Less than 18 yrs 1 2.0 18to24yrs 11 21.6 25 to 34 yrs 26 51.0 35 to 44 yrs 13 25.5 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

C. Marital Status

In this sample population, single women slightly outnumber married women. But

this population would be divided evenly between the two classifications if widowed and

divorced women were subsumed under the “married” classification (see Table 3.2.5). This

representation pattern within the sample population indicates that marital status has not

been a determining factor in an FFDW decision to migrate to the UAE. This is particularly

significant given the fact that the women in this sample come from societies where family

ties are stressed. However, these women frequently not only leave husbands, but also

small children to take advantage of the relatively lucrative employment they can find as

domestic workers in the UAE. As mentioned above, some are accumulating marriage

dowries. Others are trying to support their children and other family members better. Still

other simply want to raise their standards of living and those of their families. These low-

income women from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, India and Indonesia are increasingly

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moving toward employment as domestic workers in the UAE, and outweighing the

counter influences of birth or marriage families. These women have become freer to travel

alone, and more mobile in terms of finding sources of needed income even if it means

traveling abroad and leaving husbands, children and aging relatives behind. One factor is

the lack of opportunity for employment that pays well in their home countries. Another is

the fact that the home countries actually urge these women to seek employment abroad

through a variety of government-sponsored educational programs. It is also a matter of

the growing demand for domestic labor in the UAE. The societies from which these

women come, their traditional opposition to this kind of role for women notwithstanding,

also find ways to accommodate women' participation in the massive international labor

migration trend. This accommodation could stem from the fact that societies like that of

the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia are inexorably part of the global capitalist

system, and it could also stem from more conscious socio-political developments within

these societies.

Table^l^Marital^StatusjOfThe^^ Marital status Number Percent Married 20 39.2 Single 25 49.0 Divorced 3 5.9 Widowed 3 5.9 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

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D. Age And Sex Of Children Of The FFDW In The Sample

Twenty two respondents out of the 51 in inis sample population, or 44 percent,

reported having children. Nineteen of the respondents with children reported that their

children were five years of age or older, in addition, this study did not code the ages of the

children of these FFDW when their mothers first migrated to the UAE from their home

countries. Therefore, the data presented in Table 3.2.7. does not reflect the statistical

relevance of those mothers who leave infants behind in order to find and take up

employment in the UAE. Lack of data on these mothers notwithstanding, this researcher

still encountered many mothers who migrated to the UAE while their children were still

nursing infants. These mothers not only had to cope with physical separation from an

infant, but also with the necessity of premature weaning, and the physical and emotional

impact that such a decision would have on the child.

Table 3.2.6 Number Of Children For The 51 FFDW Interviewed In The Sample Number of children Number Percent 1 to 2 children 11 21.6 3 to 4 9 17.6 5 to 7 2 3.9 No children 29 56.9 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

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Table 3.2.7 Age Of Children Of The FFDW In The Sample Age of the children ______Number ______Percent Less than 2 yrs 1 2.0 2 to 5 yrs 1 2.0 5+ to 10 yrs 7 13.7 10+to 15 yrs 8 15.7 15 yrs and above 4 7.8 No children 29 56.9 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

Most FFDW in the sample with three or more children were from India (7

respondents out of a total of 11). There are three more from Sri Lanka, and only one from

the Philippines. Out of the 7 Indian women with 3 or more children, three were Muslims,

but there were also Buddhists and Christians from other nationality groups in the sample

who were leaving three or more children behind.

E. Religion of the Respondents

Religion was not a determining factor of the other characteristics of the

respondents in this study's sample. Table 3 .2.10 shows that the in terms of religion,

Christians constituted the largest percentage of the sample population, 41 percent.

Muslims comprised 33 percent of the sample population, and Buddhists 25 percent.

However, data on the religious composition of the sample population needs to be

approached with some reservation, as some FFDW who were actually Buddhists claimed

to be Christians in order to gain more ready acceptance in an Islamic society like that of

the UAE.2

2 During one of the interviews she conducted for this study, this researcher encountered

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Table 3.2.8 Religious Background Of The FFDW In The Sample Religion ______Number ______Percent ______Christian 21 41.2 Muslim 17 33.3 Buddhist 13 25.5 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

F. Habitat Background (Rural Or Urban), And Family Background

Nearly half of the sample population (49 percent or 25 respondents), come from

a rural background. The other 51 percent was divided between FFDW who came from

small cities (23.5 percent or 12 respondents), or large cities (27.5 percent or 14

respondents).

Table^lj^JJrbanAndJtiualjiackgro^ U/R Background ______Number ______Percent Big city 14 27.5 Small city 12 23.5 Village 25 49.0 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

Of the 25 respondents who came from village backgrounds, 18, or 35 .5 percent

of the total population came from farming families. Another 12 percent of the sample

population came from families whose breadwinners were unemployed, or from families

whose incomes and social status were extremely low. FFDW from blue collar

an FFDW who claimed to be a Christian. The researcher later found evidence, via another FFDW, that in fact the claimant was a Buddhist, but had been hiding that fact and claiming otherwise.

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backgrounds accounted for another 25 percent of the sample population. Six percent of

the sample population came from families within the relatively well-to-do, white collar or

professional occupation strata. The preponderance of lower income family backgrounds

among members of a sample group of domestic workers is predictable.

Table 3.2.10 Family Background Of The FFDW In The Sample Family background Number Percent Farmer 18 35.3 Small business 9 17.6 White collar j 5.9 Unemployed 6 11.8 Blue collar 13 25.5 Professional 1 2.0 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0 Note: Only one FF D W in the white collar category came from a family background where the breadwinner was a professional, in this case, an engineer. In the other white collar cases, the breadwinners were office workers or clerks.

One study conducted by a UAE municipality concluded that dependence upon

domestic workers from stress-filled, low income family backgrounds for child care was

potentially dangerous for the children involved. However, many interviews with FFDW,

which are described later in this study, show rewarding attachments that FFDW developed

to children that they were caring for.

G. Educational Background Of The FFDW

The educational background composition of this sample population, depicted in

Table 3.2.13, has some surprising distributional characteristics. While this table predictably

shows that the largest percentage, 31.4 percent of the sample population, or 16 persons,

had attained primary education, and that 13 .7 percent, or seven members, were illiterate, it

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also showed that 10 FFDW, or 19.6 percent of the sample, had attained a college degree.

Also, secondary school graduates outnumbered middle school graduates in this sample

population. Specifically, eleven FFDW, cr 21.6 percent of the sample population had

graduated from high school, while only seven persons, or another 13.7 percent of the

sample population, had completed middle school. However, illiterate sample population

members, coupled with those who had only completed primary school, comprised about

45 percent of the sample population. Such a high percentage of members with little or no

education is predictable in a sample population of domestic workers.

Table 3.2. U Educational Background Of The FFDW In The Sample Education of F FDW _____ Number ______Percent Illiterate 7 13.7 Primary education 16 31.4 Middle school 7 13.7 High school 11 21.6 College degree 10 19.6 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

Despite the large percentage of members of this sample population who had

attained little or no education, this group of FFDW was well educated, considering the

low income backgrounds from which most of the respondents came. It is also important to

note that in many cases, the FFDW had attained more education than had their female

employers.

H. Language Background. Knowledge Of English And Arabic

More than 50 percent FFDW in the sample population spoke more than one

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language. This means that they spoke their native languages, and had a moderate to very

good command of Arabic and English. Arabic was the language of the households and

society in which they were living and working. English was important for many functions

outside of the employer's home. The major native languages that members of this sample

population spoke were Tagalog, Singhalese, Urdu, and Hindi. Tagalog speakers

constituted the largest linguistic group, and these accounted for 33.3, or as much as one

third, or the sample population. Speakers of Urdu and other Indian languages accounted

for 29 4 percent of the sample population, and those speaking Sinhalese accounted for

slightly more than one fourth of the sample.

Table 3.2.12 Language Background Of The FFDW InJTheSample^ Language ______Number ______Percent Tagalog 17 33.3 Singhalese 13 25.5 Urdu or other Indian dial. 15 29.4 Other 6 11.8 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

This study did not reflect any relationship between the FFDW native linguistic

backgrounds and their decisions to migrate to the UAE. However, Tables 3.2.15 and

3 .2.16 do show that more than 50 percent of the FFDW had an adequate to proficient

command of both Arabic and English at the time that this research was being conducted.3

J Some of the respondents told this researcher that initially, they had been unable to communicate with their employers at all (Mumtaz). These respondents mentioned that they commonly spent up to 6 month or sometimes a year learning to construct a full sentence in Arabic. Even those who were college educated and fluent in English sometimes found themselves in situations where the employer was illiterate herself, or did

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Concerning the breakdown of proficiency levels for each language, close to 16 percent of

the respondents could adequately communicate in English, and 23 .5 percent could do it

well, and another 13.7 percent could speak and write English proficiently. About forty

three percent of the sample population was able to communicate adequately in Arabic, and

another 31.4 percent was able to do it well.

Rate Number Percent Poor 23 45.1 Medium 8 15.7 Good 12 23.5 V. Good 7 13.7 None I 2.0 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

Table 3.2.14 Knowledge Of Arabic Language By The FFDW In The Sample Rate Number Percent Poor 12 23.5 Medium 22 43.1 Good 16 31.4 None 1 2.0 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

i. Previous Work Experience

Close to 70 percent, or most of the FFDW in the sample, had previous work

experience. Only 29.4 percent, or 15 respondents, had not worked before. Respondents

not speak English. Situations like these made FFDW feel illiterate and isolated in their new environments, and necessitated their acquisition of basic human communication skills.

s . . Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 112

who had worked before were divided between those who worked in the Arab Gulf

countries (19 respondents), and those who worked in their home countries (21

respondents. See Table 3.2.16).4

Table 3.2.15 Previous Work Experience Of The FFDW In The Sample Type of job ______Number ______Percent Housekeeper 22 43.1 Farmer 5 9.8 Clerical job 5 9.8 Social worker & other 3 5.9 None 15 29.4 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

This observation shows that those women were experienced workers at the time

of this research, and that they had demonstrated their willingness to migrate in search of

employment. All of the FFDW who had previously work in the Arabian Gulf states had

been employed as domestics. By contrast, most of the respondents whose previous work

experience had been in their home countries had been employed in a greater variety of

vocations, some of them highly skilled. About forty three percent of this latter group had

worked as housekeepers, ten percent had worked as fanners, nine percent in clerical

positions, and only 8 percent of in professional capacities. Despite the limited number of

professionals, employment as a domestic generally meant downward mobility for members

of this group, both vocationally and socially. Many lost established social status at home

and attained very low social status in the UAE once they accepted domestic employment

4 Five of the respondents who had previously worked in their home countries had also previously worked in the Arab Gulf states.

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there.

Table 3.2.16 Previous Work Place Of The FFDW In The Sample Place Number Percent Saudi Arabia 5 9.8 Kuwait 2 3.9 UAE 6 11.8 Other Gulf states 1 2.0 Other Arab states 1 2.0 Home country 16 31.4 More than one* 5 9.8 None 15 29.4 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0 ♦Five of the respondents who had previously worked in their home countries had also previously w orked in the Arab Gulf states.

When asked why they had accepted domestic employment over their previous

work, the women who had been employed in other occupations in their home countries,

including professional ones, all labeled the pay as the major reason. The salaries and wages

they had been earning in their home countries, doing other work, were simply too low,

and the cost of living there too high. Domestic employment in the UAE offered free

accommodations, higher pay, and therefore, the opportunity to save.

The FFDW who had already been working as domestics in the Arabian Gulf, but

had moved to new employment situations there neither obtained nor sought pay raises, an

improvement in their social status, or more highly skilled position on the work scale by

moving to another housekeeping job. Basically, they changed employment situations in

order to obtain better treatment, or to be closer to a relative or friend.

s. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER FOUR

CAUSES AND CONCRETE CASES OF MIGRATION

INTRODUCTION

This chapter covers the migration stories of the 51 FFDW included in the sample.

The discussion begins with their decision to migrate, and ends with their life projections

and future plans. Coverage includes their journey to the UAE, the adjustment process, and

the work conditions they faced. The narratives of these FFDW will both be analyzed

quantitatively and treated as individual experiences, related in the words of the FFDW

themselves, and according to their own perceptions.

Why did the FFDW migrate to UAE? How did they arrive at this decision? Was

this decision theirs alone, or were the needs and desires of others also involved? What

were the main factors that contributed to this decision? What made these women leave

children, infants, family and a whole society behind? Why did these women, who came

from various countries, religious backgrounds, marital situations, and even educational

backgrounds choose to work as domestics? What made them accept social alienation,

individual isolation, and the low cultural status generally accompanying a domestic

worker's position? What made them tolerate various types of abuse, including sexual and

physical? What made them endure long working hours, and no days off? Was it mainly the

114

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pay, or have other factors influenced the recent trend of migration to the UAE among

female workers?

I. DECISION INITIATION/ REASONS TO MIGRATE

Before dealing with the major reasons that led the FFDW to migrate to the UAE,

this chapter will address the process that led to this decision itself, in terms of who made

it, i.e.. the FFDW themselves or the family unit. Analysis of the decision process is

relevant to the theoretical and conceptual part in this thesis. It specifically facilitates an

understanding of the factors that helped to bring the decision to migrate about, and

permits differentiation between the sociopolitical factors that led to this migration, and the

individual will and desire of the migrant herself.

A. Decision Initiation

Data about the FFDW in this study's sample reflects that individual will was a

strong factor in their decision to migrate to the UAE. While this individual will was driven

by different forces according to the ethnicity and nationality of the sample members, this

individual will factor generally emerged as strong among them. For example, 92 percent of

the FFDW in the sample responded that they had arrived at the decision to migrate to the

UAE themselves. By contrast, only four FFDW stated that their parents or husbands had

forced the migration decision upon them. In fact, forty nine percent of the respondents

stated that they had to struggle with their families about their decisions to migrate.

However, the other 43 percent responded that their families had finally come to support

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their decisions at the time of their departure from their home countries (Table 4.1.1).

Table 4.1.1 Decision Initiation Of Migration Trip Of The FFDW In The Sample Decision initiators] ______Number ______Percent Herself 25 49.0 Herself with family 22 43.1 Only family 4 7.8 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

The data presented above about the FFDW in this sample refleas that the

decision to migrate to the UAE was a difficult one for most of them. Yet their

determination to make this move was strong even though it put their lives, marriages, and

families in jeopardy. As an example, a married women from Sri Lanka said, “My husband

did not want me to leave. I had to take my risks. 1 did the paper work, and got the

passport without consulting with him. When he knew right before my departure, he almost

divorced me, but he did not, and now he is happy I am sending him money. I succeeded.”

The first FFDW who worked for me, was from India, and had to go through a

real struggle to be allowed to leave. She had to threaten her family, and especially her very

Islamic father, that she would kill herself if they tried to stop her from going to Dubai. For

her father it was shameful for an Islamic girl to work outside the house. Yet, as she says, it

was not shameful for them to marry her very young. She had a very sad life. But she had

to stand up for herself. Her threat to them was very serious, and they took it seriously,

too, because she had attempted suicide many times before.

These examples highlight the seriousness of these women, along with their

intense frustration, and their determination to migrate. They were clearly willing to violate

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norms, social rules, and family structures. They also changed both their own lives and the

lives of those around them. These changes however, were not solely the result of the

respondents' own individual will. There were other forces at work, including social and

economic ones, which contributed to these changes and which even empowered those

women to face frustrating realities once they settled in the UAE. The following part will

address the economic and social forces led the FFDW to migrate to the UAE.

B. Reasons To Migrate

This section will cover the specific reasons that led those women to migrate, and

to become FFDW in a new, and frequently unpleasant, working environment, in order to

improve their lives, and those of their families. Economic factors were the most obvious

reasons for this decision, as the explanations of the respondents themselves indicate. The

questions posed to the respondents dealt with the economic factors, the personal factors,

the social factors and the family factors that led to the migration decision. Each of these

factors got a different, assigned degree of importance as a contributor to the migration

decision among the respondents according to their ethnic or national differences, and also

according to their levels of education and their ability to communicate well either in

English or Arabic, the two languages in which the interviews were conducted.

C. Ethnic Background And Its Impact On The Causes Of Migration

Nationality or ethnic background was a distinctive factor in terms of the causes

perceived by the FFDW as factor of migration. Filipina respondents, for instance, were

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more aware of, and tended to emphasize both the economic and non-economic reasons

like intellectual self-improvement contributing to their decisions to migrate to the UAE.

Table 4.1.3 shows the number of Filipina FFDW is the highest when personal factors are

introduced to other socio-economics. India on the contrary comes first when family

reasons are introduced. Sri Lanka is consistently between the two. Also when individual

FFDW speak, their perception of the causes differs according to their ethnicity (see tables

4.1.2 and 4.1.5 below). A Filipina (22 years old, single) said: “I wanted to leave my

parents and be independent.” In this case, a respondent is clearly breaking out of the

boundaries of the traditional social family structure.

Table 4.1.2 Migration Reasons Of Sample FFDW According To Ethnic Background Reasons/ Ethnicity Philippines Sri Lanka______India Indonesia Others Financial & social I 1 Personal & social 1 Fin., personal & family 1 Fin., personal & social 5 4 1 Personal, family & social 1 Financial, family & social 3 6 9 1 All above 7 7 2 Not self initiated 1 Total 16 19 11 3 2

Indian women, by contrast, tended to stress poverty as a reason, and spoke of

their struggle to lift their children and immediate families out of destitution. A twenty-

nine-year old from India said: “Lots of people go to Arab countries, [and] they come back

with money. I thought I would go, my children would get better, we would live a better

life.”

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Another recalled: “I came for money, food, and school for the children. My country is

poor We are poor. My sister left before me, I asked her to help me, find me a job, and she

did”

Sri Lankan respondents took more of a middle position between the former two.

They emphasized the self-enhancement motivation, but in contrast to the Filipina women,

who saw it in terms of individual economic and intellectual self-improvement, the Sri

Lankan respondents emphasized marriage eligibility and dowry accumulation. Buying land

and building a house was the primary motivation propelling married Sri Lankan women to

migrate to the UAE, and was the second most important reason for the single ones.

A thirty-one-year old Sri Lankan, said: “I left Sri Lanka to improve my

opportunity to get married, and build a house. I need around 50.000 Rupees for now, and

then I can go home. Besides all that, I am helping my mother who is very sick, and needs

money for treatment.” Another one noted: “When I first came to Dubai, I was only 18

years old. I had to help my poor family. My father did not have a job, and my brothers and

sisters were still going to school. After 14 years of labor, I need to go back and settle

down, have my own family, and raise my own children. Now 1 have the means and skills to

do it.” A thirty-nine-year old conveyed: “My father is sick. My mother had a stroke, and is

half paralyzed. I had to leave to help them get better medical care.”

Indian and Sri Lankan respondents gave equal importance the motivation of

marrying off a daughter, or sending children to school as reasons for their migration

decisions. “1 am the mother of two girls who need to get married. I work to send them

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money to live a decent life, go to school, and collect their dowry,” said a 39 years old

from Sri Lanka. While another one from India who was thirty years old and said: “The

reasons that brought me out are: money to build a house, send children to school, and

finally marry [off] my daughter.”

Indonesian women earn the higher salaries as domestics in the Emirates than do

their Filipina, Indian, or Sri Lankan counterparts. The Indonesian women are also

exceptional in that they get professional training before they leave their country. Despite

these relative advantages, however, those in the sample showed themselves to be more

religious and less extroverted than their Filipina, Indian or Sri Lankan coworkers.

Regarding the question of what made the aspirations and motivations of the Filipina

domestics different from those of the Indian or Sri Lankan respondents concerning

migration to the UAE, the newly appointed Filipino ambassador to UAE at that time,

herself a woman, herself, said. “It is our history. It is the American impact on the

Philippines in terms of modernizing our institutions, and individualizing our social

structure.”

D. Dialectic Of The Social Versus The Economic Reasons Of FFDW Migration

It is important to note that when respondents who had difficulty articulating their

answers were asked what factors had prompted their decision to migrate to the UAE, they

generally made economic factors their primary motivation. In cases like those, it was

usually necessary to probe, or continue asking about the effect of other factors. But if time

constraints or the setting did not allow this, it was necessary to continue on to other

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questions, hoping still to get a more complete answer. However, in most cases, it was

possible to get the respondents to articulate most of the factors contributing to their

decisions to migrate.

Table 4 1.3 provides a general understanding of the four reasons of financial,

personal, family and social motivations as contributors to the decision to migrate to the

UAE. For example, consider the case of a Sri Lankan married lady, who under normal

economic conditions would not leave her children alone. But her fear of an abusive

husband finally led her to the dramatic decision, as she explained: “My husband was an

alcoholic. He almost killed me and my four children. 1 lived a long life of misery and

abuse. Nothing works with him. Even when I work there, he beats me, and takes all my

money. I was forced to take this tough decision, leave my dear children with my mother,

and find another source of living where he can not get me, or hit me again.”

In fact, it is very important to note in this method of inquiry that the dividing

reasons for migration is clearly non realistic. This type of intellectual divisions serve only

to emphasize one on behalf of marginalizing the other.1 The very integration of the

quantitative along the qualitative approach in this study helps overcoming this type of

methodological shortcoming.

1 A dividing science has been criticized in feminist literature as being elitist and male dominated.

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Table 4.1.3 Reasons For Migration Of The FFDW In The Sample Reasons Number Percent Financial & social 2 3.9 Personal & social 1 2.0 Financial, personal & family 1 2.0 Financial, personal & social 10 19.6 Personal, family & social 1 2.0 Financial, family & social 18 35.3 All four Reasons above 16 31.4 No choice* 1 2.0 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0 Source: All FFDW interviewed in the sample. Sote: * This answer came from the only respondent in the sample who gm>e no reason fo r her decision to migrate other than that she was expelledfrom her home because her father and stepmother did not want her.

1. Dominance of the social factors

Under the social factors we talked basically about the role of networking, friends,

recruiting agencies, and state institution. Family role was specified and coded separately

because it made such a big difference for all of them particularly Indians. It was highly

critical for this type of work to highlight the role of the family, because it is one of the

integrated domain of the dialectic of the self with the social for the FFDW. As a matter of

fact, after these factors were coded and included as contributors to the migration decision,

it was interesting to see the social factors coming at the forefront than the economic,

contrary to the immediate common impression. In fact, 96 percent of the respondents

mentioned social factors as contributors to their migration decision, ninety percent

mentioned economic ones, seventy one percent mentioned family-related factors, and

finally, 56 percent mentioned personal ones.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. One contributor to the importance of social factors in motivating FFDW to

migrate to the UAE has been the role of networking, or contact with friends and previous

migrants, in encouraging first timers to leave. Almost 77 percent of those who mentioned

the social factors said that they migrated because of a previous migrant who convinced

them (Table 4.1.5). FFDW also choose “migrating to Arab countries,” as they refer to it,

as a ready solution when they face troubles, family crises, economic difficulties, or even

personal frustrations, or disenchantment with life. A young Filipina acquainted with

employment recruiters who encouraged her to consider migration to different places in the

world, i.e., Hong Kong, Europe, US etc. said: “I chose the UAE because it was more

affordable, and because I had a friend who had worked in Dubai before.” This case is also

an example of a situation in which social factors played a leading role in prompting the

migration decision.

Another case that primarily reflects social factors and institutions such as the

school system, and the recruiting agencies as motivator for migration of a young college

graduate who was convinced at school that earning money was the road to independence.

However, she concluded that “this goal was not achievable inside my own country.” She

said, “The recruiting agency came to our college. I applied through them to go to Dubai.

The recruiter who came to my college is the president of POEA (Philippines Overseas

Employment Agency). He explained to us how we can improve our life and make more

money through migration. I wanted to help my family. I decided to apply along with my

colleagues.” Her school, as she explained was owned and managed by the government.

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Her statement confirms how the culture of the government and its institutions impacts the

new generation, and creates a movement that consolidates popular support of its policies.

This example also shows how the government uses the social structure to implement its

own policies, and encourages these women to migrate.

Table<4iL5iSocial^easons>ForM i^ation^;s_StatedB^FFDWJnjnieSani£le Types of reasons ______Number ______Percent ______Recruiting Agencies 1 2.0 Friends & Neighbors 39 76.5 Both (agency & friends) 7 13.7 Devastation (war & other) 2 3.9 Not for social reasons 2 3.9 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100 0

Family reasons were also relevant and diverse as causes of migration. Among

those reasons were the need for children that represented 30 percent of all family reasons.

Need for parents was also high, and shows the strong family linkage of FFDW to their

reality. Those who did not migrate for family reasons represented twenty eight percent of

the group (Table 4.1.6)

Table>4;l;6Famil2j*£asons>CitedB^FFDWAsOfTfteirMigrationTrif^ Type of reasons ______Number ______Percent Needs of children 15 29.4 Needs of parents 14 27.5 Absence of husband/support 1 2.0 Children & husband needs 6 11.8 Not for family pressure 14 27.5 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

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2. Role of the economic factor

The dominance of the social factor does not diminish the importance of the

economic. In fact, most of the time they go hand in hand. They are complementary in that

sense. Table 4.1.7 below reveals the actual role that the economic factors play in the

migration of the FFDW in the sample. Almost all 90.2 percent did mention financial stress

as part of their primary reasons to migrate. However, not all financial reasons were alike.

Whereas a Filipina FFDW would migrate for personal economic independence and an

improvement of her financial situation, an Indian FFDW would migrate out of total

poverty and economic devastation.

Table 4.1.7 Ethnic Factors In Relations To Financial Reasons Of FFDW Migration Financial reasons/ethnicity Philippines Sri Lanka India Indonesia Others Total % Total poverty 3 10 11 1 — 25 49.0 Improve economic status 13 5 ~ 2 I 21 41.2 Not for economic reasons — 4 1 5 9.8 Total 16 19 11 3 2 51 100.0

Indeed economic reasons for migration are prominent in general, but not as

powerful for all ethnic background alike. The qualitative data do in fact illustrate the

picture more. A Filipina mother said: “I came to Dubai to improve the standard of my

living, and to give my children a better education. I also wanted to see for myself how this

country and this culture is, after I heard lots of negative things about it.” In comparison an

Indian mother said: *T left because I wanted to send my children to school. All what my

husband gets is $7 a month. That is not enough. Now, I think I need to work for 10 years,

in order to build a house, and marry my daughter [to someone].”

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A teacher from the Philippines projected the economic national crises that drive

most professionals out of the country. “Teachers in my country get very low wages. My

salary as a teacher [at home] was half my salary here as a maid. This is even before they

subtract taxes and social security. Sometimes, our salary in the Philippines got delayed for

4 months.” In sum economic reasons are strongly at play as causes for migration, but they

are not neither the sole, nor the dominant factors of migration. Also they do not affect all

migrants the same.

3. Role of personal factors

Migrating for economic or personal independence is an interesting factor that is

increasingly becoming a serious cause for FFDW to migrate. The particular personal

reasons for migration that were mentioned by the FFDW were mostly related to either self

enhancement, general personal frustration from the situation at the particular place, or a

love-related frustration. Of course, general frustration was cited more than other personal

causes, because it was easier for them to address it than others such as the love-related

ones (Table 4.1.8).

Table 4.1.8 Personal Reasons That Led To The Migration Of The FFDW In The Sample Type of personal causes ______Number ______Percentage _____ General frustration 14 27.5 Self empowerment 11 21.6 Love related frustration 3 5.9 Not for personal reasons 20 39.2 Missing J 5.9 Total 51 100.0

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Personal independence or personal causes were more mentioned by Filipina, Sri

Lankan, and Indonesian, and not by Indians. This does not necessarily mean that Indian

women do not have personal motivations for exploring the world outside the boundaries

of their villages or small cities. On the contrary, and from a personal experience with two

Indian FFDW, I would say that they do, but it is not as vividly expressed in their daily

interaction and consciousness of themselves. The consciousness of the self, and the ability

to express it seems is a factor that grows with the level of individuality-modemity and

education as this sample shows. A Filipina who had formerly been a nurse said: “I wanted

to change the atmosphere of my work place. I want a temporary change of my personal

problems. I also wanted to help my sisters to go to college, and my family to build their

house”

Table 4.1.9 clearly reflects how personal reasons for migration grow higher along

the level of education of FFDW. Also table 4.1.10 indicates how the Philippines and then

Sri Lanka are leading in the figures reflecting the role of the personal as a driving force of

migration. The example of the Filipina mother quoted earlier in the economic factor clearly

confirm this idea. No Indian woman in the sample saw or expressed her personal will to

know or experience another country as a driving force, even though this will was inside

them. Also another young Filipina, 22 years old, said: “I left because I want my

independence. I want to improve myself.

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Table 4.1.9 Personal Reasons O f Migration Controlled By Education Of The FFDW Personal/Education Illiterate Elementary Middle High College General frustration 5 1 4 4 Self enhancement 5 3 4 Love related frustration 1 2 No personal reasons 7 9 1 2 Total 7 14 7 10 10

Personal/Ethnicity Philippines Sri Lanka India Indonesia Others General frustration 5 6 2 1 Self enhancement 6 5 1 Love related frustration 2 1 No personal reasons 2 6 8 2 1 Total 15 18 10 2

Even when general frustration is expressed, Filipina are more articulate in

addressing it, and in talking about the general deterioration of the place, from a personal

point of view. “I left, and we leave because of the state of our country. My beloved

country, the Philippines, is overpopulated. Everywhere there are lots of people drunk and

briskly [sic] walking. Besides air pollution, it seems that the people are awake 24 hours.

Masses of people are suffering from poverty, and the continuous increase of the price of

commodities. In every place there is a massacre, robbery, prostitution, kidnappers,

pickpockets, and corruption. Law makers are law breakers. My beloved country is a hard

place to live in.”

In fact, ethnic background or nationality had a particularly obvious impact in this

small sample group, and showed a relationship to educational level, socialization and

acculturation. For example, Filipina respondents were most heavily affected by the culture

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of capitalism. This means that they made up the most highly individualized, self-motivated,

and self-improvement oriented respondent group. Even though they retained strong ties to

their families, they were more equipped to face an oppressive family apparatus if it

conflicted with their own needs.

Sri Lankan respondents, as mentioned earlier, tended to fall in the middle,

between Indians and Filipinas, in terms of individualization and orientation toward self-

improvement. The reason could be that the Sri Lankan FFDW are still linked as females to

Hindu culture, in which females and their families face tremendous socioeconomic

pressure to accumulate a dowry which will ensure that a daughter is marriageable.

However, Sri Lankan women showed more individualization and orientation toward self

improvement than did Indian women, and this could be related to the fact that Sri Lanka is

a smaller entity than India, and is more open to the culture of capitalism. Another factor to

consider is government policy.

Neither the Filipino, the Sri Lankan, nor the Indian governments place definitive

restrictions on this type of migration, although each claims to do so to some extent. Less

stringent restrictions on out-migration on the part of the Sri Lankan government may

explain why the sample reflected that Sri Lankans out numbered all other nationalities in

the domestic employee category in the UAE. This was true despite the fact that Indian

immigrant workers in general outnumber immigrant workers from all other groups in

Dubai.

Data above displayed the difference in strength of the four factors as contributors

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to these women's decisions to migrate. They show that financial motivations did not affect

all respondents similarly. However, social pressure was stronger than the economic factor

in affecting the migration decision, as the data collected on this sample group shows.

Needs of children and the family in general is a frequently mentioned as a main cause for

migration among all respondents. However, only some reported personal reasons for

migrating to the UAE.

CONCLUSION

These quotations show how the FFDW stated reasons for migrating to the UAE

vary according to nationality. The respondents from the different nationality groups not

only differ in their ability to articulate their perceptions, but also in the degree to which

they reflect possession of a sense of self and a sense of control over their life situations.

Respondents from the different nationality groups also illustrate the different

circumstances that propelled them to migrate from their countries. As shown earlier, the

Indian respondents tended to marry at a younger age and to have children, so most of

them had migrated to the UAE in order to support their children. Sri Lankan respondents

registered a wider range of reasons for their decisions to migrate, some of which were not

family-related. Along with the family-related motivations, the Sri Lankan respondents

were also drawn toward migration for individualistic reasons. Filipina respondents tended

to be the ones who were best equipped to challenge traditional values, despite their high

degree of commitment to their families, and to the well being of the society around them.

\ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 131 II. Recruitment

As a step in the process of migration in search of employment, recruitment is

becoming a phenomenon which, itself, requires direct and individual attention. During the

initial stage of this study, recruitment was only considered a minor part of the migration

process. However, the interviews revealed the importance of the recruitment stage as the

study progressed. It is essential to understand the recruitment stage of the migration

process because of what it shows about the forces that are pushing low-income women

out of their situations back home, and into the global economy, and the international labor

force.

It was the respondents' answers to questions about their decisions to migrate that

reflected the major role recruitment plays as one of the in the phenomenon of female

migration out the poor countries of the South. Recruitment, as the answers of the FFDW

will demonstrate, is not only directed and managed by small private businesses here and

there. Rather, the recruitment of workers from countries of the poor South for external

employment has become a growing world business in its own right. For one thing,

recruitment is a socio-economic phenomenon that generates financial and employment

resources for the sender countries, and this sample refleas that it also involves the state

and its institutions, such as those providing higher education for women. It involves the

mayors of cities and villages, and administrators of towns as well. The importance of the

recruitment step can be seen in the faa that so many recruiters are women who are highly

skilled in communication and social work.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 132 The answers that the 51 FFDW gave in response to this study's survey show that

they are surrounded by recruiters in their home countries. Recruiters can include next-

door neighbors, cousins, siblings, etc. The FFDW themselves have also recruited other

individuals in their home countries for employment abroad, although they do so without

having direct financial interests in the process.

Recruitment is an integral part of the increasing globalization and feminization of

labor migration. It is lays the foundation for the globalization process and collects reaps

benefits from this process. Most importantly, some recruiters are responsible for the

exploitation that the FFDW suffer at different stages of the recruitment process and during

the journey to their external jobs. During the journey from their home countries to their

employment destinations, the FFDW encounter many different instances of exploitation, as

well as theft of possessions, abuse, harassment, harm, mishandling, mistreatment, and

misinformation.

However, respondents' answers also reflect that some recruiters follow

professional standards. Basically, however, the recruitment process is an exploitative one,

in which profits are made through the sale of cheap labor. The limits of this study made it

necessary to examine recruitment within the context of five questions, which were posed

according to importance, and to the accessibility of the individual FFDW. From this data,

facts about three aspects of the process emerged. Those aspects were the means by which

the FFDW entered the UAE; the types of recruiters that brought them there and the roles

they played, and the problems and dynamics of the recruiting process.

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A. Means Of Entry

The quantitative data on recruitment confirms that most FFDW in the sample (63

percent) arrived in the UAE through employment recruiting agencies. The remaining 37

percent traveled to the UAE through the assistance of friends and family members, or even

through the employers themselves (Table 4.2.1). The major difference between these who

came through recruiting agencies and those who came through other means was that

members of the former group had to make an advance payment to the agency amounting

to five months of the salary they were to earn from employment in the host country.

Table_4;2; IjVleansj0fComingBfii_To_DubaiJForThe^ Means ______Number ______Percent Recruiting agency 32 62.7 Friends 8 15.7 Employer 4 7.8 Family members 7 13 .7 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

Those who come to the UAE with the help of friends, family members, and

employers were exempt from such advance payments. Those who were brought over by

employers had their travel expenses paid. FFDW comprising the 37.3 percent of the

sample population who came without the assistance of recruitment agencies usually had

previous employment connections in the UAE, and were better informed about the

employment situation there. Members of this group also tended to adjust more easily to

the new conditions they encountered in the UAE, as the data on adjustment will show.

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The percentage of those who come through friends (16 percent) is close to the percentage

of those who come with the help of family members (14 percent).

Data from the sample revealed a significant relationship between the FFDW

countries of origin and the manner in which they got to the UAE. A cross tabulation of

these two variables reflected that almost all of the Filipina FFDW come to Dubai through

recruiting agencies. However, Indian FFDW were equally divided among all of the above-

mentioned means of entry. With a minor qualification, this was also true of the Sri Lankan

FFDW, although a higher number of Sri Lankans than Indians tended to enter the UAE

through agencies. Indonesians and FFDW from other nationality groups arrived mainly

through recruitment agencies.

This data now poses the questions of why some nationalities tended to have

better connections in the UAE than other did, and why FFDW from a certain notionality

group mainly relied upon a given means of entry, rather than upon others. It could have

been a matter of preference, cost, or coincidence.

Table>4;2;2_Means>OfComingiTo^ubaii>B£The>Countr^OfOrie^^ Nationality Means ______Philippines ______Sri Lanka ______India Indonesia Others Agency 15 9 3 3 2 Friends 5 3 Employer 2 2 Family I 3 3 Total 16 19 11 3 2 Percentage 31.4 37.3 21.6 5.9 3.9

There are three major explanations to this phenomenon of variation of means of

s Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. entry in accordance with nationality among the FFDW in the sample. The first is the time

variable. This means that members of a nationality group that had spent a longer time

period in the host country tended tend to spread itself more among all of the possible

means of arrival. This is borne out by the fact that the Indian FFDW tended to be the most

evenly spread among the possible means of arrival, followed by the Sri Lankans. The

Filipina FFDW tended to come to the UAE by means of recruitment agencies. While it is

true that the Indian nationality represents the group of foreign workers that was recruited

earliest, the recruitment periods for the Filipinos and the Sri Lankan were not far apart.

Thus, the question of why the Filipina FFDW tended to migrate through recruiting

agencies while the Sri Lankans were more inclined to migrate through family members,

friends and other means is probably explained by the factor of individuality and level of

modernization among Filipinos versus Sri Lanka. As has previously been demonstrated,

the Filipina FFDW in Dubai and in this particular sample tended to be more educated,

more modem in their behavior and outlook, and more individually driven than were the

FFDW from the other nationalities represented in the sample. These characteristics of the

Filipina domestics tended to make them more inclination to be independent. They also

enjoy relatively greater freedom of mobility in their own society. This situation partially

explains why Filipina FFDW might be inclined to use recruitment agencies rather than

personal connections to find employment in the UAE, but it is not the whole story.

Another factor plays an important role in the means by which FFDW entered the UAE,

namely the level of development and organization of the recruitment process in the host

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. country, and in the sender country. More newly recruited immigrant labor groups, such as

the Indonesians, had not yet developed connections within the UAE. Therefore, they

tended to rely upon recruitment agencies in their own countries, in the absence of friends

and family members who had preceded them in employment abroad. Also, recruitment

agencies in Indonesia are apparently subject to state regulations, such as that Indonesian

FFDW gone through a sophisticated training program before beginning work abroad.

In addition to covering the means by which FFDW arrive in the UAE for employment,

and dynamics behind the use of these means of arrival, as part of its examination of the

recruitment process as a whole, this study also focused upon the recruiters themselves.

Specifically, this study posed the question of who these recruiters were, and how they

related to FFDW.

B. Types Of Recruiters And Their Roles

Recruiters serve as the middleman between employers and employees. They

operate through agencies that exist both within the sender countries and the host

countries. Again, it was the interviews with the FFDW in this sample, and especially with

the Filipinas, that revealed that the recruiters were more than mere small business people

making profits from the sale of cheap labor, and underscored the importance of devoting

some attention to their identity. However, the data compiled in this study is insufficient to

do more than raise questions on this topic. This aspect of the migratory labor issue

remains a sparsely covered one in the literature that is currently available. Information and

analysis of the recruiters and their roles is particularly scarce in relation to female

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immigrant labor.

Nonetheless, the presence of four types of recruiter emerged from the work done

on this study, namely state officials, neighbors of prospective employees, family members,

and house-to-house recruiters.

1 -Recruiters as state officials

Three out of fifteen Filipinas who came through agencies of recruitment talked

about having been recruited, persuaded, or brainwashed into seeking employment abroad

during the school year. These FFDW talked about being influenced by school officials,

recruiters who came to their schools, and by schoolmates. The most interesting of the

responses, reflecting the direct involvement of the state and its institutions in pushing

females into seeking employment outside of their home country is the following: “The

recruiter came to our college with the mayor of the city. We go to a government school.

The mayor is also a director of the school. The four schools, Midwifery, Agriculture,

Nursing Assistance, and Secretarial, were joined together in the big auditorium. The

mayor lectured us. I could still picture him talking about the importance of traveling

abroad, the importance of meeting other people. He said that being away from the family,

making money on our own is our way to reach our individual independence. He convinced

us that working outside our own country, and away from the family is good and beneficial

for us to build our strong personalities as women. After he finished the lecture we were

asked to fill forms, and who ever is interested in the process, to pay 9,000 pesos, as only

an application fee to process the papers. Some of us did not have the money on the spot,

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[so] we borrowed from each other.. . .” The recruiter who provided the application forms

was the President of the POEA, which stands for Philippines Overseas Employment

Agency (#2).

2- Recruiters as neighbors

The narrative of another respondent from the Philippines covers this situation:

“Our next door neighbor is a recruiter herself.” “She told me the Gulf countries were the

least expensive. My recruiter convinced me that Dubai is the most European in its life style

in comparison to all the others. At least, she said, I could wear my regular cloth, and go

out in the street, if I want to” (#1).

3- Recruiters as family members

In this example, two Filipina FFDW speak of relatives who were their recruiters.

In both cases, the recruiter was a close relative who worked for an agency. The first said,

“My cousin is a recruiter; she works for a bigger agency in the city. She did everything for

me; she is the one to encourage me to choose Dubai as a work place” (#12). The second

said: “I did not have any problem with recruiting agencies like others because of my uncle

work for an agency and did it all for me” (#11).

4- House to house recruiters

The last example covers female recruiters who have gained skill and knowledge

in the recruitment field and were confident enough to establish their own recruitment

businesses. They knock on doors, and use their female passports to make contact with

X Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. prospective employees and convince them to take risks to improve their lives. The FFDW

did not have to go anywhere, or make any effort to get offers for domestic employment

abroad. The following is the narrative of a Sri Lankan domestic who said, “My recruiter

use to work in Dubai for a recruiting agency. She came back to Sri Lanka, and started her

own business. She does not have an office for herself. She goes knocking on doors, from

house to house. She is more trusted than agencies, because we all know her very well”

(#50).

These observations of the FFDW quoted above highlight certain points about the

recruitment process. First, the industry for the recruitment of immigrant domestics for

employment in the UAE is growing in size and scope. It is reaching not only a larger

number of female migrants for domestic work, but is also developing a sizable network of

recruitment agencies in the sending country, as well as skilled and dedicated free lance

recruiters who are not only integrated into the sending country's society, but are also

highly effective. These free-lance recruiters are also able to penetrate such private areas as

female-occupied household space to recruit cheap female labor.

However, the final and most important part of the recruitment process is official,

institutional, and state involvement in it. The structurally patriarchal state in the South as

shown in the previous examples is actively involved in encouraging the recruitment

process. Secondly, it participates in this process structurally, and thirdly, it benefits

economically from the comparatively cheap labor on the world scale that female migrant

domestics comprise. Needless to say, this rapid increase in scope, and size, of a social

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phenomenon like the migration for domestic employment of the poorest women in a given

society is accompanied by problems that they encounter, such as maltreatment,

malpractice, lies, theft, abuse, and the countless forms of exploitation that those female

migrants face throughout the recruitment process.

C. Problems And Dynamics Of Recruitment Agencies

The primary driving force behind the activities of recruitment agencies is the

quest for financial profit. None of these agencies operate on a humanitarian basis.

Likewise, none of them take the interests, and or rights of the FFDW into account in their

business practices. Some agencies are more professional in their practices than others,

however. The relative professionalism of some recruitment agencies, though, is no

guarantor of the FFDW who are recruited. Recruitment agencies which improve their

recruitment practices only do so in order to sustain their businesses on one hand, and to

maintain their market share on the other. Since an escalating number of recruitment

problems would tend to raise FFDW consciousness about their exploitation and frequent

mistreatment, a relative increase in professionalism in the practices of recruitment agencies

is only an attempt to counteract the growing awareness of these problems among FFDW.

It is important to point out here that some of the problems that the FFDW in this

sample reported are interconnected with the structural development of the society itself,

and especially with the dominance of patriarchal culture, along with the economic

marginalization of women's work, and the sexual and physical exploitation of women. It is

also important to mention that the problems reported by the FFDW in the sample also

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differed along the various nationality groups. There were fewer complaints among the

Filipina FFDW, for example, about agencies which took without providing job

recruitment. However, FFDW from this grouping did complain more frequently about

agencies that lied to them about their employment, delayed provision of services, and

misinformed them about the nature of their job or about the wages. Indians registered very

few complaints in general because they did not even have the luxury of asking before hand

about the nature of the job, or the identity of the employer. What Indian domestics say

about their recruiting agencies is that they teach them how to obey the employer, to be

good, not to steal money etc. Indians FFDW generally tend to believe that if they are good

employees, the employer will treat them fairly. In this sample, therefore, the Indian FFDW

reflected the greatest docility. “If we are good every thing will work for us. We have to be

patient” said an Indian FFDW (#14). Sri Lankan FFDW reflected docility somewhat less,

despite the fact that they were not particularly sophisticated about their rights and

expectations. *T do not stop thinking about my life, my children, all the changes... But I

also always listen to my employer, whatever she asks for I do. I veil... But I hold myself

strong. Now I feel stronger. ” (#50).

In terms of quantitative data on the problems with recruitment agencies that

FFDW in the sample reported, 20 percent of the sample group members recalled having

directly faced problems themselves. Another 10 percent responded that friends of theirs

had faced problems. Five of the 16 Filipinas in the sample confirmed having problems

themselves. Another two said reported that friends of theirs had faced problems. As an

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example, one Filipina FFDW reported that, “the agency sent me the first time to work in

Dubai on a visitor’s visa. I could not stay. They sent me again to Syria. Then I insisted on

coming back to Dubai. As a result ii took me three households, and a period of six months

to really settle down in a job” (#3).

Table^Ij^ProblemsJVith^AgenciesOfRecmitn^ Type of problems ______Number ______Percent Faced herself 10 19.6 Heard from others 5 9.8 Did not report any 36 70.6 Missing 0 0 Total 51 100.0

Another Filipina respondent said that the agency also lied to her, but this time the

lie concerned the description of the job, the pay, and the recruitment fees. The recruitment

agency also took $1,000, and an extra $400 to $500, because the recruiters had convinced

this respondent that she was going to work as a tutor, and would be paid Dhs 800 per

month, or about $210, as her salary (#18). In reality, she discovered that she was only

being employed as housekeeper, and that her job included all the housework in addition to

teaching the children at night, as well as driving them to school for a salary of Dhs 500, or

$130, per month. Filipina domestics in Dubai also reported that the recruitment agencies

lied to them in relation to the recruitment paper work. “They lied to me,” said one,

continuing, “They said my paper [work] will finish in one month, [but] it took them more

than six months. Then they said I will be getting Dhs 600. But actually, I discovered my

salary to be only Dhs 550” (#34).

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The Indian FFDW, by contrast, did not report many problems with recruitment

agencies. This, however, is not because they were treated better. Rather, it has to do with

the relatively small number of Indian domestics in the sample that came to Dubai through

agencies. However, the problems that they did report were even more tragic. Said one,

“Agent kept lying to me. He first took my money and never got me any visa. He just

disappeared. The second told me my visa would take 15 days only. I borrowed money

with high interest and gave [it to] him. He took six months, and sent me to Qatar instead

of Dubai. I had to spend six months in Qatar [and] then went back to India. He then

charged me again but this time he got me a visa to Dubai” (#40).

The Sri Lankan domestics also reported problems with the recruitment agencies.

Some of these problems were similar to those of the Filipina and Indian FFDW, but others

were different. These last included difficulties of routing and long distance, abrupt

recruitment, and worries about being kidnapped, raped, or sold into prostitution. The first

respondent who referred to the issue of long distance problems was a farmer who had to

spend more than three hours on a bus to reach to the first recruitment agency. Once in the

city, she had to wait for another day in order to take the bus back to her village. She

reported that, “Every time I have to visit the agency I have to spend two days on the road.

On top of that they took six months to process my paper. I had to spend time, money, and

[take] long trips to get my visa, and my ticket ready to go”(#7).

A second respondent spoke of a different problem which did not arise until she

was actually on the plane. Her problem was abrupt recruitment, such that in 24 hours, she

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had been able to apply and process her paper, get her visa, and get on the plane. She

reported that, “I could not believe [it] myself when the agent called me the following day.

I was on my way to work. I had to leave right away. The employer needed me quickly,

and desperately. I was excited to hear the news. I left without even saying good buy to all

my friends and family. Once on the plane. I realized what happened to me. Now I can not

change any thing. 1 have to wait two full years or may be more until they allow me to

leave” (#13).

A third respondent described a tragic incident which commonly happens to

women living in the villages of Sri Lanka and India. This particular respondent was from

Sri Lanka, and she spoke very intensely. “I came through an agency that we knew very

well. Every thing went fine. But I was very scared. I know that lots of agents are

murderers. They take money from the woman, but instead of sending her to work, they

sell her to prostitution, and then she dies. This happened to a woman we knew before. I

was so scared” (#20).’

The final set of problems that respondents mentioned fall under the physical and

sexual abuse categories. These are problems that FFDW face throughout the recruitment

'Worry about being kidnapped and sold into prostitution is an issue that this researcher encountered from the narrative of the Indian housekeeper who is currently employed by her family. This employee frequently mentions how her family escorted her to the large city of Madras, where she got lost. She reports that “Big cities, especially Bombay, are a nightmare for us. If we get lost, they would steal us and sell us into prostitution, and “Red Lights” markets, exactly like the movie Salam Bombay.” Salam Bombay is a documentary filmed in 1988-89, about prostitution and child abuse in Bombay that this researcher has watched with her employee at home on video.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 145

process. However, FFDW are frequently afraid to discuss these problems. The two cases

reported in this study are not from the narratives of mainstream FFDW in the sample.

Each case had certain peculiarities. The first was my interpreter, who enjoyed the freedom

of movement to come and visit. The other one worked with a family that I knew, so we

both enjoyed greater freedom, and a familiar environment in which to communicate.

The first was aware of most problems that FFDW faced. However, the incident

that she mentioned had not been reported by any one else before. She related that

"Agencies treat us as objects. All what they want is to secure their money. They give us

injections before we leave our country so we do not get pregnant. The validity of this

injection lasts for three months, the exact time they are held accountable for it before the

employer. We get these injections, so if we get raped on the road, nothing would show,

and the agent would not be held responsible before the employer. However, if the

employer is bad, and we call the agency, they seldom listen to us” (#8).

The latter respondent, a college graduate from the Philippines,2 confirmed what

the former respondent said, and revealed how FFDW as human commodities faced the

danger of sexual assault and abuse during the trip and could consequently be rendered

unfit for work. She related “We were six of us, all in the car in Dubai, on the way to the

recruiting agency office. The agent was driving. He suddenly asked one of us if we have

application paper. She said no. He took his gun out and shouted,' answer my question

2She was very shy secretive about it, and asked me to promise I wouldn't tell her boss. I did however convince her that speaking about these issues openly is for their own good, and writing about it would help their cause on the long run.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. now'. We were very scared. Later, he changed his voice tone. He wanted us to forget [this

incident]. That was hard. In the office, he screamed, You cannot all sleep here'. We

wanted to stick to each other. He then grabbed one of us [and took her] to the next room.

When she came back she said [that] he hugged her and kissed her. He wanted to take her

with him. Then she pointed to me and said she wanted me to go. I was crying and

shivering, ‘Why me?!’” During the interview, this respondent was talking and shivering as

if she were still in that same moment. She went on, “On the road I was praying to God to

save me. In the hotel, he took the girl in the room trying to force her to have sex [with

him]. She refused. He hugged her, and kissed her. She threatened him. She had

experience. Then he left us, and went into another room. We slept in peace. The second

day, he took us to the office. We were separated. I came to my employer, and since then

we did not see each other” (#17).

This section of the study has shown some of the tragedies and problems that

FFDW encounter in the recruitment process. But this is only one section of their

narratives. FFDW, who embark on their journeys in order to improve their lives and the

lives of their families, pay an exorbitant price, which is frequently greater than the benefits

they reap. Nor is this price always clear and obvious to them before they embark on the

journey, as this section has shown, and as subsequent sections about the journey, itself,

will likewise demonstrate.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 147 III. The Joumev: Conditions. Expenses. And Means Of Payment

Migrant labor to the Arab Gulf states, and particularly to Dubai, has its own

particular characteristics. Any person landing at Dubai airport can see the peculiarities of

migrant labor coming to Dubai. Waves of Asian workers come out of airplanes and line up

in front of the immigration desks. As soon as any traveler to or through Dubai enters the

airport, he or she would be struck by abnormally large contingent of foreign labor in

Dubai’s social fabric.

One sight that one would commonly see is benches, and waiting seats filled with

female Asian domestics sitting around. Few people are aware that these women commonly

wait at the airport for hours, and even days, without food, money, or even change to call

the agency or the prospective employers. Until this researcher spoke to these domestics

personally and heard their stories firsthand, she could not imagine the situations that these

women had encountered during the modem era of migration.

This section of the study continued with the narratives of the FFDW in the

sample. It relates the experiences of the FFDW in the sample during their journeys to

Dubai. It reveals their expectations concerning that first-time journey, constituting the

greatest challenge of their lives, and probably the first rupture of the umbilical cord linking

them with their home societies. These stories that these FFDW tell are not typical, and are

not accounted for, in literature about labor migration. The theoretical tradition of this

literature is that of the economic approach, stressing the push and pull factors prompting

labor migration. Consequently, discourse on migration has become unilinear in its scope

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and in its understanding of the process the modem labor migration phenomenon. By

contrast, and in keeping with its theoretical framework, this study treats labor migration as

a human life process that occurs in relation to multidimensional forces and is affected by

the nature of a multitude of components. The journey of the migratory workers itself is

one of the components affecting the lives of the migrant female domestics who find work

in Dubai, and hence, this journey and its dynamics require their own examination and

understanding.

The subject of the journey is treated with emphasis on three of its aspects in this

section: the psychological atmosphere; the material cost and expenses of the journey; and

the affordability and means of payment for it.

A. Conditions Of The Journey

Two aspects of the journey are covered in this part. The first is the psychological

status of the FFDW when they embark on the trip, and the second is the situation that they

encounter at Dubai airport once they arrive. First, when those FFDW begin their journey,

they will be going to a totally strange country, living in the intimacy of a foreign

household, forced to communicate in a totally alien language, and most probably forced to

do work or live under conditions to which they are unused and which they dislike.

1- Psychological status of the FFDW in the sample during their migration journeys

None of the FFDW in the sample reported being at ease with the prospect of this

adventure. Half of them were frightened, and the other half were excited and worried. It

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was not easy for them to explain these feelings. However, their worries were

overwhelming. Part of the problem was that they did not have accurate information about

Dubai, the working conditions awaiting them, UAE society, or even the life style in Dubai.

The most reliable information they usually obtained was based on their friends’ or

neighbors’ experiences. “My friend who worked in Dubai before told me “UAE is a good

country, and Dubai is an open city” (#33). These were the experiences of a few

individuals, which bore the possibility of being atypical. While FFDW who are educated

and read newspapers and magazines did obtain more precise information about Dubai, all

of the FFDW in the sample lacked information about their future employers that they

should have gotten from the recruitment agencies.

Most of the anxieties that the FFDW reported concerned the unknown pan of the

trip, the unfamiliar, and the unexpected. Those who were more familiar with what to

expea on the journey, or who were not making it for the first time were less worried and

better equipped to deal with the adventure than the less informed or experienced FFDW

An FFDW from the Philippines describe her feelings about the first time she made

the migratory journey on the plane: “The first time I rode a plane. I was very scared. I did

not know how to go to the bathroom, I did not even have the courage to ask”(#3). Three

other Indian FFDW expressed their worries in different ways. The first recounted: “I was

scared. I did know the language. I did not know anything. I was very scared” (#5). The

second said: “I was very scared. But then I told myself if I want a better life I should not

be scared, and if I think I am strong I become strong” (#40). The third related, “When I

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. got my visa to Dubai, I got very scared. I regretted applying. I almost changed my mind.

But the conditions around me kept pushing me” (#24).

These quotations demonstrate the feelings of the FFDW upon embarking upon

their journeys. However, it was once they reached Dubai that the serious struggle began.

First, they did not generally feel welcome, and nor were they among the best treated

passengers. Their enormous number and the daily problems the immigration office

encountered while dealing with them made their status at Dubai airport vulnerable. In

addition, the unreliability of the recruitment agencies in presenting the FFDW immigration

papers to the airport on time, and their unpredictability in following the flight direction and

in timing put the FFDW in a precarious, uncomfortable and difficult positions.

2- Conditions at Dubai Airport

A total of 28 percent of the sample population members, or 14 FFDW out of a

total of 51 reported encountering serious problems at Dubai airport. Some described

unpleasant experiences, but others actually related harmful ones. Ten percent of the

respondents had to wait and suffer at Dubai airport for up to five hours. Another fourteen

percent reported that they had to wait for up to twelve hours. The last four percent

actually waited and suffered at the airport for up to twenty four hours. The following are

some quotations from the FFDW that recount their difficulties at the airport.

An FFDW from the Philippines said, ‘T was first sent to Hong Kong. I waited 12

hours. Then I was transferred on another plane to Bangkok, then to Bombay, where I

stayed another 12 hours. The trip itself was difficult. Yet when I arrived at Dubai airport, I

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had to wait another 12 hours for the agent to come and pick me up. I was with four other

friends, [and] we did not have any money to eat. Another Filipina at the airport gave us

money. We bought bread and coffee to survive the hunger and fatigue” (# 2).

A Moslem FFDW from Morocco said, “It was Ramadan [and] we were fasting.

In Saudi Arabia they rejected our papers, [and] we had to wait for a long time until we

arrived at Dubai. At Dubai airport we had to wait for another day. We stayed without any

food for more than 24 hours. The police finally gave us some food, until the agent

adjusted our papers. For 24 hours we were waiting not knowing what our fate would be”

(#9).

A Filipina FFDW recalled: “I spent the whole day and night sitting on a chair at

the airport because my Madame did not pick me up. I was hungry. I did not have money

to buy any thing. I do not know how I survived the night!” (#31). Another respondent

from Indonesia recounted, “I was cold and hungry. I did not know what to do. I was

crying for hours” (#32).

A young FFDW from Sri Lanka kept repeating the word “scared” in her

response. “When we first arrived, I was scared to see women in abaa. I waited a whole

day at the airport. I was scared. I was waiting from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM. No food. No

sponsor. It was very scary.” (#45).

However, not all FFDW experiences at Dubai airport or during the journey were

sad or negative. As the data on the psychological status reflected, some of them were

happy to take up the challenge of the unknown trip. Also, some of the data on the arrival

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at Dubai airport reveals happy experiences. The FFDW who had fewer problems were

mainly those who had came to Dubai through relatives or directly through the employer

directly. But those who came directly through the employer were not always lucky, either,

because the employer sometimes forget to pick receive them at the airport.

The group of FFDW which was generally the luckiest was that composed of

domestic workers who had come with the help of relatives and friends. The relatives of

these FFDW followed through with the immigration paperwork very meticulously, and got

them out of the airport with the least trouble. As one FFDW from Sri Lanka with this

advantage related, “I did not have to wait at the airport. My visa was ready. My brother,

cousin, and brother in law were waiting for me. They took me to Mama’s house (her

employer)” (#27).

Despite this wide variety of conditions that FFDW encountered during the

migration journey, there was one characteristic that all of them shared, namely, the high

price that they all paid to embark upon it. This journey was always expensive, even though

not all of the FFDW had to pay for passage in advance. How much the trip cost? Were all

of the FFDW able to afford the price? How did they all manage to handle the expenses?

This is what the next issue that this section will address.

B. Expenses Of The Journey

There were two kinds of expenses relating to the migration journey. The

expenses were payments due the recruiting agency, and expenses that did not pertain to

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the recruiting agency. The difference between the two sets of expenses was enormous.

Those who had to pay expenses due recruitment agencies were saddled with a financial

burden that they had risked before even embarking on the journey. FFDW who did not

have to pay expenses accruing from dealing with recruitment agencies had usually come to

Dubai directly through an employer. The following subsection contrasts expenses that

FFDW had to pay to recruitment agencies with those that did not pertain to these

agencies, and also covers conditions on and consequences to, the FFDW that came from

both kinds of financial obligation in terms of the migration process that FFDW go through.

1- Expenses unrelated to recruitment agencies

Only those who did not come to UAE through an agent did not have to pay full

recruiting fees. This was true of thirty nine percent of the sample members, or 20 FFDW.

However, those who had not been brought to the UAE by recruitment agencies had to

find employers while they were still in their home countries. They accomplished this

through the help of friends and/or family members who were already employed in the

UAE as FFDW. These “alternative recruiters” were usually FFDW who are already well

adjusted to life and work in the UAE, and who had relatively strong social connections

there.1 They were also better equipped to find good employers who are looking for

'Alternative recruiters, as they are termed in this study, were FFDW who had been exposed to the high demand side of domestic labor in the UAE. By the mere reality of their work place, they were in a position to provide information on the UAE labor force, and about the employment situation to prospective employers and employees alike. They had become insiders from either vantage point. This double advantage placed them in a peculiar position of power that some of them use very efficiently. FFDW in this position

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domestics, and who are also willing to provide them with a visa and an airline ticket to

Dubai. Aside from sparing her financial obligations to a recruitment agency, obtaining

employment with the hired with the help of a FFDW who had already developed the

required connections made it more likely that an FFDW would find a better employer.2 In

addition, the fees they paid were minimal in comparison to those charged to FFDW who

came to the UAE via recruitment agencies. However, FFDW who had been hired with the

help of “insider” FFDW still complained about general expenses, because they were very

poor, and travel to the UAE was expensive enough to oblige them to borrow money to

pay for it.

These FFDW could have saved a large percentage of their expenses regarding

travel to Dubai for employment had the recruitment system in their home countries been

less corrupt. This corruption can be seen in the fact that most FFDW had travel expenses

forced on them by officers, and administrators in the governments of their own home

countries. These officials were looking for opportunities to reap illicit profits from the

massive number of migrating workers.

Most of quotations selected for discussion of this issue come from the narratives

of Indian FFDW. “Mama sent me the ticket, and the visa, but the officer refused to stamp

gain power and status in the eyes of both employers and employees through the services they rendered at both ends.

2The FFDW who found employment via the help of another FFDW also had an easier time adjusting to the UAE. This is addressed more in detail in the section covering the adjustment issue.

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my passport before I paid him Rs 4,000 or $180 in 1992 (#25). The second FFDW who

worked for me. who is from Madras, India, recalled the incidence that happened with her

when she first came to Dubai: “My employer had sent me the visa, [but] I did not receive

it right away. We had to go to Madras in order to check. Every time we go they say they

did not receive anything. The third time somebody told my husband to give them Rs 1,000

or $30 (1990) before asking. We did, and then he gave us the visa. We later knew it was

always there. We paid over all Rs 3,000 or $170 for something we did not have to, and

also [which] we did not have the money for.”

Only two persons in the sample had been recruited directly through an employer,

but they, too, had to purchase their own airplane tickets. They were both from India (# 14

and #26). One related that, “My employer had sent me the visa, but could not send the

ticket. I had to borrow the money. What can I do? My employer could not afford it. I was

desperate. I had to pay for my own ticket” (#26).

Those twenty FFDW who skipped dealing with the recruiting agencies as

middlemen were not supposed to pay any travel expenses. But in practice, most of them

did.

N Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2- Recruiting agency expenses

Any female domestic who finds employment abroad through a recruiting agency

has to pay the agency in advance an average amount of money that equals wages for three

to four months of work. In some cases, this amount equaled as much as up to six months’

wages. In others it equaled only one or two months’ pay. Thirty one percent of the

respondents, or 16 FFDW paid an average of three to five hundred dollars to recruitment

agencies in advance. Fourteen percent paid less than three hundred dollars, and another

fourteen percent paid more then $500. Those charged low amounts, and those charged

high ones, were equal in number in this sample. Most of the FFDW could not afford to

pay the money in advance. Some had to go through tremendous financial strain to come

up with the money.

FFDW who managed to come up with the money by themselves constituted 63

percent of those who came to the UAE via recruitment agencies, or 41 percent of the

whole sample. The other 37 percent obtained some family help (Table 4.3.1 and 4.3.2).

Table^JExjjensesJijlaid^B^JFFDWJfo Amount in US$ Number Percent 0-300 7 13.7 301-500 16 31.4 501-more 7 13.7 Not through agency 20 39.2 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

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Table 4.3.2 Person(s) Paying Expenses OF FFDW To Agencies Of Recruitment Specification ______Number ______Percent Herself 21 63.6 Her family 11 33.3 Both 1 3.0 Total 33 100.0

Four categories emerged from among the FFDW who came to the UAE through

recruitment agencies. These categories were the low fee payers, the average fee payers,

the high fee payers, and these who paid by means of salary deduction. The salary

deduction group is an added category to the previous quantitative count.

a. The low payers

This group contained seven FFDW, but some of them do not conform totally to

the criteria for this category. Those who do not meet the criteria were FFDW who had

been working in Dubai for a long time, and those who were paying their recruitment fees

through salary deduction. The three specific FFDW referred to here included one from the

Philippines who had been working in Dubai for eight years, and had paid a $230

recruitment fee (#23), one from the Mauritius Islands who had been employed in Dubai

for ten years, and had paid the recruitment fee through the deduction of one month’ wages

(#15), and one from Sri Lanka who had been employed in Dubai for six years, and had

paid a recruitment fee of $215. These three FFDW had arrived in Dubai at an earlier time,

and therefore paid a fee that since then has almost doubled. Two factors account for this

increment. The first is money depredation and inflation, and the second is the changing set

of circumstances governing the migration of FFDW and their recruitment.

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The other four in the low payment group could also be divided into two

categories: the low-low payers, and the average-low payers. The two low-low payers

were both Muslim, had both been working for a year, and had only attained low education

levels. The first, from India (#40) had only completed primary education. The second,

from Sri Lanka (#41)* has never been to school in her life. Her recruitment fee had

amounted to around $130, and the one from India had paid $260 (#40). Both of these

FFDW were being paid a salary of Dhs 500 or $135. It is possible that their shared

characteristics are relevant to their status. Nonetheless, the most interesting common

characteristic of theirs is that they were both employed in one of Dubai’s poorest

neighborhoods, i. e. the “welfare region.” In other words, they came from the lowest

socio-economic strata among employees, and were working for employers from the

lowest socio-economic strata.

The second group, named the average-low payment group, contains members

who share characteristics with both lower, and average payers. This group included a

?This girl’s story is an interesting one. I estimated that she was no older than twelve to thirteen years, although she claimed to be nineteen. She did not have a passport, because she had run away from a previous employer. Her current employer said that she had been found lost in the street, looking for a job. They hired her. When I first saw her, she was standing at the front door with another little girl, and she guided me inside the house. I found it hard to imagine how this girl could have become an FFDW. The girl stated that she did not even want to work, or leave her country. It was her father and step mother who sent her away, and probably lied about her age, as most young FFDW, and especially those who migrate to Saudi Arabia, do. This particular FFDW actually seemed to present a case of abuse and neglect, and probably had been suffering from this situation throughout her life. Her case is an example of the atrocities that are committed against young girls everywhere, especially if they come from the poorest societies.

\ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. respondent from Sri Lanka (#45), and one from Indonesia (#30). The former paid $300 in

recruitment expenses, was single, twenty years old, Christian, and had obtained a middle

school level education. Like the two members of the low-low payment group, she was

employed in the “welfare district.” The latter had paid $290 for recruitment, was single,

seventeen years old, Muslim, and had obtained primary education. Unlike any of the other

low payers, she was employed in an upper class neighborhood.4 In a way, this

respondent’s case is an anomaly case. She is from Indonesia, where the recruitment

expenses charged FFDW are much higher than those charged in other countries mentioned

in this study, and she also works for a member of the upper class. One cannot easily find

an explanation for the anomalies of her case. The only possible explanation is that her

situation could be related to her young age, and low education level attained (see footnote

4).

4 This young lady shared many of the characteristics of the previous young girl from Sri Lanka (#41). Both respondents were the youngest in the sample, and both were younger than eighteen, despite the fact that the previously-discussed Sri Lankan girl had lied about her age. They both had apparently faced physical, emotional, and possibly sexual abuse. They were both too young to defend themselves, or even to be conscious of mistreatment. The respondent from Indonesia referred to here apparently was physically abused by her employer, who was a tough, very rich widow. She did not leave her employee alone with me at all during the interview. She made the FFDW sit on the floor while being interviewed, and constantly interrupted the FFDW, correcting her, and speaking for her in a very degrading manner. The only reaction that came from the young Indonesian FFDW in response was a very frightened face. Unlike the previously-discussed Sri Lankan, she had not been aggressively coerced into migration, but she recalled her father’s telling her, “Go for God’s sake. Just work well, and every thing would be good.”

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b. The average payment group

This category was the largest within the group of FFDW who came to the UAE

through recruitment agencies, numbering 16 FFDW. Yet only eleven of these FFDW

actually conformed to this description. The remaining five had been paying their

recruitment expenses through salary deduction. The eleven average payers consisted of

three respondents from the Philippines (#19, #17, and #3), one from Morocco (#9), one

from India (#24), and six from Sri Lanka (#7, #8, #37, #39, #42, #50). The backgrounds

of these respondents varied widely.5 What was peculiar about the respondents in this

group, and relevant to the recruitment expense issue was their country of origin, and the

stratum represented by their work place.

Most of the Sri Lankans, who made up the largest nationality contingent within

this group, were employed in Dubai’s “welfare district.” (This was true of #37, #39, #42,

#50). The recruitment payments that these four Sri Lankan respondents made ranged from

$310 and #350. The other two Sri Lankans in this group were employed in a middle

stratum neighborhood, and they had paid between $310 and $350 for recruitment. The

Indian respondent’s recruitment fee amounted to paid $340, the Moroccan’s to $450,

while the three Filipinas paid respectively paid $385, $460, and $500. If a fee level of $385

5 These respondents had been employed in the UAE for periods of between six month and three years in duration. They belonged to all the religions mentioned in the sample. Their marital situations also varied. Their attained education levels ranged from college to primary education.

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is designated as a demarcation line, the data show that most of the FFDW from India and

Sri Lanka paid a lower fee than this, while most of the FFDW from the Philippines paid

higher ones. This substantiates the observation that two factors influence the level of a

FFDWs recruitment fee payment. These factors are where the FFDW comes from, and

where she is going to work.

However, this observation still needs to be tested in relation to the subsequent

categories that will be discussed.

c. The high payment group

This group contained seven members, one of whom was paying her recruitment

expenses via salary deduction. The other six are classified as follows: four had come from

the Philippines (#1, #2, #6, #18), one from Indonesia (#32), and the last one from Sri

Lanka (#36). The first four worked for middle stratum employers, the Indonesian worked

for an upper stratum employer, while the Sri Lankan worked for an employer in a lower

stratum. The case of this Sri Lankan could also be considered anomalous. As a matter of

fact, this respondent herself, complained during the interview about how she had been

cheated by the agent, saying that “He was a cheater, he took too much money.” Another

Filipina in this same group also complained about cheating on the part of her recruitment

agent. This respondent (#18) had paid $1,000, which was the highest amount charged in

the high-payment group, but not in the salary deduction group.

The data that these respondents presented described a triangular relationship

among the three dimensions of the recruitment expenses issue, i. e„ the recruitment

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expenses themselves, the socio-economic stratum from which the FFDW came, and the

stratum to which the employer in the receiver country belonged. But before drawing a

final conclusion, it is still necessary to examine the last group, comprising the FFDW who

paid their recruitment expenses through salary deduction.

d. Salary deduction payers

This group contained six persons in all, one of whom was the FFDW from the

Mauritius Islands whose case was discussed in the section covering the low-payment

group. Another four members fit into the middle payment group, because they were

paying two to three months’ wages to the recruitment agents through salary deduction.

The final member fit into the high payment category, because she was paying five months’

wages as a recruitment fee through salary deduction. Of the four paying middle range fees,

three were from the Philippines (#31, #33, and #34), and one was from Indonesia (#35).

These four all worked for the employers who were in the upper socio-economic strata,

and the education they had attained ranged from middle to college level. The remaining

one paying the recruitment fee of five months’ wages was a Muslim from the Philippines

(#12), and worked for an employer in the middle socio-economic stratum. All five

members of the salary deduction group (The first case, from Mauritius, has already been

covered elsewhere, and thus is not included) were earning between Dhs 550 to Dhs 650

per month. Most importantly, for each of them, this employment period in the UAE was

the first. All five salary deduction FFDW also shared the characteristic of having been

working for a period of less than two years each.

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The salary deduction method of collecting recruitment fees reflects some change

in recruitment methods so that the recruitment process is less economically stressful for

the individual FFDW. This is true because the salary deduction arrangement enables the

FFDW to embark on the journey without having to front the fee payment. Adoption of

salary deduction as payment also necessitates a stronger commitment on the part of

recruitment agencies both in the sender country and in the UAE to make sure that the

FFDW is working and getting her salary, in order that they can collect their fees. The

salary deduction payment method also facilitates the migratory flow of FFDW, since it

relieves them of the pressure of borrowing money, which entails putting up collateral for a

loan, and jeopardizing their families’ economic well-being. The following section

demonstrates the difficulties that all of the FFDW had paying the recruiting fees in

advance.

C. Means Of Payment For The Journey

None of the FFDW in the sample could afford to pay the recruiting expenses in

advance, so they all had to make special payment arrangements. Some of those

arrangement were financially devastating for them and for their families. This subsection

covers the economic preparations that had to be made for the journey, and what making

these preparations entailed. As Table 3.3.2 projected earlier, nearly two thirds of the

FFDW in the sample paid the recruitment expenses themselves, while the remaining

percentage needed the help of the family to meet these payments. The high percentage of

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FFDW who were able to pay the recruitment expenses themselves confirms the main

hypothesis of the study itself, which is that these women were seeking employment abroad

as active rational individuals acting on their own initiatives, and bearing their own

obligations. It was their strength and dedication to change that led them to face the

difficulties that accompanied their decisions to seek employment abroad as domestics.

All of the FFDW interviewed in the sample either used all the money they had on

hand to pay the recruitment fees, borrowed it, or obtained loans. Even the Filipina social

workers, who are economically better off than many other women who became domestics,

usually had to use their entire savings to pay recruitment expenses. This means all of the

FFDW who came to the UAE by means of recruitment agencies, without exception, put

their economic status in jeopardy in order to migrate to employment in the UAE. This also

means that if anything adverse occurred, i.e. finding work with abusive employer or

general adjustment difficulties, the FFDW were faced with the choice of accepting that

predicament or coming home to a worse economic situation than the one they had faced

before deciding to migrate.6

As Table 4.3 .3 below reflects, the FFDW got together their recruitment money

from their savings, from selling their gold, from borrowing at high interest rates, or from

6This researcher got to know an Indian woman who was very poor, had three children, and who had left them to work in Dubai. But the conditions she was living under in Dubai were very bad. Specifically, her employer was physically abusive toward her, and she could not continue in Dubai. So she asked to return home, even though she was deeply in debt. When she got back to India, she had to work to pay off her debt. She also got pregnant, and at present she is still working, and looking for somebody to lend her money so that she can try her luck in Dubai again.

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putting homes, land, or gold up as collateral for loan. The passage following this table

then handles the issue of the meaning of these different modes of payment, examining

some of the most common means of payment to which the FFDW resorted, and their

symbolic meanings. The four most common means of getting money were the use of

personal and family savings, the obtaining of collateral loans, borrowing at high interest

rates, and selling gold and belongings.

Table 4.3.3 Means Of Payment For The Recruitment Expenses Of FFDW Means of payment ______Number ______Percent Personal savings 4 7.8 Family savings 10 19.6 Personal gold & saving 2 3.9 High-interest rate borrowing 9 17.6 Loan w/ land as collateral 2 3.9 Salary deduction 4 7.8 Personal saving & salary deduction 2 3.9 Not applicable 17 33.3 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

1- Personal and family savings

This was the safest source of money for most of the FFDW, especially those who

had worked before, either in their home countries or in the Gulf. Some of the FFDW had

to pay recruitment expenses with their entire life savings. An FFDW who previously had

worked in her home country as a housekeeper in a hotel, for example, said, “I put all my

life savings to pay the expenses of this trip” (#9). Another respondent stated, “I paid all

that I saved from my previous job in Saudi Arabia in order to come here” (#40).

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2- The collateral loan

This was the most common source of money called on after the FFDW own

savings. Putting land, gold, and one’s home up as collateral for a loan was particularly

common among Indian and Sri Lankan FFDW in the sample, because it served as an

immediate source of cash. Gold, land, and houses were the assets that these women had to

place as collateral, and gold was preferred asset, especially among Indian and Sri Lankan

women. Concerning the collateral issue, FFDW from Sri Lanka, who have been working

for years said, “I have been working to build my dream house. Until now I only bought the

land. Last time I had to put that land under collateral loan in order to pay the recruiting

fees.” (#8).

3- Borrowing at high interest rates

This source of money was mainly tapped by those who had no assets. These

FFDW were largely unskilled, and most of them had children. An FFDW from Sri Lanka

related, “I had to borrow the trip expenses with high interest, they charged me 25%. I did

not have a choice” (#7). Another respondent from India recounted, “I borrowed money

for the airfare ticket. I had to pay interest” (#14). Another Sri Lankan FFDW who was

fighting to survive and to keep her children alive, and who had an abusive and alcoholic

husband stated that, “Borrowing with high interest is how we survive since I came to

work. First, I borrowed to pay the agency. We borrow from a lady in our neighborhood. I

still have to pay her, my account with her never reaches zero, since my mom keeps taking

[money from it] to spend on the children. All that I have been doing with my salary is

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paying her. I still owe her around SLRs 10,000” (#50).

4- Selling gold and belongings

Gold for a poor, lower class woman in India or Sri Lanka is her main avenue

toward social esteem and monetary security. Women who lose their gold lose their worth.

As mention in the discussion about the forces that propelled unskilled female workers to

migrate from India, and Sri Lanka, the ability to accumulate gold was the motive both for

young single women, and for married women with daughters. For the Sri Lankan or Indian

FFDW, therefore, selling their gold was like selling their true social value, their true status,

and all of their feminine pride.

A widowed FFDW who had sold all of her furniture, gold, and other belongings

related, “After my husband died, I tried to work, [but] the money I made was not enough

to feed the children. I had to sell everything we owned to collect the recruiting agent

expenses.” (#37) Another FFDW from India (#20) recounted, “I had to sell all my gold

chains to pay for the agent.” Another respondent from Sri Lanka related, “We sold all the

gold we and my family collected for me and my sister. It was very sad, but we had to do

it.” (#36).

This part concludes discussion of the general conditions surrounding the

migration journey that the FFDW faced on their way to UAE. This discussion covered

their psychological status, conditions encountered at Dubai airport, expenses due the

recruiting agencies, and finally, the financial resources available for meeting these

payments and how tapping them affected the FFDW lives. The text of this chapter

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. contained excerpts from the FFDW own narrations, and a quantitative classification of

their answers. Throughout this chapter, it has been demonstrated that, despite their fear

and their worries, the FFDW in the sample were determined to make the migration

journey in order to improve their lives and the lives of their families. This chapter also

covered the exploitation, abuse, and mistreatment that FFDW faced at the hands of

agencies, employers, etc. This chapter also addressed the material, financial, and symbolic

prices that FFDW paid in order to make the migration journey. Despite these difficulties,

the number of FFDW migrating to the UAE keeps increasing. It is true that most of these

women embarked upon this journey with fear and anxiety. It is equally true, however, that

most of them were also driven by hope and the need to change their lives. The next

chapter will cover the issue of whether the hopes of these women have are realized, or

whether their experience is mainly characterized by exploitation and abuse. How the

reality of work actually feels to the fifty-one women in this sample will also be discussed.

These issues will be dealt with through the specific treatment of the working conditions

that the FFDW faced, through analysis and direct quotation of their narratives.

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WORK PLACE AND WORK CONDITIONS

"Mv God! I don't know why we are controlled like that. We have no freedom at all. I am only 22 years old. I feel I am stuck. I just finished college, passed my board exam, and here 1 am. no life at aH'(FFDW #17).

Isolation is the one dominant feature of FFDW work environment, and working

conditions in the UAE. They are isolated physically, psychologically, socially, culturally,

and in all aspects of human existence. However, they are not all isolated to the same

degree. Some FFDW do actually live in a complete and abusive environment of isolation.

Others are more able to interact socially and to break some of the physical and

psychological barriers of isolation that they face.

Legally, once an FFDW enters her employer’s house, she is totally under his/her

control, since the employer is usually her visa sponsor. UAE labor laws still do not

recognize domestics as part of the labor force. The employer bears total responsibility for

his/her domestic workers, and also has total control over them. However, during the first

three months of the contract, both employer and employee have the right to contact the

recruiting agency in order to report problems, or to seek change in the status or

employment of the FFDW. Most recruiting agencies, though, do not encourage this

practice, and often even hide information about this right from the FFDW. The laws

governing the status of domestic workers, and the practices toward FFDW in the UAE

169

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enslave them to their employers for the duration of their contracts with them. Being placed

with a desirable or undesirable employer is a matter of luck.

The isolation that FFDW face in the UAE makes their situation unique in relation

to that of other immigrant workers. This isolation is partially related to their migrant

status, and to their total removal from families, societies and roots in general. However, it

is also linked to their live-in status in UAE households and to their interaction with the

realities of this status. The FFDW who leave their society to come to a totally strange one

are also actually moving into a household that is totally isolated from the outside,

surrounded by walls, and in most cases, is gender segregated.

Hypothetically, FFDW are expected to have no activity outside of their

households of employment. Like all foreign workers, they are denied the right to organize.

They are not given any days off, and are expected to be available for all household

members, from early morning to late in the evening.

This peculiar form of isolation of the FFDW in UAE is accompanied by another

peculiarity of existence, which is related to their numerousness and their high visibility.1

This give them in a way a very peculiar sense of existence.2 This very numerousness

1 In the house itself, FFDW sometimes actually outnumber the household members. During the day, in the street, the most commonly seen people are FFDW, since they are the ones who do the family’s grocery shopping, In the parks, large numbers of them can be seen playing with their employers’ children. Even in the waiting rooms of hospitals and doctors’ offices, it is usually they who accompany their employers’ children to their medical examinations.

2The existence of FFDW in the UAE bears some resemblance to that of African American slave domestics in the American South. The characteristics shared by both

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among FFDW works, in a way, against their isolated status, since even those who are not

allowed to go out at all, or to use the telephone, or to call a friend are likely to meet other

FFDW when they go to the grocery or convenience store, or even when they are outside

of the house disposing of garbage. These peculiarities have helped the FFDW to form a

sense of the collective ethnic-identity and to bond among themselves. The likelihood of

meeting other FFDW also helps to ease their harsh working conditions.

In reaction to this developing collective identity among FFDW, UAE locals, who

have come to feel threatened by the huge FFDW community in the UAE, have formed an

opposite, and stereotyped image of them. This stereotyped image of FFDW that UAE

locals have developed affects the working conditions that they face. In other words, the

FFDW work environment is full of contradictions, challenges, and hardships.

This chapter goes into detail about this working environment, measures the

working conditions for FFDW, and evaluates the benefits that FFDW gain, and the

damages they suffer in relation to these conditions. It is divided into three main parts,

entitled “The New Place,” “The Work Itself,” and “The Benefits and Damages from the

Work.”

groups include numerousness, and limited personal or collective rights. Differences between the two groups include the fact that African American slaves lived with their families and worked in proximity to them. FFDW. by contrast, have left their families in another country. Secondly, in contrast to African American slaves, FFDW are not enslaved all their lives. They work under a contract that theoretically is supposed to have a specific duration.

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I. THE NEW PLACE

This part contains excerpts from FFDW narratives about experiences that follow

the migration journey. It follows the FFDW into their employers’ households, describes

their first encounter with the household, and deals with their feelings about their new

residence/work place, and covers their initial adjustments to it, and to life in the UAE.

A. First Encounter

After completing the very long and challenging migration journey, most of the

FFDW enter their employer’s house exhausted and nervous. The employer, on the other

hand, is theoretically expected to understand what they have been through, and is also

expected to ease their adjustment to their new place of residence. This however, does not

always happen. Despite the hardships of the migration joumey, the FFDW are frequently

expected to begin work, and to be available to their employers right away. As a matter of

fact, 30 percent of the FFDW in the sample, or 14 of them, reported starting work right

away. Another 48 percent, or 23 of them, reported working the following day, which

means that they arrived at night or in the afternoon, slept, and started working the

following morning. Only 14 percent, or seven FFDW, reported getting a full day’s rest

before starting their new jobs. Another 8 percent, or four FFDW, did actually get more

than one day off. This means that only a total of eleven FFDW out of the whole sample

population, or 23 percent, got an actual rest (see Table 5.1.1).

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TableSJjnurstEncounter^ndRfiStAfto First experience ______Number ______Percent Worked same day 14 27.5 Worked Following day 23 45.1 Took a full day off 7 13.7 More than one day off 4 7.8 Missing 3 5.9 Total 51 100.0

This data set reflects that only a minority of the sample population was given a

chance to rest, and to adjust to the new surroundings. Only those who got a full day’s rest

or more can be considered as having been treated decently regarding this matter. A closer

look at those who were given more than a day’s rest shows that three of them were totally

satisfied in their work place. One was given two days off before she started working. She

was totally satisfied with her employer family, and expressed her wish to stay with that

household (#20). The second also reported complete satisfaction with her situation. Her

first encounter with her employer was totally satisfactory, and she reported going with

them on a trip to the desert the day after her arrival. She was fascinated by the scene, and

recounted, ”my dream became true, I saw the desert”(#15). The third also records having

had a positive experience. She came to the UAE through a friend, and her employer let her

stay for the first two days at her friend’s house in order to relax and to get herself adjusted

to the UAE society (#4). The last one also reports that she was beautifully welcomed by

her employer’s family: "They wanted to give me four days rest. I tried my best to do

things in order to forget all the pain I have been through. I was shocked to know that my

visa is for a "housekeeper,” not a nanny as I initially understood in the Philippines. I felt

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cheated and homesick. My employer took me out. She made me feel more secure”(#17).

Those four FFDW showed the greatest degree of satisfaction with their situations

among the sample members. The one characteristic that they all share is that each came to

work in a household that already had other housekeepers employed there. The fact that

the employer did not need their immediate help and attention make it easier for the FFDW

to get a rest. In fact, most of those who had a day or more off had found employment in a

household with two, three, or more FFDW. However, generalizations about rest and

adjustment time in this context is difficult, because some FFDW walked into households in

which they found more than five domestics employed, and yet got a welcome that

portended future problems. Generally, finding other FFDW employed in their situation

household made the first encounter easier only in the cultural sense, i.e., only in that the

FFDW had found someone who had been there before them, and had adjusted to the way

of life in the UAE, and to the kind of isolation that FFDW face.

The first reaction that FFDW have had to deal with after their arrival in the UAE

is culture shock, and the first challenge that the sample participants all referred to was the

place itself, and their adjustment to it. The section below examines the perceptions that

FFDW had of their workplace/residence, and how it differed from their own homes.

B. Perception Of The Place

Understanding the FFDW perception of their new work places is another way of

looking at their working conditions, and the treatment they received at the work place.

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The discourse of place among the FFDW in the sample is a subtle indicator of their level

of comfort and satisfaction at work, especially since some of the features they complained

about were common to most of them. Besides the initial culture shock they experienced in

their first encounter with their new workplace/residence, the negative features shared

among the FFDW were the physical and social isolation, the psychological loneliness, and

the intolerably hot weather. The other important conditions of the work place that the

FFDW referred to were images of comparison between their countries, and the new place.

The most common images of this type were expressions of comparison between “the

haves versus the have nots,” the big house versus the little ones, and the openness versus

the closeness. Only a few praised and admired the technological advancement of the new

society and the new opportunities it opened for them.

1- The initial culture shock

In the UAE, most citizens still wear their traditional clothes." For some of the

FFDW, and especially for those who did not have any previous idea about the place, this

was a big shock. “When I first came and saw Arab local men, I thought he belonged to the

clergy, or any sort of religious person. It was a strange place for me, every thing looked

different, men, women, houses, and nature (#13). “I use to be very scared when I see

women in a ba \ or in borqo’ (a face cover). The country is too hot, the people look

J Men in UAE wear long white robes, called kandora, and cover their heads with white cloths called h a tta ’ wa iq a l. Women wear long dresses, and cover their bodies with black shadors or a b a 's in the local language.

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different, that was not too pleasant” (#38).

2- Physical and social isolation of the new place

The physical isolation that FFDW encountered in the UAE was mainly linked to

the structure of the UAE household, which is closed on the outside, and segregated by

gender on the inside. The combination of these features, and the anomalous growth of

UAE society's reliance on FFDW for maintenance of the status of the UAE household

during a time of change, have also created a social necessity among the UAE employers to

control the FFDW and their impact on the UAE household, and society. This control is

taking different forms and is also changing as the structure of UAE society itself and the

dynamics of the UAE household, change.

Physical and social isolation of the FFDW within UAE society is one form of

control. Once the FFDW is inside the UAE household, she becomes part of the “harem”

structure.4 The sexuality of the FFDW has also to be controlled, since she is now one of

the “harem.” This includes control of her body and her general behavior. In most cases,

she has to be veiled, or dressed in a long robe like the rest of the “household harem” or

female members of the household. Sixty seven percent of the total sample population, or

4A s mentioned previously, not all UAE households conform to the same “harem” structure. This is what makes the issue interesting, dynamic and also challenging even to the FFDW themselves. UAE households’ structures are undergoing transformations, and are moving away from the traditional form of “harem” structure to a new one which is not totally modem, but rather, an amalgamation of different structures. It is possible to call this new form postmodern, for the immediate sake of this analysis. For more details on this issue, see the theoretical chapter.

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34 FFDW, reported that they were not allowed to maintain any aspects of their previous

life styles. Only four of the total sample population mentioned being allowed to dress,5

cook, and practice their religious beliefs freely (see Table 5.1.2). Some modem

households allowed their FFDW to dress as they pleased, but none would allow them

freedom of behavior.

Table 5.1.2 Perception Of FFDW On Permission To Maintain Aspects Of Their Previous Lifestyles. Type of life style ______Number ______Percent Cooking her ethnic food 1 2.0 Wearing her style of clothes I 2.0 Practicing her religious believes 1 2.0 Only two of the above 6 11.8 Only three of the above 3 5.9 All the above 4 7.8 Not allowed to maintain any 34 66.7 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

This table generally shows that once the FFDW had entered the UAE household,

her total physical existence, including her body, appearance, and choice of clothing fell

under that household’s control.6 In addition, her socio-physical existence had to be

5One FFDW complained about not being allowed to put on any make up, or even to wear the Arabic eyeliner kohol, famous in the Gulf region, and used by UAE women themselves, including elderly ones. She said: “I am not allowed to put any make up, or even simple kohol”(#9).

6During the course of an interview, I experienced an example of this sort of physical control directly. The FFDW in question was from Sri Lanka, and had been working for a given household for eight years. She took care of an elderly lady, constantly staying with her, and was not allowed to go out of the house. She seemed to be like a shadow to this elderly lady who was in poor health. In this instance, the young employer arrived, happily declaring the opening of a swimming pool in the backyard. She told the FFDW to get

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controlled, and all of her social interactions with friends and neighbors had to be

scrutinized. Also, because of the dominant stereotype of maids in UAE society, FFDW

experienced forms of mistreatment based on their ethnicity, and social status.

Loneliness was one of the outgrowths of control tactics that FFDW complained

about: “I am very lonely. Sometimes, I cry. I want to go back. I am getting very thin. The

only source of appeasement I feel is only when I talk to other maids, while I am picking up

the children from school (#11). Another FFDW addressed an identical situation: “ I am not

allowed to go out, not even to see a friend, or meet a relative. It is only when I go to pick

up the children from school that I see other maids who I share my feelings with” (#18).

Complaints among FFDW about being treated like a stranger, like a maid, or

being demeaned were frequent: ‘We are treated like strangers, we are not allowed to sit

on the furniture. It does not matter for them if you have a profession or not, you are here,

you are a maid. I talk to other Filipinas I see in the park, they say the same thing” (#11).

“If by mistake, they see me sitting on their bed, they get angry. They think we are lower,

we are not considered humans, and that we have same necessities as they do” (#8). “Even

after working for them for eight years, I still feel I am a maid, and I am a stranger”(#23).

“When they talk about us they say words like: stupid, knows nothing, or maid. We are

always inferior in their place”(#24). “I feel I am treated as a lower person because I am

ready to enter the pool with the old lady, in order to help her do some exercises. Happily, the FFDW put on her shorts, and came full of excitement. The young employer shouted: “Can’t you see the little boys? Aren’t you ashamed? Go put on your long dress. We do not have women going in the pool with swim wear.” In response, the FFDW looked humiliated, but couldn’t reply. She ended up obeying these orders.

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poor. They order us in a way that hurts. They don’t sympathize with us. We are vulnerable

in their houses, because we are poor” (#49).

3- The difficult climate of the UAE

All the FFDW in the sample complained about the hot weather in the UAE.

Living, cleaning and cooking in a place where the temperature reaches 128° F in the

summer, and where the humidity is around one hundred percent is very challenging from

the hot villages of south India.7 These FFDW also compared the rainy weather in their

country with the dryness of the desert (see chapter two for weather conditions). “Our

country is beautiful and green. We have natural rain. We do not need to water all the time

like here8 (#8). “Sri Lanka, is green and has natural beauty. Here, the beauty is artificial,

and aspired by owning and spending. In Lanka we have big falls, huge gardens, forests,

and fresh fruits all around the year. Here most of their fruits and vegetables are imported,

most of their greenery is artificial.” (#13).

7When S., the lady who is currently employed with me, first came to Dubai in the summer, she frequently fainted from the heat. When she was taken to the doctor, he said that she was not used to this type of hot weather. Four years later, when she went back to India, and after living with us for two years in the United States, she could not adjust to the hot weather in India, and had to readjust herself to it.

*This particular FFDW had to wash the her employer’s entire house, brick structure, down from the outside, because it got very dusty, and there was no rain to wash the dust away.

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4- The technological advancement of the new place

Like most housekeepers who migrate from poorer areas to more affluent ones,

FFDW are often faced with technologies that they have never before encountered. This

experience provides some fascination of its own, especially for those seeking to broaden

their horizons, and looking for exposure to newer and/or, different life styles.9 In the

UAE, FFDW not only get fascinated by technological instruments, but also try to take

some of them back home with them as status symbols. “When I first came I was very

excited about so many things. First, the telephone, I saw it for the first time in my life”

(#15). “Here they have all kinds of electrical, and electronic instruments. It is even cheaper

than any other place. We all buy stuff sam an and take it to Sri Lanka with us” (#22).

5- The socio-economic perspective of “have versus the have nots”10

The FFDW perceptions of socio-economic and class background seemed to be a

very clear in the UAE. Some of the FFDW were lucid in expressing it. A college educated

FFDW from the Philippines said, “They have, we do not. I have knowledge, they have

9 Mumtaz, the first FFDW that I got to know in the Emirates, was typical in that perspective. She came from a very small village in south India, and was very poor. She was one of the early migrant Muslim women in her village. She had never seen a hair dryer, a woman driving a car, a vacuum cleaner etc. She would become totally absorbed when she saw any new instrument and would stare and stare at it until we interrupted her.

10 It was very interesting for me to see FFDW addressing this distinction. This was not a question I asked in the study, or a perspective I anticipated that they would discuss. When I asked them to express their perceptions of the UAE, I was mainly thinking in terms of their adjustment to it. However, in the process of writing about these perceptions, I was able to see their clear socio-economic and class perspectives.

s. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. money” (#17). Another from India remarked, “They have a lot, we do not. They can get

what they want, we cannot. If I work in India all my life, I won’t be able to get to my

children what they want. Now I do” (#4). Two others verbalized the problem of having

and wasting, saying: "They have a lot. They have money, fruits, they eat well, but they

also throw a lot. For us we always compare the excess and waste here with the poverty

and need in our country” (#27). Another respondent said, “They have a lot, they give me

every thing I need, but still I do not like to see them throwing a lot” (#15).

6- The big houses versus the little ones

The FFDW spatial perspective was very obvious concerning the size and shape of

the houses in Dubai. Here they lived in big villas.11 Most of the FFDW homes in their own

countries were much smaller than those in which they lived and worked in the UAE. Many

of the FFDW own houses had been built from bamboo trees, coconut, or other tree leaves.

What they saw in the UAE was the following: “Here the houses are big and white. In Sri

Lanka, the trees are long and big, and houses are too small” (#10). “In the Philippines,

houses are made of bamboo, galvanized iron, and cement. They are small, but clean, and

“Not all FFDW in the sample lived in big villas. As explained in the methods chapter, the sample population is distributed among neighborhoods of three socio-economic backgrounds. Houses therefore, are not all big. Indeed the houses in which the FFDW were employed differed in size and organization, according to the area in which they were located, according to the socio-economic background of the employer, and sometimes according to the employer’s personal choice, and taste. In general, the average size of a house in the lower class, or welfare neighborhood is three rooms. The average of a house in the middle stratum neighborhoods is seven rooms. Finally the average size of the upper class houses or mansions, in some cases, is eleven rooms.

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very spacious, and wide” (#29). “When I first came to this country,12 there were no roads,

no streets. This whole “Hamreya” did not exist. When I came here I used to say, our

awful country with all the dirt is nicer than here.’ Now every thing has changed. Their

houses keep getting bigger, and more beautiful, their cars too. I feel this place is only big

houses, and big cars.” (#13). “In Lanka, houses have no AC, no carpet. Here houses have

every thing” (#16). “Their houses are big, and they have lots of furniture to clean” (#27).

“In Lanka, houses are three rooms, here they are eleven” (#28). “Their houses are big like

a palace, but they are like a prison too. We cannot go out” (#30).

7- The closed nature of the UAE versus the openness of the FFDW home countries

The closed nature of the new place, versus the openness of the FFDW home

countries, was another concern that they expressed, and which reflected their extreme

isolation.L’ Those who addressed this issue were reacting to the whole society and culture

in general, and the household in which they lived and worked in particular. Their remarks

underscored that their ethnic and religious backgrounds were very different from those of

l2This is one of the oldest FFDW in the UAE in this sample. Her perception is interesting because she followed the development of the place, and her judgment of the place is not very spontaneous.

13The general closeness of the UAE, was obvious for some FFDW, and very challenging for them. The UAE is a traditional Islamic society which is very conservative and closed in the cultural sense. However, not all cities, or Emirates, are the same in that sense. Dubai, where the FFDW in the sample were working, is considered one of the most open and cosmopolitan places in the Gulf region.

s. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their employers. Even the Muslims, who had come from Islamic countries such as

Indonesia criticized the closed nature of iheir new environment. “The place here is very

closed and traditional in comparison to where we come from. “In the Philippines, we are

modem, we go out, we go to discos, we drink alcohol, we smoke. Here everything is

forbidden” (#3). “Our country is open. Here you feel like you live in a box” (#13). “This

place is closed. We have to stay in the house. It is always between us and them” (#17).

“Indonesia is an open society; you can walk in the streets, you can talk to people. Here,

no! No sense of freedom!” (#3).

These description of the UAE by the FFDW in the sample confirms their

subjective image of the place, which is based not only on their work experience, but also

on their own life experiences, and on their interaction with the dynamics of the work place

in general. The manner in which they depicted the UAE highlights the new big white

houses, the new cars, and a great shopping market. It is also a place characterized by

heavy control of the FFDW, feelings of alienation, and much social humiliation. Despite all

of these contradictions, the FFDW manage to adjust to the UAE and survive in it for

extended periods of time, some of them very long. The following subsection goes into

more detain about the adjustment process.

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C. Adjustment To The New Place

One of the toughest challenges of migration is adjustment. In essence, adjustment

means reproducing or reconstructing oneself or constructing a newer self that is able to

accommodate other life styles, attitudes, habits, languages encountered in new living and

work situations. Adjustment also means being healed of the emotional pain of separation

from the loved ones. FFDW have all of these challenges to face along with the pressure of

being controlled, isolated, and of continuously living under someone else’s authority,

without a break.

All the FFDW in the sample had to adjust to a new environment when they came

to the UAE. The environmental adjustment requirements that they faced pertained to

social relations, weather, culture, clothing etc. Table 5.1.3 shows the different types of

adjustment requirement that the FFDW emphasized. Most of them emphasized all of them,

or two or more. Those who emphasized all, or two or more types constituted 48 percent

of the sample population. The two single factors that got more emphasis than others were

the social factor (10 percent), which included family relationships and social interaction,

and the technological and material factors (10 percent), which included the examples of

technological advancement in UAE society, and the high degree of material wealth there.

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Table 5.1.3 Changing Environment And Different Types Of Adjustments FFDW Had To Go Through- Type of environmental adjustment ______Number ______Percent Emphasized social adjustment 5 9.8 Emphasized climate ------4 7.8 Emphasized cultural ------1 2.0 Emphasized clothes ------I 2.0 Emphasized 2 or 3 factors 14 27.5 All above 11 21.6 Just different 8 15.7 Emphasized technological or material advancement 5 9.8 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 100.0

The FFDW in this sample also addressed the different types of difficulties they

faced during their adjustment to the UAE. The most common were language adjustment,

cultural adjustment, adjustment to working conditions, and above all, adjustment to the

separation from their children. The adjustment measures that the FFDW took varied. The

following subsection discusses the adjustment difficulties that FFDW faced, and the

adjustment process they underwent.

1- Psychological and cultural adjustment to working conditions

Psychological and cultural adjustment difficulties were the most common

adjustment problems that FFDW faced, and probably the most challenging. It is very hard

to adjust to a complete separation from what is known, normal and taken for granted. Out

of necessity, the FFDW made these adjustments, but at a high price. One respondent, who

had been working in the same place for 14 years, recollected the early adjustment

challenges she had faced: When I first came, I used to always cry. My employer said, I am

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not the type who would survive the challenges and stay. Every thing was different for me.

I wanted to leave, but I could not afford the ticker. After six months, things started to get

easier (#13).

Another FFDW from the Philippines similarly stated: "‘During my early days, I

was always sad. I could not go back, because that was my choice to begin with. I used to

think hardly of how I left an open country that I love to come and live in a closed

atmosphere. Life is totally different here. But with the time passing I started to adjust

myself’ (#18).

An FFDW from Sri Lanka attributed the hardships of adjustment to the reality of

being in two places at the same time: Adjustment is very hard. It seems we do not adjust,

as much as we force ourselves to live in two different places. This make us very confused,

and [therefore, we] cannot do things right. Sometimes, I spoil the food, especially when I

get letters from my family. My employers are very understanding” (#45).

Difficult working conditions make adjustment even harder. One FFDW in the

sample, who was not allowed to go out, or have friends, called adjustment problematic

and nearly impossible at one point, especially since she also had to contend with having a

mentally ill employer (#7). Another respondent, who had previously worked in a hotel in

her home country, found the restrictive atmosphere of her workplace in the UAE difficult

to bear. At her old job, in contrast, she had been able to interact with others. At the time

of the interview, she was waiting to finish her contract and return home (#9). She also

mentioned missing her coworkers back home, and that she was having problems adjusting

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to the new coworkers in the UAE. Another FFDW from the Philippines related that she

was having adjustment difficulties because of problems with her present coworkers, two

sisters from Sri Lanka (#18).

2- Adjustment to general separation from family members and loved ones

Most of the FFDW in the sample reported having difficulty adjusting emotionally

to separation from their families, and loved ones. However, most of the FFDW made

tremendous adjustment efforts, and retained a positive attitude and the determined spirit of

achieving what they had come for (76.5 percent). However, some respondents actually

seemed desperate, and unable to survive (8 percent). One of these last felt that she needed

immediate help, stating that if she remained in her employer’s house, she would probably

die (#42) (see Table 5.1.4).

Table 5.1.4 FFDW’s Adjustment To Separation From Family And Loved Ones ______General attitude ______Number ______Percent Very lonely but try hard 39 76.5 Very lonely and can not resist more 2 3 .9 Total desperation 4 7.8 No impact 6 11.8 Total 51 100.0

3- Adjustment to the separation from children

Historically, the mother-child relationship has been one of the strongest of

interpersonal relationships, resisting physical separation of all type.14 However, the

14Even during slavery and serfdom, mothers kept their children until they reached a certain age, at which point they become adult slaves themselves.

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modem pattern of female labor migration domestic employment seems to be breaking

these bonds. Mothers initially submit to this separation for the very sake of their children,

but the price they pay includes acute feelings of guilt. One FFDW stated, “I feel guilty

about having them. Guilty because I do not see them growing up in my side. Guilty

because I cannot teach them the good things of life” (#29).

Another Filipina respondent was very troubled by the fact that she had to leave

her only son behind and migrate with his father to the Gulf region to secure their future

family life: “How I do it I do not know. Sometimes, I try not to think of him. Sometimes, I

can not help but think of him intensely. It is very hard. All what I think of is when we

finish the house and live there” (#3).

Missing their children or feeling guilty for leaving them behind is not the only

problem. Some FFDW have left their children behind without even knowing if they are

getting the daily care they need or if the person in charge of them is really capable. An

Indian FFDW, who had to leave her children with her old mother, was constantly worried

about whether the latter was giving them the real care they needed, was sending them to

school daily, or giving them enough food (#4). Other FFDW who end up separated from

their children for years, especially those who leave their daughters in the home country,

live in constant fear of their being raped or sexually abused. A Sri Lankan FFDW who left

behind her daughter, then a little girl but thirteen at the time of this study, related her fear

that her daughter would be raped as her sister had been. This respondent said, “Every

body sends me letters to tell me how beautiful she is. I worry about her. In my country,

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drunk males would attack houses, especially if they know that some members work in the

Gulf. I am working hard, and saving her lots of gold, but I hope it is worth it” (#8).

3- Language adjustment

Language is another adjustment difficulty that FFDW face. First, the FFDW

themselves are very diverse ethnically and linguistically. Secondly, they have migrated to a

country that has more expatriates living and working in it than indigenous people. This

makes linguistic diversity a challenge for UAE household members, as well as for FFDW.

One can easily find more than one language spoken in a given household. While Arabic is

the official language of the UAE, other common languages include Urdu,15 Farsi16 Ajami,

and English.17

Communication is difficult for FFDW who do not know Arabic or English, and

who enter a household in which only Arabic, or both languages, are spoken. As one

FFDW related, “Until I learned the language, I felt I could not stay. My sister had been

through the experience before me. She used to tell me: ‘Wait until you learn the language,

15 The traditional links between the UAE and India, and the high number of Indian immigrants in the Emirates, has made it common for UAE citizens to speak Urdu.

16 The history of migration in the region and the closeness to Iran, has constructed a large community of UAE citizens who are of Iranian origins. These, especially older women, still speak Farsi, or a special dialect that is peculiar to south Iran. This particular dialect is called Ajami, or aymi in the local dialect, and it is a combination of Farsi and Arabic.

17 English is mostly spoken by the educated younger generation, who have been schooled either in private institutions in the UAE, or abroad. Also, because of the large size of the English business community in UAE, most people engaged in business have to

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things will get easier.’ She was absolutely right” (#5).

FFDW who do speak English, and who work in households where English is

spoken, are spared communication problems. However, some FFDW, especially English-

speaking Filipinas who work in a household where not all members speak English, also

face difficulties. One Filipina respondent furnished a vivid example of this reality. She was

employed in a household where everybody speak English, but the old lady for whom she

was to care. As a result, this Filipina not only had to learn Arabic, but constantly had to

shift languages as well, and this made adjustment very difficult (#2).

However, despite these language adjustment challenges, the fact that this

phenomenon of female labor migration for domestic employment is becoming increasingly

common is generally making this work easier for FFDW, since they are building

knowledge and experience. The FFDW work in many situations and countries, and in so

doing, learn not only languages, Arabic and others, but also accumulate experience with

the Gulf region, and basic knowledge of how a household in the UAE and in the entire

Arab Gulf region works. Sometimes, FFDW find their adjustment problems easier to cope

with because they know that these difficulties are widespread. Some FFDW are fortunate

enough to get help in adjusting from their employers. Others are helped to adjust by

developing attachments to their employers’ children that they develop, and most

importantly by personal steadfastness, and prayer.

use English in their daily life.

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4- Modes and means that eased FFDW adjustment

Most of the FFDW in the sample emphasized prayer as particularly helpful to

them in easing their adjustment process and in healing the pain of isolation and harsh living

conditions. FFDW pray for good and fair employers, for a safe journey, and for the safety

of their children back home. Prayer is a common remedy because it furnishes a manageable

and handy means of control over factors in life that would otherwise seem uncontrollable.

As one respondent stated, “I think of my life, I am away from my children, what can I do?

I pray for them to be good, and for me not to have any trouble” (#4).

Having a good employer is one particularly important means by which FFDW can

ease their adjustment process. If, upon arrival in Dubai, the FFDW does not have any

friends or relatives who can share with her knowledge and information about life and work

there, then the employer becomes the only person left with whom the FFDW can interact

and communicate. Also, because the FFDW is usually apprehensive about the newness and

strangeness of the UAE, it is primarily the employer who can ease apprehension, and can

help make adjustment easier for the FFDW.

One respondent in the sample recounted, “When I first came I was very nervous,

and scared. My employer was always talking to me and encouraging me to talk. She also

encouraged me to call home, and build friendships. She is the one who eased my

adjustment” (#2).

On the other hand, employers can also make the FFDW adjustment more

difficult. An FFDW from Sri Lanka, for example, faced some of the worst work conditions

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and was particularly miserable at her job. This respondent was very pretty, intelligent, and

sensitive, and had been employed in a certain household for six months. She was still

unable to speak any Arabic at all, despite the fact that her employer spoke only that

language. (The average time period that FFDW need to communicate in Arabic in the

Emirates is three months.) Some take up to six months, but at the end of the sixth month

they are usually able to speak, even if they have not attained fluency. This Sri Lankan

FFDW (#42) was very frightened, and was unable to say any words in Arabic at all. I had

to get a translator to help her complete the interview.

Time is an important healing factor for most painful experiences. Regarding their

adjustment to life and work in the UAE, most members of the sample mentioned that time

was an important factor in this process as well. A six month period was the average time

span that an FFDW needed, in a normal setting, to adjust to the UAE. As one FFDW

remarked, “Being away from my family, and homeland is not an easy job. It took me a

long period of time to adjust, and recover the feelings of emptiness, loneliness, and

homesickness.” (#29).

Another measure that expedited the healing and adjustment processes for FFDW

in the sample was building alternative attachments to the children of their employers.

Children are usually the most pleasant people to have around in a situation of tragedy and

social distress. Their playful attitude, energy, and relative immunity to someone else’s sad

feelings and worries make them very helpful in releasing FFDW from their private pain.

FFDW find in the children around them an avenue of distraction from personal worry and

\ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. pain, and an opportunity for forging new ties. As an example, one FFDW related, “After a

while, I got attached to the children. My employer i? a teacher. She works every day. I felt

a great responsibility towards the little ones. I did not want to leave them, or to let them

be with any other maid who do not care for them well. Therefore I stayed” (#13).

A Filipina FFDW who felt very isolated and depressed in her workplace,

developed a close relationship with a little infant that she was caring for. She stated, “He is

my only personal attachment in this place. Being with him gives me the opportunity to be

attached and express some kind of nice feelings, besides the feeling of anger and

disappointment”^ 11).

The following example of attachment to one’s employer’s children is an

especially dramatic one, which raised many difficult questions for the FFDW involved. She

became deeply attached to a sick child whose life was totally dependent upon her

remaining next to him. She began her story with the time that she first came to work for

that family, and developed her attachment to the child. She returned home after she had

completed her contract, and during that time, the boy became so ill that the family had to

bring the FFDW back, because he missed her so much. Since then she has remained with

him days and nights. The FFDW stated that after she left him to return home, he had fallen

and become ill and frightened because his family did not take good care of him. The

FFDW employer added that the child was afflicted with a kind of mental illness.

This FFDW had become inextricable attached to this child. When I saw her, she

looked exhausted and red-eyed. 1 thought she had been crying, but she said that she was

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suffering from sleep deprivation, because the child could not sleep well at night, and

because she always had to be there for him (#23).

The final factor that FFDW stated was important for the adjustment process was

friendship. Friends usually give them the opportunity to share feelings and experiences.

Friends were also able to give FFDW pointers on how to make the UAE work experience

easier, how to make it serve them better, and how to cope with adjustment problems.

Friends also provided FFDW with some kind of a reference frame as to the parameters of

their jobs. Friends also presented FFDW with their only opportunity to break out of their

isolation. In short, friends made up a support system which the FFDW needed for the

basic survival. Having friends not only made their adjustment to the UAE easier, but also

enabled FFDW to measure how well or poorly they were being treated.

The quantitative data on the number of friends the FFDW had shows that

eighteen percent of the sample population were not allowed to have any friends at all.

Twenty percent had only one friend, and thirty percent had up to five. However, four

percent had more than ten friends (see Table 5.1.5).

Table5X5NumberOfFriends2TDWHad^^ Number of friends made Number Percent Only one 10 19.6 Less than five 15 29.4 Six to ten 9 17.6 More than ten 4 7.8 More than fifteen 2 3.9 Not any 9 17.6 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 100.0

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Finally, after devoting some space to the FFDW own narratives about their work

environments, the following chapter will address the issue of conditions under which the

FFDW work, taking into consideration the factors of work time, leisure time, treatment

etc.

N Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 196 II. The Work Itself

Addressing the issue of housework and its measurement has been one of the most

complicated and controversial issues in social studies. Because of its invisible nature in the

economy and society in general, housework is not only devalued, but is also very hard to

account for or measure. This study, nonetheless, attempts to measure the work of the

FFDW qualitatively and quantitatively, based on their own narratives, and perceptions.

The FFDW in this sample were asked to describe a full working day, from wake up time

until bed time. They were also asked to describe the regular and irregular work that they

had to do, and also to assess the physical and emotional requirements of that particular

work. FFDW were also asked about the types of heavy and boring work they had to do,

and about general work demands on them in the UAE, in comparison with those back

home. The idea was to understand their jobs and to fit their actual work into an analysis of

the migration process and its impact upon their lives.

Data collected on the work of the FFDW in the UAE describes a general pattern

of working hours among most FFDW in the sample, such that the working day began at

six o’clock in the morning and ended at eleven o’clock at night, with two hours rest in the

afternoon. FFDW were required to clean their employers’ houses internally and externally,

cook, take care of children, elderly family members, and animals. Not all FFDW constantly

did heavy work, but they did all report being required to be available all the time for all the

family members. Working for an average of fifteen hours per day, these women earned an

average of Dhs 550 or $150 per month. Working conditions, hours of work, or work

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perception did not differ among FFDW in different UAE household strata. I have

encountered overworked FFDW in all levels of society. Also, I saw abused FFDW in most

strata. The main difference in this domain was probably the space itself, the appearance of

the house, and the special place designed for the FFDW. The following subsection

provides details about the work that these women actually did. These details are provided

through the descriptions and perceptions of the FFDW themselves, and through

quantitative analysis.

A. Work Measurement

Quantitative measurement of the FFDW housework includes taking into

consideration their working hours, daytime and nighttime rest periods, salary, days off

during the week, and privacy.

1- Working hours

Almost 70 percent of the respondents in the sample were overworked, with

working days that averaged 11 to 20 hours in length. Only 29 percent of them worked

under a regimen of normal rate working hours. See Table 5 .2.1.

Table 5.2.1 Hours FFDW In The Sample Worked, According To Their Own Descriptions Number and description of hours worked ______Number ______Percent _____ 6-8 hours (regular to minimum) 2 3.9 9-10 hours (regular to high) 13 25.5 11-14 hours (high/ needs change) 26 51.0 15-20 hours (high/ unacceptable) 9 17.6 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. After asking each of the sample FFDW, as part of the interview, to describe her

working day, I was able to perceive a pattern such that the working day for an FFDW

usually began between six or six thirty in the morning,1 and ended at eleven o’clock at

night.2 The FFDW usually took a two-hour break in the afternoon. Thus the FFDW that

worked between 11 and 14 hours per day were represented the majority. The working day

they described basically conformed to the norm. The typically FFDW described her

working day as follows: I wake up at 6:30, and start to clean up at 7:00. I finish at 11:00,

take a shower, and then iron until 2:00. We eat lunch between 2:30 to 3:00. I take a nap

until 5:00, then clean outside until 7:00. Then I either iron, or we get visitors until 8:30.

We eat dinner between 8:30 and 9:00, and I finish cleaning and then go to bed at 11:00.

An FFDW originally hired as a nanny in a middle stratum household presented

the following narrative about an FFDW working day. At the time of the interview, this

respondent did not see herself as more than a housemaid, required to do various tasks.'

She worked in a household with two other housemaids, one of whom was a cook. The

1 Some reported waking up earlier, i.e., between five and six. Others reported waking up between six and seven. No FFDW reported being asleep after seven o’clock in the morning in a normal setting.

2 Some mentioned going to bed, or to their rooms, at 10:30, others said 11:30 to 12:00. Still Others mentioned when there were parties or late night visitors, they were sometimes needed even later.

Tn 16th and 17th century France, in addition to being a nanny, this respondent would be fulfilling the typical role of femme de chamber. In her narrative, she refers to a particular common to most FFDW working with children, namely, the wake up time. Most of the FFDW reported having to wake up earlier during school days. Only one FFDW in the sample, #29, preferred school days to other days. This was because during those days, she got to sleep at 8:00 PM.

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other was in charge of the general cleaning. This respondent stated: “I do not have a

proper time to wake up. Usually I have to be up before the kids are up. In summer time

they sleep late. On school days, I have to wake them up at 6:00 AM, dress them, give

them breakfast, and send them to school at 7:00. After that, I take charge of the baby,

who wakes up. I give him milk, play with him and put him back to sleep. At 10:00 AM he

wakes up again, [and] I give him cereal. At eleven o’clock, Madame wakes up,[and] I

have to clean her room and bathroom. By that time the baby would be ready to go to sleep

again. While he is asleep I clean the children’ room, then the baby wakes up again. I give

him lunch. It will [then] be close to three, time for [the] children to come back from

school. They eat, and then we eat after them. After we finish, we have to work on

homework. The baby takes another nap. [I] Take the children to bed too, cleaning,

changing, brushing teeth, etc. At eight the children have to be asleep. Sometimes, they

need me to stay with them until they fall asleep. I do, while the baby would be with

another housemaid. After I finish with them, I take care of the baby who needs feeding

and changing, and then sleeps between 9:00 to 10:00. Between 10:00 and 11:00,1 do my

own things, and then sleep at 11:30” (#17).

FFDW narratives describing the working day relate that FFDW are kept busy

from morning until night. In another narrative, this FFDW described her working day as

follows: “When there is no school I wake up at 6:30. During school days, I wake up at

6:00. I wash my own clothes, take a shower, [and] start cleaning at 8:00. [The] kids wake

up at 10:00 (if [there is] no school), eat breakfast, then I wash the dishes. Then I take a

\ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. bath. At 2:00 we eat lunch, I read, and sleep. I wake up at 4:30, [and then] I come to take

care of the baby. I prepare his milk, sit outside. Then after dinner, I help washing dishes,

and cleaning. I eat dinner, I prepare milk for the baby, and go to my room at 11:00. I read

books until 12:00. I sleep at 12:30 (#15). This respondent reported that she was totally

satisfied with her job and was employed in a middle stratum household, with three other

maids doing similar work.

In contrast to the previous example, this second description of a working day

seems less stressful, and the respondent seems freer to engage in self-care activities, such

as washing her own clothes, taking more than one shower a day, reading etc. The FFDW

in this example did not have friends and did not go out much, but was satisfied . The

FFDW in the previous example, though, reported feeling very isolated, because she was

not allowed to go out by herself. However, in a third example, an overworked FFDW

working alone in a household and subsisting on a welfare living standard reported feeling

totally exploited. She reported waking up at five o’clock in the morning, and going to bed

at midnight. She stated that she worked all the time, and only got a very short rest period

(#42).4

2- Day time and night time rest

The FFDW narratives also described patterns regarding rest periods for the

4 This respondent related that her room did not even have an air conditioning unit, in a climate where the temperature reaches up to 120 F, and where the humidity reaches 100 percent. She also reported that she did not have a place to put her clothes, and was only given a small cardboard box in which to put her other possessions.

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FFDW. As the whole society rests between 2:30 and 4:30 PM, FFDW benefit from this

rest period as well. In most cases, they are allowed between one and two hours. This

research showed that 71 percent of the sample population got one to two hours of rest

time during the day, and one to two hours is considered the average rest period length.

Another 14 percent of the sample population got up to three hours daytime rest, and this

is considered a rest period of above-average length. Only 10 percent of the sample

population got up to 45 minutes rest, and the length of this period was far below the

average for such a long work day. In only one case, the rest period was anomalously long,

and the FFDW here worked in a strange and dysfunctional household setting from which

she was actually benefiting.5 (Table 5.2.2).

5 This was the case of the very young FFDW who claimed to be 19 years old but looked no older than thirteen. This girl, who had run away from the previous employer and was living in a welfare-level household, was doing all of the housework by herself, as she related, but the place itself was problematic, and the family was highly dysfunctional. The employer was a divorced and beautiful young lady who was still living in the house with her husband, and her mother in law. Both husband and mother in law lived on one side of the house, while the wife and her children lived on the other. They did not talk to each other. The young FFDW caught up in this situation had, herself, been forced to migrate to work by her father and stepmother. She came to this dysfunctional household purely by chance, but managed to find some fun in it, because it gave her the freedom in the afternoon to go out and to visit houses in the neighborhood as the employer herself did (#41).

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Table 5.2.2 Daytime Rest Periods Allowed FFDW During Their Working Day

Length of rest time ______Number ______Percent 0-45 min (low) 5 9.8 1 -2 hrs (average) 36 70.6 2 hrs 15 min-3 hrs (high) 7 13.7 3 hrs 15 min-4 hrs (very high) 1 2.0 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 100.0

The average nighttime rest for a regular person in the UAE is eight hours. But

only 25 .5 percent of the sample population was allowed that average. More than a half of

the sample population, i.e., 55 percent, got between 6 to 7 hours of night rest. A

comparatively high percentage of the sample population, 12 percent, did not get more than

5 hours of sleep. Only 6 percent of the sample population reported getting a long night

time rest period (see Table 5.2.3).

Table 5.2.3 NightTfme Rest For FFDW During A 24-Hour Time Span Including Working 2 %.______Length of night time rest ______Number ______Percent 0-5 hrs 45 min (very low) 6 11.8 6-7 hrs (low) 28 58.9 7 hrs 15 min-8 hrs 45 min (average to high) 13 25.5 9-10 hrs 45 min (high) j 5.9 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

The three respondents who reported getting long night time rest period did not

seem overworked. Two of them were employed in an upper stratum neighborhood, and

the third worked in a lower stratum area. The one who was employed in the lower stratum

area, where houses are usually much smaller, was also getting help from another

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housemaid, which meant that this welfare-level household, occupying a small dwelling,

was being served by two housekeepers. The smallness of the house, and the fact that there

were two housemaids there, gave both housekeepers more time to rest, and therefore, they

were not overly exhausted.

3- Wages

Most FFDW in the UAE are paid between Dhs 500 and Dhs 650,6 or $130 to

$175 per month. Their wages vary according to their ethnic background, and their level is

not heavily influenced by the FFDW education level or previous skills (see Table 5.2.5.

and 5.2.6). A college educated FFDW from the Philippines would be paid the same wage

as a high school graduate, or a middle school-educated Filipina, but would earn much

more than an FFDW from India, regardless of the latter’s skills. Indonesians FFDW, at the

starting point of employment, are the most highly paid.7 These wage discrepancies could

be related to different micro and macro factors, or to the limited supply in comparison to

the high demand for domestic labor. An approximate ranking by payment of FFDW from

the various sender countries would place those from Indonesia and the Philippines at the

highest level, followed by those from Sri Lanka comes third, with those from India at the

6 For the FFDW, this salary amounts to four times, ten times, or in some very cases from India, as much as 100 times the wages they would earn in their home countries.

7 There are other factors determining the wages that FFDW earn in the UAE. These factors operate at both the macro and micro level. One micro factor on the employer’s side is the status and generosity of the employer. Another micro factor on the wage earner’s side is the training and preparation of FFDW before migration. The macro factors are geographical position, relation, and terms of trade of the particular country sending the FFDW with the UAE, and the position and status of women in the sender country.

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lowest level.

Data collected on the sample population of this study reflected that most of the

FFDW earned between $130 and $175 per month. Only eight respondents, a very small

number, earned less than Dhs 450 or $120. All of these last were from India and Sri

Lanka. Another small number, only six persons in all, was being paid more than Dhs 650

or $175 per month (see Table 5.2.4). These were from different countries, including the

Philippines, Sri Lanka, and others. None of them were from India, however. All of these

higher-paid respondents had been educated above the middle school level, and two were

college educated. Only one person in the sample population was being paid wages

amounting to more than 800 per month.* (see tables below).

Table 5.2.4 Monthly Wages Of FFDW, Measured By UAE Djrhams Amount paid ______Number ______Percent 300-400 Dhs 8 15.7 500-575 Dhs 19 37.3 600-650 Dhs 18 35.3 700-800 Dhs 5 9.8 More than 800 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

* This respondent was being paid this comparatively high wage because she cared for a very sick child who was totally attached to her only, even to the exclusion of his mother.

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Table 5.2.5 Salary Of FFDW In Relation To Nationality Country/ Salary 300-400 500-575 600-650 675-800 800+ Total Philippines 5 8 2 1 16 Sri Lanka 4 9 4 2 19 India 4 5 2 11 Indonesia 3 Other 1 1 2

Table 5.2.6 Salary Of The FFDW In Relation To Educational Background Education/ Salary 300-400 500-575 600-650 675-800 800+ Total Percent Illiterate 2 *> 2 7 13.7 Primary 4 8 4 16 31.4 Middle 2 3 1 1 7 13.7 High j 5 2 1 11 21.6 College 2 6 2 10 19.6

4- Davs off

None of the FFDW in the sample reported being allowed a day off per week.

This reality is one of the problems with this kind of job in UAE. This is the only paid job

there where employees are not allowed a day off. The reason for this is associated with the

insecurity that employers feel about their employees. For the employers, giving the FFDW

days off means relinquishing control of them, and giving them opportunities to date or

have a free life. Dating is a social practice that is totally forbidden in a conservative,

Islamic society like the UAE. An employer’s relinquishment of control over an FFDW by

giving her a day off during the week could, according to popular thinking on this matter,

bring him or her unexpected problems involving the uncontrolled FFDW.

However, not all FFDW stay at home all the time. Some are allowed to go out,

visit friends, or to go shopping with them. Some also sleep away from their employers’

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houses on occasion. But all of these liberal practices still occur within the framework of

the idea that the FFDW must be subject to control. This means that the employer should

have a sense of where the FFDW is going, and why. Also, it is important to point out that

FFDW in the sample who were allowed to sleep out were exceptional, namely because

their husbands were working in Dubai. They could therefore go and visit, spend the night,

and return in the morning (#3, #28).

None of the FFDW in the sample were allowed weekly days off. For this reason,

I had to introduce a factor of difference to be able differentiate those who FFDW who

were allowed to go out from those who were not. With this differentiation the quantitative

analysis of this variable showed the following: 72.5 percent of the FFDW in the sample

were not allowed to go out, and 23 .5 percent were allowed to if they wanted to (see Table

5.2.7).

Table 5.2.7 Days Off In The Week, And Permission To Leave Employer's House Status______Number ______Percent No days off, not out alone 37 72.5 No days off, can go out 12 23 .5 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 3.9

5- Privacy

The FFDW who come to UAE come from lower to upper-lower class

backgrounds. In their own homes, therefore, they do not have individual rooms to

themselves, or other elements of privacy. This need is sometimes one of the forces

prompting them to leave, because some of them hear from friends who have preceded

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them to the UAE that FFDW get their own rooms to live in, as well as their own radios,

Televisions, etc. (#1). However, in reality, not all FFDW who work in the UAE get

private rooms. Sometimes they end up sharing a room with other FFDW.

In the sample studied, almost half of the FFDW shared a private room outside of

the house with other domestics. Only 6 percent of these FFDW actually had rooms to

themselves, but the room itself was not always a pleasant one.9 Twelve percent reported

sharing a bedroom with children, and 8 percent reported sharing one with older members

of the employer’s household, such as an older daughter, or sister. Twenty three percent

reported that their sleeping accommodations were any convenient spot in the house (see

Table 5.2.8).

The issue of privacy, and private living space for FFDW is related to the fast rate

at which social change is taking place in UAE today. It is also connected to the issue of

housing, urban development, and the structure of the UAE household. Building special

rooms for housekeepers has come to be considered a necessity for most new households

in UAE over the last ten to fifteen years. Two main factors have prompted this

increasingly widespread phenomenon. One is the impact of the old legacy of slavery10 in

9 Some, like the worst case in the sample, involving an FFDW who needed direct help, had a private room that she described as a place fit for animals (# 42).

10 When I was conducting interviews for this study, in most of the houses of old merchant families houses that she visited, she saw former slaves, who used to work for those families, still sitting with their aged former owners, despite their being liberated. They still made it a practice to come and visit their former owners daily, as a way of showing their loyalty. They also obtained a certain amount of financial and emotional support from their former owners.

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the UAE.11 The second is the growing sense of insecurity and fear among UAE citizens of

the perceived negative impact of FFDW on UAE families and society in general. This

insecurity has been growing apace with the contradictory reality of growing dependence

on FFDW to sustain the new modes of life in the UAE. UAE citizens are increasingly

choosing to give the FFDW a private spot on the outside of the house, but in such a way

as to keep them under the direct control of the whole household.

Table 5.2.8 Status Of FFDW Spatial Privacy In UAE Spatial privacy Number Percent Room of her own 3 5.9 Room with other maids 25 49.0 In family member’s bedroom 4 7.8 In children’s bedroom 6 11.8 In a spot in the house 12 23.5 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

However, this choice presents its own problems. For instance, giving FFDW a

separate area on the outside of the house can alienate them and fuel their feelings of social

isolation. At the same time, though, this layout gives them more space to themselves, and

in most cases it helps them develop a greater sense of collective identity in relation to their

employers. It also gives them more opportunity to sneak out, run away, or invite other

maids to their rooms without having to feel the constant presence and control of the

employer.

11 In the age of slavery, slaves were given separate places outside of the house. This practice is being revived nowadays in the design of new housing structures, where a separate sphere for maids is built alongside the house, so that domestics will not interact with family members. This practice is also fueled by the need to control housekeepers and

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Living in somebody else’s house eventually tends to create a pressing need for

privacy, even among those who have not enjoyed privacy before. Most FFDW, or

housekeepers in general need to have a spot, a place, or a comer that feels private. Some

of the FFDW in the sample population who did not have such a spot reported creating

one, under stairways, on the roof, or in any comer of the house that lent itself to solitude

and rest, and to meditation about dreams, memories, their past and their futures.12 A

private, personal spot for FFDW has become a necessity, and UAE society has to face

those contradictions brought about by the need to control the activities of FFDW, while at

the same time being increasingly dependent upon them.

B. Work Perception

Measuring FFDW perceptions of housework presents more challenges than does

measuring the housework itself. Individual perceptions can be very idiosyncratic, and

difficult to evaluate. To overcome this difficulty, in a very controlled setting, the

researcher added more questions and variables, in order to broaden the image presented by

the FFDW housework perceptions, and to relate these perceptions more closely to reality.

Seven variables were assessed in this subsection, namely, perception of work, work

demands, FFDW comparisons of work in the UAE with work in their home countries,

their interaction with children.

12 An FFDW whom I personally know did not have a room to herself. She shared a bedroom with one of the daughters. However, when she needed to be alone, to write a letter, read a letter, or listen to Indian music, she would go to her own spot behind the kitchen, where it was cool and quiet, and which provided her with lots of privacy. She sometimes napped there in the afternoon.

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perception of salary, heaviest types of work assigned, the most boring types of work

assigned, and irregular work. These perceptions, when quantified provide deeper insight

into the general reality of domestic employment in the UAE, and how the FFDW perceive

this work reality. FFDW perceptions are also potentially useful in facilitating an

assessment of the domestic employment situation in the UAE, and the issues it raises.

1- Perception of work

Almost half of the FFDW interviewed considered their work very heavy. Another

31 percent considered it somewhat heavy. Only 14 percent saw it as not so heavy, and 4

percent described it as light. Combining the two groups that saw the work as very or

somewhat heavy yields a total of 88 percent of the sample population (see Table 5 .2.9).

However, despite its heaviness, housework is accepted, because it is the only choice. As

one respondent observed, “The work is hard, but we came to work. We have to be

strong” (#4). Housework is also accepted in cases where the employer approaches the

FFDW in an understanding manner. As an example, another FFDW mentioned that, “It is

not an easy job. It needs strength, and a relaxed mind. However, my employers reward me

constantly with their supportive words. They see how I care for the old lady. They say,

that I am not a maid, I am a daughter” (#2).

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Table 5.2.9 FFDW Perception Of The Quality And Amount Of Work They Do Perceptions ______Number ______Percent Very heavy 25 49.0 Somewhat heavy 16 31.4 Not so heavy 7 13 .7 Light 2 3.9 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

2- Perception of work demands

Because it tends to isolating FFDW on the one hand, and because it entails

coexistence and interaction with the employer on the other, housework becomes very

emotionally demanding. This has been pointed out in literature on housework, and was

underscored during the interviews conducted for this study. One FFDW stated that,

“Work itself is hard, but does not hurt. It is the soul, and the spirit that get affected. When

we are not happy, the work becomes a burden” (#9).

Although the work is actually demanding, not all of the FFDW in the sample

perceived it that way. Fifty three percent of the sample population perceived the work as

very demanding in general. Other saw it as mainly physically, or mainly emotionally,

demanding. Thirty percent of the sample population described the work as mainly

physically demanding, and 10 percent saw it as emotionally draining. Only six percent of

the sample population described the work as not demanding at all (see Table 5.2.10).

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Table S.2.I0 Work Demands As Perceived By The FFDW In The Sample Types of demands ______Number ______Percent Physical strength 15 29.4 Emotional capabilities 5 9 8 Both 27 52.9 Not demanding 3 5.9 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

3- Comparison with work in the home country

The assumption behind housework in general is that it is a female domain, that all

women know how to do it, and that all women find it easy.13 However, the truth is that

housework, like any other work, needs previous training, and even orientation to the

specific idiosyncrasies of each family In fact, it can be argued that housework is one of

the hardest, most challenging, and emotionally draining occupations. As many as 80

percent of the FFDW in the sample saw it as totally different from the housework they had

done in their home countries. Only 4 percent saw housework in the UAE very similar to

that in their home countries. Another 12 percent saw it as only somewhat different from

the housework they did back home. Those who saw housework in the UAE as different

from that done in their home countries generally meant that the work in the UAE was

harder and more demanding. Nonetheless, one respondent did describe it as easier as her

work at home had been. This respondent remarked, “It is better here. In India, we work in

rice plantation, out in the hot weather all the day. Sand burns our feet. Here is much

Ij My experience with the FFDW indicated that their housework in their home countries was not as heavy as that in the UAE. After all, the FFDW in the UAE come from lower socio-economic strata, with limited resources, and limited knowledge and information.

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Table 5.2.11 FFDW Comparisons Of Work Done In The UAE With That In Their Home Countries Description ______Number ______Percent Same as home country 2 3 .9 Totally different 41 80.4 Somehow different 6 11.8 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 100.0

4- Perception of wages

Only 37 percent of the sample population saw the wages they were earning as

satisfactory. Another 20 percent described the wages as very low, and still another 41

percent observed that their wages needed increasing. These last two groups combined

constituted a 61 percent share of the sample population that believed that their wages

needed to be raised. More than half of the FFDW in the sample, then, believed that they

deserved higher wages for their workloads, despite the fact that employment in the UAE

provided them with a comparative advantage to employment in their home countries in

terms of wage level.

Table 5.2.12 FFDW Perceptions Of Their Monthly Wages Perception ______Number ______Percent ______Very low 10 19.6 O.K. 18 36.7 Needs raise 21 41.2 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 100.0

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5- Perception of heaviest type of work

As we have seen in the section covering work measurement, most FFDW work

from early morning until late at night. They do almost every thing in the house. Most

employers wake up at around 11:00 AM, and do not help the FFDW much.14 The work

that FFDW did is generally heavy, as well as long in hours. Twenty percent of the sample

population described general cleaning the heaviest work required of them. Seventeen

percent gave this rank to ironing. A smaller group ranked cooking as their heaviest task,

and a fourth group ranked vacuuming that way. One of these respondents stated that “The

vacuum cleaner is very heavy, it hurts my back. I have to carry it up and down the stairs”

(# 20 ).

FFDW in general complained about ironing. Both ironing and cooking are usually

difficult jobs in a hot and humid country, and the life style of UAE households made both

jobs even more demanding. In UAE households, cooking is associated with social life.

Any social event entails inviting guests for food, especially during Ramadan.15 More than

one housekeeper complained about cooking during Ramadan, and about how time

consuming it was. During Ramadan, each household’s FFDW cooked enough food to

I4When I interviewed one of the worst cases in the sample, it was in a small house in the welfare level district of Dubai. The house was in a very bad shape. I even felt that she could not sit on the sofa, because it was very dirty. The employer, a big and fat lady, spent most of the day talking on the telephone. Her children, five boys were constantly jumping around, or playing “Nintendo” in the comer. The house was very disorderly, and only the housekeeper seemed to be doing the cleaning and cooking.

lsRamadan is holy month during which Muslims fast from daybreak to dusk. Five minutes before Iftar, or the breaking of the fast, housekeepers knock on doors, bringing food to all houses in the neighborhood.

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send food to all of that household’s neighbors.

Table 5.2.13 Types Of Heaviest Work, As Perceived By FFDW Types of work ______Number ______Percent Ironing 9 17.6 Vacuuming 5 9.8 Washing clothes 1 2.0 General cleaning 10 19.6 Cooking 8 15.7 Gardening 2 3.9 Caring for animals 2 3.9 Caring for elderly 1 2.0 Caring for kids 3 5.9 None 5 9.8 Missing 5 9.8 Total 51 100.0

6- Perceptions of most boring type of work

Aside from being a heavy task, FFDW interviewed considered ironing the most

boring one. One respondent described ironing as is monotonous, and tiring for her legs

(#8). FFDW also considered cooking and vacuuming boring. Interestingly enough, a large

portion, 18 percent, did not find housekeeping work boring. The respondents who did

consider it boring gave different reasons for this perception. One respondent, for instance,

saw housekeeping as boring because she always had to wait for her employers to return

when they went out at night. She observed, “If they go out we cannot sleep. We have to

stay awake, and wait for them. It is boring” (#28). Another referred to repetition of the

same tasks every day as boring, and also mentioned that some tasks, in addition to being

boring, were annoying. “ Repeating the work, sometimes, makes it boring, and tiring. For

example, ironing the clothes every day, throwing the garbage outside. When I go every

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day out to throw the garbage, I feel upset sometimes. I ask myself, why does it have to be

me every day?” (#29).

Table 5.2.14 The Most Boring Types Of Work, As Perceived By FFDW Types of work ______Number ______Percent Ironing 12 23.5 Vacuuming 4 7.8 General cleaning 8 15 .7 Cooking 6 11.8 Caring for children 1 2.0 None 9 17.6 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

7- Perceptions of the most irregular types of work

Irregular work included any type of work that FFDW did not do on a daily basis.

Twenty two percent of the FFDW spoke of general cleaning as one of the biggest irregular

task. An employer’s having visitors at night, entertaining family members during the

weekend, or cooking and giving food to relatives and neighbors during Ramadan, are

rituals that often make household work more demanding and stressful. Most of the FFDW

in the sample mentioned having to go through one or all of those activities (see Table

5.2.15).

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Table 5.2.15 Types Of Irregular Work Done During A Month’s Time By FFDW Type of work ______Number ______Percent Monthly big cleaning 11 21.6 Late night visitors 6 11.8 Holidays & big feasts 3 5.9 Monthly big cleaning & late night visitors 3 5.9 Late night visitors & holidays & big feasts 2 3.9 Monthly big cleaning & holidays and big feasts 1 2.0 All the above 8 15.7 None 11 21.6 Missing 6 11.8 Total 51 100.0

For example, the big cleaning, or cleaning the garden are typical. "Once a month

we clean every thing. We wash it with soap. We give fertilizer for the plants inside and

outside. The whole garden has to be treated. Also every Thursday, the employer’s whole

family comes to visit. It is lots of work, cooking, and cleaning after that” (#8).

8- Perception of help at work

Having to do all the regular and irregular work, having to cook for visitors,

neighbors, and extended family would be impossible if only one housekeeper were

available to do it. As a matter of fact, this sort of life style has become increasingly

possible because of the abundance of maids. These other domestic workers are the main

source of help in UAE households for 72.5 percent of the FFDW. By contrast, only 4

percent of the sample population mentioned getting help from their employers. It seems

the UAE citizens are becoming increasingly dependent upon housekeepers to do all

domestic work for them (Table 5.2.16).

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Table 5.2.16 FFDW Perception Of Help Received In Doing Housework Helper ______Number ______Percent Employer 2 3.9 Other housekeeper 37 72.5 None 10 19.6 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 100.0

In general, FFDW perceive themselves as hard workers. The work they do is not

always pleasant, and is very demanding. As most FFDW perceive, it is not well paid.

However, they do it because this occupation was their choice, and because it is

advantageous in comparison with going back to their home countries and facing poverty

and need. As most FFDW mention, employers can make a big difference in the work’s

nature and conditions for them. A good, supportive employer can make the job more

acceptable and bearable.

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This part of the study of FFDW and their work in the UAE is the most critical

one. It addresses issues of abuse, and damages that FFDW suffer at work. Because of the

sensitive nature of this topic, it was not easy to approach it, or to get FFDW remarks

about it. Nor, however, was this task impossible. In most of the interviews, I was able to

ask questions openly, and obtained some relevant responses. In general, FFDW found it

easier to speak about previous experiences than current ones, although both types will be

reported here.

Some FFDW reported incidents of sexual abuse in their current work places.

FFDW also reported incidents of physical and verbal abuse. Abuse was not only limited to

the employers themselves. The children of employers, relatives, other houseworkers,

especially male drivers, were also culprits here.

This part relates FFDW narratives concerning various types of abuse they

suffered, in addition to assessing the extra benefits they get from domestic employment.

Hence, this chapter treats both the advantages and disadvantages that the FFDW working

conditions present, in order provide an accurate portrayal of the FFDW employment

reality, to put this reality into a larger perspective, and to answer the different questions

raised by the study.

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A. Benefits

One very strong social value in the UAE is generosity. Among other things, UAE

employers give tips to their employees during holidays and social events. They also buy

them gold and give them money at the end of the contract to buy gifts and electronic

devices for their families back home. UAE employers also take up FFDW shipping

expenses for purchased goods and extra luggage. The pay from their contracts enabled

some FFDW to buy land, a house, or even more.1

Also, being an FFDW in the UAE gives one a chance to travel and see the world,

because UAE citizens travel every summer. More than one FFDW mentioned traveling as

one of the benefits they obtained, and the life experience they could not otherwise have

obtained if they had not migrated to the UAE (#15, #29, #17).

FFDW in the UAE have recently been obtaining a new type of benefit, which has

been introduced through the new, Indonesian wave of FFDW in UAE. This is the

possibility of being sent on the pilgrimage to Mecca. One of the FFDW in the sample was

delighted to talk about this opportunity. For a Muslim FFDW, this is often the realization

of a lifetime dream. The exciting thing that the Indonesian FFDW in the sample referred to

1 The Indian lady who was with me when I started my studies in the United States actually bought a house in India and rented a rice plantation for ten years as an investment. This lady, who had migrated to the UAE with nothing, was able to go home with plenty of gifts, cash money and $500 worth of gold to sell in India. When she came back she would talk about how she built status for herself in the village. When she left India, she had been very poor. However, she returned rich and admired and everyone came to visit her when she came home.

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was that she went with a group consisting of other Indonesian FFDW from Dubai to

Mecca. Her employer sponsored her entire journey, but she was able to be by herself, and

to enjoy herself with her friends. She recounted, “it was a life experience “(#12).

Most of the FFDW in the sample related that they did, indeed, get extra benefits.

These benefits varied among them, both in value and quantity. Only 25 percent of the

sample population reported not getting any extra benefits. The remainder of the sample

population reported obtaining extra benefits of one kind or another, such as holidays tips,

raises, or long distance phone calls to their home countries. Sixteen percent of the sample

population reported getting all of these benefits (see table 5 .3 .1). One respondent even

remarked that her employer provided her with a separate telephone line (#2). This was the

only case reported in which an FFDW enjoyed this kind of privacy, however.

Table^&lJJenefitsAndJftgsJleceive^B^JTDV^^ Type of benefit ______Number ______Percent Raise 1 2.0 Holidays and tips 19 37.3 Phone calls 3 5.9 Raise and tips 6 11.8 All the above 8 15.7 None 13 25.5 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

The percentage of FFDW in the sample who get holidays and tips, combined with

the percentage getting raises and tips, and the percentage enjoying all of these benefits

makes up a 64 percent share of the sample population. This percentage at least refleas

that FFDW not only get their wages, but also get other benefits that are not accounted for

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and that not only help them in improving their material wealth, but also encourage foreign

female migration to UAE and keep it growing. However, this situation of extra benefits

has been changing over recent years as a result of a combination of factors.

One of the factors is the general economic depression that has taken hold in the

UAE, owing to the fall in oil prices and the decrease in general savings. The second most

relevant factor is the growth of the FFDW phenomenon itself in the UAE. Because of the

generally very cheap and affordable wages they pay the FFDW, UAE employers are

choosing to hire more than one or two FFDW instead of spending extra money on one of

them. The supply of FFDW is much higher than demand for them, and for each FFDW

migrating to the UAE, thousands more are available. Therefore, the employee’s total

satisfaction is not so much a necessity for employers as an ethical choice.2

In one of the cases that I observed, an employer began paying her FFDW lower

wages, because she had hired an additional FFDW. Her explanation was that with the

addition of the new domestic worker the other FFDW would have less work to do (#49,

#50, #51).

2 The UAE is a society whose ethics are embedded in Islamic culture and teachings concerning good treatment of servants. But ethics in general leave plenty of room for idiosyncrasies and generalities. Also the rapid transformations the UAE society is undergoing are affecting its value and ethical systems. The UAE has been swept with rapid economic and capitalist development to which it has been trying to adjust. These sweeping transformations have left many UAE citizens very uncomfortable and insecure in so many areas, especially when they cannot connect these changes to old Islamic values. Islamic traditions do not offer clear and specific interpretations of these transformations, and do not necessary help UAE citizens scientifically interpret the increasing social problems confronting their society, such as the influx of foreign labor, and devise ways of dealing with it.

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Earning a wage that is at least three or four times more than what they would

earn in their home country, getting free accommodations, food, and extra benefits are all

factors that make migration to the UAE very appealing to many FFDW, especially to

those women who live in poverty, and sub-poverty back home. When each FFDW goes

back home and reports about the extra benefits she receives, she motivates thousands of

women who are looking for ways to improve their lives to do as she did.

The extra benefits are not the whole story about employment as a domestic in the

UAE. There is, in fact, a probability that some FFDW, embarking upon the migration

journey to the UAE will be abused, sexually molested, hit, beaten, humiliated, etc., during

the course of their employment. The following sub-section relates the experiences of abuse

that FFDW interviewed for this study had.

B. Damages

Once the FFDW enters the UAE household, she does actually participate in the

structural relations of this household. Rather, she becomes one of the women living there,

or part of the “harem.” However, she is not considered one of the regular female members

of the household, because her status is lower/ An FFDW in a UAE household not only

helps women of the house to attain higher status, and modem dreams, but also serves the

whole household so that it can accommodate itself to the new life style of leisure and

J She is supposed to accomplish some female functions, like cleaning, washing, cooking, taking care of children, but her status is really that of a sub-woman. Her role is to relieve the real women of house of the dirty side of housework, and ultimately to give them higher status, and more time to engage in social life and in other aspects of the modem female role.

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modernity.4

A UAE household is like any other household, lull of love, affection, and

personal care, but also full of tension, aggression, and conflicts. When the FFDW enters

the household, it is as if she were entering a whole new world of complications, and

challenges. She has no previous ideas of this particular household’s dynamics, or its

interpersonal and interstructural relationships. She is not even equipped with means to

handle them. In addition to help and support, her very entrance into that household brings

new factors of change for the family to deal with. The family itself is not usually prepared

for this reality. The family brings the FFDW into the household as they would bring any

new consumer goods, and most of the time its members do not take the possible

consequences into account. The repercussions of this abrupt change are complications,

tensions, conflicts, strong possibilities of domestic violence, and interstructural household

violence.

The FFDW positions as the lowest-status components of the power dynamics of

the UAE household make them vulnerable and potential receivers of the largest dose of

violence in the house. Along with their low social status, their stereotyped image in UAE

society makes them easy targets and scapegoats for some facets of the emerging

4 Employers frequently spoke of the changing life styles of UAE households during interviews with me. They also referred to the new demands that women could not sustain. They mentioned how simple life had been before, when they did not have as much clothing to wear and to iron. They mentioned that during the period before the oil boom, they used to get new clothes only twice a year. They remarked that before the oil boom, they did not even have a closet in the house, but that now, each family member had a private bedroom, and each had a closet full of clothes.

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dysfunctional aspects of the UAE family. The amount of violence and damage they receive

in the individual household cannot only be measured by the violent act of an individual

household member at a particular moment. The individual violence is also an accumulated

set of acts which is shaped by the historical legacy of UAE society and its

conceptualization of domestic work. It is also the result of the UAE household’s

continuous interaction with the new, and of ongoing changes in UAE society as well.

In telling their stories of damaging abuse, the FFDW in the sample complained

more frequently of verbal abuse than they did of sexual and physical abuse. Verbal abuse

in this sample seemed to be the most frequently reported form of abuse, as 23 .5 percent of

sample population mentioned experiencing it. However, when verbal abuse was coupled

with other forms of abuse, the percentage of the sample population reporting experiences

of abuse rose to 32 percent (see table 5.3.2).

Physical abuse was the second most frequently reported form of abuse in this

study. It affected up to 12 percent of the sample population if considered in conjunction

with incidents of verbal and physical abuse combined. Sexual abuse in their households of

employment affected 6 percent of the sample population if considered in conjunction with

incidents of sexual and verbal abuse combined. Although relatively few incidents of sexual

abuse were reported in this study, in comparison with other forms of abuse, sexual abuse

remains significant, because sexual abuse is a difficult issue to talk about. Another factor

contributing to the low number of reported sexual abuse incidents in this sample is the area

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itself.5 The least frequently reported form of abuse was that committed by children against

FFDW.

Table 5.3.2 Different Forms Of Abuse Reported By FFDW Forms of abuse Number Percent Physical 1 2.0 Verbal 12 23.5 Sexual 1 2.0 Physical/verbal 5 9.8 Verbal/sexual 2 3.9 Harassed only by children 2 3.9 None 22 43.1 Missing 6 11.8 Total 51 100.0

Not all FFDW in the sample reported abuse, even in its minor forms such as

verbal. In fact, almost half of the sample, or 43.1 percent, reported a no abuse at all.

Another high percentage of this study’s sample population was missing as a result of

circumstances during the interview, in some cases, where the employer was present, and

was controlling some of the questions asked. This control did not affect the general set up

of the whole questionnaire, and certainly did not affect the high relevance of all other

stories of abuse that FFDW told. The stories are divided by type-categories of abuse

reported. These categories are verbal and psychological, physical and emotional, sexual,

and abuse by children. In telling those stories, one distinction would be made throughout,

namely, that between an FFDW previous employment household or the current one.

3Hamrya is known as one of the new housing developments in Dubai. It accommodates the rising educated elite, whose members usually consider themselves as more socially conscious and better equipped to deal with challenging human issues, such as the FFDW.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1- Verbal and psychological abuse-in the household of current employment

Most sample members’ complaints of verbal abuse included reports of screaming,

shouting, humiliating talk, and name-calling. One FFDW recounted, “They say Indian,

knows nothing” (#24). Another respondent stated, “My employer is a nervous person. If

she is upset or in a bad mood, she shouts and screams. She always make us feel that we

are her maids” (#17). A third respondent said, “They shout, they scream at me, they call

me names, they make me feel as if I am like kashra or trash” (#19). A fourth FFDW

recalled, “They say you are an animal, a donkey, crazy, stupid” (#42). As explained earlier,

most of these forms of abuse are not only related to the specific interaction between the

FFDW and her employer, at the specific time or circumstances. Those forms of abuse are

also related to a tense situation inside the household, or are rooted in the legacy of slavery

and of subjecting the new houseworkers to the old forms of interaction between owner

and slave.

Number 19, for example, was an FFDW who worked for a rich merchant family

which used to own slaves.6 The household was an extended family, with all members

living together; brothers, sisters, a divorced sister with her children, mother etc. As an

outside observer, I did not get a sense of family bonding in the modem definition of the

phrase. As a matter of fact, when she spoke to one family member, others interfered and

interrupted. Family members in this household frequently attempted to silence each other

6 One of their previous slaves, an old black lady was always with the mother, following her, supporting everything she said, and acting as a family member and looking after the interest of the family.

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during the interview. The house itself was large, with many rooms, and divisions. Each

division seemed to fulfill a separate business, acting as an autonomous unit within the

whole. Servants, male and female, lived separately from the rest of the household, but

their presence was every where in the house.7 There seemed to be more maids in that

household than actual family members. The house was untidy, even though it was a huge

house which obviously belonged to the rich, with much large furniture. Thus aggression

against FFDW in this particular household was first based on a predisposed view of

domestic help as slaves, and secondly, was connected to the tension inside the household

itself, as reflected in the fact that household members could not have a dialogue among

themselves, and did not show respect for each other during conversations. In light of this

situation, it was easy to expect family members in this household not to treat domestic

help with respect, either.

Another verbal/psychological abuse case involved a household in a welfare-level

neighborhood of Dubai. In this household, sisters in their teens and older lived together,

their father having deserted them after their mother’s death. The older sister ran the

household. Their maids complained that, “They fight every day, with me and with each

other. The older sister8 turns my life into hell. She constantly gives orders, nothing pleases

7 One of the male servants kept appearing and interrupting the interview. He was like an intruder of the privacy of the interview, which I had specifically requested with the employer. This male servant did not stop interfering with the interview until the researcher stopped him by asking him to mind his own business, and to refrain from interrupting if he did not want to be reported to his employer. He smiled and faded away.

8 The eldest sister looked very thin, and was probably sick, and will never be able to get married. Her other sisters looked healthy and strong.

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her, and [she] makes me repeat the job so many times” (#35).

Each verbal/psychological abuse case was a story in itself, but each case of verbal

and psychological aggression also seemed to be rooted in the structural formation, and

interaction of the household members. When FFDW enter the household, they sometimes

ease the tension, but most of the time, they get deeply involved in it.

2- Physical and emotional abuse-in the household of current employment

Physical violence against domestic workers is a practice that is traceable to the

institution of slavery. However, modem human practice has been challenged to abolish the

vestiges of such forms of control. FFDW who reported being physically abused were

usually living in households where employers did not have a high sense of conscience

about his or her behavior towards housekeepers. Depending on its intensity and frequency,

physical abuse can be very dangerous. In modem times, it is not acceptable, and therefore

its practice has increasingly disappeared from the public scene. Unfortunately, it is still

practiced within the privacy of the household.

This sub-section covers some of the FFDW reports about incidents of physical

abuse that took place in the households in which they were employed during the time of

the interview, or in previous households of employment. One FFDW recounted, “Once I

hit my employer’s car by accident. She started screaming at m e.' Don’t you see? Is it the

first time you see a car? Why are you so stupid?’ She was wearing a ring. She smacked my

face. My face was red for a long time. I cannot forget this moment” (#1). A second FFDW

related, “Once we were in the kitchen. I was cooking, [and] she got angry at me, after we

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got in an argument. She hit me with a plate”(#9). A third FFDW remarked, “They do hit

me. One of the big girls is bad, she hits. Mama (her employer) is good, but not the girls”

(#40). A fourth respondent observed, “She screams at me and hits me all the time. She

does not give me food, only leftovers from the children. That is dirty, and I cannot eat it”

(#42).

Those who reported being abused in households of previous employment related

more dramatic events. The following case involved an employer who seemed to have

mental problems, and who had never had a housekeeper before. The respondent here

stated that, “She used to hit me, [and] spit at me. She says, You are dirty, leave my

house. Go to where you came from.’ When I clean, she puts dirt. She hides my things,

even my Tylenol. She says, Sit in the sun, your headache would go.’“ (#7). In another

instance, the respondent said, “My previous employer was stingy. She didn’t give me lots

of money. She didn't give me enough food. She was always after my foot, she never

trusted me. She screamed at me, and hit me so many times, until I decided to leave” (#22).

A third FFDW related, “Both employers hit me, the man and his wife. They said. You do

not know how to work.’ I was very young, I did not know anything then. They were very

poor, they did not even have a washing machine, and wanted me to do all the work for

them” (#41).

The previously mentioned FFDW did share one characteristic, namely, that they

were very unlucky in getting these particular employers. These employers were unaware

of the FFDW basic human needs. This does not mean that those who are aware are never

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abusive. In fact, there are employers who consider themselves highly conscious of human

issues who are, nonetheless, physically abusive. This issue is complicated, and this sort of

situation not only requires changing social views and images, but also great control and

discipline on the personal level, exactly as does any other case of isolated domestic

violence. It also necessitates establishment of different types of institutional control in the

UAE as well as on the international level.

3- Sexual abuse-in the household of current employment

Sexual abuse is a realm that encompasses wider factors of analysis than physical

abuse. It is situated not only within the category of human exploitation and degradation,

but also stretches even further, to gender relations, and objectification of the female body.

Feminist historians have succinctly pointed out the dual images of women, developed by

men. This dichotomy portrays the woman as the pure angelic Madonna-mother figure, and

simultaneously, as the low, devilish sex object. Historically, this dichotomy provided men

with a sexual outlet embodied by females who did not represent a social or political threat:

Taking sexual pleasure with impoverished women and slaves freed middle-class men from doubts about the purity of their wives and from fears of proper women’s innate, though restrained, sensuality. In a century in which men felt a terror of the sexuality represented by the female, they used religion, medicine and marriage to contain and control female power and usually sought sexual expression with powerless women (Palmer 1989: 144-145).

In the UAE, as in most traditional Islamic societies, women, or the “harem,” exist

only in the household. Conceptually, there is no harem outside of the household. The

household is the males’ field, and domain. A horm a\ meaning woman in the singular, is

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terminology that originally means “the forbidden,” i.e., she is forbidden for any other man,

but only legitimate for her husband or for the protector of the household. Traditionally, in

Islamic societies, and in the Gulf region, female slaves were part of the “harem” of the

household. The control of their sexuality and behavior was the duty of the patriarchal male

of the household, however, because the “harem” was a strong social system, where

Islamic females where able to develop a strong system of household control, the higher-

status females in the household were given responsibility over the lower-status ones. The

eldest female of the household had the right to control all other females, such as

daughters, slaves, workers etc. But usually, she could not interfere in cases of sexual

harassment, because she could, as a consequence, lose her status. This system has changed

considerably in the Emirates, as in most parts of the Arab and Islamic world. However, its

legacy, including sexual practices, and the conceptualization of the FFDW as lower-status

females in the household still continues, and thereby propagates the male attitude towards

the sexuality of the FFDW.

Interestingly enough, most complaints of sexual abuse reported by the FFDW

were against older men, either in Saudi Arabia, or in the Emirates.9 Most Arab Gulf

countries seem to be suffering from a social phenomenon of sexually abusive older men.

This phenomenon is one of the outcomes of the oil booms, and sudden accumulation of

wealth in these countries. Elderly males find themselves suddenly rich, but socially

yThis is true in the case of the Filipina who was sentenced to death in the UAE in 1995 for killing her employer, who she said raped him. This employer was an old man in his seventies.

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whose easier, cheaper, and younger sexuality can alleviate their frustrations. If they cannot

get the maid, they travel to India or any poor country in the region, marry a young

woman, bring her back to the UAE, have her bear their children, and eventually abandon

her for another. Interestingly, the FFDW who mentioned sexual harassment and

molestation were working in the houses of big extended merchant families which are still

very close to the practices and concepts propagated by the institution of slavery.

The two cases of sexual abuse that were taking place in an FFDW household of

current employment involved two Filipinas. One was very scared, and seemed to have

been sexually molested not only by her employer, but also by another male houseworker.

She was crying and shaking. She could not give details, but somehow she wanted to talk.

When I asked her the sexual abuse question, worded, “Have you ever had any trouble with

the man in the house?” She nodded her head, and said, “What can I do? There is nothing I

could do. I have to finish my contract, and leave. My problem is not only with my

employer, [but] also the other male housekeeper, and she pointed at the door, saying,

“They think because they work here, they have rights over us too” (#19).

The second Filipina seemed very comfortable, relaxed, and at ease. She smiled,

and did not talk for a couple of minutes. Then she said, “Before I did not tell. I just

watched out, and took care. After many times, he stopped. The lady [of the house] was

angry with me. Now that he stopped she is fine. I do not know if he will try again (#6) ”10

10In the same household, the other housekeeper, who was an old Indian lady, answered, when asked the same question, that she avoided her male employer, and did not

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Besides these two cases of sexual abuse, there were two other cases of sexual

harassment. One case involved a male driver who worked there, but when the FFDW

reported him to her employer, they fired him (#7). The FFDW in the second sexual

harassment case said she had been harassed by the older brother of the household, and that

since then, she had avoided him and did not enter the “inside part” of the house when he

was there. She stayed mostly in the kitchen or in her room on the house (#8).

FFDW reported two other cases from the same neighborhood, involving other

FFDW who were either sexually abused, or were sexually involved with their employers.

The one who said she knew somebody who was sexually involved with her employer said,

“I knew what the previous maid did, and she got fired as a result. I did not want to do the

same (#8). The second FFDW reported, “My employer is very good, but I knew

somebody here in the neighborhood who used to be get raped by her employer” (#22).

4- Sexual abuse-in a household of previous employment

The most dramatic stories of sexual abuse reported by the FFDW in the sample

were stories of incidents occurring in houses of previous employment. They were all

complaints referring to instances of sexual abuse in Saudi Arabia, each one perpetrated by

old men. One respondent was a very young Sri Lanka girl who seemed to have great pride

and integrity. “In Saudi Arabia they used to hit me, make me work a lot and did not give

me enough money. Then the old man come to me, he says, You want money, I give it to

you. You are here for money.’ But I did not let him. I use to lock the door on me. I tell

talk to him at all (#5).

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him, ‘You are a hajji, you are 65 years old, what do you want from a young girl like me?’

I was very afraid of him. Once I told a friend of mine. I asked for advice. She said. Kill

him. ’ I said,' No I will leave. ’ The previous maid in their house was from Sri Lanka, and

she used to let him do what he wanted, and take money. He thought we are all the same.

No we are not. For me this money is haram (forbidden). I work only for halal money.

One day I threatened him to tell “mama” his wife, but I did not, because they will not

believe me” (#20).

The second story depicted a very traumatic experience. The FFDW involved was

from Indonesia, and had experienced actual, brutal rape as she described. However, she

could not relate details, and I did not push her to do so. When she spoke, she shivered.

She said, “He was horrible. I will not forget it all my life. I still hear him knocking on my

door. I still have nightmares. I used to see a doctor in Indonesia, but nothing seems to help

me” (#32).

The last example was reported by an FFDW from Sri Lanka, who also related

that the incident had occurred in Saudi Arabia, where she then was employed. This

respondent recounted, “He raped another housemaid in front of me. I also saw their son

bringing women inside the house. One day I got the courage to tell mama (the female

employer) who I think knew, but could not do anything. I told after she finished her

prayer. [I said],' Why are you praying? What is the use of your prayer? What is the use of

your veil, if your son and husband do what they are doing?’“ (#16).

Despite its sensitive nature, FFDW did talk about sexual abuse. They also talked

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about their isolation, degradation, and humiliation at work. When given the chance, they

do talk. This fulfills a need," because the type of life they live is very isolated, and even in

the best of situations, it is very unpredictable, dangerous, and full of uncertainties.

11 After we finished the interview, she came to the door, made sure nobody could hear her and told us “It is very good to do these interviews. I feel much better now. I feel relieved” (#42).

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Narrative On Treatment

This narrative is an extract from one of the interviews conducted for this study

with a domestic worker whose employer was out of the country. This interview was

conducted in two long sessions. The interviewee expressed discomfort with her

employer’s attitude, and with the way she was being treated at her job. This narrative was

one of the most extensive deposition about the treatment of domestic workers in one

situation that the researcher had encountered in the course of her study. It also shows how

an employer-employee relationship can be shaped in a situation that is neither one of the

worst nor the best. It is, however, a situation that demonstrated the power of an employer

over and FFDW, and how this related to the employer’s treatment of her.

The employee in question was a young, single FFDW from the Philippines, and

the following is a series of direct quotations.

General Treatment

We are treated like animals. She gets us a different kind of rice [from the kind she

eats], the cheapest kind. She gives us leftovers to eat. In my [own] house I am not treated

like that. Maybe they think I come from a poor family, but in the face of God, we are the

same. When we were bom, we were the same.

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When I try to argue with her she tells me, “What do you think you are? You are

just a maid.” She also says, “Do you know who that man is? He is your arbab (master). I

am your Madame. You call me Madame.”

Other family members

Arbab's mother is fine. She says, “Why do they shout at you? This is haram

(against Islamic teachings). You are doing your job, you are not lazy, this is good, they

should not shout at you.”

Space And Privacy

In the afternoon if I am resting, in my room, she [the employer] comes in. She

does not knock on the door. She goes inside, very roughly saying, “What are doing? Are

you sleeping, and my daughter is crying?” Once [when] she opened the door, I was naked,

trying to change my clothes. She did not say [that she was] sorry. She will never say it.

[Instead], She said, “Go put your clothes on.”

Treated As Machines

They think we are machines, [and] they want us whenever they need us. She

calls, and I have to be there right away. If I am not she screams. Sometimes, I feel crazy, I

can not finish my job in peace, I have to be running up and down fulfilling orders, and in

the meantime work on my regular responsibilities.

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Do you sense any jealousy as a result of that treatment?

She makes me look bad in front of sir [her husband]. If I do not finish my job on

time she screams at me. She says, “What were you doing? Are you looking at yourself in

the mirror? You did not finish your job properly.” If I look at her, she says, “Why are you

looking at me like that?” She is always angry at me. With my co-housekeeper, she is only

mad at her if she makes mistakes, with me, she tries to find a mistake, to scream or shout

at me.

Treatment Of Their Mistakes

When I make a mistake, [like] break [ing] a glass, she says, “Don’t you know

this is expensive? Next time if you do it, I will break your head.” I know they can’t do

anything like that, they just want to make me scared.

My co-worker does not know, [and] she is very scared. She gets cold, she

shakes, and shivers. She says she only wants to finish her contract and go.

Physical Abuse

Once she smacked my face, so I was not talking to her openly. She asked me

why. I did not tell her any thing, but I will not forget that... She did the same to my co-

worker, because she [the coworker] forgot her daughter’s food. She calls her [the

coworker] stupid.

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Negation Of Their Feelings

We do not have the right to angry at her. If she smacks us, we have to suppress

our feelings. They think we are very small, in comparison to them, we are small because

we are poor, we take our salary from them.

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THE CONSEQUENCES

Going abroad is like a dream, a fantasy, or it is like a gamble, whether I win or lose. Because I never know the people behind me. they are strangers to me, and I am stranger to them (“29).

Consequences of the FFDW migration to the UAE are ample. First, this

migration affects the direct family of the FFDW, children, and others. The desertion of

mothers and primary care givers of their family and society might bring up a totally

emotionally disturbed generation in the sending countries. These effects are yet to be

studied. Also, this migration, and the integration of foreign care givers in the UAE

households, have already proven to have tremendous negative effects on the UAE

families and future generations (see Chapter Two). This migration has also brought to the

front a tremendous amount of abuse, exploitation, and inhuman practices. Some (the Sri

Lankan labor Charge d'affaires in Dubai and most literature on trafficking in Asia) called

this new form of foreign female domestic migration, “the modem form of slavery for the

20th century.”

All the above stated consequences are only some of the negative aspects of this

migration. However, the positive affects are also as abundant. The FFDW have brought to

their countries a tremendous amount of foreign exchange and petrodollars. In fact, in

241

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exchange to their countries. The sender countries are increasingly becoming dependent on

the FFDW remittances. Also the UAE household, increasingly developing in size and

additional roles for their members, could not maintain this pace of growth without the

FFDW. The females of the UAE household are increasingly engaged in the public life—

they are studying, working, and becoming highly involved in socialization—while the very

structure of the old patriarchal family and the dominance of males in the family and society

continues. All of these changes are taking place in the UAE household, while the birth

rate is still skyrocketing in order to cover the dearth of human resources from which the

UAE suffers. All of these developmental changes could not have happened without the

help of domestic workers.

In fact, the rate of statistical and qualitative growth of the FFDW in the UAE

household is phenomenal. The FFDW’s mode of existence and development in the UAE,

as well as other Arab Gulf countries, is one of the peculiar realities of female domestic

workers in this century. Never before in this century have female domestic workers been

present, living, and working across all socioeconomic strata of the society. Never, before

have they been so abundant, so available, and comparatively cheap. The poor, living on

welfare, as well as the wealthy of the UAE, have domestics.

For this overwhelming phenomenon, consequences are yet to unfold. Procedural

practices to this movement will continue introducing changes to its agencies and

upholding structures. Therefore, consequences brought forward in this chapter are forms

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of situations, more than inevitable repercussions. As the whole phenomenon was reported

as a narrative more than a discursive practice, the endings are the situations that reflect my

understanding of this phenomenon, at this juncture of my intellectual development and my

life experiences during their interaction with this movement.

Being the author and, therefore, benefiting from the authoritarian position, as

well as an employer, engaging in disciplinarian practices, while “situating the self’ at the

heart of feminist practices and interactions, is as self challenging and emancipating as it is

alienating and contradictory. This contradictory engagement with the other, a promissory

of the feminized self, helped me position and dialectically mirror the FFDW as equals and

feminizers. However, the observation, the personal interaction, and the field engagement

with the FFDW allowed me to map their situation and project the contradictory practices

of the women's sphere as positioned in neo-patriarchal practices.

This part therefore is a projection of this interactive situation and a reflection of

the self and the FFDW. They are imaged as any displaced female of the postmodern reality

who challenges the certitude of her previous life and embarks into the process of

juxtaposition and construction of a new self. The self in this context is the socialized self

who embodies and is embodied in a certain culture and mode of socialization, and then

moves to a new reality to be challenged by a newer embodiment and reconstruction of its

selfhood.

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Accordingly, the consequences addressed are three-fold. First, the consequences

affecting the FFDW self as an object of study, the FFDW self is examined as a material

self, a feminized- socialized self, and a projected (into a future) self. The second set of

consequences studied are the ones affecting the UAE household and society, or situated

place. They are also approached in three interactive parts with the coexistence of the

FFDW: the women's sphere, the UAE children, and the UAE future and interracial

relations. The third set of consequences are the situated FFDW. It is a composition of

their narrated stories into four qualitative topologies: the feminizers, the totally satisfied,

the victimized, and the ambivalent.

I. Consequences Affecting The FFDW Self

When FFDW embarked on the trip to the UAE, they were looking forward,

dreaming of a better life. They left behind male social dominance, female degradation,

frustration, and poverty. They also left behind their loved ones, their emotional

attachment, and all the symbols of life and their meanings. They did not have clear plans of

how long they would stay—they did not know what the implications of this trip would be.

All the relevancy of the trip at the time of commencement was to go, and maybe things

would get better.

The following section is a study of their lives in projection of that debut. The

material self, as the primary initiator of the trip, is essential, thus, highlighted. Yet, FFDW

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in the sample were interviewed at different moments of the trip. Time, therefore, becomes

a factor of tangency to their adjustment, accomplishments, and future vision.

A. The Material Self

The peak of the material dream for most FFDW was building a house; the least

was increasing the ability of spending, or in other words, becoming a better consumer.

Between the two ranges, a variety of material necessities, such as buying gold for dowries,

marrying off one’s daughters, and sending children to school, were all material wills to be

fulfilled. Twenty-four percent of the sample, or twelve FFDW, were able to fulfill these

dreams. The majority—67 percent—did not (Table 6.1.1).

Table 6.1.1 Material Accomplishments Of Sample FFDW At Time Of Interview Type of accomplishment ______Number ______Percent Build a house 10 19.6 Buy land 1 2.0 All the above 1 2.0 None of the above 34 66.7 Missing 5 9.8 Total 51 100.0

Time factor is another relevant component of this description. In order to make a

better judgment of the peak of the material accomplishment such as building a house, we

need to consider the time that the individual FFDW has spend in the UAE, or in the

migration process.1 Once the time factor is introduced the quantitative description of the

1 It is not expected from a first timer (or an FFDW who is working for the first

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FFDW accomplishment becomes more relevant.

Table 6.1.2 Material Accomplishment Of FFDW With Time Factor Indicated Period of Time as FFDW Type of accomplishment 0-6 mos. 7 mos.-2 yrs. 2 VS yrs.-4 yrs. 4 yrs.+ Build a house 2 4 4 Bought a land 1 All above 1 None of above 9 12 4 9 Number 9 14 9 14 Percent 19.6 30.4 19.6 30.4

Table 6.1.2, above, shows that two FFDW have been in a household for less than

two years, and, nevertheless, were able to build a house. These two cases, however,

worked in other Arab Gulf countries before they came to the UAE. One (#39) was in

Saudi Arabia and the other (#47) was in Qatar. They were both poor, from peasant

backgrounds, and working in a welfare neighborhood. They both had large families with

more than three children to support. One was from India, and the other from Sri Lanka.2

Quantitative data on savings shows that 40 percent of the FFDW in the sample had not

saved any money. However, more than half of the sample had saved and continued to do

so. Eighteen percent saved up to $500; sixteen per cent saved up to $1000; and another

sixteen percent saved up to $3,000. Only two of the FFDW saved more than $3,000

time in the UAE, who has just arrived, or did not even finish one contract time) to buy, or build a house in less of two years of work. 2 It is important to note that the houses these women talk about are not the typical houses we know or have in mind. Their houses usually consist of only one room, with no sanitary or running water.

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Table 6.1.3 Amount Of Savings By FFDW, Calculated In Dollars Savings ______Number ______Percent $0 20 39.2 $ 10-500 9 17.6 $600-1,000 8 15.7 $ 1,500-3,000 8 15.7 $ 3,000 & up 2 3.9 Missing 4 7.8 Total 51 100.0

Applying the time factor to FFDW savings, we observe another reality that tells more about the personal behavior of the FFDW. Not all non-savers are “newcomers.” As a matter of fact, some of the “long timers” (four years or more) had no savings at the time of the interview. Also when we examine the data for newcomers who saved, we notice that the personal factor—and not just the components of employer quality and salary level—plays a very important role. Indeed, one of the worst cases in the sample, in terms of conditions of employment, is also a newcomer; yet, she is saving already. She has to buy her own necessities, and sometimes, she buys food from her salary. Nevertheless, she sends her salary to her mother, and she is saving though she has been working for only six months (#42). Another example, a new comer from India, earns only Dhs 400 per month; yet, she has already saved $300 (#24) (see Table 6.1.4).

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Table 6.1.4 Amount Of Savings By FFDW In Relation To Time In The UAE Amount saved Time $0 $10-500 $600-1,000 $1,500-3,000 $3,000+ 0-6 months 5 1 1 1 7 mos- 2 yrs. 4 5 3 3 2Vz- 4 yrs. 5 2 1 2 4 years + 6 I 2 2 Number 20 9 8 8 2 Percent 42.6 19.1 17 17 3.9

Of those FFDW who saved $3,000 and more, there was one from the Philippines

and one from the Mauritius Islands. The one from the Mauritius Islands is a totally

satisfied FFDW—her employer is generous with her, and her requests are all met (#15).

The second is an example of a truly valiant woman (#3). She grew up in total poverty and

worked as a housekeeper all her life in the Philippines; yet, she attended school, received

her degree, and improved her social status. However, she was unable to afford many

material necessities, especially after she married and had a child. Now she and her husband

both work and save in order to return home and reunite themselves with their family.

The other eight cases who saved between $1,500 and $3,000 are mostly long

timers, who have been working in the Gulf and in the UAE for more than two years. The

one exception among them is #28, who is not only a “first timer,” but also a second

generation migrant/ Both she and her work mate (#27) are among the good savers,

improving their material life very well.

’Her father is a migrant in the UAE, and her husband is currently working there. Besides, she is working with a generous family in the upper neighborhood.

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Only three of the six other cases will be highlighted in this part. Those three, not

only have saved, but also built their dream house. Among them is the one who receives the

highest salary in the sample (#23). She earns Dhs 1,600 and does not have children of her

own. Most of her salary goes to her extended family and into savings. The other two, who

saved, built a house, and are currently materially very satisfied, are young single women

from Sri Lanka. One of them works for a family in the welfare neighborhood. But they

seem well off and very generous. As she says, “They buy me gold... they give me money in

every occasion” (#43). The other one is materially satisfied: “Now I am better off. I have

electronics, I have gold, and I have money. Now I feel strong. I can go back and get

married” (#22).

It is important to mention that those with impressive savings who built a house

or bought land (as new comers or as FFDW) were mostly single women or married

without children. Having children is a tough financial burden, especially if they are girls

and from India or Sri Lanka.

Table 6.1.5 depicts the outflow of most FFDW’s salaries to their families. Some

FFDW in the sample were able to overcome those difficulties; others are still working to

collect dowries for their daughters. One of the FFDW mothers was ready to leave. She

worked for six years and was able to improve her life: “Yes, improving my material life

was the reason for me to come here. Now I want to put myself at a [sic] little relax for a

while. I want to enjoy their [her family’s] company now” (#29).

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Table 6.1.5 Amount of salary FFDW sent home and/or Saved Amount sent or saved ______Number ______Percent One fifth of salary 1 2.0 One half of salary 1 2 .0 Two thirds of salary 7 13 .7 More than two thirds 16 31.4 All the salary 21 41.2 Do not send or save 2 3 .9 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 100.0

In short, the material self of FFDW in the UAE does have great potential for

improvement, and, in fact, is improving even in the worst work conditions. Otherwise, we

would not see the movement growing extraordinarily. Not all FFDW are doing as well

materially. Those who initially secure a position with a parsimonious employer are still

able to change and improve their lot, as case #22 did. Still, some FFDW seem to be better

equipped than others to improve the circumstances of their lives and fulfill their dreams.

They seem to be on top of things. They are working, saving, and building a more secure

future for themselves and their families by shortening the separation period. Others have

been away from home for a long time and seem to take even longer in reaching their goals

because they were caught up in the consuming fever. Their dreams seem to evade them,

and their lives become more confused.

B. The Feminized Socialized Self

The FFDW, like any displaced self in the postmodern era, once out of the walls

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of her own city, village, or familiar social space, is situated in a critical thinking process.

She unlearns, relearns, uncovers, discovers. The new fascinations of life storm her body

and soul. Once outside the boundaries of what is taken for granted, she is more capable of

seeing, projecting, and meditating on her previous life and social relations. Living in a new

society as outsiders, the FFDW are also able to see critically the social construction of the

new place. As they objectified their life to this drastic change of migration, their subjective

self resonated a new consciousness, a new knowledge of being.

This passage is a reading through the narratives of the subject FFDW that

formulates five constructed pictures of their socio-feminized selves. These pictures reveal

the impact on their own children, their husbands (or the male significant other in their

lives), their extended family, and their selves as subject and object of change.

1- Relation to children of their own

Since they are socialized to be primary caregivers, FFDW mothers compensate

materially for their physical separation from their children. These children grow up in a

culture of material compensation for emotional separation. Receiving modem looking

clothes, toys, and electronics becomes one of the utmost satisfactions. “Children get to

have more things, more food, but not love and care. When mothers are not around,

children are worse off” (#4). Yet, not all children are easily satisfied and content with this

material substitution—some rebel. They may attack their mother as well as this new mode

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they refuse to listen to apologies and what they perceive as lies, provided as a

compensation to their absence.

When I left, my daughter was five years old and my son one. I told her I was going to Manila. When she discovered the truth, she was very angry at me. My mom convinced her that I was doing this for her, so she will get good education, and she can buy things, and especially any chocolate she wants.. .She did not like it. When I went back the first time, she did not want to talk to me. The disadvantage that I observed with my children is the lack of my attention and care. Caring of a grandmother is different than that of a mother... They missed my affection ...When I left them, it seemed to me the end of the world....During the journey, I always felt I want them. I wanted to hold them in my arms. I want to laugh with them. I want them on my side. But I could not do it. I was million miles away. I am sure, they felt the same way” (#29).

When left behind, children of FFDW are cared for either by the husband, mother,

mother-in-law, sister, or any other close female in the extended family. This person is not

always well equipped to care for the children or to protect them from possible danger. The

son of one of the FFDW was hit by a train while he was playing on the railway. Although

under the care of his grandmother, she had failed to protect him (#24). Another said she is

afraid her mother did not send the children to school every day. “My mother is old. She

can not take good care of them. But I do not have anybody else to care for them. ...For

four years-and-a-half, I have been spending money on the kids. Now I will start saving. I

need six more years of work.” When this particular FFDW left her younger daughter, she

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was two years old. If she returns after six more years of work, her daughter will be a

teenager. How did all those years of separation affect the children of FFDW? These are

still speculative questions for this area of inquiry.

Limited studies on the issue of these children reported lots of highly visible

problems, especially drugs. The FFDW interviewed reported problems with older

daughters growing away from their mother. This was one of the visible issues that

encouraged some mothers to shorten their trip (#39, #16, #51, #5, #8).

When we leave the first time, we come with only one problem, that is money. However, we end up with so many. The man finds another woman; the children get in trouble—it is a tough life. My husband is always angry with me, he wants me to go back for my daughter. I am angry with myself and with God who created me poor... .My daughter, whom I left a young three years old, is now a teenage, and is always angry with me. She sends me letters saying that I love money more than I do [sic] for her. Her words feel like burning fire inside my chest (#8).

The last, but not the least, problematic consequence of FFDW separation

from their children, as I will note, is separation from children during their early years.

FFDW mothers sometimes leave behind children as young as six months. “It hurts when I

think of him. Suddenly, it make me feel paralyzed. I also cannot go back to him. If I do, I

will never be able to come back again. Every day I convince myself, it is one more year,

and then I see him forever” (#3). She did not see her son for two-and-a-half years. When

she returns home, he will be almost four years old. She has spent all his formative years

away from him. But she is not alone in this practice. She is merely one of thousands of

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women in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, and other parts of Asia, and the poor Global

South, that abandon their children under materially stressful difficulties. None of them—

mothers and children—are the same after this devastating period of alienation. Such

realities are constructing our new world today. These emerging realities require new

theoretical challenges for the understanding of globalization, the feminization of poverty,

and the impact of mother-child separations of “very” long duration.

2- Relation to husbands and the significant males in their lives

Most of the FFDW in the sample left behind dysfunctional relationships. In some

cases, there were abusive and/or alcoholic husbands (#50, #51); in others the husband had

died (#37, #47) or was ill (#14); and still others were either unable to be productive at

work or had migrated. Some of the single FFDW in the sample were themselves coming

out of broken commitments and unsuccessful relationships. Only a few seemed to have a

functional relationship and a working family life. Those were the FFDW with migrant

husbands (#28, #3) or with husbands that were capable of managing their families after the

mother’s departure.

Embarking from such an unhappy marital association, the consequences of

migration on the relation with their husbands or significant other does not seem to worsen

in that sense. Indeed, some FFDW gain more confidence in dealing with their husbands

from a distance (#49). Others acquire status while gaining money and become empowered

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against their dominant, abusive, and alcoholic husbands: “Now 1 have food, gold, big

house. My husband listens to me. He does not drink alcohol anymore. Everybody is

jealous of me” (#51). Some of them attain the relief and help not accessible at home:

“Once he almost killed me. I had to run in the rain with my children. I always hide from

him when I go back there. If he finds me he might kill me.”4

Other positive experiences in learning how to deal with men were reported by

some of the single FFDW, who through sharing the intimacy of others and observing the

interaction between husbands and wives, were able with a critical mind to collect images

of working relationships. On reflection, they felt that their migratory experience is one of

the positive impacts on their future lives, helping them to learn to construct their own

family life (#22, #13).

These experiences are also not without negative implications on male-female

relationships. It seems through this process, and as a result of the constructed mode of

controlled sexuality in this process, some of the married females lost interest in their

sexual intimacy with their husbands.5 Also, many husbands in the absence of their wives

found mistresses (#23) or new wives.

Migration also provides FFDW with another dimension to their intimate

relationships. In most of the studied cases, it gave them the emotional healing and the

4Her husband is an alcoholic and dangerously abusive. sAn elderly Indian FFDW I knew, on her return to India the first time, helped her

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necessary distancing to forget the abusive component of the relationship. Thus, the women

remember only what is good about the relationship. Yet, in general, a long enforced

separation introduces other elements of unease to the relationship, resulting from the

rupture of intimacy and daily interaction. In short, this process introduces many new

factors to FFDW’s intimate lives of which they are not conscious or for which they are not

prepared.

3- Relations to the extended family

If FFDW migration is a phenomenon motivated by the repercussions of

modernization and globalization, extended family relations, on the other hand, belong to

the traditional, pre-modem social order, which accommodates this phenomenon. Both

seem to be diametrically situated and structurally opposed. However, in reality, the

bonding structure of the extended family coexists with the rupturing mobility of

modernization and globalization.6 The extended families of the FFDW in their home

countries constitute their essential support system during their absence. They hold the

families together, raise the children, and provide them with care and nurture.

Grandmothers, aunts, uncles, mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, cousins, and others become

husband find another wife so he would not need her to fulfill any sexual obligations. 6Globalization is a contradictory phenomenon, which bounds and integrates capitals, distances, industries, and technologies while simultaneously severing social relations and social societies.

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alternatives to FFDW mothers in their absence.7 In a way it seems that the very existence

of the traditional family systems allows and sustains this form of female migration.

The nurturing extended family, on the other hand, is benefiting from the FFDW,

materially at least. FFDW remit money to their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins,

and any one needy. FFDW become the financial security valve of the extended family in

times of crisis. They provide the main source of money to send brothers, sisters, and

nephews to school: “I help my sister go to school” (#24). FFDW also help with the extra

expenses for weddings, birthdays, and holidays: *i send to my family; I support them; I

buy them gold; I pay for weddings. My nephew live on my financial support” (#28).

Indeed, this role prolongs their migration period. “When I first came, I thought I will work

only for two years, then my brother asked me for money to study. I am the only one in the

family that makes that much money, so I helped him, and as a result, I think I will continue

working for four more years” (#23).

This mutual support does not always run smoothly, with no conflicts or regrets.

So many of the FFDW sense that their families exploit them, asking constantly for money,

placing them under emotional and personal pressure to send whatever they save, and

perhaps could enjoy themselves. “My family members love me only for my money. They

7Indeed, in as much as the community is rural and unified, the children seem to be protected against modem social ills in the absence of their mothers. In other words, children of FFDWs living in rural areas, where the village is one entity, do not suffer the problems of rape, drugs, or other similar social afflictions resulting from the deviant

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write to me whenever they want to ask for something. Even sometimes, people that have

never write to me, they do only to ask for something” (#26).

The FFDW, both in their home town and among their extended family members,

have a very contradictory image. They are respected and loved while also hated and

envied. They are admired as successful models who improved their lives; yet, they are

demeaned because they abandoned their children and dependent family members. They

are, in short, in a very difficult situation, at the edges of two or more juxtaposed,

contradictory social orders—the traditional, the modem, the postmodern, and so forth.

4- Relation to the self as a sub ject, and an object of social change

The FFDW are the acting subjects in the initiation process of migration. Once

they engage in the process, they enter the “disciplinary practices” of the agencies and

structures interlocked in this process or processes of migration.8 They subject themselves

to the individual and structural interaction with all individuals (agents, middlemen,

policemen, immigration officers, etc.) and all institutions (the state, the state apparatus,

police, households, etc.) of the migration processes. They interact with different historical

and ongoing styles of social existence, such as different modes of modernity, capitalist

development, patriarchal techniques, and domestics practices.

aspects of modernity. 8 They are more than a process—they are an accumulation of processes, interacting and changing in space and time.

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Their selves are constantly challenged on all levels of coexistence. Coming from

different cultures, their selves embody, in addition to their own idiosyncrasies, the different

modes of acculturation and feminization in a male-dominated social space. Filipina FFDW

are more aware of male dominance and are more likely to challenge it.

Once they subject themselves to migration, they become the objects of a

simultaneous and juxtaposed process of “mega individuation and globalization.”9 They

gain more power over their movement and out of their traditional social space.

Meanwhile, they subject their bodies and the new self to more control and docility. The

new social space into which they move requires rigid self and body control. They exert it

and survive all the new challenges, despite the harsh realities.

FFDW gain liberating power over the traditional personified system of patriarchy,

symbolized in the “father figure,” or the “husband figure,” by engaging themselves in

migration. This analysis is not similar for all FFDW, however. Since they migrate from

different levels of modernization and acculturation to modem capitalism, not all meet this

description. Some were already acculturated to modernization and were positioned in the

9 Foucault uses the concept of individualization and totalization to describe the technologies of the self in the modem era. Here I use the concept of “mega individuation and globalization” as closer to technologies of the self in the postmodern era. See Foucault in Technologies o f the (Martin,Self Guttman, and Hutton, ed., 1988) and The Care o f the Self (1987). Foucault uses the description of the self as individualized and totalized in the process of modernity. In this context, totalization is substituted for globalization as a more accurate description of the migration dynamics, and its impact on the technologies of the migrant self.

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public sector, liberated from a traditional, centralized form of patriarchy and part of a

more socially diffused patriarchy. These FFDW, then—from the Philippines, Indonesia and

sometimes Sri Lanka—migrate, seeking more individual independence.

The interesting phenomenon in this observation is that some of them, like the

Filipina, are subjecting themselves to another form of traditionalism and domestication in

order to survive the very marginalization of their national modernity. As feminist theories

have already established, the structures of modernity do not affect men and women

equally. Genderized modernity is an unequal form of modernity that positions man and

woman totally differently in society.10 When man, using Foucault’s analogy in the

Technologies o f the Selfis modernized, he reaches an upper stage of self liberty, as well

as self control. However, when woman enters modernity, she is never fully modernized in

the sense of gaining liberty over “domestication” and male supremacy. When modernized

woman, (“the Knower” in Foucault's terminology) attempts to break loose of the national

boundaries of the “nationalized, marginalized, and impoverished modernization of her

country, in the globalized system, she is to be put back into domestication and dominance.

Just because she is a woman, from a poor part of the global system, her modem status, her

acquired knowledge is nullified.”11

10Using the same analogy, nationalized modernity does position each state differently on the global system, also structuralized modernity does position all social strata differently. 11 This shows again the gender blindness of Foucault, like most male Western

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This reflects the complexity of the issue. Each FFDW is positioned differently in

the process of migration, and each is facing a different mode of interaction. Therefore,

each has different consequences affecting her self as a subject or object of migration. Yet

the very positioning of all of them—in one constructed similarity of time, space, and

disciplinary practices—makes only this kind of observation possible. Once they are all

objectified into one social space, i.e., the UAE society, they become situated in a field of

social interaction and clustering, which affects each of them, as well as their social space.

The common ground among them all is “ the docilization of the self." "The

production of “docile bodies” requires that an uninterrupted coercion be directed to the

very processes of bodily activity, not just their result; this “micro-physics of power”

fragments and partitions the body's time, its space, and its movements” (Foucault in

Bartky, 1990: 63). The docilization of the self takes an extremist shape in the situation of

some, who as a result of all the alienating changes they go through, decide to lock

themselves into their shells of housework (see example in the situated selves of some who

transformed their lives, only to live between the walls of the modem UAE villas, deciding

that this sheltering is more relaxing and peaceful than the world outside # 18, #27).

FFDW in the process of migration become more visible as selves in the

international division of labor on a world scale. They also become more noticeable as

thinkers, in his analysis to modem social practices. Women, like men, are subject to many of the same disciplinary practices Foucault describes. But he is blind to those disciplines

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women in their community. Within their family, as breadwinners, they become more

economically empowered. Yet they also become more fragmented and alienated as selves

from their own mode of socialization, acculturation, and existence. This process gives

more freedom, mobility, and liberation, but it also subjugates them to more control and

domination. Being socialized as care givers and mothers, being acculturated to the

emotional family bonding and household responsibilities, once they leave their homes and

countries, FFDW become emotionally fragmented and culturally alienated. Some of them

become fragmented to a point where they lose the ability to judge and are unable to decide

where they wish to live—with their families or with their employer (#18). Because this

form of migration recreates the lost forms of their initial socialization, they become

confused, building an attachment to the children of their employers and subjecting their

selves and the children to mutual objectification, whereas they become supplementary

objects for each other.

As subjects—"knowers”12—they are caught in the complexities of the interacting

meanings of existence. They are provided with opportunities to learn and discover. They

develop a consciousness of domestic work, of their being as house workers, but at the

same time they are required to exert more self control and inhibition. As subjects, they

that produce a modality of embodiment that is peculiarly feminine’’ (Bartky, 1990: 65). 12Even if their information is a limited one, they engage in the process as knower, and here knowledge is the practical knowledge of every day, not rational knowledge, in the western modem definition (the Cartesian doctrine).

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gain more knowledge and meaning to their lives as females, and they exert more control

over their bodies, feelings, and emotions. As subjects, they become more eloquent in

giving meaning to the life around them and developing a creative means of survival. Those

very means they use or develop are themselves humiliating and problematic, to say the

least. They lie and reinvent stories about their lives that do not have any basis in reality. In

short, they become more individualized as they become more globalized; however, those

transformations come with more restrictions on their female docile self

As objects of migration, they become absorbed in the system, developing into

agents of its values of consumerism, materialism, exploitation, and abuse. Their bodies

become more accessible to sexual exploitation and inferiority. As objectified selves, they

might lose track of the initial self—their reasons, goals, and aims of migration. They are

transformed into total objects of continuous migration, constant migration, or final

migration. They lose track of their lives, their children, or their loved ones. The FFDW in

the sample represented a variety of these modes of objectification and subjectification of

the self. For a mapping of these contextualized modes into their life stories, see the

chapter appendix.

C. The Projection Into The Future Self

As previously explained, the FFDW might lose track of the future. Not all of

them are conscious wise beings who are able to balance social reality, life, needs, and the

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acculturation of migration, globalization, and capitalism. Some appeared to be in control

of their lives; others were totally lost or were still waiting for the process to unfold itself,

and to accomplish their basic needs.

Projection into the future is one of the important consequences of migration.

Besides its valuable mode in the lives of FFDW, its merit expands into the vision of this

movement of migration for domestic work in the Arab Gulf countries and the world in

totality. In this formulation, different aspects of their projected life into the future would

be addressed, along with their narrations. The themes that direct the fUture vision are:

future life goals, the image of the dream and its attainability, the possibilities of returning

home and its different conditions, and an opposite dimension to the projection of the

future—the back image—that is, the possibility of engaging in the trip if they only knew

what they now know about it.

1- Future life goals

Most FFDW in the sample thought about their future, their goals. In fact, 84

percent of them had a future goal. Only one said that she did not, and five were undecided

(see Table 6.1.6). Their goals varied: some hoped to marry (12 percent); some wanted to

marry and establish a business (14 percent); some wanted to care for the family (23.5

percent); and some wished to care for the family and establish a business (8 percent). Only

4 percent sought to establish a career, and another 4 percent desired to remain

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permanently with their employer. A representative number of them wanted to migrate (24

percent) although the direction of migration differed. Eight percent preferred to remain in

the same area in the Arab Gulf. Another 8 percent were considering migration to

anywhere. Six percent wanted to broaden the scope of their migration and travel to the

western world, mostly the United States. Only one of them mentioned migrating to the

Pacific rim, specifically to Hong Kong (Table 6.1.7).

Table 6.1.6 Future Life Goals Of FFDW In Sample Future life goals Number ______Percent Yes 45 88.2 Undecided 4 7.8 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 100.0

Table 6.1.7 Type Of Future Goals For FFDW In Sample Type of goals Number Percent To marry 6 11.8 To marry and establish business 7 13.7 To care for family 12 23.5 To care for family and business 4 7.8 Migrate to the Arab Gulf 4 7.8 Migrate to Pacific region 1 2.0 Migrate internationally 3 5.9 Migrate anywhere 4 7.8 Pursue a career 2 3.9 Remain with employer 2 3.9 Undecided 4 7.8 Missing 2 3.9 Total 51 100.0

As mentioned earlier, in regard to the impact to the self as subject and object of

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change, the future goals seem also to be somehow shaped by previous experiences and the

impact of the modernizing system on the self. The Filipina FFDW, more than the others,

seem to be motivated by returning home and building a business in their own country.

They are more oriented towards generating money through the use of modem forms of

economic interaction. Also, it is only a Filipina who mentioned pursuing a career and

escaping the confines of domestic work (Table 6.1.8).

Filipinas seem more oriented than others towards education and self

enhancement. They seem to be more aware of how to benefit from migration without

loosing track of their family ties. They are better equipped to manage their lives and the

lives of their families under the demeaning forms of diaspora and domesticity. In saying

this, it does not mean that all Filipinas are succeeding in handling the contradictory aspects

of modernity under capitalism while others are not. Highlighting the different mode of

Filipina interaction with migration and globalization in this context is only another way of

saying that the different modes of national modernity under capitalism, and the different

situational roles of women in these modernities provide the FFDW with a different sense

of the self and consciousness while they interact with capitalism and migration. With this

understanding of the socio-cultural and historical reading of women’s positions in their

previous modes of culturalization and socialization, one can discern how ethnicity can be a

factor in each FFDW’s variant adjustment to circumstances. One point, which should be

clarified here, is that even if they come from different positioned selves, the FFDW’s

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modes of interaction under similar conditions in the UAE would create an amalgamated

reality of sameness and mutual impact. This, however, is conditioned by both the depth

and width of the interaction modes.

Sri Lankan FFDW are second, after the Filipinas, in their successful mode of

interaction with migration and globalization. They also seem business oriented and more

individualized into capitalist modernity than Indians. In short, these constructed figures

show the different orientations of the FFDW in terms of future goals, while the following

description reflect their own perception of this trip and how far it helped them achieve

their dreams.

2- Dream attainability

Each FFDW left her country with a powerful dream, a driving inner power, a

vigorous imagination. Each one of them could recall that moment of being driven by a

strong will, of doing something, getting somewhere: “ I still recall that moment, I still

remember that dream, of being satisfied, of having a house, and living with my family. My

dream now? I do not know!.. It is evading [sic] under the pressure of reality. I can not

stop. I can not go back. I can not stop. I suffer instantly, but something in me seems to be

content” (#8).

The interesting fact is that many of them (43 percent) felt that they had achieved

their dream. Another representative group of them (23.5 percent) said they had attained

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only part of their dream. However, 27.5 percent said they did not achieve their dream

(Table 6.1.9).

Table 6.1.8 Future Goals Of FFDW, By Ethnic Origins

Sri Row total: Goals/Ethnicity Philippines Lanka India Indonesia Others No./% Marriage 5 1 6 / 12.2 Marriage and 4 3 7 / 14.3 business Care for family 2 4 5 1 12/24.5 Care for family 2 2 4/8.2 & business Migrate/A. Gulf I 1 2 4/8.2 Migrate/Pacific 1 1/2.0 Migrate/intemtl. j 3/6.1 Migrate/anywhere 2 1 1 4/8.2 Pursue career 2 2/4.0 Stay w/employer 1 1 2/4.1 Undecided 1 1 2 4/8.2 Column total: 16/32.7 19/ 10/ 2/4.4 2/4.4 49/96.1 Number/Percent 38.8 20.4

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Table 6.1.9 The Dream Attainability Of The FFDW In The Sample Achieving the dream ______Number ______Percent Yes 22 43.1 No 14 27.5 Partial 12 23.5 No dreams 2 3 .9 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

Despite the conditions endured by FFDW, these figures indicate that the initial

dream is taking them somewhere. Even those FFDW who had not yet attained their

dreams still considered migrating somewhere else, or, as indicated by case #8, she is trying

but is not able to return because she is fulfilling something inside herself, or perhaps

because she no longer wishes to return.

The issue of going back to their home country is an essential one in this type of

migration. Actually, if the states on both sides of the migration trip support this type of

migration, it is because it ensures their return to their home country.

3- Knowledge of consequences from migration and resulting back-projected perception

This section assesses the relevance of migration, applying life experiences as an

indicator of decision making. In other words, if the FFDW had possessed (when they first

decided to migrate) the knowledge and experience they presently hold in regard to

migration and domestic work in the UAE, would they still have migrated. After asking

them this question, most of them answered in the affirmative (61 percent). Only one third

replied negatively (29 percent) (Table 6.1.10).

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Table 6.1.10 FFDW Commitment To Migration “Then,” If Utilizing Experience Of ______“Now”______If she knew what she knows now, would she still migrate? Number Percent Yes 31 60.8 No 15 29.4 Did not understand the question 4 7.8 Missing 1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

When those FFDW who answered that they would not migrate were asked if they

would go somewhere else, they replied in the affirmative. Some, as noted earlier, would

continue to try their chances in the region until they could find a better place. Only one of

them (#11) was not sure if she would make the attempt again.

As noted earlier, in spite of the conditions endured by the FFDW, figures indicate

that the pursuit of dreams has enjoyed some measure of success. It seems that despite all

the painful transformations they embody along with those of their families, FFDW are still

achieving their dream, fully or partially.

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II. Consequences On UAE Society

The increasing prevalence of the FFDW in the UAE1 has rendered the whole

society dependent on domestics. The very sustainability of the UAE household, as quoted

by the UAE women-employers themselves, is directly linked with the continuous import of

female domestics. Some the UAE women interviewed in the sample could not envision the

future without domestics. This growing dependence on household domestics is

structurally linked to the whole development of the UAE state and social system. The

increasing dominance of domestic houseworkers is one of the new social contracts of the

state system and the emerging civil society, in which the state provides and eases the latter

into a leisured life under the auspices of complete political control over the former. This

hidden state-civil society contract is part of a whole developmental project that led to a

population imbalance between citizens and expatriates. This imbalance is increasingly

creating hidden tensions and a high sense of insecurity among the UAE citizens, who are

increasingly becoming the minority in their own country. It seems like a vicious circle, and

it actually is.

In fact, the issue of domestics (FFDW) which existed in the mid-seventies and

early eighties is a part of the whole issue of foreign labor in the UAE. Nowadays, it is

1 The percentage of FFDWs in UAE households, according to the latest official studies, is 2.2 per household. In the study I pursued, there were at least one in each household I visited. The largest number I recall was eight per household. (See percentage

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taking a life of its own. FFDW, who were brought as cheap labor to help insure the

progress of UAE households from the pi e-modem to modem lifestyle, are becoming an

essential element in the entire disturbed social order. FFDW were once thought to be

docile, obedient, and helpful housekeepers, who would easily be absorbed and controlled

inside the well gender-segregated structure of the UAE household. These taken-for-

granted social realities have gradually shown to be misrepresented. People in the UAE,

social thinkers, and the enlightened intellegensia are discovering the problems caused by

total reliance on FFDW. The consequences of this total dependence, as they have

portrayed it, include damage to children, future societies, and household relationships.

Recently, a very negative image is also being formulated internationally. It is the image of

an exploitative UAE state and society that takes advantage and abuses the very poor

women of the world. Despite all open criticism inside and outside the UAE, the flow of

FFDW continues to swell. An attempt by the UAE state to regulate that growth is yet to

be acquired. The very flow of foreign female domestic workers into UAE airports is a

daily ensue.

This very growth that continues despite all major criticisms, reflect the

contradictions involved in this issue, as well as its consequences. The following section

addresses these direct effects on UAE households, women’s sphere, the children of the

UAE, and UAE society’s future image in regard to human rights and racial relations.

in the sample.)

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A. The Consequences Of The FFDW On The UAE Household

Households in the pre-modern UAE were never physically detached and isolated

as they are today. Spatial isolation is only functional in terms of “harem” movement.

However, a woman, can never assume total privacy unless she is in her own bedroom, or

her own space. Therefore, UAE women have to wear two kinds of veils: one is designed

for indoors only, covering only the hair and body; the other is designed for outdoors, that

is, outside the secured borders of the household, consisting of another full cover for the

body, an abba” (similar to the Iranian shador), and a burqa' that covers the face entirely,

leaving only the eyes exposed.

The old structure of the household is such, the rooms are build next to each

other, opening into a yard, which was fenced by the walls of the next door neighbors.

Social existence was very clustered, and this very clusterization was functional in keeping

the community together, and providing communal support in social and reproductive

events, such as weddings, births, sickness, and other events. In short, this clusterization

and the strong communal existence provided women with physical help and emotional

support to sustain the family as well as to survive the hardship of life.

Domestic work in this order was divided among women of the household. It was

also a social phenomenon, enjoyable and valued among women. Women also created

rituals around it to make the work more pleasant. Maids, in the old order, were only

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available, in the big houses of merchants, and ruling families. These families, in the

clusterization of social existence, were surrounded by maids and followers. They lived

either in the center of the city at very strategic points, which would indicate their position,

status, and social order. Merchants and ruling families depended on their slaves and maids

for their domestic survival, while ail other social groups depended on the structure of the

extended family, the neighborhood, and their own capabilities.

1- The wealthv-modem order of UAE household along the FFDWs existence

These days it seems the order of the merchant and ruling families adopted some

aspects of the new lifestyles in the UAE . Citizens of today, like merchant of yesterday, are

socially secluded. They live in spacious, separated villas, surrounded by their maids.

Families, however, are breaking away from the old extended family order. The emerging

the UAE household is at times an amalgamation of the old, new, and even ultra new order.

The transformation of the UAE household into a wealthy modem social unit has

its own peculiarity. UAE households need to be large, spacious, and creatively designed.

Citizens of the Emirates are obliged to live in villas as a sign of social status and

distinction. If they live in apartment buildings, their status is equated with that of

expatriates, a situation which most UAE citizens avoid. The state and ruling families

encourage their citizens, as part of the “hidden social contract,” to have their own status,

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homes, and villas.2 Non-citizens in most parts of the UAE are not allowed to own a villa

although they may rent one, if they can afford it.

In the sample I covered in “Al- Hamrya,” one of the newly developed and

exclusively UAE citizen area, all lived in villas and houses. The status of these houses

differed according to the status of the owner, his social achievement, and his family

background. Most of the houses in the rich—as well as poor—area were subsidized by

government or ruling family/ Even some of the largest estates were donated, not only the

land, but also the necessary money with which to construct these exclusive villas.

Half of all FFDW interviewed lived in houses of eleven to fifteen rooms in size.

Another third (23 .5 percent) lived in houses of seven to ten rooms. Only a very small

number (5.9 percent) lived in houses of only one to three rooms. Those who did were very

poor and miserable. Nevertheless, there were maids in these small dwellings (see Table

6.2. 1)

2 Each university graduate, is given free land on which to build his future family house. 'The only exception could be the merchant houses. However, even merchants can receive donated land from the ruling governor as a sign of generosity and/or appreciation for his doings.

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Table 6.2.1 Number Of Rooms In House Where Sample FFDW Were Interviewed Number of rooms ______Number ______Percent I to 3 rooms 3 5.9 4 to 6 ------11 21.6 7 to 10 ------12 23.5 II to 15— 25 * 49.0 Total 51 100.0

Half of those houses had three to four FFDW working in them. A small number

of them had more than four maids (14 percent). Among them, only one had eight to nine

maids. Those with only one or two domestics are also well represented (see Table 6.2.2).

Table&l^l^Number^OfMaidsJn^louseholds^ Number of Maids Number Percent Only 1 Maid 12 23.5 — 2 Maids 7 13.7 3 to 4 ------25 49.0 5 to 6 ------3 5.9 6 to 7 ------3 5.9 8 to 9 ------1 2.0 Total 51 100.0

Practically, it seems almost impossible in the UAE today for any family living in a

villa not to have a domestic to help in the work, especially if there are children or if the

family still maintains some of the old forms of extended family size (for the family size of

the employers interviewed, see Table 6.2.3). In fact, one of the single most frequent

factors mentioned as a reason to hire domestics was the size of the household (Table

6.2.4) even though half of the sample emphasized a combination of all factors, i.e., size of

the house, number of children, social pressure, and the fact that women could no longer

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take care of the house all alone.

As a result of the heavy existence of FFDW in UAE households, the very shape

and structure of the house is becoming affected. In fact, in the seventies and early eighties,

most houses were built without a separate location for domestics. Nowadays, the domestic

space is becoming an essential part of the household design. When female domestics

entered the UAE household, they were an integral part of the “harem” structure, especially

in the middle class family. Only merchants and the upper class families would offer them a

separate place of their own, on the outside. It was very common for the middle class to

allow domestics to live in the house and sleep with family members and children. This

practice is changing, and an increased separation between domestics and family members

is taking place in today’s middle class family. As a result of heavy criticism and increased

reliance on FFDW, and as a result of the increased crime and abuse against children by

maids, the UAE middle class is opting to separate their domestics from the direct privacy

of the house. They are giving them separate spaces, on the outside, next to the laundry and

cooking area (see picture below).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The first room to the right is the kitchen for the household (the main house does not incorporate a kitchen so that the odor from cooking will not permeate the house). The second room is the laundry room for the household. The last room is the FF D W sleeping quarters. There are two FF D W living in this particular room.

TablejfL^jJ^umberjDfHouseholdMen^ Number of household members Number Percent 1 to 4 8 23.5 5 to 8 15 44.1 9 to 12 6 17.6 13 to 16 2 5.9 17 and more 1 2.9 Missing 2 5.9 Total 34 100.0

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Table 6.2.4 Reasons For Hiring Domestics As Reported By Employers Interviewed Reasons for hiring ______Number ______Percent Unable to do it herself 5 14.7 House size 6 17.6 House size & number of children 4 11.8 House size & social pressure 1 2.9 Number children & social pressure 1 2.9 All above 17 50.0 Total 34 100.0

Previous studies on the impact of FFDW on UAE society have emphasized the

role of growing domestic duties as one of the major reasons that lead to hiring domestics

(Khalaf et al. 1987; Jardawi 1990; The UAE Ministry Work and Social Affairs 1992). In

fact, through direct field observation and interviews with employers, I detected

information and perceptions of domestic roles and duties that are very peculiar to UAE

society. These roles are addressed in the following section as the boundaries of women’s

sphere in UAE households and female employers-employee relations.

The following are some illustrative pictures of typical houses representing the

different strata in the UAE.

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Picture 2. Typical upper-class home in AMimzar. Dubai.

Picture 3. Upper-Class Home In AlMimzar, Exemplifying Ne w Trend Toward Reflecting U A E Identity (see Chapter Two)

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Picture 4. Typical Middle-Class Home in AlMimzar.

Picture 5. Lower-Class Home In The Welfare Neighborhood Portrayed In This Study ' - - — '

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B. The Consequences Of FFDW On Women’s Sphere

Female employers-employee relations are the most critical in this observation.

The very feminization of domestic wage labor in the UAE in a “harem” segregated

structure would be expected to bring women closer to each other. Having more women in

the women’s sphere (through female domestics) versus less men (moving towards a

nuclear family) could strengthen women’s position and raise their gender consciousness.

The daily intimacy among female paid domestic workers (employees) and female non-paid

domestics (employers) would at least bring them closer to understanding each other and to

defining domestic work.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Needless to say, this was never the case

anywhere else or at any other period in history. This relationship was always portrayed as

a clear domain of tension, mutual resentment, and defensiveness. Even at its best moment,

this relationship is considered to be matriarchal, exploitative, and demeaning. Even when it

is bursting with mutual feelings of caring and love, these feelings are portrayed and driven

by the boundaries of resistance and power (Scott 1990).

The interaction of FFDW and UAE female employers (the UAE FE) brought

forward more contradictions than resolutions. These contradictions are built around the

household—women’s sphere. Among these contradictions one can site the UAE FE-

constructed conceptualization of domestic work, the UAE FE changing roles and status

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under the auspices of an invisible social contract, and the UAE FE’s and FFDW’s racial

practices and difficulties.

1- FFDW impact on UAE FE constructed contradictory conceptualization of domestic work

Before I embarked on the study of domestic work in the UAE, I was under the

impression that the UAE FE would feel some guilt for their complete reliance on

domestics and that they realize the relief, introduced into their lives by their FFDW, from

socially devalued responsibilities. None of my presuppositions were substantiated. Most

the UAE r e (79 percent) rejected the fact that domestic work is devalued.4 Even those

who work outside the house did not perceive their public sphere as enjoying more merit

than their domestic sphere5 (Table 6.2.5). Others actually explained that domestic work

heightens a woman’s value and does not devalue her (14.7 percent).

4 The only case study who noted this devaluation is an old employer, uneducated, yet very intelligent, who raised three daughters during the development of UAE society. She saw how in reality those who did not benefit from the oil wealth by obtaining a good education were unable to improve their status or power, while the ones who obtained their education were able, not only to empower themselves, but also to liberate themselves, to a large extent, from both patriarchal and matriarchal forms of dominance. 5 Actually, two of them mentioned that they preferred to leave their jobs and take care of family and children.

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Table 6.2.5 Employers’ Perception Of Domestic Work As Socially Low Valued

Perception ______Number ______Percent Does not agree 27 79.4 Housework is women’s place 5 14.7 Agree 1 2.9 Missing I 2.9 Total 34 100.0

The reality of domestic work in the UAE seems to be relating a different story.

Data collected on the gender of domestic workers and their salary clearly reflects the

process of actual devaluation of domestic work. Data collected demonstrates the

feminization trend of the paid domestic worker, while an actual economic devaluation with

low salaries is taking place. Table 6.2.6, on the gender of domestic workers, shows that

female domestics are taking the place of males in that domain. UAE domestic servants

were previously mostly male. The growing trend of FFDW is not only taking place in

housekeeping, but also in some domestic jobs that were formerly exclusively male and are

now becoming slowly feminized, i.e., drivers and gardeners 6 This feminizing shift reflects

employer preference on the one hand and FFDW’s availability on the other. Another

6During the field observation, I came across UAE female employers who insisted on the need to feminize all aspects of domestic jobs, including driving and gardening. The reason given, besides better performance and reliability, was security. UAE female employers feel that women are less aggressive and easier to control than men, in the case of conflict. Those who have young girls are becoming less favorable toward allowing a man to drive their daughters alone in a car. Yet, some employers mentioned that they still trust a man better than a woman for some positions, generally because they are less inclined to interfere in their privacy.

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observation reflects that females are earning less money for more work. Domestic work,

or more specifically, household cleaning, which is performed mostly by women, seems to

be the least paid position. The average female salary for domestic work is Dhs 550 ($150).

If a female is a cook, she is considered a cook and a housekeeper and receives the salary

of a housekeeper. If she is a driver (only one case in the entire sample), she may have been

hired for a different position, such as the case sample, who was hired as a tutor, asked to

drive and perform housework, and then allotted only Dhs 800 for performing all these

tasks. In all cases observed, when the cook is a woman, she earns less than a male cook. If

she cleans, she still receives less. Even a nanny with a college degree, working 16 hours a

day, receives only half the salary of a driver who has merely attended primary school and

works only nine hours a day. Table 6.2.7 shows the salary earned by male domestics. (For

FFDW salary information, see Chapter Five, on work conditions, where it shows the

specifics of the relation between salary and ethnicity). In comparison to a male Indian

housekeeper who receives Dhs 450, a female in the same position would receive Dhs 375.

Table 6.2.6 Gender Of House Workers In Households Of Employer Interviewed Gender Number Percent All females 14 41.2 All females and one male 11 32.4 All females and two males 5 14.7 All females and three or more males 4 11.8 Total 34 100.0

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Table 6.2.7 Salary Of Male Domestic Workers In Household Of Interviewed Employer Salary and work category ______Number Housekeeper (Dhs 400-500) 2 Housekeeper (Dhs 550-800) 3 Cook (Dhs 700-900) 3 Cook (Dhs 950-1200) 4 Gardener (Dhs 500-800) 7 Gardener (Dhs 900+) 1 Driver (Dhs 800-1000) 3 Driver (Dhs 1100-1500) 15

How could one explain this constructed contradiction in the consciousness of the

UAE female employers? The UAE FE is reflecting her true consciousness and a socially

embedded perception of female value.7 This value is constructed upon the seclusion of

women under the “harem” structure. In this order, the female role is productive and

reproductive, yet spaced in the household. Women are the main decision makers in the

“harem” part of the household, and men have no control over it. The “harem” order is

hierarchical and usually ruled by the power of the mother-in-law over daughters and

daughters-in-law. They are both in charge of the housework, and their position in the

house is directly related to housekeeping (i.e., cleaning, cooking) and socializing.

Daughters-in-law usually achieve status in time, via their reproductive status. Their sons

are the major source of their status inside the household. Personal manipulation can play a

very important role in this structure. However, housekeeping remains the best method for

7 In fact, in my own experience, I have noted that the definition of a lady is directly tied to the good performance of domestic jobs. Being skillful and adept at domestic work translates, in the Arab world, to a " true household lady” or sit beit.

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a woman to acquire a good reputation if she wishes to secure a future marriage and her

future life.

Interestingly enough, despite the modernization phenomenon and higher female

education the UAE society has been going through, social values, especially gender roles,

still seem intact. The UAE females still perceive their role and value through domesticity.

This attitude raises the serious puzzling question about their contradictory perception. If

domesticity is so highly valued, why then relinquish this role to maids?

The heavy reliance on domestics in the UAE brought to the front this conceptual

contradiction, of which an attempted answer would actually reflect the benefit the UAE

women are accomplishing. This very reliance, that seems on the surface of it contradictory

and confusing, is in fact carrying a whole social transformation of their historical,

traditional, and “harem” roles into new and not yet wholly modified ones. What role did

the FFDW play in this transformation, and why?

2- FFDW impact on the UAE FE’S changing role and status

Modernization, capitalism, and individualization, among other aspects of modem

development come in one package that each society in turn adopts. The impact of this

modem package could be differently positioned, however. In the UAE, modernization

came through immense and sudden wealth after long years of poverty, deprivation, and

suffering. The state representatives and ruling families allocated some of the wealth to

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their citizens and built their legitimacy on a very specific welfare system (Chapter Two).

Men and women were both beneficiaries in that system; however, they were not equally

situated in relation to those benefits.

As no one can hide overnight wealth, the UAE men, women, and society in

general were highly active in exploiting this sudden dream-come-true. Newly modernized,

the UAE men could no longer live like their fathers and mothers before them.* They

commenced the construction of large mansions, homes, and even welfare houses. The

state helped its citizens to experience this sudden wealth and offered them incentives to

engage in modernity.9

With the growth of the modem, nuclear, and separated family, females are unable

to care for their homes in addition to socializing, displaying their sudden wealth, and

engaging in public life without help with domestic work and child rearing. Men would not

assume these chores, not only because they were not accustomed to them, but also

because they consider the work beneath them. It is demeaning work for a man because it

is a female’s responsibility, and in performing such duties, he would diminish his manhood

figure. The hidden social male-female contract was: we secure housekeepers for you; they

* During a social gathering in Dubai, a UAE bank director and millionaire, educated in the United States and England, said, “as modem men we cannot live like our fathers and mothers did before. We have to have our own modem life style; we have to sleep on beds, eat with forks, have our own private houses, and ease the way into modernity for our children.” 9 Housing is one of those great incentives. The state gives any university graduate

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do the dirty job; therefore, you will be a real lady, and we continue to be gentlemen.

The state was the first supporter of this contract. It eased the way, placed no

restrictions, and granted many extra benefits to the migrants, in terms of free health care,

easy access to employment, entries, and other hidden subsidies in order to facilitate this

historical moment of change.

UAE women were the first visible beneficiaries of the FFDW in the UAE.10 For

the first time, they were able to engage in public life, attend school, obtain high degrees,

work in public offices and businesses, and travel at least once a year. Some the UAE FE

attend daily or weekly weddings. They attend daily or weekly parties and shop daily for

hours, either for regular household necessities or for dress-up clothes. The UAE FE are

enjoying not only a leisured life, but also a status they did not possess previously.

Nowadays, a UAE woman is not obliged to await the birth of a son or sons in order to

enjoy status in the household. It is not necessary that she manipulate power around the

matriarchal figure of her mother-in-law to acquire status in the household. De facto, she is

the lady of the house and has no need to prove it. With so many FFDW around, she is

even rendered a matriarch herself, and at a very early age. UAE women are even

competing with men outside the home. She is daily proving her higher competency, status,

free land and a bank loan in order to build status and engage in a modem life style. 10 They were not the only ones. Men, state, and society at large all had their share in these benefits. Listing all their benefits would take us beyond the scope of this paper. But needless to say, if they had not benefited at all levels, men and statesmen would not

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intelligence, and kn*>w how in the world outside, which was formerly exclusively a male

domain. In only four years, between 1980 and 1984), the number of girls in school had

risen from 50,74210 79,596, a 57.1 percent increase. Also, during the same four-year

period, the number of girl’s schools had increased by forty-four, i.e., an average of eleven

new schools per year. The total number of girl’s schools in 1980 was 115, and in 1985, it

had reached a total of 159 schools (National UAE Report to Beijing, 1995:7). In addition,

it is interesting to note that they are able to achieve ail this without sacrificing their social

life, marriage, and raising children.11

This higher status, socio-economic, and educational upward mobility, would

never be possible for women in the UAE if they did not have an FFDW army to support

this form of life.

3- FFDW abundance and its impact on rising UAE FE racial practices, and other implications

Any UAE FE is able to procure another FFDW in less than a month with only a

telephone call or a visit to the agency. Not only are FFDW highly available, they are also

comparatively very Cheap. A regular party dress would cost four to five times an FFDW

have so wholeheartedly supported the project. 11 The state is very supportive in this sense. They have very specific schools to help women study while raising a family. They also have flexible night programs for those who married under social pressure but are still interested in pursuing an education. It is very common in the UAE today to see widowed or divorced women in schools, or in university, or out of the country finishing postgraduate degrees. I personally know a high

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salary for a month. An average daily dress would cost, at least, the monthly salary of an

FFDW.12 This very availability and accessibility permitted their existence to spread, not

only horizontally, but also vertically. This high abundance and facility to exchange them is

helping the creation and enforcement of a psychology of devaluation, degradation, and

stereotyping.

The UAE r e are not without feelings and sympathy, especially towards the

FFDW who leave their family and children behind and suffer the hardships of working in

someone else’s home. Some actually are very supportive and build a very close and

intimate relationship with their housekeeper or nanny.13 But what actually occurs is that

the daily interaction brings tension. The male dominance in the household structure and its

invisibility in the process of power practice (i.e., daily orders and instructions) places the

female employers and employees in a vulnerable position.

They are diametrically opposed in the dominance structure. If the employer is

very giving and loving, she expects the FFDW to be grateful, and if the FFDW is obedient

and well-mannered, she expects the employer in return to be thankful and giving. At

stressful times, none can see the outside sources of the stress, and each builds an anger

proportion of them who are studying abroad with their children. !2 This is taken from the average spent by middle to lower middle class UAE FE, and does not include the expenditure of upper, merchant, or ruling class women. u As we have seen in the interviews how some employers are well praised from their FFDW, and how some FFDW did not even want to leave their place of work for good.

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against the other. This unequal angry build-up is unfortunately bestowed by a double

social context that works on both sides. On the employer side, it is society as a whole that

is insecure from the dependency on foreign labor and its impact on all aspect of life. On

the FFDW side, domestic expatriates or FFDW who are feeling demeaned and mistreated

are closely linked by their abundance and social visibility in all aspects of UAE family

life.14

In a domestically close social reality, and highly segregated one, any small

misunderstanding can grow out of proportion for both sides. The very nature of these

positions, under the continuous devaluation of domestic work, creates conflict and

resentment between both groups. From that double resentment emerges a double

malpractice on both sides. An angry social background on both sides can blow both

reactions out of proportion or build up continuous inside resentment that, in the long run,

acquires the shape of racial degradation and stereotyping. Unfortunately, consciousness on

both sides is very limited, and information on the dynamics of domestic interaction under

these conditions is even more limited. The result is aggravated racial feelings, practices,

14 Even if an FFDW is deprived of going out, as we have seen in the sample, she still can interact with other FFDW, either in the park while playing with the children, or at school while she drops the children off, or at the nearest convenient store, where UAE FE do not go. In the worst case depicted in my sample, a worker who did not even leave the house was able to send a letter to the next door FFDW while she emptied the trash outside the house.

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and sometimes very dehumanizing behavior.15 On the receiving end, the FFDW s weak

and vulnerable yet not totally powerless by the very conditions of their close coexistence.

They are able to inflict harm on their employers, or take out their anger on the children,

pets, or any of their belongings. Eventually, any FFDW would at least lose her job if she

misbehaves, or she would be punished by the state if her anger escalates to the point of

committing what is considered a crime: running away, stealing, hitting, killing, etc.16

Unfortunately, these incidences are growing in scope and number with the

growth of FFDW in the UAE . Racial hatred and stereotyping is fed by similar incident

and is becoming an embedded social phenomenon and attitude. The woman’s sphere can

be loving, caring, and supportive, but these qualities cannot resist and survive the attitudes

of racial hatred and stereotyping for very long. It is continuously showing that it cannot be

sustainable and immune under non-equal positions and relations of power.

These damaging situations in the women’s sphere, as well as domestic inequality,

cannot be limited only to female interaction. The impact, under similar conditions, spreads

to the entire society.

15 For example these practices, such as name calling, hitting, or spitting, are spread inside the household among all members, even children. 16 Most reported crimes by FFDW were not related to mere misunderstanding by the female employer. For an FFDW to kill, the conditions of her existence have to be very dramatic, to the point that she loses all her mental stability. For these conditions, damaging physical and sexual abuse would usually be involved.

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C. The Consequences Of FFDW On UAE Children

Children of the UAE could be major benefactors from their exposure to FFDW;

however, they are also major victims. In this linkage, they may be the most vulnerable

social group of UAE society. They probably receive love and attention from all parties as

a result, but they can also be the scapegoats and succumb to abuse and mistreatment.

Historically, children have been the foremost victims of servant-master relationships.

Cissie Fairchild describes how this structure affects the youngsters’ personality.

Retarded motor development, “oral pessimism,” weaning traumas, and an overwhelming sense of the world as cold, cruel, and unloving... .Historians have repeatedly pointed out such infantile experiences were a perfect apprenticeship for the cold and unloving world of the seventeenth century: they produced adults who were suspicious, prone to violence, and incapable of forming warm and loving relationships with other human beings. . . a childhood spent in the hands of servants whose care of their charges. . . unsuitable indulgences punctuating long stretches of neglect.

In the UAE, negative FFDW impact on children has been one of the most socially

noticeable phenomena. In fact, its very cognizance has blurred all other happenings around

the issue. The topic is one of the most prominent in UAE social studies. Government

establishments, public institutions, daily news papers, and periodic magazines all tackled it

very intensely. In the UAE today, FFDW negative impact on children is the number one

social security issue, related to the dependence on foreign labor. Socially, it is the “war

siren,” that might trigger change or open Pandora’s box.

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Images of FFDW and UAE children in playgrounds, hospitals, doctor’s clinics,

restaurants, and other public places are enough for any outside observant to picture a

seriously unhealthy image of the way UAE children are being raised. While other children

of the world are taught self reliance, social discipline, and manners, children of the UAE

are either too spoiled or too restricted, worse they are sometimes abused by their nannies.

Emotionally, they are haunted by separation anxiety and fears of the nanny leaving them to

return to her own country. In some cases, they are more attached to her than their own

mothers. Traumatic stories are continuously told about children’s attachment to their

FFDW.

Three main areas of child development were emphasized in studies on the impact

of FFDW on UAE children, language, psychological effects, and abuse. The UAE FE

interviewed also observed the great impact on children, despite the fact that each one

attempted to portray a positive image of herself and her involvement with the children. It

was very natural that each would criticize others and their extensive reliance on domestics.

A comment that was made more than five times was that “each woman these days needs

one nanny for each child.” When asked if they themselves relied on the FFDW to raise

their children, only thirteen out of thirty-four replied positively. Sixteen of the answers

were negative, and the rest stated that they had previously relied on the FFDW, but not

anymore (Table 6.2.8). The rising social consciousness around the issue was very clear

and obvious in some of the answers, especially for those who said “not anymore” since

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they were actually projecting this sweeping awareness.

Table 6.2.8 UAE FE Opinion On Allowing FFDW To Care For Their Children FFDW care for children ______Number ______Percent Yes, with certain conditions 13 38.2 No 16 47.1 Only before, not any more 2 5 .9 Missing 3 8.8 Total 34 100.0

When the UAE FE asked their opinions on the impact of FFDW on children, only

seven responses acknowledged the impact to be positive and four observed no impact at

all; however, the rest thought it is either totally negative (twenty-two or 65 percent) or

considered only the aspect of language as a negative factor (2.9 percent) (Table 6.2.9).

Table^2;9^AEy^EJ]|erce£tionOfFFDWJ^ Perception ______Number ______Percent Very negative 22 64.7 Positive 7 20.6 Only language is negative 1 2.9 No impact 4 11.8 Total 34 100.0

Above figures confirm all the social warnings, fears, and theories. The UAE FE

recognizes some of these impacts, but in reality, they are not changing their practices in

either hiring domestics or relying heavily on them to care for their children. A small shift

has been slowly affecting their perception, but not their actual behavior. In fact, and also

historically, these shifts can only be effected through a major sweeping social change, but

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this is yet to occur in the UAE.

D. Consequences Of The FFDW On UAE Society

Structurally, FFDW are at the center of UAE society’s social transformation

from a pre-modem mode of life to a more capitalist and service economy. As shown

above, if not for the FFDW, women’s tasks would be highly difficult if not impossible to

perform once they move away from their extended families and female support system.

This role is somehow similar to that of domestics in Europe during the age of

transformation from a feudal to a family system. Interaction between employer-employee

or master-servant relations of nineteenth century Europe and the United States has some

similarities to the mode of social interaction between FFDW and their employers in the

UAE.

In 1940’s maid in the United States stated, in one of the interviews with her, that

“we are exploited, regarded as inferior. We don’t like the servant. Our working hours are

too long. We have no lives of our own.” (Martin and Segrave 1985). Similarly, another

servant during the period of Victorian England was quoted saying, “I often thought of

myself and them, all the ladies sitting up and talking and sewing and playing games and

pleasing themselves... it seems like being a different kind of creature to them...” (Flom,

1991). In explaining the underlying “class” grounds in the master-servant relationship and

its functional necessity in seventeenth century France, Fairchild catches some genuine

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psychological underpinnings of a similar reality that is also witnessed in UAE social

classism and racism towards domestics. “This tendency to see servants as a separate

race—surely the ultimate step of psychological distancing—was useful to masters. It

relieved the psychological pressure created by the constant presence of servants in their

lives, for if domestics were of a separate and inferior race, their judgments on what they

saw and heard of their masters’ lives simply did not matter. It also justified the automatic

bullying, blows, and scornful insults which seem to have been the normal demeanor of

masters toward their servants... It justified the beating. The physical suffering....”

(Fairchild, 1984: 148).

This social class distance and the racial practices were observed in seventeenth

century Europe to intensify the hierarchical structure of the society—a situation similar to

that of the UAE. Racial boundaries and practices in the UAE could be seen as a major

sociological problem resulting from total reliance on foreign labor in the public sector and

on foreign domestics in the private. Even though racial hatred and racial practices are

common worldwide and openly felt in the industrial West more than anywhere else, the

UAE, like other oil countries of the region, is vulnerable to very serious racial and

inhuman practices in relation to FFDW.

As explained, the UAE is progressing from pre-modemity to modernity. It is

upholding some practices that are very socially demeaning to the international community

and to the respectable image of a developing country. Unfortunately, the continuous

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human rights reports on domestic mistreatment in the UAE are seriously damaging the

image of a country and state that is looking positively at the world outside, and is trying to

make its own contribution to it. Those issues are not only damaging, but they can also lead

the country regionally to another “unhappy ending,” such as the Gulf war. The world of

the “global village” in which we live today, different from the earlier development of

capitalism, is increasingly becoming more uncompromising toward inhuman practices. In

this sense, FFDW can be as internationally damaging to the UAE as much as they are

internally beneficial and supportive to the state.

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300-305

UMI

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III. The Situated FFDW

Good narrative analysis "makes sense" in intuitive, holistic ways. The "knowing” in such work includes but transcends the rationaltysselson R. andAmiaLieblich 1993).

This part is based on a study of the women's narratives about their lives’

experiences—a style that ensures the contextualization of the story of female domestic

migration from its multidimensional perspectives. In fact, contextualization is the method

under which women could adhere to their commonalties and differences. "The word

context literally means to weave together, to twine, to connect. This interrelatedness

creates the webs of meaning within which humans act. The individual is joined to the

world through social groups, structural relations, and identities." (The Personal Narratives

Group, Barbre et al. 1989:19)

This contextualization is presented through five major models or situations that

were dictated by the general meaning of the FFDW’s life experiences through her

migratory trip. The feminizer of the trend, the feminizer of the self, the totally satisfied, the

victimized, and the ambivalent is perceived through individual anecdotes that embody

symbolic representative meaning to the whole reality of FFDW. Each and all five

situations could be either elements in a generalized symbolized story or a single standing

narrative representative of all FFDW.

Indeed, the tales of each FFDW interviewed in this sample could be a story of

migration by itself. Each experience could add meaning and understanding to our previous

conceptualization and assumed reality of migration. Each story is a telling of the

interlocking variables of life’s previous experiences, knowledge, information, the

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conditions of the trip, and the work setting. It was interesting to see how each individual

FFDW molded her life’s circumstances, previous and current, into a peculiar vision. This

molding was an art by itself. Each and all were the artists of a feminist interaction with the

ongoing structure of international division of labor, globalization of poverty, and

feminization of migration.

In fact, the richness of their stories guided my choice for this interpretative style.

The five selected narratives for these typologies are telling because they were well

communicated to me, they were intense and diverse in content, and they clearly

represented the dynamic process through which an individual FFDW could simultaneously

shape and be shaped by her environment.

These typologies are framed by the general meaning of FM, which was also used

as the main feature for two FFDW, who were considered feminizers. A feminizer is a

woman that through her life experiences resist conditions of her dominance. Her resistance

could be hidden and not outwardly expressed. Inwardly, she has a different vision or

version of reality that she cannot express openly because of the conditions of her

dominance. Her acts and behavior confirm the reality of the hegemonic dominant

discourse. Yet inside herself, she has different aims—“hidden transcript” (Scott 1990)—

that she hides and expresses only when she is not threatened by the dominant power, i.e.,

when she is “offstage.”

“Hidden transcript” or dominated discourses of FFDW resistance are not

considered a revolutionary meaning of feminism. FFDW “hidden transcript” of resistance,

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in this construction, is a projection of their inner interactive self—a self that does not

totally admit its position of dominance, yet because it does not have the power of altering

itself, it resists from offstage while acting as if it is part of the dominant discourse.

A. The Feminizer Of The Trend

She is a Sri Lankan from Colombo, thirty-one years old, single, high school

educated, and Christian (#13). She was chosen in this narration as feminizer of the whole

trend for many reasons. She was one of the FFDW "first comers" to Dubai, arriving in the

early eighties. Most migrants from Sri Lanka at that time were males. When she arrived,

she was only eighteen years old and had already worked at two previous sites. She has the

longest period of working time in one house of any FFDW in the selected sample. She

worked in Dubai, in the same house, for fourteen years, and she is still there. When she

first arrived, she did not know any Arabic, but she is now fluent in the language.

In addition, her story represents a learning experience and achievement. The

underlying reasons of her success were based on the interactive conditions of work,

employer's treatment, and her own affluent personality. She was objectified, like all FFDW

in the sample, but her resistance and female consciousness helped her situate herself in a

more advanced place in relation to the conditions of her exploitation. She bought land and

built a house and saved money to establish a business. But most importantly, she was able

to learn, grow, and consciously mature from her migration. She did not mention gold as

important to raising her status in order to marry when she returns to Sri Lanka. She slowly

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elevated her life through trust and mutual understanding. She was trusted with the house,

children, and all her employer's possessions. She was able to integrate her cultural

background into her living space. Her employer now enjoys Sri Lankan cooking and

allows her to wear her own fashions.

Her life experience as an FFDW, was built through agony, painful emotional

separation, long extended sufferings, strong dedication to learning, and internalizing her

feelings of disappointment in order to survive difficult moments. She was disappointed

because of her family and her employer’s racist treatment. She was able to turn this

disappointment into a life experience, overcome it, and improve her life and the life of her

surroundings in both worlds—that of Dubai and Sri Lanka. When she first arrived, her

employer, who was working as a teacher, had a daughter, who was then only a baby. Now

they are two young girls, both attending school, who are very attached to their

housekeeper. Her family in Sri Lanka is well off, and her brother, who was almost

imprisoned, was saved because of her.

1- Extract from her interview1

a. Early experience

I used to stay alone in the house and be scared. I cried. I was taking care of the baby. The employer was nice to me. She use to teach me the language. I overcame my loneliness with constant work. At an early

1 The interview was done at my house during afternoon break, after the employer granted her permission. She arrived with her employer’s daughter, who played with my son while we were alone in my office, proceeding with the interview, which was conducted in Arabic. It lasted more than two hours.

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stage, my mind was always comparing, calculating. I was very afraid of making them angry. I was a stranger. I was different. Later, the employer agreed to hire my sister in order to help me at the job; this changed the course of my life, and that of my family’s.

b. Work conditions

The work load is hard. I clean, cook, take care of children, clean the garden. I take one hour rest time every afternoon. When I first came I use to get Dhs 400; now my salary reached Dhs 700.

c. Accomplishment

I send all my money home. At the beginning, my brother took all my savings and started a recruiting agency with a co-owner who cheated him, took the money, and ran away. My brother almost got imprisoned. He is the source of my sufferings. I paid for him to let him free. Later I built a house, saved money to establish a business. When my contract is finished this time, I won't come back. I will get married and start a family. Now, I learned what working and earning money means to women's life. I also learned how to take care of children, cook, deal with men, especially a husband. When I go home, I will get married, start a home-based business, and be my own life engineer... Yes, after all these years, I feel the accomplishment. I feel that all the pain I went through was channeled to improve my life. This is what I was trying to accomplish since I came, and I did.

B. The Feminizer Of The Self

She is a thirty-four year old, married, Filipina of the Christian faith, with a college

degree in social work and two children—a girl, twelve years old and a boy, eight years

(#29). Her salary is Dhs 650 or $168. She is not the only representative of a feminizer of

the self in this project. In her own way, each FFDW interviewed is a feminizer of the self.

The very meaning of feminization, as introduced previously in the chapter on theory,

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reflects the silent woman’s struggle and resistance to change the conditions of her

oppression, exploitation, humiliation, and marginalization. In the case of poor women in

general, and FFDW in particular, feminization also embodies their struggle to elevate

themselves and their loved ones from poverty. Gender-related struggles in the case of

poverty come hand-in-hand with the conditions of poverty. They are inseparable and

intensify the situation reciprocally.

This case, however, was unique in providing the image of a wise woman from the

East, particularly the Philippines, where the consciousness of patriarchy is high among

women, even while their living conditions are totally restricted. She is silently resistant, yet

never docile. She speaks with much integrity, pride, and inner strength. She is mature,

calm, serene, self confident, and converses with depth and a mixture of rationality and

embracing female emotionality. Her words are enlightening even though immersed in daily

life and practical experience. Her individuality and migratory experience illustrate a

conscious feminized resistance to patriarchy that is regionally and spatially bounded. "We

were raised to be tough and independent. Our sense of independence is based on our

ability to work, so we won't need money from the other, even if it was the husband. We

respect men, but also we try to work with them hand-in-hand to build a family life. We do

not fight them, we silently fight life conditions in order to make it better" (#29).

Despite all the pain, guilt, and separation anxiety she suffered, she was able to

depict some of the bright spots of her trip with a creative spirit. Her guide was her bright

imagination and a strong inner self that was amazingly very peaceful and typically eastern.

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Finally, she was very unique in addressing her painful life’s story, with great courage and

rising consciousness of the self and others.

1- Extract from her interview2: Statement of the self at the end of the trip

a. The trip

Going abroad is like a dream, a fantasy, or it is just a gamble, whether I win, or I lose. Because I never know the people behind me. They are strangers to me and I am a stranger to them too... Now that I adjusted fully, I can say that I won in the game. Although there is sometimes a frustration, pain, disappointment, but yet everything runs smoothly, because I managed those with patience, courage, and strong guts in order to maintain my work normally.

b. Conditions

I can not stop comparing my life in the Philippines and [abroad] here. But I blew away those thoughts sometimes, because they give me pain and heartache. I chose this life to be away from my family for a while because I wanted to know about myself, if I can stand alone without their help, without their support. Yes, it is painful on my part as a mother to be separated from my children for a long time, but I had to face those sacrifices, pains, and hurt for the sake of all. This goal is not only in my own self, but to them too. I wanted to share with them the experience of life abroad.

2 The interview was done in three parts: two of them were face to face—questions and answers—at her employer's house in a rich neighborhood. We spoke quietly for an hour each time; the third part was answered by her directly, as she had kept the questionnaire and had time to reflect on the long questions, imparting her answers through a written statement. Also, when I met her, she was at the end of her journey and preparing to leave permanently, after working for six years in Dubai, in the same house. Her interview also reflects a sort of happy ending to a very difficult trip.

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c. Projection of the work place

Not so many days, and I am leaving Dubai, a place where my memory, thoughts, and horizons were broadened. Happiness, and loneliness were served as my experience in life. Before, I use to say, life here is not full of roses. But as the years went by, I learned much things that led me to a fully grown woman. I learned to adjust to things which I never did before. I grew up, matured. Now I can take decisions alone, without depending on my family. I can maintain full obligations without doubts, and without thinking of the negative process.

d. Trust

I offered help to my husband without hesitation. I trusted him, that is why I came here. If I did not trust somebody, maybe I would not be able to stay so many years working abroad.

e. The trip back

I am going back to the Philippines with courage and determination. Those years of staying here are part of my whole life that will never been taken away from me. In my memories and thoughts, this experience will continue, and I will pass it to my children. When the time comes, I will teach them all what I have learned, and I will also teach them that going abroad to work is not bad. Where there is faith in God and determination, hope and success will be in our hands.

C. The Satisfied

She is a thirty-year old, high school-educated, Muslim woman from the Mauritius

Islands, who speaks French, English, and Arabic (#15). She works for an upper-middle

class family. She is highly intellectual, spending most of her free time reading. She

possesses an introverted, conservative type of personality. Fatherless, she was raised by

her mother, and lived her life under stressful poverty. Something about her is strange. She

seems truthful and trust worthy, yet her shyness leaves many unanswered questions.

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Before her arrival, she was looking forward to venturing out, having different experiences,

seeing the outside world. Her dream, her imagination played an intensive role in

motivating her to escape her country’s walls.

On her arrival, she had to experience many cultural changes, yet she adjusted

herself, mostly through escaping inside the shell of her employer’s home. She reads many

novels and was excited to see the desert. She is very shy and does not interact with other

FFDW. She does not appear to be overworked. She is completely satisfied materially and

earns three times what she would receive in her own country. Her salary is Dhs 700 or

$190. She has been working in the same house for ten years and is not sure that she

wishes to return home. She has not visited her family for eight years now. Her only

complain about the UAE is the racial social setting and the fact that locals do not

intermarry with foreigners, or at least with FFDW like herself.

1- Extract from her interview^

a. Early experience

When I first came, I was very afraid. At the agency, I saw a woman crying. Her employer had beaten her up. I started crying too. Later when I saw my employer, I was very shy and scared until I developed a good relationship with them. When I first came, all what I wanted is to go out. I thought it is like Europe. I discovered, it is different. I still like it because I like the children.

' The interview was done at her employer’s residence during the afternoon period, when most of the family were asleep. We were sitting alone in the living room. The interview lasted more than two hours. We enjoyed total freedom to speak, but she was a reserved type by nature.

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b. Cultural change

In my country, I used to wear a skirt and no veil. Madame asked me to wear their style and to put on a veil. When I go out I wear a "Panjabi."4 My first year was very hard; I never believed I would stay. I always use to say to myself, after I finish my contract, I will never come back.

c. Source of satisfaction

I feel part of the family because my employer trusts me. She lets me sleep with the children. She gives me gold, buys me dresses, gives me money. Even though I do not care too much about money, but I feel satisfied. I had the chance to travel. I went two times to Germany, and one time to Egypt. If I stayed in my country, I will never go any where.

d. Future

Yes I do want to get married. Here they say Arabs marry only Arabs. For us Mauritius we cannot marry any body. My mom said she has a husband for me in Mauritius. I hope he is a quiet man. I do not like people who talk much.

D. The Victim

She is unmarried, nineteen years old, fatherless, raised single-handedly by her

mother in a village in Sri Lanka, with only a middle school education, and of the Buddhist

faith (#42). She is a first comer, working in Dubai for only six months. She does not speak

any Arabic. She looks very pretty, very feminine, and docile. She was thinking of

migrating for domestic work for many years before she was able to accomplish it. Nobody

4 It is similar to the Pakistani costume, composed of wide long pants and a wide long shirt on top. From an Islamic perspective, this dress is considered proper, practical, and comfortable.

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pressured her to come. She was convinced that this is the way to improve her life. Most

women in the village who left returned with money.

Her work conditions seemed highly depressing, inhuman, and similar to the life

depicted in soap operas. The employer, a large lady, was sitting on the couch and talking

on the phone during the entire interview. The house was in very bad shape—every thing

was dirty and broken. Six boys, aged five to twelve, were playing inside and out. The

employer was talking about her FFDW in a very demeaning language. For example, she

described her employee as very stupid and slow, not understanding her responsibilities.

After I interviewed her, I thought to myself that I wished there was an NGO on the spot

to save this women from that house. She was a true victim of the worst domestic work

conditions I had encountered at the time of the field work.

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1- Extract from her interview5

a. Work conditions

An interpreter translated the interview. The girl stated that she was beaten, that

they do not give her food, only leftovers. They do not let her go out or talk to anybody.

She wrote to her mother asking her to send a telegram requesting her return. Another

problem is that she is still in debt. She has not paid off the cost of her coming, which she

borrowed with very high interest. She is scared to run away, does not know any body, and

is also afraid of going to prison. If she stays another year in this house, she told the

interpreter, she would die.

b. A sensitive FFDW to a non-sensitive UAE FE

She was very angry and sensitive about how the employer spoke badly about her

in front of us. "You see she has no respect for me." She also was very happy about the

research and about talking to us: "It is very good to do this kind of work. I feel much

5 The interview was done in the employer’s house, in a welfare neighborhood. When I first arrived at this house and experienced the depressing atmosphere myself, the employer told me that the FFDW could not speak either English or Arabic, so I asked if I could bring an interpreter, who I usually hire in cases like this. I told her that the interpreter is a Sri Lankan that has been working for years, and she is fluent in Arabic. I explained that she would translate the interview into Arabic under her supervision. She agreed after I also convinced her that this is an interesting case for comparison for me because she is a new comer. The interview took us an hour. I only asked non-sensitive questions, but I had explained the situation to my interpreter earlier and asked her to obtain all other information by speaking to her in Singhalese. Everything went accordingly, and right after we finished the interview, we went to my house where I filled in the gaps. The only problem was that we were both saddened, the interpreter and I, because we could not do anything for her.

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better now. I had everything inside. I suffocate. Now, at least I feel better. I was able to let

some of my feelings out."

b. Dream turned into a nightmare

Before she came, she was dreaming of making money, experiencing happiness,

getting married. She dreamed always of being a happy bride. Now her dream has turned

into a nightmare.

E. The Ambivalent

She is a married, middle school-educated, thirty-three year-old Sri Lankan

Christian from Colombo, with one daughter, fourteen years old (#8). She has been living

as an immigrant worker for more than ten years. Up to the present, she has not

accomplished her dream of building a house, the reason for which she originally migrated.

She has only bought the land. She has lived in many countries. She survived two wars: the

Lebanese civil war, and the invasion of Kuwait. She is strong and highly sociable among

FFDW, but she is very unsuccessful in her own life.

She is my interpreter and somebody who I like personally, but I cannot help but

see how she is unable to manage her life properly as other long timers have done. Her

daughter is very upset with her. She is at a critical age and needs her mother with her. Her

husband shares these feelings with the daughter. As for herself, she is not sure. She was

dating, and the problem was that she was going out with UAE locals, who generally do

not respect FFDW and only use them for their own pleasure. When I spoke to her about

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it, she tended to agree with me, and I was sure she was going to change the course of her

life.

Financially, she is still at a starting point. She still earns the wage of a new

comer—Dhs 500. All she speaks of, in terms of accomplishments, is gold for her daughter

and the house for herself. Yet, she is not able to do both. Recently, I learned that she

borrowed money from another FFDW in the neighborhood and subsequently ran away

without paying back the money.

In her own context, she is a leader. I saw her helping other Sri Lankan FFDW.

Yet it seems the complications and contradictions of the trip overwhelmed her, and she is

losing her sense of direction.

1 - Extract from her interview6

a. The issue of having a girl

I love my girl, but having girls in my country complicates life. They need lots of money to get married, they need gold, they are vulnerable, they need protection. It is tough. My sister was raped was she was a young girl, until now she can not get married. Yes, that is why I did not have another child. I did not want to end up with another girl.

b. Work experience across the Arab World

In Lebanon, I was happier. I did not have any days off, but I was able to

6 The interview was done in my office, inside my house. As mentioned earlier, her employer was on summer vacation, and we had plenty of time to be together. The interview was done in parts. We did not always concentrate on the interview per se as much as on everything. Whenever we both had free time, we visited and talked. The language used was Arabic since she is fluent and even speak and understand easily my Lebanese accent, contrary to many other FFDW who worked only in the Gulf.

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go in the afternoon. In Kuwait, I had to wear a "sheila” [local veil, that covers the head]. The employer, "mama," use to scream and fight with me. They had lots of work. After the invasion, I had to stay in Kuwait, in the house, for two weeks by myself. When they gave the choice to stay or leave, I chose to leave.

c. The FFDW's commodified body, under the world conditions of trafficking

In Sri Lanka, before we leave for work, the recruiting agent gives us injections that protect us from getting pregnant for three months. They think if we get raped on the trip, we won't get pregnant. They like to make sure that the employer won't find any thing wrong with us during the first three months of the contract while we are still under their warranty; otherwise they lose their money.

d. A leader among her friends

Yes, I am allowed to go out now. I have lots of friends. I know everybody in this neighborhood. So many come to me to ask for help, especially if they need new employers, or they run away.

Recently, I found out she ran away herself. Now, she has to start all over again.

She cannot return to Sri Lanka to see her daughter for another two years, and she still has

to save more money to finish her house and marry off her daughter.

In short, these situations are aimed at showing how the individual shapes and is

shaped by her own life’s conditions and the conditions of the trip. Sometimes they are able

to succeed despite all the hardships of the trip, sometimes they are totally victimized, and

sometimes they lose their direction. No one condition or no one factor can be considered

the dominant one for this trip. However, there is much to be done, at least to ensure basic

human needs for those strong, highly active, and committed FFDW on this complicated

trip of local, regional, and international social change.

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CONCLUSION

This dissertation is an inquiry into the lives of the FFDW during their migration

journey to the UAE. The main interest is to see how these particular FFDW shape and are

shaped by the conditions of this journey. This type of micro-macro interaction between the

individual FFDW and her surroundings is a complex phenomenon that embodies assessing the

continuity and change in an interactive mode between two environments—hers in her home

country and her employer's in the UAE. This complexity of the interactive environmental

changes was one of the major challenges of this research as it has always been to migration

theories.

The aim of the research design was to include this holistic scope in a manageable

research. The 51 FFDW reporting the story of their migratory journey touched on the most

essential self and structural challenges and changes they went through. In fact, the stratified

research design of this peculiar place allowed me to draw lines and conclusions about the

place itself, the receiving country, and the dynamic interactive changes of the FFDW on the

UAE family, household, and society.

The question of treatment, conditions of work, abuse, and other controversial issues of

FFDW in the UAE and other Gulf states, were documented through direct and immediate

contact with FFDW in the work place and through direct observation, a step that was not

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This research, however, despite its limits in scope, time, and resources is able to draw

clear informative images of the interactive complex reality of these female foreign domestic

women. These images have practical, theoretical, and policy implications. The following

addresses those implications along with the summary and the findings of the research.

I. Summary And Findings

A. In Terms Of The FFDW Themselves

The research has pinpointed how the FFDW have been exposed to different systems of

exploitation, patriarchy, male dominance, and female marginalization. Their daily resistance to

these systems has been empowering as well as demeaning. In the modem world, the migration

of female domestics requires self denial, intensive pain, obedience, courage, steadfastness,

general wisdom, and most importantly, strong self control.1 This trip takes great inner power,

courage, and strength.

Not all FFDW seem to be equipped at the start; yet most do develop these

characteristics. A few sound and act like the telling conscience of the whole. Those, in my

interpretation were the "Feminizers" of the trend. Two of the whole sample fit perfectly in this

grouping. Indeed, these two, especially # 29, made me revisit my previous thesis propositions

1 They have to control their feelings, their reactions, their sufferings as much as their excitments. If they are expressive, they create conflicts with their employers and the disciplining surrounding. They also need to know how to balance their pain to survive. If they do not they, cannot continue the trip. (See consequences on the self chapter six of this dissertation)

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At first, I viewed the FFDW as rational actors active in the process of migration.

After doing and interpreting the interviews, I felt the rational conceptualization fell short of

the FFDW's actual involvement in the social context. Rationality, in the western scientific

framework, is a concept leading to self enhancement. FFDW, in general, fit this definition, and

some individuals transcend it. Their rationality seems socially embedded. This rationality,

especially in cases similar to #29, fit more the category of wisdom.

The FFDW, as the research has shown, enter the process of migration for domestic

work by choice. In fact, as the interviews have reflected, they even break the rules and norms

of their social traditions. By entering migration, FFDW, in general, act as subjects who are

able to set boundaries around their lives. But they continue strongly bonded to their social

family and ethnic affiliations. Some of them tend to lose track of their sense of identity during

the process, such as #8. Yet it seems despite the isolation they live under in the UAE

household, and despite the control of their sponsor— kafil— in general, the trip is empowering.

It not only makes them decision makers, but they also become breadwinners of their nuclear

family, and sometimes their extended families.

Once they migrate, they actually objectify themselves to the international division of

labor and the genderization of power. Yet meanwhile, they also become centralized elements

in the international householdization and income-pooling2 (Wallerstein and Smith 1992). They

2 Wallerstein and Smith point out how the household not the family plays the central role in the international economy in pooling income for the survival of all its members. The househlod is therefore at the center of international economy and division of labor.

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vulnerable to all kinds of personal and individual change.

The experience of breaking the walls of their cultural reality, previously taken for

granted, also challenges their capabilities, learning, and knowledge of the self and the Other.

They not only become alert and more conscious of the social construction of power relations,

they also become more capable of challenging the previous construction of patriarchy and

male dominance. However, because of the particularities of the UAE society, and the highly

capitalized and commercialized system around them, they become more eager to accomplish

this role and be greater consumers. After all, this is the only proof of status and power for

them in their own society. Therefore, this journey makes them better consumers, more mobile

individuals, and stronger women in facing their own ethnic constructions of patriarchy.

However, they are not stronger in confronting international patriarchy and that of the

receiving country— the UAE.

In short, migration liberates them and centralizes them regionally and internationally;

however, this comes at the price of being objectified as females to in a larger system of

genderized female exploitation. Even though they do not accept the new system of

international domesticity and do actually resist it inwardly, they do not reflect this resistance

openly. Their feminized resistance is offstage. It takes different forms ranging from accepting

and internalizing their rejection silently—as seen with the feminizer of the trend (#13)—to

accepting and rejecting only offstage through talking to each other, as seen in most cases, or

by running away, lying, or inflicting harm on belongings or even the children of their

employers. Discourse of FFDW resistance is diverse and multifaceted even when performed

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B. Household On Both Sides Of The Migration Trip

The shape, structure, and even the future construction of the household is changing on

both sides of the migration process, i.e., the sender and receiver country. The house is a

central unit, and a mere symbol of migration. The FFDW migrated to build and/or to sustain a

household, among other reasons. The receivers needed the FFDW to sustain the growing size

and space of their houses. In fact," the house" could easily be considered one of the elemental

symbols of this journey. It was very clear in the research how the shape and structure of the

UAE household is increasingly changing to accommodate FFDW as essential, second class

members of the household. Even the very construction of houses in the middle and upper class

is shaped by FFDW existence.

Furthermore, the direct observation of the FFDW movement in this research has

demonstrated that it is not easy to address the growing phenomenon of the FFDW in the

world today without addressing the changing structure of households on both sides.

Households on both sides are becoming increasingly dependent on each other. The FFDW in

this structure of dependency are central figures of linkage and sustainability. Their work and

physical energy is important for the survival of the receiver households, while the income

pooled or generated from that household is necessary for the survival of the other. This

double or multiple existence has different implications for the FFDW self and role

construction, a changing reality to be addressed later in theoretical implications.

The female members on both sides of the migration process, i.e., the FFDW and the

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consumerism. The structure of the houses is changing to accommodate this structural shift in

women's role. On the senders’ country ( the poor of the South), the extended family is coming

to support the changing female roles in the absence of the female from the house. In the

receivers’ country ( the rich South), foreign domestic help is taking over the role of extended

family while females are becoming more active on the outside, and specifically in the "public

domain"3.

Families on both sides of the process, with the children especially affected, are

becoming dysfunctional as a result of this restructuring of the household. For the sender,

elements of dysfunctionalism are even deeper and more damaging, and further studies need to

be made on this perspective. The absence of the mother and even sometimes the father, is

becoming increasingly harder on the sending societies. Family lives, marriages, and child care

are harder to sustain. On the receiver side, it is mostly children who are suffering as a result.

On both sides however, it seems that men are short term beneficiaries of this process.

In the sender countries, men are getting direct financial help in supporting the family. They are

not considered the only breadwinners in the family anymore4. Their wives, sisters, or any

J The definition of public in this context fits more the UAEFE than the FFDW, because not all the UAEFE are working and making direct economic profit. Some are working, some are studying but not working and some are only socially active. However, all FFDW are economically engaged in making cash money to sustain themselves, their families, their society and their economy.

4 This changing role is affecting negatively the image of the male in the sender countries. Men in the poor countries of the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and India are losmg their status and image. If they do not migrate, they are getting socially isolated, frustrated, and fall into problems of addiction, and alcoholism. One could draw in that aspect some similarities in

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 327 FFDW in the family are helping them to achieve their goals and sustaining their families.

In the UAE, men also seem to be the great beneficiaries of the process. They maintain

their traditional patriarchal position, while gaining more status by moving from the extended

family status into the nuclear one. The nuclear family structure gives the male head of the

household5 an immediate position of power and control. He does not need to wait until his

father dies or gets old to take over his position. It is important to note, however, that these

privileges are not long lasting, and could be shaken once the flow of FFDW to the UAE

stops.6

Also for the privileged males in the sending society, as a result of the increasing active

female role in the market economy, they are losing their previously strong social status and

losing their social and psychological sense of worthiness.7

In short, FFDW migration is restructuring households and the socio-cultural reality

around the formulation of households on both sides of the trip.

what is happening to the male image in the poor South and the African American.

5 As mentioned in Chapter Two, the state also plays a role in giving citizen a fast sense of status and social position by supportting them in owning houses, and sustaining them too.

6 Needless to say, this change would only take place among the poor and the middle class level. Rich will always be able to afford domestic help, and therefore are the last to have to lower their status, priviiedges, and life styles.

7 An increase involvement of poor women in market economy is driving male partners into "alcoholism" "drug addiction" and other practices of self distinction and worthlessness.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 328 C. Paid Domestic Work In the UAE

During the UAEFE interviews, none of them saw domestic work as a devalued

domain.® Yet as this study has shown, almost all domestic work in the UAE today is paid

labor. This means that almost all families hire domestics to do the work for them. Emiraties

hire domestics not only for housecleaning, but also for child care, tutoring, cooking,

gardening, and even driving.

This widespread phenomenon of hiring FFDW in itself seems to be changing. As the

study has reflected, the increased criticism of reliance on foreign nannies is raising the social

consciousness of people in the Emirates. Citizens of the UAE, especially, the professionals

and upper class stratum, are becoming more aware of the role these nannies play and their

previous background and credentials. The study has clearly shown that factors of the ethnicity

and education of the FFDW are contingent with the socio-economic background of the UAE

household. A clear trend of feminization of domestic work in the UAE was revealed in the

study. Paid foreign domestic work in the UAE, which was until very recently dominated by

men, is becoming feminized.

An apparent Islamization of paid domestic work is also taking place in the UAE. The

pressure resulting from the complete isolation of the FFDW in the UAE and the conflicts

arising from the cultural isolation enforced on them is creating resentment and pressure on the

UAE to give these workers more freedom and days off. This, on the other hand, is a

8 Even though they all hired somebody to do the work for them, they still beleived domestic work represents the real value of the female, and that if she abandons it she lose her status.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 329 frightening scenario for a conservative Islamic society that is increasingly opting to Islamize

their domestics in order to avoid these types of cultural conflicts. Indonesians seem to be

filling this gap nowadays. However, and as their interviews reflected, their complaints are not

qualitatively different from those of other ethnicities, or non-Muslim FFDW.

Finally, paid domestic work in the UAE, as in other places in the world, will go

through stages of development, saturation, and probably a general decline. This, however, will

not happen soon in the UAE. For the phenomenon of the FFDW to recede in the UAE, the

state must introduce either strict legal control, or the oil wealth must run out; however,

neither is likely to occur in the foreseeable future. The new rules that the government has

introduced concerned only the expatriates. However, citizens of the UAE are still able to

import FFDW to do all their housework for the price of a casual dress, or one-fifth of a party

dress.

II. Implications of the study

The implications of this study are multiple. They range between the two domains of

theory and practice. On the theoretical level, the significance of the study is felt on theories of

migration, household, gender, and family. On the level of practice, the implications of this

study are highly relevant to international human rights organizations, international laws and

regulations, and different levels of international policies and practices.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 330 A. Theoretical Implications

1 - Implications for theories of migration

This study has presented a constructed conceptualization of migration—the Four Cs:

composition, causes, conditions, and consequences, under which it claims that similar

phenomenon or processes of migration could be studied. The conceptualization of the Four Cs

is very broad and descriptive in essence, but could be used in an analytical setting as well as a

descriptive or narrative one, as in this particular research. Indeed, this very conceptualization

allowed the introduction of the FFDW story and stories in a non-intrusive manner. It is

general, yet purposeful.

In addition, it has critically looked at theories of "push and pull" as being economically

reductionist. On the level of structure, they marginalized the impact of structural and historical

forces that preceded or laid the ground for the possibilities of displacing labor. Furthermore,

on the level of the agency, the conception of push and pull assumes the resiliency of the

migrant.

Contrary to the "push and pull" assumptions, this study has shown that first, previous

penetration and arrangement of the infrastructure of modernity is a necessary condition to the

displacement of poor labor in the sending society, and second, institutions of state, net

working, and agencies of recruitment are highly important actors in the process of migration.

On the level of agency, moreover, the study has clearly demonstrated the active role the

individual FFDW plays in shaping her life and the environment of migration around her.

Other theoretical implication in relation to women as migrants is the conceptualization

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 331 of feminization of migration that transcends the ongoing perception of feminization of

migration as increased number of women in migration. Feminization of migration is based on a

feminized consciousness of resistance to different realities o f dominance, patriarchy among

them. The FFDW resistance is not always open and clear. In fact, it is an offstage type, or a

"hidden transcript".

Lastly, the very combination of theoretical along the methodological approach of this

study, namely the narrative style, has also introduced an added implication to theories of

migration that always consistently marginalized female lives. This study has proven how when

we study migrants, and specifically females, from a narrative approach, we could see their

high micro as well as macro contribution to the world around them. As this study has clearly

indicated, the FFDW have contributed to the changing structures of lives, households, and

economies on both sides of the migration journey.

Finally, the level of migration of "contract workers," such as the FFDW has caused a

growing fear in the receiving countries of their rising number and the fluidity of state borders

in allowing a continuous flow of foreign labor. My limited research observation linked to the

understanding of the conceptual development of migrant workers in the world reflects that

this conceptualization is heading towards more control of migrant contract workers, instead of

more privileges. As the concept of "contract worker" has developed historically along the

internationalization of capitalism, in order to limit the social price of migrant labor, another

conceptualization is awaiting to be developed that allows more exploitation of "contract

workers" and less social privileges. The UAE and other Gulf states probably represent one of

the examples of such limiting practices on "contract migrant workers". The UAE migration

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 332 regulations have already denied family reunion to all low-income generators ($ 2,000 or less).

FFDW by de facto are also denied all rights of family reunion in the world today, not because

of laws, but as a result of their marginalized position as domestic workers and live-in

housekeepers. In reality, they can neither invite their family members to the intimacy of others,

nor can they sustain the expenses of having their families live outside in separate dwellings.

2- Implications for household, gender and family theories

This study did not attempt to emphasize household theories. However, the very

embededness of the FFDW issue in the construction of household, and the marginalization of

the household in the discourse of modernity have both brought the household and its

conceptual understanding to the forefront of this study. The movement of the FFDW in this

study, from their country to the LJAE, could be globally classified as a south-south migration.

From this movement, some conceptual observations were drawn in relation to this study and

based on the observation of some of the changes introduced to families and household

members on both sides of the migratory process.

These are: 1- While the household on the sending side is undergoing a crisis of

modernity; the one on the receiving side is going into a growing lopsided modernity. 2- While

the nuclear family in the sending society is enduring a structural rupture, and the extended

family on the same side of the sending process is going into its support, the previously strong

structure of the extended family in the receiving country is breaking down due to the

emergence of a dependent nuclear family. 3- Houses on the sending side are getting bigger

(although they are far from being the size of the houses of the rich), and families inside are

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 333 becoming more dysfunctional; houses on the receiving side are also getting much bigger, but

with fewer family members. 4- Motherhood is changing on both sides of the process—

materialization and commodification of motherhood is taking place. However, on the sending

side, the process of material replacement of motherhood is very harsh, abrupt, and inhuman to

a great extent. 5- Children on the sending side of migration households are getting more

chances for a paid education; children and women on the receiving side are getting a higher

quality of educational and technological advancement. 6- Women on the sending side of the

household are increasingly getting more individual and mobile; women on the receiving side

are becoming more individual and mobile, as well.

Figure 1. Comparative Perspective Of Household Changes On Both Sides Of M i g r a t i o n ______RECEIVING CO 1 NT RIFS

Growing lopsided modernity Rupture of extended family/ Emergence of dependent nuclear family Bigger houses; less families More advanced children’s and women’s education Motherhood: less bonding with mothers and more with F F D W surrogates Increased individuality and mobility of women

This observation, despite its elementary form, can be studied and or elaborated in

relation to other theories of migration, household and family changes.

B. Practical and Policy Implications

As a subjective inquiry, this study is directly linked to the realm of praxis and social

change. In fact, the very emphasis on studying the process of social change versus the static

reality, is a mere reflection of my active involvement as a researcher in the practical

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 334 repercussions of this reality. In the following part, I address those interests and reflections on

the level of policy as well as practicality.

This research was not based on the understanding of state and institutional policies in

relation to issues of migrant domestics. However, the strong link between their daily reality

and the established state and institutional policies was clear through the observation of their

status and their narration of their migration journey. On the sending side, states seem in

general to be more supportive of the process than of the FFDW status. If it was not for the

pressure of coming from different social groups and women's organizations in the sending

countries, these states would have been salient to the direct exploitation of their citizens.

My immediate contact with embassy personnel and sending state officials in the UAE

reflected a certain diversion in their position towards domestics. Indian embassy personnel

were constantly trying to avoid the topic and act as if it did not exist. For them the

relationship with the UAE government, in general, is more important than the immediate

concern of the FFDW. The reason behind this position could easily be the high number of

Indian immigrants in the UAE that equals the number of the UAE population itself.

The Philippine embassy seemed more active, comparatively speaking, in the issue of

FFDW.9 In the embassy, they had records of the major complaints filed by Filipina domestics,

and they had also rented a separate apartment for the runaways to live in until they could help

them find a solution to their illegal status. Sri Lankan embassy personnel seemed to be taking

a middle ground position between the Indian and Philippine embassies. The Sri Lankan

9 The highest number of Filipinas in the UAE are domestics.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 335 ambassador acts as if the issue does not exist. However, the labor attache was highly active

and handled matters single-handedly most of the time. The embassy is mostly inhabited by

runaways who wait for the labor attache either to solve iheir problems or sometimes to find

them another job. An interesting observation at the three embassies was that most embassy

personnel used their UAE connections to find jobs for migrant workers.

In other words, sending states, based on my direct observation of their status in

dealing with the FFDW in the UAE, did not seem totally equipped materially as well as

institutionally to deal with this type of growing problem. Embassy officials of the sending

states reflected the symbolic image of how the sending states are totally overwhelmed with the

issue and are themselves confused in terms of policies and decision making. On the one hand,

they like to encourage the movement because it is generating national income. Yet on the

other hand, the pressure of their national NGOs and women's organizations are politically

stressful.

From a sending state’s perspective, the problem seemed complicated. Even the

Philippines, which places strict restrictions and has official contract forms which specify the

procedures for recruitment, did not seem able to implement these policies throughout the

complicated and multifaceted process. Therefore, it seems that the sending states are not well

active in solving or designing policies that limits the immediate exploitation of FFDW, not

only in the UAE, but also at any juncture of the process, especially in relation to the recruiting

agencies.

In general, if one is to think of policies in relation to the sending states, the major thing

to emphasize is control of the exploitation of the FFDW throughout the process. Because the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 336 sending state cannot control the whole process, there is an immediate need for NGOs—

national and international—to contribute their support for these changes. On the receiving

side, there is a clear need for FFDW in the UAE to be included under the Ministry of Labor.

Thus, they would fall under labor regulations and labor laws. This status will give the FFDW

more opportunities to file grievances against abusive employers.

Human rights organizations can help greatly here. They can monitor the conditions of

FFDW and maintain continuous reports on abusive cases. As I mentioned previously, while

doing the field work, I felt the direct and immediate need for an international organization, a

sort of third party, non-govemmental.

In addition to monitoring conditions, human rights organizations and NGOs can offer

information to candidates for migration. FFDW are exploited on the basis of their foreign

status, coming in not knowing much about the journey, much less, the UAE. This lack of

knowledge is used as a means to control them, physically and spatially. Lack of knowledge in

regards to the language of the UAE also makes them insecure. The challenge is to design

programs that are implemented at the start of the journey and carried throughout in order to

help these women on the level of orientation, counseling, and problem-solving.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PLEASE NOTE

Duplicate page number(s); text follows. Filmed as received.

337-339

UMI

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PROFILE OF THE FFDW IN THE SAMPLE

Number Nationality Ytu- Marital statHS Mairihit Kdiuation Religion College Philippines College Philippines Mamed College Indian Married Primary Indian Married Illiterate Philippines Single High S. Sri Lanka Middle S. Sri Lanka Married Middles, Morocco Divorced illiterate Sri Lanka Middles. Philippines College Philippines Primary Sri Lanka HighS. India Married Primary Mauritius HighS. Sri Lanka Married Single Philippines Single Philippines Single HighS. Sri Lanka Primary Sri Lanka Mamed Sri Lanka S in gle High S.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 338

Pnmujf M am ed Dfiterate M amed Primary Srt Lanka College Sn Lanka M amed Middles. Philippines Married College Indonesian Primary Philippines HighS. Indonesian Mamed HighS.

Philippines M amed High S. Philippines College Indonesian Middle S. Primary Sn Lanka Widowed Illiterate Philippines College M am ed Primary India Widowed Sn Lanka Illiterate M iddles. Divorced HfehS. M amed Illiterate Sn Lanka M iddles. Primary

India Widowed Illiterate

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Sn Lanka 3N SimiL Small < i(> Hitih S. \ hnstian

Philippines Married Primary Sri Lanka Married Primary India Married Primary

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 337

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