Immobilisation of migrant domestic worker women and their children born in Lebanon

Abstract

While scholars of migration have drawn our attention to the plight of children ‘left behind’ when their mothers migrate, children born to migrant women in destination countries have received far less consideration. In destinations such as Lebanon, migrant domestic worker employment–and right to residency–is governed by the kafala, or sponsorship, system which prohibits pregnancy and childbirth. Despite this prohibition, considerable numbers of migrant women do give birth, leaving them at risk of unemployment, visa and work permit cancellation, and ‘illegalisation’. Compounding the situation, many mothers in this situation encounter substantial barriers to returning to home countries with the..