For over two decades now, increasing numbers of young Ethiopian women have been migrating to countries in the Middle East on temporary contracts as domestic workers. The contracts they sign with employment agencies and employers are intended to establish a regulatory framework for their terms and conditions of employment. Notwithstanding these contracts, some migrant Ethiopian women domestic workers experienced grave violations not only of their contract, but also of their basic human rights. These violations have led to descriptions of their situation as a form of ‘contract slavery’ (Jureidini and Mourkabel, 2004; Varia, 2011: 268). To escape these exploitative and often violent conditions, many women become ‘runaways’, leaving their contracted employer. Running away does not, however, produce conditions of ‘freedom’ for these women, and may substitute one set of ‘unfree’, exploitative conditions for another set. This paper draws on O’Connell Davidson’s (2010) argument that the discourse on contemporary forms of slavery allows the vigorous moral condemnation of slavery to coexist with the continued imposition of extensive, forcible restrictions on individuals deemed to be ‘free’. The paper explores the options available to Ethiopian women stigmatized as ‘runaways’ and analyses the degrees of freedom they experience. The paper argues that if the line between restriction and freedom is acknowledged as a social construct, then the ‘unfreedoms’ experienced by ‘runaways’ deserve greater attention, as they raise contentious and highly political questions about the rights of migrant domestic workers. The paper is based on multi-sited field research in Addis Ababa, Lebanon and in Kuwait. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with migrant domestic workers, as well as with the owners or managers of employment agencies and with government and non-government representatives.

This paper aims to delineate contours of social relations and strategic use of their identities among converted Filipino domestic workers in metropolitan cities in the Gulf. Religious conversion among Filipino domestic workers in the Gulf countries has been on the rise. Some literature argues that the phenomenon of religious conversion among transnational domestic workers partly reflects their legally and socially constrained and isolated circumstances in foreign countries. Then, to what extent does their experience of converting to a new religion affect their social relationships with others in actuality? Does conversion lead them to form more intimate ties across nationality and class? Also, does their involvement in a new faith group create social and emotional distance with their formerly close family members, relatives, and friends of different faith? What part of religious practices do Filipino converts consider influence on making close ties with others in everyday life? We base our argument on empirical data collected from interviewed cases of formerly Catholic domestic workers from the Philippines, now participating in new religious groups – namely, Pentecostal Christian groups and Islamic dawah meetings – in Dubai and Doha. And we demonstrate that joining new religious groups, more than joining non-religious groups, often transform social relationships of Filipino domestic workers, especially highly devoted members who find their religious group as their “new home”, and that the transformation can transcend nationality and class differences. Nevertheless, differences lie between Pentecostal members and converted Muslims. The latter tends to experience more drastic transformation of their daily associates than the former, largely because conversion to Islam leads to, our interlocutors regard, more changes in everyday lifestyles. However, in both cases, many Filipino converts make use of their new religious identity strategically – or at times ambivalently– so as to negotiate and improve their situations.

Studies on migrant workers are thriving along with the development of globalization. Feminization of migration that took place in conjunction with New International Division of Labor (NIDL) further stimulated its interests into “global householding” or “globalization of the reproductive spheres”. Especially domestic helpers drew attention as they are working within private (thus intimate, and mostly non-visible) spheres. Asian migrant women working in the Gulf States became the stake at point as they are increasingly exposed human rights violence such as abuse, confinement at home and extremely low wages. Within the scholarly works, migrant domestic helpers were portrayed within the dichotomy of either “victims” or “agents”. And, recent studies of this genre emphasize agency that the domestic helpers exercise through empirical data, but have basically overlooked the relationship between their employers. This study focuses on female employers of the foreign female domestic helpers, such as Saudi and Emirati women who directly manage domestic helpers in their daily lives. By doing so, this paper explores agencies and strategies of not only the domestic helpers, but those of their female employers. The study will illuminate female employers’ cautiousness or even fear of having “the other” within their intimate sphere, as well as emotional attachment for those who sustain long-term employment.