Publics, Politics and Participation

(Wang) #1

156 Between Private and Public


prerequisite is the ability to exit the home of their employer. Having
arrived at their site of employment, migrant domestic workers often face
restrictions on their mobility. In the Arab Middle East migrant domestic
workers are usually employed on short-term labor contracts, need a visa
sponsor [kafῑl] who is responsible for them, are not allowed to change
employers or work for anyone else and have to surrender their passports
to their employers.^17 Further, in everyday life, the freedom of movement
of migrant domestic workers is severely restricted, as leaving the house is
in itself often an arena of contestation between employers and domestic
workers. Some employers even go so far as to lock the doors when they
leave the house and only allow their domestic workers to leave the house
under some sort of supervision.^18 Moreover, if domestic workers are con-
tractually entitled to one day off per week, this does not necessarily mean
that they actually have freedom of movement on this day.^19 Some employ-
ers are simply reluctant to forego one day of service; other factors also
play a role.
e limited freedom of movement of migrant domestic workers Th
needs to be seen within established patterns of gendered access to pub-
lic space in some Gulf states; restricting the freedom of movement of
female migrant domestic workers ties in with such patterns. Yet there is
more at stake than simply complying with local norms of gender segrega-
tion. Domestics’ access to public space is often a contested issue because
employers see this as endangering their control over them. Some worry
about the ways in which “unknown others” (that is, unknown to employ-
ers) may influence their domestic workers. They fear that the latter may
be attracted to, or fall prey to “the wrong company,” epitomized in male
conationals who may tempt or force them to engage in sexual relations or
to allow them into the house in their employers’ absence. Some employers
consider any contacts domestics have outside of the family of employ-
ment as potentially threatening because these can be a source of knowl-
edge (about wage levels, other forms of employment and so on) and may
function as support networks that ultimately encourage and enable them
either to ask for more pay and other benefits or to leave their jobs alto-
gether. Before turning to an analysis of the ways in which migrant domes-
tic workers have nonetheless become present in the public, we first briefly
discuss the notion of the public we are working with in this study.

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