160 Between Private and Public
market area had already emerged in Deira (nowadays part of Dubai).
South Asians, mostly Indians, are highly visible in a host of commercial
arenas, including retail and wholesale, the gold market as well as garment
production. Some shopping malls are frequented by a South Asian public
employed in a large variety of professions. In a similar vein, residential
areas where South Asians live vary from sophisticated upper middle-class
housing areas to more popular neighborhoods. In the city at large, South
Asian domestics are first seen as South Asian rather than as domestics,
whereas in these parts of the city migrant domestic workers do not stand
out as South Asians but are recognizable as domestic workers to those
familiar with internal differentiations and social hierarchies. In other
words, whereas certain areas in Dubai may be defined as South Asian or
Indian public spaces, this space is internally stratified.
n Beirut the relation of migrant domestic workers to “the public” I
is different, though they too have gradually developed a presence in the
public. For instance, in the Dowra neighborhood, a lower-class commer-
cial area, a variety of small shops, services and restaurants cater to various
foreign nationals, mainly from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia,
and also from India. Although there are internal differentiations among
migrant groups in Beirut as well, the large majority of the women are
employed as domestic workers and it is their presence that has been cru-
cial in the development of these migrant spaces. The net effect is that in
Beirut South Asian or African women are often a priori seen as domestics.
e above indicates that the ways in which migrant domestic work-Th
ers are actually visible or recognizable as such in the public is important
for discussions about their public presence. In this respect the situation
of Moldavian women in Istanbul (not so easily recognizable as foreign)
is quite different from that of Sri Lankan women in Beirut (immediately
taken to be domestic workers), or South Asian women in Dubai (seen as
Indians, but not necessarily as domestics).
Churches and NGOs: From spaces to advocacy
Among the semipublic sites where domestics gather in their free time,
churches are particularly popular. In several locations churches have
developed into meeting grounds for domestic workers and one may find