Work at any cost? An ethnographic interrogation into domestic worker Migration Industry from Kenya to the Gulf states.

This ethnographic research project deals with women’s labour migration from Kenya for work in domestic service in private households in the Gulf states.

Migration from Kenya to the Gulf states is well established and while exact numbers are unknown, it is currently estimated that there are up to 300 000 Kenyan citizens working in the Gulf states on temporary contracts (GAATW 2019). Conditions for women domestic workers are particularly harsh. Reports of physical, psychological and sexual violence are frequent (Ibid).

To counter the abuses the Kenyan state has developed pre-departure training which includes information on workers’ rights, intercultural competence and technical knowhow. Pre-departure training is now made mandatory and integral to the labour migration process.

Using policy analysis, interviews and observations, this project will critically map and analyse the various stakeholders (Kenyan state, NGO’s, recruitment firms, training centres, women workers and women workers’ families) and how benefits, risks and costs are managed and negotiated by the different stakeholders.Globally, the labour migration industry is growing.

Women’s positions and negotiations in the labour migration industry is an underresearched topic and here there exist very little research of the African continent.