There are more than 250,000 non-Arab, women migrant domestic workers living and working in Lebanon, a middle-income country in the Middle East of approximately four million people. These workers, however, are much more than simple domestic workers; in short, they have become the country’s social welfare “safety net, ” though their labor is consistently undervalued. This presentation offers an empirical analysis of the lived realities of migrant domestic workers in Beirut, Lebanon, and argues for the reconceptualization of this labor not only as value-producing but as indispensable to Lebanese society as a whole.

R SVP T O : WG S T@M I S S O UR I . EDU