Ethiopian Migrant Domestic Workers

“In this unique, multi-sited and longitudinal empirical study, Fernandez offers a keenly observed, vivid portrait of the ‘will to change’ or the agency of Ethiopian women who migrate to work in the Middle East.”

—Nicola Piper, Professor of International Migration, British Academy Global Professor Fellow, Department of Law, Queen Mary University of London, UK


“This is a very timely and important publication. Highly recommended to anyone interested in gender and migration!”


—Marina de Regt, Assistant Professor, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands



“The impacts of the women’s migration experience on their families and societies are richly described. The book is a valuable addition to the literature, not only for migration scholars, but also for human rights activists and policy makers in Ethiopia and beyond.”

—Nasra Shah, Professor, LahoreSchool of Economics, Graduate Institute for Development Studies, Pakistan



This book tells the stories of the Ethiopian women who migrate to work as domestic workers in the Middle East. Drawing on qualitative research in Ethiopia, Lebanon and Kuwait, the author reveals how women’s aspirations to migrate are constituted within unequal gendered structures of opportunity in Ethiopia and asks us to consider how gender, race, class and nationality intersect in the construction of migrant subjectivities and agency. By analysing the impact of migration on social reproduction both in Ethiopia and the destination countries, the book offers fresh empirical and theoretical insights into the largest stream of women’s autonomous international migration from Africa.




Bina Fernandez is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.