Link to Researchers
Ahmad, Attiya. "Explanation is Not the Point: Domestic Work, Islamic Dawa and Becoming Muslim in Kuwait." Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 11.3 (2010): 293-310. (Summary adapted from resource) Link to Article
Keyword: domestic, work, Islamic, Dawa, Muslims, Kuwait, religion, conversion, South Asia, transnational
This article studies the migrant populations in Kuwait that has converted to Islam arguing that this religious shift is a gradual reworking of previous religious practices and culture. The author further argues that the domestic workers’ expression of their new-found Islamic faith points to the household as a space of confluence between Islamic ethical practice and the affective and immaterial labor entailed by domestic work, as well as between global Islam and the feminisation of transnational labor migration that marks our contemporary world.
Almutairi, Modimajed, et al. "Domestic Violence Screening among Primary Health Care Workers in Kuwait." Alexandria Journal of Medicine 49.2 (2013): 169-174. (Summary adapted from resource) Link to Article
Keyword: primary health, care, workers, Kwauit, domestic, violence, women
This study reveals the extent of screening for domestic violence among physicians and nurses in the primary health care unity, identifies knowledge, attitude, and barriers toward violence screening and reveals factors affecting screening. The study finds that less than two thirds of the primary health care workers were aware about domestic violence screening and about one third regularly screened for violence among women in Kuwait.
Dinkha, Juliet, and Mourad Dakhli. "Perceived Discrimination in the Arabian Gulf: The Case of Migrant Labor in Kuwait." Psychology Journal 6.2 (2009): 47-59. Link to Article
Keyword: discrimination, Arabian Gulf, migrant, labor, Kuwait
The article studies discrimination among different groups in Kuwait finding that non-Kuwaitis reported higher levels of sensed discrimination.
Fernandez, Bina. "Traffickers, Brokers, Employment Agents, and Social Networks: The Regulation of Intermediaries in the Migration of Ethiopian Domestic Workers to the Middle East." International Migration Review 47.4 (2013): 814-843. Link to Article
Keyword: human trafficking, employment, agents, social networks, migration, Ethiopian, domestic, workers, Middle East, Kuwait
Drawing on empirical research in Ethiopia, Lebanon and Kuwait, this paper focuses on the intermediaries who facilitate Ethiopian women's employment as contract domestic workers in the Middle East. The paper argues that states and international agencies fail to regulate intermediaries of migration and calls for a decentered approach to regulation that can provide a productive diagnosis of regulatory failure.
Jamie, Faiz Omar Mohammad, and Anwar Hassan Tsega. "Ethiopian Female Labor Migration to the Gulf States: The Case of Kuwait." African & Black Diaspora 9.2 (2016): 214-27. Link to Article
Keyword: Ethiopian, female, labor, migration, women
This study closely examines the migration of single women from Africa seeking better economic, social and political opportunities, in particular the migration of Ethiopian women to Kuwait. The author draws attention to the violence, underpayment and trafficking issues that are associated with this movement attributing these challenges to the status of women migrating, which is unskilled,irregular and illiterate.
Nasra M. Shah. "Restrictive Labour Immigration Policies in the Oil-Rich Gulf: Effectiveness and Implications for Sending Asian Countries." United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Social and Economic Implications of Changing Population Age (2006): 1-20. Link to PDF
Keyword: labor, immigration, policy, Oil, GCC, Asia
This paper provides an overview of the GCC's immigration policies, and examines their effectiveness in achieving their objectives and implications for sending Asian countries.
O'Neill, Tom. “'Selling Girls in Kuwait': Domestic Labour Migration and Trafficking Discourse in Nepal.” Anthropologica 43.2 (2001): 153-164. Link to Article
Keyword: women, girls, Kuwait, domestic, labor, migrants, trafficking, Nepal
Considering the formation of illegal networks with the increasingly restrictive migration policies, this paper examines a scheme by which Nepalese girls are trafficked to Kuwait to work as domestic workers and how this scheme is constructed as their immoral objectification by the Nepalese media and an anti-child exploitation NGO. The author argues that the "national honor" discourse places opprobrium on those who facilitate illegal migration and ignores the decision making of the migrants and their families.
Shah, Narsa M., and I. Menon. "Chain Migration through the Social Network: Experience of Labour Migrants in Kuwait." International Migration 37.2 (1999): 361-82. Link to Article
Keyword: migration, social network, experience, labor migrants, Kuwait
The article explores the process of arranging sponsorship works in Kuwait through social networks to assess the multiplier effect of social networks. The data is a collection of 800 surveys among South Asian skilled and unskilled male migrations from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Shah, Nasra M. “Relative Success of Male Workers in the Host Country, Kuwait: Does the Channel of Migration Matter?” International Migration Review 34.1 (2000): 59-78. Link to Article
Keyword: success, male, men, migrant, workers, host country, Kuwait
Building on a 1999 survey of 800 South Asian migrants workers, this study shows that channels of migration are highly significant in facilitating migrant success. About 34% who move through friends and family have higher salary, find jobs that fits expectation, and are happier with their employment.
Woldemichael, Selamawit B. The Vulnerability of Ethiopian Rural Women and Girls: The Case of Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Uppsala University. 2013. Link to PDF
Keyword: vulnerability, rural, women, girls, domestic, workers, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait
This thesis identifies the causes of the lights Ethiopian workers face in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait through in-depth interviews with key informants. The finding of the research indicates that intersection of multiple identities, such as gender, class, and race, shape the standpoints of Ethiopia women as vulnerable.