Migrant-rights.org
A Lebanese agency ran a ‘special offer’ on migrant domestic workers of Ethiopian and Kenyan nationality, which it advertised by text message over the weekend, according to a report by by Lebanese blogger Elie Fares. (See Below)
“For Mothers’ Day, indulge UR mum & offer housekeeper. Special offers on Kenyan & Ethiopian nationalities for a period of 10 days”, the text message said.
Expressing his horror at the text, medical student and blogger Fares, wrote:
“Housekeeping is not a profession to be ridiculed. Offering discounts on people just because they come from a certain country is not only nauseating, it’s a symptom of a greater problem in a country that sees people who are different as nothing more than commodities who can be exchanged for money, who divides them based on racial categories, the darker you are the cheaper you get maybe?”
The agency’s depiction of migrant women as commodities to be traded, while shocking, is far from unusual in the Middle East.
In a troubling post on an internet forum in Qatar in 2013, spotted by Migrant Rights, an expatriate who is leaving the country advertises his Indonesian domestic worker. “Who wants an Indonesian maid? I am leaving qatar for good and i have a maid that i would like to leave here and i want QR 10,000 ONLY . She is very clean and well behaved” the post said.
As Migrant Rights noted at the time, the post evidences disturbing practices and attitudes towards domestic workers, with employers often perceiving maids as “investments,” in part due to high recruitment costs exacerbated by the sponsorship system.
Compounding such attitudes, openly racist depictions of migrant domestic workers are commonplace in the media in the Middle East. Migrant women are regularly portrayed as sinister, subnormal and unclean, and are routinely accused of posing a threat to their employers as a result of their unreasonable ‘demands’ or latent criminal tendencies. Narratives such as these serve to dehumanize migrant women, and to trivialize the exploitation that they are vulnerable to in the Middle East.
This is a subject that Migrant Rights has carried out extensive research on – this post from 2012 details numerous cases of racism in the media, including an infamous cartoon from Qatar’s Gulf Times, which portrays a South Asian woman as a demonic, malevolent child-poisoner.
Racism & Slavery: The Perfect Gift For A Lebanese Mother
Mother’s day is coming up and the mass hysteria surrounding the perfect gift to get our mothers is on an upward trajectory all this week. Should I get her a new home appliance, or would that send the wrong message? Should I just get flowers, or would that be too tacky?
Well, it seems that the answer is easier than you think. Why don’t you just get a bunch of “help” to your mother, discounts guaranteed?
Posted on Kafa’s Facebook page today is the following screenshot of a text message that a woman named Rola Koubaissy received:
Isn’t that such a good deal? They have special offers on Kenyans and Ethiopians. How is that not even a bargain?
Lebanon isn’t a country where sensibilities towards those of a different skin color are respected. Racism is widely present, sometimes unintentional and sometimes fully intended. All of the country’s migrant workers, especially the darker their skin goes, are victims of racism, horrifying lack of basic human rights and dismal salaries that many even find are “high” to pay for such “creatures.” But we’re paying them too much, a Lebanese woman would say about her maid’s $200 salary, as she clutches the bag she just purchased somewhere for about 10 times that amount.
You see these people who risk everything to come to this country of ours and get called dumb, stupid even when they learn our language and our ways from scratch. You see them being told off in public. You see them being placed on separate tables in restaurants or kept standing holding a purse while the family eats. Their passports are hijacked, they are imprisoned in our homes but few are those who find anything wrong with that.
And because all of that wasn’t enough, there are companies now that are publicly discounting them based on their passport. What’s sadder is that the people that sent the above text have no idea how unacceptably racist, horrifying and utterly disgusting their action is.
Housekeeping is not a profession to be ridiculed. Offering discounts on people just because they come from a certain country is not only nauseating, it’s a symptom of a greater problem in a country that sees people who are different as nothing more than commodities who can be exchanged for money, who divides them based on racial categories, the darker you are the cheaper you get maybe?
I tried to call the number in question but there was no answer. I contacted Roula Kobaissy and she said she had absolutely no dealing with that office before. She was unaware others in her area have received such a message as well.
Welcome to the country where modern-age slavery is advertised by text messages.
Update:
They apologized, which goes well with my point that they didn’t even know it was racist to begin with.
The post Many people outraged over lebansese agency’s mother’s day promotion on Ethiopian and Kenyan maids appeared first on Quatero News and Views.