Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Southern Europe and the Levant: Towards an Expanded Mediterranean Model?

This paper examines the global and structural forces facilitating the movement of female migrant domestic workers (FMDWs) from developing regions to southern Europe and the Levant. At the intersection of welfare state, childcare, gender and migration regimes, we can identify a cross-Mediterranean domestic worker model. It has important implications for the magnitude, composition (in terms of national background and live-in vs. live-out work), legal status and mobilization of the region's FMDWs. Their roles in global migration flows and national labour markets, as explained in the existing literature, are examined, followed by case comparison of Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.