Project

Reproductive and psychosocial health among migrant domestic workers facing systemic labour exploitation in Lebanon

Code
DOCT/014207
Duration
25 September 2025 → 20 September 2026 (Ongoing)
Doctoral researcher
Research disciplines
  • Social sciences
    • Social work not elsewhere classified
  • Medical and health sciences
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Public health care not elsewhere classified
    • Mental healthcare services
    • Primary health care
Keywords
Migration Reproductive Health Labour exploitation biopsychosocial asylum and migration labour migration
 
Project description

Over 250,000 women work as Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) under the Kafala (sponsorship) system in Lebanon. This system, often equated with modern-day slavery, subjects MDWs to labour-exploitative practices, including overwork, wage theft, confinement to the workplace, and escalating to physical and sexual violence. It is estimated that one MDW dies weekly, mostly by suicide. The Kafala system prohibits migrant women from conceiving or giving birth, forcing many to undergo illegal and unsafe abortions. Despite this, estimates show that 5% of women migrants still have children, making up to 15000. Reproductive and psychosocial health are inextricably linked for this population. Abuse and coercion contribute to negative reproductive outcomes such as miscarriage and STIs, creating a cycle of anxiety, trauma, and self-stigmatisation, especially amid isolation and fear of deportation. Reproductive rights violations among MDWs in Lebanon remain largely invisible in public health discourse. While psychosocial trauma is often treated as a direct result of abuse, this proposal argues that reproductive harm itself is a key mediator through which psychological distress manifests. These intersecting health domains are rarely studied in tandem, especially in this context, where migration, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), and mental health research are often treated in disciplinary silos. This interdisciplinary research addresses this gap by exploring the synergistic impact of labour exploitation on both psychosocial and reproductive health through an interdisciplinary inquiry by locating psychosocial distress within the embodied, reproductive experience of labour-exploited MDWs. We aim to generate empirical and narrative evidence to inform reproductive health policies and psychosocial support services for MDWs victims of labour exploitation in Lebanon. The overarching research question is: How does labour exploitation under the Kafala system affect the reproductive and related psychosocial health of MDWs in Lebanon, and what structural, institutional, and ethical factors shape their access to care and capacity for resilience?