Human Goods

On the Immigration Here & There blog, Elise Barthet explores the trend of Lebanese families purchasing foreign maids, a symbol of economic prestige. In Lebanon, Barthet writes, buying a maid is as common as buying a car: “And just like cars, maids are imported.”

Although the women often come through legal agencies and are somewhat trained for the domestic work, they frequently have their passports confiscated when they arrive and suffer physical and sexual abuse. According to Barthet,

Beirut employment agencies promote them as merchandise or, in extreme case, as pets. They offer advice about which nationalities are supposedly docile, easy to maintain or “harder to break.”

Pets????

That’s a first, even for me.

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