Lebanon’s addiction to foreign "maids"

Wherever you go these days in Lebanon you cannot but notice the large number of foreign workers who accompany every family and serve their every need. In every home at least one person, usually from a poor Asian country, is busy serving his/her employer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

While for most people living in Lebanon (and the Gulf, for that matter) this may seem fine and good. It is not! Here are some reasons why:

1. Expatriate workers in Lebanon, especially those coming from poor countries, do not receive adequate legal protection. Laws are often designed specifically for workers who come to work for domestic employers and are intended to “control” workers. Employers who think they can make up for this by treating their employees well and with respect are mistaken. You cannot replace some one’s right to something by giving it to them conditionally as employer does. In the end, they remain under the mercy of their boss and are understandably always worried not to anger them lest they lose some benefit.

2. Workers are not given sufficient flexibility in their contracts and are essentially modern-day indentured servants. Here again, employers think they can make up for the lack of legal protection by making up for it by being understanding. But even the most understanding employer in Lebanon will not look nicely at the prospect that their employee has chosen to leave the country because of personal reasons or simply because they do not like the work on the country. Employers simply deny them this right in almost every case and force them to complete the full term of the contract.

3. People’s reliance on “maids” and “drivers” and other “domestic help” breeds a culture of superiority which is passed on to the next generations. Rather than doing things for oneself, people rely on others, and they get accustomed to treating others without respect.

4. Children raised by the “domestic help” become detached from their parents and fail to establish emotional bonds with them. They also often risk losing touch with their culture and language as they are exposed to the language of their nanny.

There are only some of the problems faced by migrants who come to Lebanon to work in our homes. Its time we start looking seriously at these problems and putting an end to the bad habit of hiring people from poor countries to do those things we should be doing ourselves most of the time.