Managing recruitment, risk, and reintegration: Ethiopian domestic workers and the migration industry

Over the past 30 years, an increasing number of young Ethiopian women have migrated to the Arab Gulf States. Their precarious working conditions and associated vulnerabilities have received considerable attention, often alongside critiques of the kafala system of temporary migrant labour governance in the region. Less attention has been paid to the sending state's complicity in upholding the system. This article examines the infrastructures and migration industries developed around women’s mobility by different sets of actors, state efforts to tap into the capital accumulation opportunities the industry entails, and the humanitarian reintegration initiatives established to rescue and rehabilitate returned or deported migrant women, many of whom are categorised as victims of human trafficking. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork among Ethiopian migrant women, brokers, and stakeholders, the article contributes new insights to the ongoing conceptual discussion of the migration industry, including the roles of state and reintegration actors.