This Master’s thesis explores the intersection of powers that create (in)secure female migration to Lebanon. It contributes to a growing literature corpus about the lives of women, originating from South/ South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, who migrate to Lebanon to work in the domestic work sector. Ongoing exploitations of migrant domestic workers (MDWs) under Lebanon’s migration regime, the kafala system, have been documented in detail. Yet, the question about which overlapping powers actually shape the migratory experience of MDWs calls for closer inspection – especially in light of previous unidirectional analyses that seem to obscure the intersectional experiences of migrant women. By uncovering intersecting systems of domination and subordination, this analysis aims to deconstruct oppressive powers and to answer the research question about which powers create (in)secure female migration to Lebanon. This objective is approached through ethnographic-qualitative methods of semi-structured interviewing and participant observation during a seven-week field research in Lebanon. Data contributed by research participants, i.e. MDWs themselves and individuals that have experience in supporting them, are analyzed through an intersectional lens that acknowledges the multifacetedness of MDWs as social beings comprised of overlapping and intersecting dynamic facets. This analysis argues for multiple levels and layers that create an enmeshed web of interacting categories, processes and systems that render female migration insecure. Detected underlying powers range from global forces over specific migration regulations to societal structures that are based on sexism, racism, cultural othering and class differences - amongst others. These forces are impossible to deconstruct in isolation because they function through each other. Their multilevel intersections lead to power imbalances between worker and employer, isolation and invisibility of the former on several levels as well as the commodification, dehumanization and mobility limitations of MDWs. Yet, female labor migrants counter these intersecting powers through creative and dynamic acts of resistance and self-empowerment and, thus, prove that the dismantling of overlapping oppressions calls for intersecting multilevel deconstructions.

This thesis is concerned with a group of Chinese skilled migrant mothers’ experiences in relation to their children’s early childhood care and education in New Zealand. Utilising Bourdieu’s concept of capital, habitus and field, the current research addresses the complexity and ambiguity of the Chinese migrant mothers' lives whose social position transcends multiple fields. Because their children attend mainstream education, and the local educational system is different from those where the migrant mothers were brought up, the migrant mothers had to transcend different cultural fields. Chinese skilled migrants, who were middle class professionals in their native country, usually experienced social and financial downturns in New Zealand. Although skilled, the migrant mothers encountered difficulties in finding paid employment that matched their pre-migration job status. These mothers were more likely to give up paid work or reduce paid working hours on the birth of their children than were their male partners. The current study focuses on these transcendent experiences, encompassing both embeddedness and ambiguity across different fields by examining the interplay of class, gender, and ethnicity in the daily lives of these mothers. Traditional interpretations of cultural capital usually refer only to dominant social and cultural capital, whereas the current thesis expands the concept to include both dominant and non-dominant forms of social and cultural capital. The findings showed that the migrant mothers redefined and reconstructed the concept of capital. The migrant mothers’ attitude towards mainstream education was ambiguous and complex: covering the full spectrum from willing embracing, reluctantly following, selectively utilising to firmly rejecting. Simultaneously, the mothers promoted, criticised, and rejected various traditional Chinese practices and beliefs in order to maximise benefits for their children.

The distribution of the population has multiple implications on regional development and planning. In-migration is frequently seen as the only possible solution in order to rejuvenate the population and stimulate regional development in sparsely populated regions. A population increase results in greater tax revenues, meaning that local authorities can plan for their inhabitants and expenditures in a more sufficient way. In addition, certain professionals are needed in order to support essential local services such as schools and hospitals. Place marketing with the intention of attracting in-movers has become increasingly popular, especially for rural, sparsely populated Swedish municipalities. Still, the outcome from place marketing efforts are dubious and in addition, migration has a temporal aspect and individual migration propensity usually fluctuates over time. This begs the question – how long do in-movers stay? Is there potential for long lasting development in sparsely populated regions connected to in-movers or is it temporary? This study focuses on the duration of time until an in-mover re-migrates from Region 8 in northern Sweden and which socioeconomic and demographic factors that influences the out- migration. This is studied by applying an event history method with discrete-time logistic regressions. The study follows individuals in working age that moved to any of nine specified municipalities in Västerbotten and Norrbotten County, sometime between 2000 and 2011. Questions posed for the study is: i) On average, how long did people who moved to Region 8 between the years 2000-2011 stay in the region? ii) What are the socioeconomic and demographic factors that influence the out-migration from the region? iii) Do the influencing factors differ between women and men? The results show that the time perspective matters as the risk of moving out was highest in the initial years and that it declines with time. 30 % of the sampled in-movers had moved out again within the time of observation, and on average the in-movers stayed for nine years. The regression results indicated that the factors that had the greatest influence on the out- migration was unemployment, being between 20-26 years old, high education, having and unemployed partner, and having children below school age. Women had a slightly lower likelihood of moving out compared to men, and the most prominent influential factor to outmigration that varied between women and men was unemployment.