Middle East Avenue: Female Migration from Sri Lanka to the Gulf

Contributing to the literature on labor migration from less developed countries to the Gulf states, this sociological analysis focuses on the case of Sri Lanka's large-scale exportation of its poorest women to serve as housemaids in private Arab homes. Dr. Brochmann provides a multileveled examination of the social structures that precondition the migration. Considering the household, the village, and Sri Lanka in the world economy, Middle East Avenue probes the causes of this traffic and its effects on the economy, society, and gender relations of the participants.