1. Migrating Women and Domestic Work: Starting Our Exploration

This chapter as the introductory part of a comparative research study attempts to enter into multiple worlds of migrant women who work as domestic workers in three cities: London, Berlin and Istanbul. Focusing specifically on female forms of migration is required to address the issue of domestic work which is the largest employer of migrant women. Although there is a substantial literature on migration and gender, migrating women’s agency or the factors which may have impacts on the agency of migrating women is under-researched. As female domestic workers mostly work for private households, often without clear terms of employment, unregistered, and excluded from the scope of labour legislation, this study especially maps out the inter-relations between migration, domestic work, gender, patriarchy and religions by synthesising different theoretical approaches.